Life is a journey, so is budgeting. Every journey begins with one step, so does budgeting. Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your budget. Better late than never, same with budgeting. Okay, that’s enough! While seemingly silly to play on the words of these timeless idioms, they are timeless because of the truths they reveal.

We want action and instant results in this world of constant information and immediate gratification. While it is convenient to have so much available at our fingertips, some things still take time and persistence. It’s relatively easy to set up a budget, whether it’s a simple list on paper, a spreadsheet or an app. What’s hard is following the budget you created! Life happens. What we have planned goes sideways and we find ourselves unprepared for the future. We won’t be ready for all of life’s turns, but we can start by doing something today.

Maybe you’ve never really formalized a budget, and this is your first time considering putting a plan in place? Maybe, like us, you’ve tried countless times to follow a budget plan or app only to get bogged down in the details of categorizing every transaction? Regardless of your past experience(s), there is always tomorrow, and an opportunity to try again. If you’re a single person traveling down this financial road alone, find a friend who’s in a similar situation and hold each other accountable to your plans. If you’re married, take advantage of having a partner to share this journey with—work together and create challenges that will motivate and unite you as a couple.

The bottom line with budgeting is that you have to start somewhere with something. You have to have a plan that works for you. Some will use an app and enter every transaction, categorize each item and produce a report or graph to track their spending. Others will unfortunately do nothing and continue to ‘wing’ it and live based on what is in their bank account today. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, wanting and needing something that will help us plan and manage our money.

If you’re new to budgeting, start with a pen and paper, or a spreadsheet and at least figure out how much money you have and where it’s all going. Once you have a handle on your cash flow, find an app that appeals to you and start tracking and managing your money. If it works for you, great! But, if you find yourself a few months down the road burdened by the details required to keep your app current and balanced with your bank account, don’t give up budgeting, try something like 4 Bite Budget that will help you manage your money instead of the transactions and enjoy the peace of mind knowing you are in control of your money, and your future as you travel down the yellow brick road of budgeting!