So, the new budget is going great so far. We’re not to the end of the first week yet but I’m finding my way through this quite well. Because I’m a freelance writer with various clients who have varying payment schedules I don’t always have a set payday or a regular pay cheque so this might be tricky for the first month but once I build a reserve, it’ll be a cinch and make a huge difference to us. Here’s what I like about it so far about our envelope budget:

• I know that we’re covered for everything. Instead of thinking, ‘gee I only have $100 left in my budget for the next 3 days’ I know that I have money for gas, for milk, for a gift for that birthday party on the weekend and there’s food in the fridge. It’s comforting and if I was dealing with one amount of bulk cash, I wouldn’t feel this confident that we could get through the week and quite honestly, we’d probably run out of the cash I have on me before the end of the week. Splitting it up really helps.
• Meals are a breeze. I made a menu last week and we’re sticking to it. The menu indicated what was for dinner and the shopping list ensured we had everything in the house. It also means we’re saving money on gas from running back and forth to the store all the time. It costs us about $10 every second trip to town and we would previously go to town to shop 2-3 times a week.
• DH wanted a treat the other night so I took the money out of the entertainment fund. We hadn’t had any entertaining plans this week so it made sense that he was going to entertain himself with donuts so it didn’t impact the rest of my grocery budget.
• Yesterday I had a few places to stop at and money had to come out of several envelopes so I simply brought them all and it worked quite well.

I can really see how this is going to help us going forward. My only challenge so far is that I’m using cutesy little pet character pencil cases as my envelopes and my husband refuses to carry them so I simply give him cash for his wallet when he needs something and then remind him to give me his change and receipts as soon as he gets home so I can put the money back into the appropriate envelope. He has a terrible habit of dropping everything on the counter when he comes in so I’m trying to re-train him. Wish me luck!