How we Budget!

About a month ago Jonathan and and I started a budget.
Budgets have NEVER worked for us. Especially Dave Ramsey's envelope system. (No hate to Dave, but using cash just isn't practical for us. We are debit/credit card users. Plus, we love the rewards we get from them)

So when I saw THIS blog post/video on a budget system that works best with credit/debit cards I was so excited!
Seeing an easy and practical way to make and stick to a budget had me excited to try it.
It is a simple concept, and really easy to stick to.
And I found that just by having a budget in place I was watching more closely what I would spend money on. And that alone helped us save money because I would seriously ask myself if what I was about to purchase was really necessary.

I think you can see from the picture that the envelope is split in half then into 4 separate weeks. One side is the grocery budget which is strictly for food, household, and beauty/health items. The other side is for miscellaneous items like haircuts, date nights, weekly emergencies etc... (you are NOT allowed to borrow money from another week if you are running low, but you CAN borrow from grocery to miscellaneous or vice versa. Like one week Jonathan went over on the Sam's club budget so we borrowed money from that weeks etc money to cover it)
You have to decide for yourself what each budget should be.
Jonathan and I started with $250 grocery and $200 etc each month and $75 on the back for Sam's Club. (Our etc budget is kind of high but before we started this we had a $35/week date night allowance but since this also includes haircuts and such we decided to up the amount) but last month we had $137 in surplus for the month that went into our "fun" account. So after next month if we still have a lot of surplus each week/month we will adjust our numbers accordingly.

A lot of budgets have you look at the whole month which cane be kind of overwhelming. Plus you tend to spend more at the beginning of the month then by mid-month you have to be super strict about what you buy.
This system takes the month and breaks it into weeks. So you have a certain allowance for each week and you are NOT allowed to borrow money from the next week if you are running low. (If I'm confusing you just watch the video from the link I posted, it will save your budget I promise)

This system will definitely work for people who use cash, but I love it because it is debit/credit card friendly! And if you put all of your receipts in the envelope you can put it in a file cabinet and have all your months receipts in one place for tax season!

I am absolutely shocked at how much we were able to put into savings just by knowing where all of our money is going and by sticking to a budget. Saving money really can be easy!

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions! :)