If you're worried about the future of your finances these days, you're not alone. Consumers have the most , according to the Conference Board, driven by fears surrounding tariffs, inflation and the possibility of a recession.

Financial advisors recommend by bolstering your emergency savings and looking for places to reduce your spending. In other words, if you don't already have a budget, now is a good time to create one.

"One of the biggest mistakes I see people make, especially when prices rise, is just trying to wing it," says . "In reality, inflation makes it more important to have a plan, so that's why we always tell people to give your money a job."

Taylor is a budgeting success story. By 2021, the now 34-year-old had amassed about $60,000 in student debt and another $9,000 in medical and credit card debt. Determined to dig herself out of the hole, she turned to "cash stuffing" — a money management strategy in which people set up their monthly budget using actual dollars.

Taylor made her way out of debt and in the process went viral sharing her strategies on TikTok. She used the opportunity to , Baddies & Budgets, through which she sells money courses, budgeting supplies and other accessories. The business brought in $2.2 million in 2024.

Although her business has evolved over the years — she now offers tools that help people budget online — her core advice for anyone looking to manage their spending remains the same: Assign a purpose for every dollar that comes into your bank account.

"If you don't tell your money where to go, it will find someplace to be," Taylor says.

How zero-based budgeting can help you manage your spending

If you worry about the effects of inflation on your budget, many financial pros first suggest finding areas where you could cut back. That's a virtual impossibility, though, if you don't know how you spend on a monthly basis, Taylor says.

"[Budgeting] helps you to stay in control, even when the economy is out of control, because you really know where every dollar is going, and you can adjust accordingly," she says. "We may have to cut back on subscriptions if we can't afford groceries, but you don't understand that if you don't see the numbers."

Taylor advocates for a strategy known as . To create this kind of spending plan, you start with your monthly take-home income and then make a list of all the categories you spend on. Then you set limits for each category.

Go on down the list, which includes everything from essentials like housing and groceries to financial goals like investing and debt payments to extras like your daily latte and assign each a number until your whole paycheck is used up.

"Nothing slips through the cracks," Taylor says.

Th advantage of budgeting this way — especially during a time when inflation may stretch your budget — is you know exactly where you can reduce spending if need be, Taylor says.

"If food is more expensive and you have three children to feed, you'll have to adjust and raise your grocery budget, but you'll have to cut back elsewhere," she says.

Taylor's favorite places to look for possible cuts: insurance and cell phone plans. "A lot of people don't understand that you should be calling into insurance companies and trying to get a better quote and move around more often," she says. "You shouldn't have a ton of loyalty to insurance companies."

The same goes for cell phone providers and entertainment subscription services, which Taylor notes may give you a better rate if you call and threaten to leave.

In some cases, you may have to cut back on some things that bring you joy, at least temporarily, to make sure you have your necessities covered, Taylor says. And you may find it's useful to up your earnings from , for example, or by creating .

"If you get down to the nitty gritty, and you've got to do what you got to do to take care of your household," she says, "[and] there's nothing left to cut out, is something a lot of us have to consider."

No matter what your situation, Taylor stresses that you won't know how your finances will be affected by inflation unless you have a plan for your money in place.

"People hear budget and they think that it means that you have to say no to everything, but we teach the opposite," she says. "It's about giving yourself permission to spend on what matters and ditching what doesn't."

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