Alhamdulillah, I have a good savings. So not really in a hand to mouth state.
But here’s my issue: I’ve been spending a lot – with no tracking. I spend a
couple of every day -most days- on mainly luxuries that I can survive without
it. And i want to control /limit/ track these spendings.

so i guess i should set my “spending limit per month” as the “available amount”
and see how I can split that up? Also some months I have more expenses that
usual, like my dental payments, which is not an “overspending” per say..

The first month I used it, this is what I did:

1. I firstly created categories for every spending area I have, e.g. ProM, Personal, House, Car, Savings..etc.
2. I then created sub-categories under each categories, e.g. for Car, I have car insurance, maintenance, gas..etc.
3. Then I filled up each sub-category with my budget or how much I’m willing to spend in that area. The key is to use the YNAB principle of give “every dollar a job”, don’t let leave any penny for “available income”, just assign that to a sub-category such as saving, or give yourself “fun money”(money you can spend on whatever you want without feeling guilty).
4. If an expenditure comes up during the month that does not fit in any of the categories/subcategories, and it’ll be recurring, I create a new category/subcategory for it. Otherwise I stick it under a sub-category called Misc.

Other things I do:
1. I have 2 accounts, one is my current account and one is my credit card account. (One of YNAB’s success story with me is that last month, for the first time i was able to pay for my credit card bill from the previous month budget, and not from my new month’s income)
2. Any automatic transaction, especially on my credit account,I added it under “automatic transactions”.
3. Having the iPhone version is pretty helpful so I keep it up-to-date when I’m on the go then sync at night.

The most helpful element of YNAB is giving every dollar a job, and building buffers for some categories/sub-categories..e.g. I have a one-time per year shopping for clothes and stuff, so I’m building a buffer for it from now, so I don’t have a huge dent when the time for it comes.

Hope this helps.