A book that I really found helpful that doesn't involve budgeting (per se) but does group expenses into large and I think reasonably informative and useful categories is Elizabeth Warren's All Your Worth. She talks some about how it's not "our" fault (not the fault of the reader who may be struggling -- which of course may or may not be true and may or may not be helpful depending on the person, but she points out some ways in which younger generations are more challenged than (recent) older ones), and her basic recommendation is that funds should be allocated as follows: no more than 50% of available income to "must-haves," which aren't "needs," but rather commitments. So if e.g. one has rented an expensive apartment and can't get out of the lease for, say, a year, then for the coming year that is a "must-have." Then there is savings, which I think she recommends 30% on, and "fun stuff" (or optionals, I forget what she calls them -- but basically stuff we can decide on a case-by-case basis whether to buy, not stuff we (a) absolutely need or (b) have made a commitment to purchase -- like the lease example involves a commitment).
I personally find this "big picture" approach a lot easier to apply (and more helpful, frankly) than the line-by-line budget idea.
If nothing else you could buy the book and read it for yourself to get a sense of whether AC2 would find it helpful or not.
