diff --git a/src/scratch_impl.h b/src/scratch_impl.h
index abed713..5049084 100644
--- a/src/scratch_impl.h
+++ b/src/scratch_impl.h
@@ -7,14 +7,9 @@
 #ifndef _SECP256K1_SCRATCH_IMPL_H_
 #define _SECP256K1_SCRATCH_IMPL_H_
 
+#include "util.h"
 #include "scratch.h"
 
-/* Using 16 bytes alignment because common architectures never have alignment
- * requirements above 8 for any of the types we care about. In addition we
- * leave some room because currently we don't care about a few bytes.
- * TODO: Determine this at configure time. */
-#define ALIGNMENT 16
-
 static secp256k1_scratch* secp256k1_scratch_create(const secp256k1_callback* error_callback, size_t max_size) {
     secp256k1_scratch* ret = (secp256k1_scratch*)checked_malloc(error_callback, sizeof(*ret));
     if (ret != NULL) {
@@ -71,7 +66,7 @@ static void secp256k1_scratch_deallocate_frame(secp256k1_scratch* scratch) {
 static void *secp256k1_scratch_alloc(secp256k1_scratch* scratch, size_t size) {
     void *ret;
     size_t frame = scratch->frame - 1;
-    size = ((size + ALIGNMENT - 1) / ALIGNMENT) * ALIGNMENT;
+    size = ROUND_TO_ALIGN(size);
 
     if (scratch->frame == 0 || size + scratch->offset[frame] > scratch->frame_size[frame]) {
         return NULL;
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index e1f5b76..9deb61b 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -84,6 +84,47 @@ static SECP256K1_INLINE void *checked_realloc(const secp256k1_callback* cb, void
     return ret;
 }
 
+#if defined(__BIGGEST_ALIGNMENT__)
+#define ALIGNMENT __BIGGEST_ALIGNMENT__
+#else
+/* Using 16 bytes alignment because common architectures never have alignment
+ * requirements above 8 for any of the types we care about. In addition we
+ * leave some room because currently we don't care about a few bytes. */
+#define ALIGNMENT 16
+#endif
+
+#define ROUND_TO_ALIGN(size) (((size + ALIGNMENT - 1) / ALIGNMENT) * ALIGNMENT)
+
+/* Assume there is a contiguous memory object with bounds [base, base + max_size)
+ * of which the memory range [base, *prealloc_ptr) is already allocated for usage,
+ * where *prealloc_ptr is an aligned pointer. In that setting, this functions
+ * reserves the subobject [*prealloc_ptr, *prealloc_ptr + alloc_size) of
+ * alloc_size bytes by increasing *prealloc_ptr accordingly, taking into account
+ * alignment requirements.
+ *
+ * The function returns an aligned pointer to the newly allocated subobject.
+ *
+ * This is useful for manual memory management: if we're simply given a block
+ * [base, base + max_size), the caller can use this function to allocate memory
+ * in this block and keep track of the current allocation state with *prealloc_ptr.
+ *
+ * It is VERIFY_CHECKed that there is enough space left in the memory object and
+ * *prealloc_ptr is aligned relative to base.
+ */
+static SECP256K1_INLINE void *manual_alloc(void** prealloc_ptr, size_t alloc_size, void* base, size_t max_size) {
+    size_t aligned_alloc_size = ROUND_TO_ALIGN(alloc_size);
+    void* ret;
+    VERIFY_CHECK(prealloc_ptr != NULL);
+    VERIFY_CHECK(*prealloc_ptr != NULL);
+    VERIFY_CHECK(base != NULL);
+    VERIFY_CHECK((unsigned char*)*prealloc_ptr >= (unsigned char*)base);
+    VERIFY_CHECK(((unsigned char*)*prealloc_ptr - (unsigned char*)base) % ALIGNMENT == 0);
+    VERIFY_CHECK((unsigned char*)*prealloc_ptr - (unsigned char*)base + aligned_alloc_size <= max_size);
+    ret = *prealloc_ptr;
+    *((unsigned char**)prealloc_ptr) += aligned_alloc_size;
+    return ret;
+}
+
 /* Macro for restrict, when available and not in a VERIFY build. */
 #if defined(SECP256K1_BUILD) && defined(VERIFY)
 # define SECP256K1_RESTRICT