pay day and adulting

Pay day is one of my favorite days. I usually go ahead and make payments towards my student loans right when it comes in. I feel all adulty and stuff.
It really is important to budget out your monthly spending. This can be difficult if you live with a disorganized disorder such as schizophrenia. Here's some ideas.
1st off, let healthy you take care of sick you. Plan ahead just in case. I was in a healthy state when I went through and looked at my pay checks. I based my budget on the times of my lowest possible income.
2nd, Write it out, plan it out, or put it in a document on your electronic device. I use excel on my tablet. It has a graph I can enter basic info into and it does the math for me. I can enter a category into a cell. Example: "Savings" and in the cell to the right of it I put "100." The program enters that into a savings graph, an expenses graph, and then tells me what percentage of my income is being spent. It also tells the amount I will or will not have left after the planned expenses.
I've also used to envelop rule. This is especially handy if you get paid in cash. Get an envelop for each expense. Write the expense and the amount on the envelop. If you get paid in tips you can put money into each envelop day by day. Example "dr visit" or "power bill." I was a server for waffle house. I put my tips in these envelops and had my pay check moved to my savings account. Once these envelops are full, take them to the bank or where you pay your bills.
3rd. Allow some wiggle room. This is why I planned for the least income. Sometimes I get paid quite a bit more and can use the extra money for more savings, to pay more on loans, or.......pizza/shopping........only like once a month or so. If things get tight, drop unnecessary expenses such as netflix, hulu, a gym membership you haven't used even though it was your new years resolution. Try grocery shopping at cheaper places such as aldi. Get only what you need. Sandwiches save lives.
4th. STICK TO IT. Do not allow yourself to break away from this plan. Always pay bills first, then save, then have fun, and then save some more! Live within your means and plan ahead as best you can. I understand that things come up and we lose our minds from time to time. That is why I have found it helpful to ask an extremely trusted friend or family member to also keep an eye on my spending habits just in case I get a bit out of it. This step may be the most difficult for some. Especially if you have bouts of paranoia. Be careful with this one.
If you are on fixed income then I highly suggest keeping track of things in some sort of budgeting way.
This stuff isn't much fun for many of us, but it is kinda important.
Take care of yourselves.
Love, A Schizophrenic