Most college students have no real system for managing their money. I didn't either, until accounting class changed my perspective. In accounting a cash flow statement tracks money coming in and money going out and your personal budget works the exact same way. The problem is most people only think about big expenses like rent, not other daily expenses like food, gas, clothes, etc. An easy thing you can do is track every transaction for 30 days, I'm sure you will be surprised where and how you are spending your money. Apps like Mint or a basic spreadsheet work fine. Accounting also taught me to separate fixed costs from variable costs. Fixed costs are things like rent and subscriptions that hit every month while variable costs like groceries and going out are things you can actually control. Separating them makes it way easier to find where to cut back. If you want to go deeper on building a budget as a student, check out this post from Minnesota MyHigherEd which breaks it down in a really simple way. You don't need an accounting or finance degree to budget well but thinking like an accountant will do you wonders.