Pretty Cash Envelopes

Mike and I have realized here lately how lazy we've gotten when it comes to the nitty-gritty of our dreaded budget. We hate, as most people do, but I would hate to imagine where we would be if we didn't follow it. Oh ! I know..in the major debt hole, that's where!!

Anyhoo.

Mike suggested that we try this GREAT system of using cash only for everything.

*sigh*

This is the same idea that I suggested several months ago...the same idea that he shrugged his shoulders at...the same idea that he said "will never work for us."

Yep!

Exactly the same. But HEY!

As wives, we are supposed to roll with the punches instead of rolling our eyes, right?

Yepper!!

So, in conjunction with this amazing idea I decided to add my own spice-fication.

Yeah, I was bored and this was the only thing I could do sitting on the living room floor while watching the girls jump in their jumpers.

There are a lot of websites out there that sell premade envelope systems. Dave Ramsey even has one.

I would love to have one like this, but being the frugalista Moma that I am, I decided to make my own.

I took a simple envelope and separated the flaps so that I could create a sturdy template on a piece of cardstock paper.

Ta- DA!!

Note: You can google "envelope templates" and find gazoodles of templates to use, but I just made my own. Quicker and easier.

I picked out some pretty paper, traced, cut, and proceeded to the official

FOLDING of the ENVELOPE!!!!!!

tip: use a ruler to create crisp folds...it's prettier

Add some glue to the side flaps and fold the bottom flap up.

I googled "pretty cash envelopes" and found these wonderful tabs here.

Once I printed them up off the computer, I cut them out (because unlike my Moma, I don't have a cool circle puncher) and then ran them through my sticker maker (don't know it's real name).

I attatched them to some cute tabs that I made when I was home last and then glued them to the envelopes.

Lookin' pretty fancy!!!

I was going to leave the envelopes as they were, but I figured why not make them so that they fit in my wallet. Ah hah!!!

I cut out a smaller square to form a backbone for the envelope system.

Punched some holes in it and threaded it with some ribbon I had in my stash.

Here's what the back looks like. This portion of the backbone is what will stick in my wallet...kind of like the card holder thingy that goes in a wallet. yeah...that thing.

So here we have...our fancy shmancy cash envelope system that my husband came up with

*wink-wink*

You can go here to follow another tutorial on this too...this is where I got the whole backbone thing idea. What a great idea huh?

We'll see how well this works for us. My goal is to see how much money I have left in the envelopes at the end of the paycheck. What a great way to save!!