An Alternative to Cash Envelopes When Your Life is Chaotic (Overig)
Guest post by Elisha
My husband and I are huge fans of Dave Ramsey. We became debt-free after we got married and used the cash envelope system to stick to our budget.
We strongly believe in the cash system. But when my husband started getting his paycheck directly deposited, I would have to go get cash out to put into the envelopes. It became one more thing to do.
After we started having kids, it became more of a hassle and struggle to count out the cash, get my coupons, make sure I had my price-matching items organized, and control the tots.
Some other issues we began to have with the envelopes:
-My husband or I would need a specific envelope, only to realize that the other one had it. This mainly happened with the restaurant envelope! (Most of the time, we’d just take out how much we thought we’d use. Then, we wouldn’t use it all, and we’d forget to put it back — which meant cash that we then didn’t know what it was earmarked for.)
-If we had to use money from one envelope, only to reimburse it because we used it for something other than it’s purpose, we’d often forget.
-If I forgot to grab the envelope (which started happening a lot after having kids) I’d have to remember to hold on to the receipt, which often got trashed while the kids were helping me put groceries away.
This probably sounds like I’m really unorganized — but I’m not really! It’s just that with our 3 kids under 4, life somehow gets a little more chaotic.
A few months ago, we discovered www.Mint.com . Boy, has it made life easier! Now, we pay for nearly everything using our debit card. No more envelopes….just the checking and savings accounts to keep up with.
My husband and I are huge fans of Dave Ramsey. We became debt-free after we got married and used the cash envelope system to stick to our budget.
We strongly believe in the cash system. But when my husband started getting his paycheck directly deposited, I would have to go get cash out to put into the envelopes. It became one more thing to do.
After we started having kids, it became more of a hassle and struggle to count out the cash, get my coupons, make sure I had my price-matching items organized, and control the tots.
Some other issues we began to have with the envelopes:
-My husband or I would need a specific envelope, only to realize that the other one had it. This mainly happened with the restaurant envelope! (Most of the time, we’d just take out how much we thought we’d use. Then, we wouldn’t use it all, and we’d forget to put it back — which meant cash that we then didn’t know what it was earmarked for.)
-If we had to use money from one envelope, only to reimburse it because we used it for something other than it’s purpose, we’d often forget.
-If I forgot to grab the envelope (which started happening a lot after having kids) I’d have to remember to hold on to the receipt, which often got trashed while the kids were helping me put groceries away.
This probably sounds like I’m really unorganized — but I’m not really! It’s just that with our 3 kids under 4, life somehow gets a little more chaotic.
A few months ago, we discovered www.Mint.com . Boy, has it made life easier! Now, we pay for nearly everything using our debit card. No more envelopes….just the checking and savings accounts to keep up with.
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