Oh my! DH & the Dave Ramsey envelope system!

[danielephant]

http://www.crown.org/Library/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=263


lots of saving tools here

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

We use CASH but I only separate it until 3 envelopes... tried more envelopes, but it just didn't work out - so now it's groceries, eating out and miscellaneous. We never used credit cards before, only the debit card, but it can still get ya in trouble! TOO many times we use it and forget and it doesn't get posted right away and then OOPS! We pay bills online and use the debit card ONLY for gas (cuz I'm lazy and want to pay at the pump) I do the monthly budget, then plot out what is "allocated" out of each paycheck. So when payday comes, I see what bills are supposed to be paid with that check and pay them, see how much cash to take out for the envelopes and fund them... I also check our account online every day to keep track of debits for gas. When we use the debit card, we just totally get way off budget. With cash, there's no going over cuz once it's gone, it's gone! There's no overspending cuz there's no more money to take! If there's no money left in the grocery envelope, we know we have to make do with what we have on hand until the envelope gets "funded" again.

 

[DawnM]

I am starting actual enveloping this month too!

In the past I have just kept to a general "budget" and if we went over, well, we went over.....I still paid off my CC bill every month.

My PROBLEM is that we SHOULD have more money left over.....and I am seeing that it is going into cracks that could be sealed!

So.....we are moving towards a more zero based budget and building some additional savings.

Dawn

 

[wdwmom0f3]

I am starting actual enveloping this month too!

In the past I have just kept to a general "budget" and if we went over, well, we went over.....I still paid off my CC bill every month.

My PROBLEM is that we SHOULD have more money left over.....and I am seeing that it is going into cracks that could be sealed!

So.....we are moving towards a more zero based budget and building some additional savings.

Dawn

Welcome to my club! I also see that we SHOULD have money left over and that's going to my Disney fund! I just hope & pray that this works because I really want to take my DD to Disney for her Graduation trip. Normally when it comes to saving money for Disney, I can always do pretty good with it. We will see though.

I just talked to him a few minutes ago & he has cashed the check for my envelopes.

Here we goooooooo...

 

[Greenepona]

Does anyone else see that the Mint figures are slow to update? I use their iPhone App and have Bank of America Checking tied to it.. its seems to be about a full 12-24 hrs behind... so it makes it hard to use it fully. Does anyone else have that issue?

 

[rszdtrvl]

I just had to redo our entire budget today.

I hate budgeting. But did work out an easier way to figure out the finances.

We have been doing a somewhat DR for a few months now, and just paid off the credit card. We are debt free, except for the mortgage. And that includes our trip to Vegas in January (except spending money) and our night at Great Wolf Lodge during Spring Break (instead of 4 nights at Disneyland).

I do have pre-orders at Amazon.com, so those will go automatically onto the credit card. But I still have a certain amount bugeted for credit card/savings acct, so whatever is not on the credit card to pay it off monthly will go directly into savings.

Plus, we are hitting the $$$ season for DH with his tons of overtime pay. That will automatically go into savings account too.

Budgeting stinks! I am hoping I will appreciate it a bit more though. It has already helped us, but I am not liking it much!

 

[honeydiane1953]

My DH has been a fan of Dave Ramsey for years now and we have somewhat followed his plan which has helped us a lot. We just owe on our house & one car. We have never used the envelopes though, and DH thinks that we should try it to see how it goes. Suddenly I feel like I am being cut off from unlimited funds and I am freaking! Please tell me this will not be as hard as I think it will be. I am all for saving money, because I am trying to put money back now for a Disney trip in May, but I LOVE my debit card and if I carry cash it's GONE in no time at all. HELP! Do you have any tips or advice that will help me? What has worked & what has not? Also, what envelopes do you use?

That envelope thing must have been where my BFF got the idea. I love and trust her but she is the BIGGEST tightwad I have ever known. One day she asked me if I thought she was tight and I had Lord yes. She couldn't believe it. Another one of her friends told her she was a tightwad. Then when I confirmed it then I "think" she believed it. We have been friends for 40 plus yrs. She actually puts money in different envelopes and OMG.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

That envelope thing must have been where my BFF got the idea. I love and trust her but she is the BIGGEST tightwad I have ever known. One day she asked me if I thought she was tight and I had Lord yes. She couldn't believe it. Another one of her friends told her she was a tightwad. Then when I confirmed it then I "think" she believed it. We have been friends for 40 plus yrs. She actually puts money in different envelopes and OMG.

Oh I am married to a tightwad, but some of that has rubbed off on me now too. We don't take it to far though, although my kids may disagree. We still like to spend and take vacations and all of that. If we want something, we plan for it and we go get it. My husband is a wonderful man, and I am so glad that he is the way he is. With me being a natural born spender, he keeps me in check. He is putting me to the test right now though. Tomorrow will be day one, and I have to go get some groceries. Wish me luck!

 

[danielephant]

see i am the tightwad of the family and DH is the spendy spender!!!!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

see i am the tightwad of the family and DH is the spendy spender!!!!

I feel sorry for couples when they both love to spend. I bet it's hard to save a dime.

Today was day one and I did pretty good. This may not be to hard... until I run out of money.

 

[Ava]

In the past I have just kept to a general "budget" and if we went over, well, we went over.....I still paid off my CC bill every month.

This is where we are right now & I'd really like to get to a place where we are not going over budget every month. Money is tight, but we SHOULD have enough to pay all of our bills and buy food/necessities without going over & pulling money from savings to cover the difference. This doesn't happen every month, but it happens often enough.

I could never do the cash thing....

So I had envelopes with 'Grocery' Household Entertainment etc. and the amount budgeted for the month at the top [like I had that amount of cash in the envelope].

I would then take the receipt and write the amount and bring the total down. So let's say I had $400 in an envelope and spent $100. I would now have $300 on my envelope.

I really like this idea, I might steal it. I've been keeping a spreadsheet with all of our spending, which is helpful in seeing how much we actually spend on different categories per month, but I can't exactly carry around my laptop & check my spreadsheet while I'm shopping!

I also don't want to do the cash only thing. I like my CC rewards too much, plus I feel like I spend more if I have a bunch of cash in my pocket. If I have cash, I'll waste $ on small things like snacks from the vending machine; if I don't have any cash, I can't buy anything from the vending machine or the newsstand.

One last question for the budget gurus here - do you & your spouse only have 1 joint checking/savings account, or do you have seperate accounts? We still have seperate accounts & I feel like that makes it difficult to keep track of our money. (It probably doesn't help that we both just opened new checking accounts at a local bank to get a $125 bonus each - its confusing & annoying to have money split into 4 checking accounts, but free money is free money!)

 

[DawnM]

We have joint accounts.

Dawn

I really like this idea, I might steal it. I've been keeping a spreadsheet with all of our spending, which is helpful in seeing how much we actually spend on different categories per month, but I can't exactly carry around my laptop & check my spreadsheet while I'm shopping!

I also don't want to do the cash only thing. I like my CC rewards too much, plus I feel like I spend more if I have a bunch of cash in my pocket. If I have cash, I'll waste $ on small things like snacks from the vending machine; if I don't have any cash, I can't buy anything from the vending machine or the newsstand.

One last question for the budget gurus here - do you & your spouse only have 1 joint checking/savings account, or do you have seperate accounts? We still have seperate accounts & I feel like that makes it difficult to keep track of our money. (It probably doesn't help that we both just opened new checking accounts at a local bank to get a $125 bonus each - its confusing & annoying to have money split into 4 checking accounts, but free money is free money!)

 

[JandJ]

DH has been accused of being a tightwad and called "cheap" by people who don't understand our budget system. He prefers "fiscally conscientious" Our virtual envelope system has worked out great for us! I've noticed I've become more and more frugal over the years being married to him but I am happy about that. I used to see a $20 top and think "oh, I'll just charge it, one more $20 top won't make a difference" but I totally do not think that way anymore. I weigh every purchase and usually walk out of the store with nothing. And I'm still very happy!

To Ava - we have joint accounts

 

[wdwmom0f3]

DH has been accused of being a tightwad and called "cheap" by people who don't understand our budget system. He prefers "fiscally conscientious" Our virtual envelope system has worked out great for us! I've noticed I've become more and more frugal over the years being married to him but I am happy about that. I used to see a $20 top and think "oh, I'll just charge it, one more $20 top won't make a difference" but I totally do not think that way anymore. I weigh every purchase and usually walk out of the store with nothing. And I'm still very happy!

To Ava - we have joint accounts

You sound like me. I have learned to just walk away.

I was put to the test today though. DH does all of our grocery shopping, but I had to go pick up a few things today and for the first time in a while I paid attention to the prices of different things, and I DIDN"T fill the cart with things that I really didn't need. I was proud of myself. I still dropped 50.00 though, and I didn't even get that much.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

I think this was day four and it's not as easy as I thought! I guess I was just never paying attn to the money flying out of the bank. With three kids who always need something, I have started feeling like an ATM machine! My money is getting low and I have a week left! I really thought I would have a hundred or so left over, but I bet I wont.

One good change that I have noticed is that we did not eat fast food but one day, and I didn't eat. That's much better than the every other day thing that the kids were doing.

 

[rszdtrvl]

I use 3 envelopes : Groceries, Pets, Entertainment. This is at the beginning of the month. At the end of the month there are 2 envelopes : Groceries, Clothing. The money is expected to last one month, less groceries, which is refilled 2x/month.

I spent $170 on groceries yesterday! For one weeks worth of groceries, plus HBA and paper products to last for the next month.

I had DH go with me to show him the cost of groceries right now. It is crazy! I just hope that the $50 will be able to cover my next grocery run. I am only shopping for the week instead of every 2 weeks now, and have made a menu plan to attempt to stop us from eating out. Plus, I purchased some inexpensive microwave meals to try to keep us from eating out too. We love our restaurants, but they are soooo expensive!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

I use 3 envelopes : Groceries, Pets, Entertainment. This is at the beginning of the month. At the end of the month there are 2 envelopes : Groceries, Clothing. The money is expected to last one month, less groceries, which is refilled 2x/month.

I spent $170 on groceries yesterday! For one weeks worth of groceries, plus HBA and paper products to last for the next month.

I had DH go with me to show him the cost of groceries right now. It is crazy! I just hope that the $50 will be able to cover my next grocery run. I am only shopping for the week instead of every 2 weeks now, and have made a menu plan to attempt to stop us from eating out. Plus, I purchased some inexpensive microwave meals to try to keep us from eating out too. We love our restaurants, but they are soooo expensive!

I know what you mean when you say that restaurants are expensive. Even fast food adds up quick.

Your plan may work better for us. It's going to take me a while to get this down, but I can tell you that using 7 envelopes was to much, or he needs to give me more money. We buy groceries every weekend and I made a list and a menu for the week so I hope that it helps from having to run back for things. I have got to watch every penny this week till Friday, in order to have any saved from that cash.

I was telling my mother about this and she remembered that my grandmother did the envelope system years ago for her groceries and small things too. When she died, she had about 8 thousand dollars saved up in her closet. This was her "hush money". That's what she called it anyway. My Papaw never knew about that money, but I did. He was shocked when we handed it to him. She always told me to do this too. She said if you ever want anything you can go get it and he can't say a thing. God love her.

 

[ohlas]

good luck with the cash thing, i would forget where i put it lol

try it for atleast 6 months you can do, its more about will power to not buy everything you want when u want it...

budgets are easy really all you need is paper and sometime.
and well the money to pay for it all

my sister had the same problem with spending cash she put her money in money orders (that she didnt wanted to spend) yes she paid .49 to hold her money but then she wasnt tempted to spend it to much hassel to cash it.

my grandmother also told me to think of what is really important and in what order everything else is extra and a want .

roof, lights/heat, food, car, clothes need

soda from machine want , cell phone want, disney trip omg no want bad lol
cable want, internet want, get it.......

 

[gracie1]

Okay, so after reading all these posts I have some questions.
How do you determine what to put in each envelope?

I am thinking of "possibly" trying this out, and wondering how you determine how much money to put in the envelopes.
I am thinking of doing groceries, pets, miscellaneous. What do you do at the end of each month with the money that is left over (if there is any leftover?)

When you have car expenses, etc., (like $700 plus bill) do you try to plan in advance with a "car" envelope, or does that come out of your main bill paying account?

 

[DawnM]

See if you can get a copy of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

There is not a cash envelope for unforseen expenses, but if you have a zero based budget, the amount is in the bank should you need it.

This also may be where a program like YNAB could come in very handy.

I plan to look at it more tonight and get the 7 day free trial download.

Dawn

Okay, so after reading all these posts I have some questions.
How do you determine what to put in each envelope?

I am thinking of "possibly" trying this out, and wondering how you determine how much money to put in the envelopes.
I am thinking of doing groceries, pets, miscellaneous. What do you do at the end of each month with the money that is left over (if there is any leftover?)

When you have car expenses, etc., (like $700 plus bill) do you try to plan in advance with a "car" envelope, or does that come out of your main bill paying account?