Comments on: Keep Your Spending Tidy With an Envelope System

By: 10 Simple tips to Super Charge Your Personal Finances | Street Smart Finance

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:57:07 +0000

[...] We use cash for most of our day-to-day purchases. A lot of this has to do with where we’re currently living – not as much is online, and not many mom-n-pop stores here take plastic – but even stateside, we rely a lot more on cash than on plastic. – simplemom [...]

By: bmw68

bmw68 — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:04:24 +0000

We use only cash for everything except the mortgage, utilities, and living expenses that are automatically withdrawn from our bank account. We have no consumer debt, except our mortgage, and we never use our debit card for anything except online purchases. When we make online purchases, we immediately deposit the amount spent into our account – the cash is pulled from the appropriate envelope. We have probably 20 active envelopes. Some I carry in my homemade envelope system, some are kept in our safe at home. We have 5 months of living expenses in our savings account, and we don’t touch that for anything! emergencies don’t happen because we have an envelope for household items (carpet cleaned, pipe broke, new rugs needed, etc) and for car repairs and registration, and for gifts for the year. That includes Christmas, birthdays, incidentals, Valentine’s day, Mother’s and Father’s Day… all holidays where gifts are included are planned for, and we pay cash.
The envelope system is made from a Franklin planner binder, and I have created an envelope template on MS Word. I have attached velcro to keep them closed, and so that they don’t get “wings” from opening up and bending. It’s a great system – we’ve done this for 3 years, and it has saved our financial lives. Start now!!

By: Raywynne

Raywynne — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:55:01 +0000

I have a system that is similar to envelopes but I do it with different accts that all have different debit cards. I write on the back of the cards so I can remember what acct the card is for. A friend of mine saw multiple cards that all looked the same in my wallet and asked me about it. I said that I a “bucket” person. Really that is just another way of saying I have envelopes. I like the idea of having envelopes with cash but I am not sure I could stick that. So doing this with multiple accounts is the next best thing for me. One thing I have to be better about is “filling” the envelopes. Sometimes when the pay checks hit our main account, I do not get around to transfering funds into each account. I would like to be better about that.

By: Setting a Food Budget

Setting a Food Budget — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:56:36 +0000

[...] people use the envelope system, using cash only for all shopping during the month. When you shop with cash, you’re less [...]

By: on the sewing table • bubble pants & fancy envelopes | everyday miracles

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:29:45 +0000

[...] used the envelope system to budget for many years now, but after we moved—and sold our house in Buffalo, and paid off our [...]

By: Finance Friday: (Guest Post) How to Budget For An Emergency

Finance Friday: (Guest Post) How to Budget For An Emergency — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 23:47:23 +0000

[...] Occasionally we did cheat (unfortunately), but again this was a system that saved our behinds! I highly recommend it. You can learn about it here: http://simplemom.net/envelope-system/ [...]

By: 18 Means for Living Below Your Means | ApnaZilla

18 Means for Living Below Your Means | ApnaZilla — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:28:21 +0000

[...] Buy with cash. – “You can’t spend money you don’t have. Many bank accounts provide overdraft protection, so even with a debit card, it’s easier to go over your account balance than you think.” – via Simple Mom [...]

By: Tsh

Tsh — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:34:32 +0000

You know, I don't know of any specific percentages recommended by people who "know" what they're talking about. I just generally feel like when you know you're spending too much, it's too much. The one place where I've gotten help with crafting our budget and deciding where we're spending too much is in Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover forums. People there are super helpful in being honest with how you're spending money, and give ideas for where you can cut. It's a monthly subscription, but you can do it just a month at a time to see if you feel like it's worth it. Hope that helps!

By: Jessica Hill

Jessica Hill — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:22:59 +0000

We completely overspend in all of the categories that are considered irregular expenses and groceries, etc. Is there a percentage in comparison to income taken in that we should keep in mind when we are setting up our envelopes? ie., clothing 3% or groceries 25% (These are just random percentages I am throwing out there.)

By: Ellen

Ellen — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:39:18 +0000

We do something very much like that, Lynette. We use the credit card because of the major points we get towards groceries, as well as for the built-in warranty/insurance on some things. But we write everything down, with the subtracted category, and add things up very carefully to match our budget. We pay it off in full online every paycheck, so twice monthly. I also keep a running tally of categories in a ‘notebook’ on my phone, so I know exactly how much available money is left in each category.