Budgeting with the envelope system

The first two weeks on the envelope system have gone quite well. My hubby & I managed to stick to it and not use the checking account for any purchases. We are down to our last $15 right now but payday is this Friday and we rarely buy things on weekdays anyway.

I did find that we need to keep ‘overages’ in the envelopes for a while though. Because we purchase dog food only one time every 5-6 weeks and that money needs to be available, we need to save the extra $5 or so from the previous weeks to make up for that.

We have also stopped our two or three times weekly trips to grab little things. Even though the store is less than 5 miles round trip, the gas adds up. Add to that the impulse purchases and you see where that leaves us. Yep, you guessed it – struggling at the end of the week.

I don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck. In our case, we currently live off of the envelope budget. I would like to have at least $10 extra per envelope left over for minor emergencies. That would keep the money in the account for longer term saving or BIG emergencies.

I will say that the envelope system is a success so far. I will keep posting about it and we will see if it really works for my family.