Looking over the essentials you’ve outlined by category, the next step is to build them into a budget or Plan to Spend. The purpose of a budget is to tell your money what the priorities are, versus wondering what your money was spent on after the fact. Once you have looked at these 11 steps to developing a budget and immediately factored in your specific essentials in each category, you’ll then be able to see what are the categories that you place the greatest focus or importance on. This will ensure that the money that flows through your hands goes to the areas that are most important to you.