Most budgeting attempts start with the same mistake: a table is drawn up saying "this month I will spend this much on food and this much on transport" — without looking at existing habits at all. Within a few weeks the plan no longer matches reality and the budget is abandoned.
There is a more reliable order: first, for at least one month, simply record your spending without any limits. This shows your real pattern — the gap between your estimate and reality is usually bigger than expected, especially for small and frequent expenses (subscriptions, coffee, food delivery).
With real data in hand, a budget is no longer a guess but a correction. Saying "last month this much went on food delivery, I can bring it down to this level" is far more achievable than setting a target from scratch — because your starting point is your actual behaviour, not an imagined ideal.
Splitting into categories plays a key role here. "I spent 8,000 TL this month" says little on its own; but "3,000 TL rent, 1,500 TL groceries, 800 TL subscriptions…" shows which categories are flexible and which are fixed. Flexible categories are where you can really work on your budget.
In Para Takibim you can record entries by category and payment channel and see this breakdown in the reports — think of it as a tool that shows you where you stand before you start planning.