Last weekend, I stumbled across this template for making envelopes. They were also available to purchase on Etsy, but.... I was trying to save money (obviously). So I used the template, and some card stock I already had at home, bought a roll of contact paper for $5 to laminate and reinforce the envelopes so they wouldn't fall apart so easily, and made my own.
With Jonny's new job, our finances feel so much more under control now. As I posted last week, we started using YNAB to put together our budget, and it's making a HUGE difference in holding me accountable for where money is coming in and going out. As a result, I am trying desperately to recommit to using envelopes for "everyday spending." No more debit card purchases because I was too lazy to go to the ATM or withdraw cash at the bank.
Last night was a true testimony for me on how you spend less cash because cash "hurts" to spend more than swiping a plastic card does. Even if it's a debit card, the emotional triggers in your brain don't hurt as bad as when you spend cash. We went out to dinner and bowling with some friends. Afterwards, we discussed going to get coffee, but as I looked at our Entertainment envelope, I realized I didn't want to spend so much more of our entertainment money on one night. We had already spent $28.00 for dinner and a tip. We probably could have done without the appetizer and our meal would have been less expensive, but MAN those corn nuggets sure were good. Then we went to the bowling alley. We had coupons for 1 free game of bowling, so we paid for our shoes,which was just under $10 for both of us. Good grief when did bowling shoe rental get so expensive? I don't bowl regularly, but at that rate, it may be worth buying my own bowling shoes one of these days! So anyway, we bowled our first free game, and then decided to do another game, which was $11 and some change for the 2 of us. So $28 + $10 + $11 = $49. Yowza! So after doing all that math and seeing the dwindling dollar bills in my entertainment envelope, we decided that we didn't want to go spend another $10 on some fru-fru coffee, because we wanted to save the money for something else later on this month.
If we had been using the debit card, I don't think I would have given it a second thought. I would have swipe swipe swiped until I got home and then added up the receipts, and THEN I would have cringed at the total spent.
So yeah, I'm really looking forward to "sticking to my budget" by using cash. Once it's gone, it's gone. No more.
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