A note for those who have trouble with a home budget

[kristopher]

When my family was starting my wife and I worked very hard, but with two young children we were always living paycheck to paycheck. We were barely able to make ends meet and were simply were not able to save anything.

Then I heard about this method of training yourself and after discussing it, we decided that we had nothing to lose by trying.

It was one of the most amazing turnarounds I've ever experienced in my life. Within months we were not only meeting all our obligations with no worries about running out of money, not only were we well on our way to building a good savings, but as we refined our view of how we managed our money we found that the amount we had leftover to devote to savings at the end of the month continued to increase for nearly a year.

I can't say it will solve all your financial problems, but if your problem is that you suspect you might have bad spending habits this might be of assistance.

How to Do Envelope Budgeting
After you Budget Your Money, your next challenge is to follow through. It can be difficult keeping track of how much money you have left for this and that. The envelope method is one way some people use to make sure their spending stays in line with their budget.

http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Envelope-Budgeting

[leftstreet]

1. Could you send that link to Congress? n/t

[jdlh8894]

3. No!!!!

Because they will end up buying stamps for the envelopes!!!:evilfrown:

[leftstreet]

4. LOL

To mail out donation requests, no doubt

[jdlh8894]

5. I'm suprised someone got that! LOL n/t

[booksenkatz]

9. Better not.

Massive deforestation would result due to the size of the DoD budget envelope.:evilfrown:

[sharp_stick]

2. What a neat idea

It's amazing how much money you can spend on a regular basis that you don't need to and that you don't even really realize your spending.

We decided to start using Mint (http://www.mint.com) and it's done wonders for our budgeting. It's connected right to our accounts so it might not be for everyone. Their security is as good as any of the others that I've seen but the access might give some people the heebie jeebies.

The only problem we've had is that my wife set the budget and really screwed me on the amount I need for beer. My appeal to her is pending but I'm not that optimistic. I may need secret accounts and double books.

[Warpy]

6. Research home brewing

The initial outlay for equipment is high but once you get going, it's a hell of a lot cheaper, mainly because homebrew is generally higher in alcohol and two homebrews will get you where it takes a sixpack of Bud Light to.

[sharp_stick]

10. Great Idea

I'll call it a science expense. Teaching the kids all about microbiology and botany.

[chaplainM]

11. Use funds from the secret "CIA" budget

"Canned Inebriation Agent"

[Dappleganger]

7. That's how my momma always did it...

used to watch her weekly: Dad would hand over his cashed paycheck then she would dish out all the money to the envelopes. He got to keep a little for spending each week plus gas $, that was it (he had no self-discipline).

To this day when I think of how our budget works in my mind everything goes into different envelopes.

[amborin]

8. nothing like paying in cash to make one think twice! n/t

[Ratty]

12. Debit cards are evil

Too easy to overspend when it's not "real money." I've been doing the cash only thing for awhile now and it's really working for me. I withdraw a bunch of twenties at the beginning of the month and that's all I spend. Restock my wallet as needed. You really think twice at the grocery store when it's cash you're handing over. And it's so nice when there's cash left over at the end.

[kristopher]

13. Good on you.

The difference with the envelopes for us was that it was easy to see when it was getting empty, or later, when the savings envelope was getting full. It is the visual input that made a difference for us. Now we have no trouble with controlling our finances with plastic in the picture, but it didn't work for us then. I think there was some lesson regarding the value of money we just needed to learn and this method was our key. Other methods of learning undoubtedly are also very effective.