In the age of online shopping, the only sure-fire way for me to save money is to squirrel away cash. Otherwise my savings get frittered away, one late night Etsy purchase at a time, until there’s nothing left in my accounts (but my desk drawers are full of pretty stickers for my Van Der Spek!).
I’m sure you can relate.
Paypal has a lot to answer for.
Anyway… to make sure there’s always cash around for when we need it, I have an envelope budgeting system set up in my lovely binder.
I took some photos for you to see.
My bills and rent are paid automatically out of the bank account so they aren’t included in the envelope system. Instead I have these categories:
* Rainy Day Fund – for unexpected expenses like broken appliances or lost phones.
* Home School Fund – for fun excursions or school supplies.
* Savings – for big purchases or holidays.
* Snip Fund – the big V 🙂
* Car Money – these are usually yearly costs like registration, insurance or servicing.
* Family Fun – a nice meal out, a day trip to the zoo – that kind of thing.
I got the envelopes from this seller on Etsy, and punched them with my filofax holepunch.
Then added the super cute mason jar stickers, which were a group buy on facebook.
The speech bubbles came from Joey Design on Etsy.
Each time I add some money to the envelope, I put a little star or heart on the outside.
I work from home, so my filofax doesn’t really venture outside. If you take your filofax with you everywhere this might not be a good system for you.. as if losing your filofax wouldn’t be heartbreaking enough, losing your life savings as well would really put a wrinkle in your day!
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The Peaceful Parent 