The Envelope System

Doesn't it seem like cash is so old-fashioned these days? Everything is charged, financed, or, at best, paid for with a debit card. Well, I am here to tell you that paying cash (like, actual dollar bills) for things will greatly decrease your spending habits and help you get control of your money.

Used to, my husband and I used debit for everything. This made it terrifically difficult to control how much money we were actually spending. We just swiped the card and checked our balance every once in awhile. When we switched to cash, we saw a HUGE decrease in the amount we spent. Because, as Dave Ramsey says, paying cash registers as pain in your brain. It's hard to watch those envelopes get smaller as the month goes on. So, you spend less so they stay fat!

Today's post is a financial lesson and craft project all in one. My first objective is to encourage you to start paying cash for certain purchases so that you can better control your spending.

Here are the categories we use cash for:
groceries
restaurants
clothing
gifts
discretionary ("blow" money)-my husband and I each get our own envelope for this

Since we already use the envelope system, I spent today's challenge making my own, custom envelope system. And, I'm going to show you how I did it!

First, I found an envelope that was big enough to fit cash in. It was from some sort of junk mail item. I carefully pulled apart all of the seams and laid it out flat. I found some cute scrapbook paper (12X12 sheets) that I had leftover from a previous project. You can also use plain cardstock and stamps for a more custom look. I traced the taken apart envelope onto the back of the scrapbook paper and cut it out.

Then, I just folded it the way the original envelope was folded. I used a glue stick, but double sided tape probably works better.

I labeled each envelope with a Sharpie.

I used the scraps to make "ledger" sheets to put inside each envelope. That way, we can write down what we spend so we know where our money is going!