Feel like your budget is out of whack? It's no mystery how it happened.

Maybe you've never been much for sticking to precise figures in your personal budget — you know, like your self-righteous Aunt Rhoda who boasts that she spends exactly 27.38% of her monthly paycheck on her mortgage, and not 1/100th more.

Or perhaps you did figure out a realistic budget for your lifestyle years ago and never bothered to bring the figures up to date. You think about overhauling your budget but you never quite get around to it.

Well, it's time to get your head in the game and develop some financial guidelines that are both practical and easy to incorporate into your daily life. After all, who has time to follow some convoluted and oppressive budgetary formula?

First, what should your budget look like? Financial experts shy away from prescribing one hard-and-fast rule that will work for everyone, but they do offer some general guidelines.

Housing
Generally, it's a good idea to spend no more than 25 to 30% of your take-home pay on housing and housing related costs, which include insurance and property taxes. This figure can vary according to individual circumstances. "For college graduates just out of school, their highest bills may be student loans, then credit cards, followed by rent and food," says Michael Blattman, VP at CFS in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a company that helps people consolidate student loans.

Individuals who have enjoyed high gains in the stock market in recent years, may assign a higher percentage of their budget to housing costs since they may have little debt and enough income to afford their dream home. "Often, these people supplement their income shortfall by dipping into their accumulated capital," says David Marcus, a partner in the New York City accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron.

Debt to Income Ratio
Many people first hear this term when they apply for a mortgage. For many, going through the mortgage process is the first time they realize the importance of shaping a budget along certain percentage guidelines. When you apply for a mortgage, a lender will estimate your mortgage payment and then add your existing monthly debt payments — auto loans, credit cards, student loans, and other obligations — to figure out how much debt you're carrying in relation to your income. If the figure falls significantly above 36% — the standard threshold that financial experts deem a comfortable debt-to-income ratio — a lender may either reject your application or increase your interest rate.

Everything Else
When it comes to figuring out how much of your income you should be spending on food, transportation, clothing, entertainment and the like, advice from financial planners, accountants, and other money experts is surprisingly simple: ask yourself what's most important to you. "Prioritize your expenses, shop for value, buy only what you need, and take responsibility for your own finances," says Allen Martin, director of the Consumer Resource Center and a professor at California State University, Northridge. Basically, your budget for everything else depends on what's left over after you allocate money to housing and debt. Needless to say, for people who are stretched to the limit, this may not be a lot.

Tracking Your Spending
One way to get a handle on where your money is going is to keep track of all your expenses every day — weekday and weekends — for two weeks. Write everything down religiously — from the seven dollars you spent for lunch to the quarter for the parking meter — and don't try to alter your habits during this period. You need to have a clear picture of your patterns before you can change them.

Creating a Base Budget
After two weeks, add up the figures and arrange them into categories like housing, transportation, food, savings, and the like. Use a calculator to figure the percentages that each category takes up of your net income for the same period. Ask yourself which categories seemed to have high percentages? Which seemed just right?

Then take another look at your two-week list of expenses. Which were unnecessary expenses that still added up to a significant chunk of change?

Taking Your Show on the Road
Your next assignment is to start cutting back on what you deemed to be non-essential. Try to be aware of the category you're spending in as you make your purchases throughout the next two weeks.

After two weeks of being alert to your spending habits, go back to your category list and devote a realistic percentage of your income to each. You'll need to tinker with the numbers over time, but you're off to a great start in designing a budget that fits your real lifestyle and your future dreams as well.

The Best Laid Plans
If, despite your efforts, you've cut back on expenses and you still can't catch your breath, you may want to investigate consolidating all of your debt into one loan. A consolidation loan will mean that less of your monthly income goes to pay down debt. This is accomplished by lengthening the term of the loan. As you research different loan programs, you'll want to look at the interest rate, your net savings in real dollars each month, how that changes your debt-to-income ratio, and the possibility of the consolidation loan being tax-deductible: if it's a home-equity loan, then it's a deduction.

It's a Living Process Not a Concrete Block
In the end, it's important to keep in mind that a budget is a tool that's only as good as the information you put into it. It's a malleable and living process. It can be squeezed, stretched and pushed to extremes. Generally the best budget to shoot for creates a lifestyle you can live with. "A budget should be comfortable and it should be adhered to but modified as necessary," says Marcus. "It's important, however, that a budget balance your current needs — including recreation — with your future obligations and needs, including education, housing and retirement."

The good news is that once you design a budget, it doesn't take a lot of effort to keep it working. "Don't go out to dinner every night, stick with that car that's got a few thousand miles left in it, and be careful with the credit cards," says Blattman. "Bringing your budget in line means you need to take stock of your situation, make some strong decisions and most of all, stick with them."