A critique of the dieting advice, "just eat less" is that it doesn't apply to many people. On the surface a comment like that is presumptive. In 2016 when I rea

A critique of the dieting advice, "just eat less" is that it doesn't apply to many people. On the surface a comment like that is presumptive. In 2016 when I realized I was more overweight than I ever thought I could be, I stopped eating out, stopped eating junk food, and stopped eating seconds. Eating less was the advice I needed. Make sure that the advice you need isn't just: "buy less". Aside from that, budgeting everything is a great place to start. There's apps that can help, but a spreadsheet could do it too. My advice is to not pay to start saving. The more granular you can be the better too. If you have some small debts then I recommend setting aside just enough for rent and food then working to pay those off immediately. There's no shortcut to building out a budget, so you'll have to itemize your spending and do the math to get your baselines -- then work from there.