As you know I am a Stay-at-Home-Mommy, so budgeting is a must. You have to be organized with your finances, we haven't been good at it, we hate doing the check register thing but it's time to grow up and do it!!! We are young still so we are learning! But my sister-in-law had a great idea, thanks to Mr. Ramsey. Cash budgeting! We created our own envelopes to put our cash spending in effect! An envelope for groceries, of course!! One to keep receipts for when we do use our debit card, we can keep track and record that spending. One for our son Zane, for clothes and other baby necessities, then one for my favorite, FUN! - this is for date nights, home decor, mani/pedi's, things like that. Some would make an envelope for gas, but I chose to pass on that one since it would consist of me grabbing the diaper bag, the baby (in car seat) and go into the dirty, stinky gas station. So instead the debit card comes out and the receipt goes into the "receipts" envelope to subtract later. You can make an envelope for any category you use for spending, such as "eating out" or "landscape" or even "Starbucks". Really, the list is endless.
Here's my crafty envelopes: We chose card stock paper from Michael's since it's more durable. But also, I thought to mod podge it, in hopes the paper would last longer and not fray! You can get a template for the envelopes here: http://www.thedigichick.com/shop/Standard-Envelope-Template-Set.html
To glue the sides I also thought to use mod podge since it really holds!!! It's like paper cement!!! Just be careful not to glue it to the back where your envelope won't open.
Lastly, I purchased tiny circular pieces of Velcro to secure the envelope shut. And labeled them of course with a stickers, put them on a contrasting paper and cut out a design (free-hand, thank you very much). I think they turned out great and hope this system works and adds a little bit of fun! It was really fairly simple and I think this way they will last longer!
