This comes up every week among friends, so here is the version I give them. It is not clever. It is what works when there is no slack.
1. Find the leak before the plan. One month of every expense written down, no judgement. Most people find 5 to 10% they did not know they were spending: subscriptions, delivery fees, the second coffee. That is the seed money.
2. Pay yourself on payday. Set an automatic transfer for the day the salary lands, before anything else. Start with an amount that feels too small: 2% is fine. The habit matters more than the number; raise it by 1% every few months.
3. Separate the money from the spending account. A different bank if you can. What you do not see, you do not spend.
4. Build the small emergency fund first: one month of essential costs. Not six, not "a year of salary". One. It stops the next surprise from going on a credit card, which is where most budgets die.
5. Then attack the most expensive debt, credit cards and overdrafts first, while keeping the automatic saving going. Interest on 20% debt is the best "investment" you will ever make by paying it off.
6. Only after that think about investing, pensions matching from your employer (take every matched euro, it is free money), and the rest.
What does not work: complicated budgeting apps you abandon in week three, waiting for a raise to start, and saving "what is left" at the end of the month. There is never anything left.