Initally cleared the decks with immediate bills, then broke down regular income for weekly expenses, bills, spending money, and allocated some for savings (once longer term bills like cc paid off). So we save monthly for the big stuff like car insurance/rego/rates/holiday so there is less panic at those times. It took us a few years to get the hang of it (read it took that long for DH to get my compulsive spending sorted). It definitely took a change in thought and part of that was allocating an amount for non accountable spending too.
Any pay increases have also been allocated to savings/mortgage to stop tempting us to squander it away.
I should add this was pre kids and I often bought stuff I never used or wore so there was plenty to work with, lol!
It also sounds quite anal and boring but both our personalities find it hard to cope with unexpected issues so this works better for us in the long term.