I've been following Money Saving Mom for almost two years now and I know she really likes using the cash only/envelope system. I like the ease of using credit cards and even though we always pay our balance off each month, it did seem like it was a lot easier to go over budget.
I decided to try it, but in a transitional way. I got out my Monopoly money and divided it among the 5 "weeks" in the month of June, putting it in 5 different envelopes. When I make a purchase, I write it down on a piece of paper that I keep in the envelope for that week and then I take out the "money". I round up so that I don't have to make change, thus increasing my savings.
My plan is that whatever I save this month in groceries gets to go to the European Tour Fund. With this in mind, I carefully (oh, ever so carefully) planned out my grocery expenses for the week. I even hosted a little House Party this weekend (more on that in a bit) and factored that in. I'm happy to say that for the first week of this experiment, I was only $1 over on my budget...and I'll explain why in my next post.
It's kind of fun and it's really helpful to see exactly how much I have left. The visual is helping me to rein in my expenses and see which ones I really need. If this experiment goes well, I might just go to actual cash....we'll see.
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