7 Ways To Make the Money Last - The Envelope System
I can't be overdrawn;
I still have checks left!
|
Is there more month than money?
My husband and I have a terrible time holding on to our money. It seems like everything everywhere is on the upward trend, except our paychecks. Those have remained steady for several years.
Please
don’t think I’m complaining about my job.
I am not! I praise God every day
that we have jobs, that we enjoy the work we do, and that we are able to meet
our needs. We can’t ask for more than
that! God has truly blessed us.
We
don’t have everything we ever wanted; but we have more than enough when it
comes to basic needs. And, if you’ve
been following my blog, you know that I personally have WAY MORE THAN ENOUGH of
most things (even if I can’t find all of them when I want to use them, hahaha!)
Financial
stress can really put a burden on us; it can make us act irrationally and do
things we wouldn’t normally consider. My
husband and I spent years trying to figure out how to make ends meet, how to
make sure we didn’t spend more than we had, and how to make sure the finances
were handled fairly. I’m going to share
a few tips with you that work for us and that have helped us stretch our budget
and save a few dollars.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (KJV) – Let a man so account of
us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a
man be found faithful.
The Envelope System - 7 Ways To Make the Money Last
We have had issues in the past with over-swiping debit cards, and overdrawn checks, resulting bank fines and overdraft penalties so we just don’t want to go there anymore. Reminds me of that old joke, “I can’t be overdrawn; I still have checks left”; only it isn’t so funny when it’s happening to you.- We keep enough money in the bank to cover the bills that need to be paid over the next two weeks (our bi-weekly pay-cycle), transfer some to savings for emergencies (which seem to be coming more quickly than we can save for them), and everything else is handled on a cash basis,
- We use direct deposit, so when our bi-weekly pay hits the bank we pull out the cash we’ve budgeted for the next two weeks (our bi-weekly pay-cycle) and divvy it up!
- We place our offering in an envelope and put it aside; on Sunday, the envelope goes into the offering plate.
- We put our two-week grocery allowance into another envelope and hold on to it until the next shopping trip.
- When we purchase groceries, we put the receipts in the envelope to keep track of the money and to remember how we spent the money.
- If, for any reason, we have an emergency that is greater than our savings balance, the first place we cut back is on the grocery allowance.
- We each get an allowance to cover gas and miscellaneous purchases for the pay-cycle. As long as we have money in our respective envelopes, we can spend it however we want, no questions asked!
I hope this post has been a blessing to you. Please take a few moments and share your tips and tricks for stretching your budget in the comment section below.
I would love to hear from you today! How do your and your family make ends meet?
ReplyDeletejerry stopped letting me pay the bills, there is more accountability now for where the money goes. we go to the grocery together, as well as to walmart. its not a perfect system, but it is one that makes him totally aware of where the money is going, and helps to restrain my own impulsive purchasing habits.
ReplyDeleteLisa, Thanks for Sharing! Ray lets me handle all the bill payments. I usually pay them using the bank's payment system saving us the price of checks and postage. When I receive the confirmation from the bank indicating a bill has been paid I forward it to him so he is aware of outgoing payments.
DeleteThanks again for sharing. I appreciate your support.
Mary ;-)