Envelope System

[GirlBoyGirl]

Do you use an envelope system? I am just thinking about a new kind of system for me to use because it seems like I am not very mindful with my money when just using my debit card. Just wondering how you do you envelope systems! Thanks!

[bootsvalentine]

I've thought about doing a cash envelope for two big budget categories "retail stores" and "restaurants." We might really do it for restaurants, I think the retail stores is too much of a catch all right now. ( i.e. Target might be cat litter, or clothes, or household items)

Love to hear your experience if you do it!

[Ravin]

I used a cash envelope system for about a year, until I had the hang of budgeting. It helped a lot. I pretty much did it as outlined in Dave Ramsey, only somewhat simplified because, frankly, I only had so much money to go in the envelopes.

[Nitenites]

Yes, we use an envelope system, and it's GREAT for helping keep spending in check. We have envies for gas, groceries, kids' clothes, Christmas spending, kids' activities - basically, anything that isn't a bill. Not every envelope gets funded every month. 

[bcblondie]

I was just looking into this recently because DH had a lot of overtime on this paycheck and it suddenly made it do-able. To fill the envelopes.

Just wondering if most people do weekly, bi weekly, or monthly and why?

[KellyAnnW]

My husband gets paid twice a month. I fill the envelopes weekly. This system works great because it really shows me what the money is for. Otherwise I look at the lump sum and think 'Man thats plenty, lets buy some stuff'' I cant do that with the envelope system. I know that $40 is my whole animal budget so I can't buy them $30 worth of toys, because we will need wet food and litter. I only carry so much of it with me, because it makes me nervous. And it can be kind of a pain to be the only one who can spend money, but i leave some cash in the bank in case DH needs something when he's on his own. We've used this system for a year or so and it works well for us.

[its_betty]

We have gotten pretty good at budgeting so we are down to only one envelope, for food (grocery and eating out combined). Since we sometimes put some food costs on a credit card (we get cash back), we have a second envelope for "money to put back in bank." If we use the credit card to eat out, we move the equivelant cash to the "put back in bank" envelope.  Dh and I also get a cash allowance for our spending money.

[bcblondie]

Yay! Dh and I sat down today and went over everything. I'm excited to get started and actually have money going into savings instead of somehow just breaking even every single month. (clearly we're just spending money if we have it if we've been breaking even for 5 years lol.)

Here are all our categories. There's a lot. lol.

Church    
Groceries 
Hubby      
Wife       
William    
Gas        
Car Repairs
Gifts      
Entertainment
baby fund  
Other      

Savings    

[GirlBoyGirl]

Thanks for responding ladies! I do want to give this a try. I found a really awesome app for my Android phone (it's prepaid $25/month for unlimited text/web and 300 minutes- just didn't want you to think I spend $100+ on a phone, lol) that is like a little envelope system. I thought it would be neat for people who didn't want to carry cash because you can set up envelopes and then take money out by adding in different transactions. Kinda neat because you still keep track of your spending but since you aren't handling cash you could potentially spend more.

[bcblondie]

Yeah I mean we HAD a budget before. We did pretty good staying under but there definitely wasn't near as much incentive. Now we CANT spend too much. We're just so much more concious now that it's real money.