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Why Cash Envelopes?
If you’re struggling with your budget or saving for irregular bills, one of the best and most practical ways to stay on track is to use cash envelopes; a budgeting system made popular by Dave Ramsey.
You can set up as many or as few envelopes as you like, it’s a completely flexible system you set up according to your own needs.
You can find out more about the cash envelope budget system here.
Related reading: 10 Dave Ramsey Money Saving Tips for Christmas
Obviously, you won’t need to use all of these category ideas but hopefully they will act as prompts for spending categories you might have missed on your initial list.
These ideas for your cash envelopes are presented in no particular order:
- Utilities
- Insurances
- Medical & pharmaceutical
- Irregular bills
- Groceries
- Eating out
- Work lunches
- Entertainment
- Sports/activities
- Movies
- Outings with friends
- Outings with family
- Date nights
- Starbucks
- Pet Accessories
- Vet costs
- Back to school
- Kids’ allowance
- Toys & play equipment
- Kids’ clothes
- School lunches
- School excursions, etc.
- Books
- Shoes
- Accessories
- Gardening items
- Yard maintenance
- Car maintenance
- Household items
- Cleaning products
- Tools
- Home Depot
- Spouse 1 – spending
- Spouse 2 – spending
- Hobbies/classes
- Craft supplies
- Home decor
- Clothes
- Cosmetics
- Toiletries
- Massages
- Salon & hair care
- Holiday gifts
- Birthday gifts
- DIY Projects
- Travel
- Technology
- Crazy cash (money you can spend without justification)
- Replacement items
- Donations/tithing
How many of these can you use? Did you think of other categories not included in the list? Make your suggestions in the comments so we can add them to this list.
Your Cash Envelope System
Using the cash envelope system means keeping a reasonable amount of cash on hand so you’ll want to keep it secure.
Keeping all your envelopes together makes it easier to keep track of them but can make you vulnerable.
The best idea is to keep your envelopes in a folder, file or planner in a secure location and remove cash for specific purchases as you need it. You definitely don’t want to carry all of it with you, all the time.
Not sure where to start to organize your budget?
If you’re not sure where cash envelopes might fit into your budgeting strategy, we have some articles that are bound to help.
- How to Fix Your Budget
- 50 Awesome Ways to Live Better on Less Money
- How to Slash Your Grocery Bill by 50%
- When Money Is Tight – Tips for Living on Next to Nothing
- 11 Free Budget Printables To Help Get Your Money Under Control
Build a Life you Love
The absolute driving force behind my online endeavours is to establish and maintain a life I love. A life that allows me to spend my days the way I want to spend them.
After a short stint back in the corporate world, I’m more committed than ever to spend my days doing things that bring me joy and add real value to others’ lives.
Blogging – Learn how to start your own blog or business web site. Once you get started, there’s almost no limit to what you can achieve for yourself. But, the first step is establishing your foundation and that has to be a self-hosted site. If you’re just testing the waters, I recommend Bluehost as a cost-effective way to get started.
Online Store / eCommerce – Along with this and some of my other blogs, I have another business that includes an Etsy store and a Shopify store. Whether you’re selling stock you’ve purchased, dropshipping or selling your own handmade products, eCommerce is a great way to start an online business in your spare time. Shopify is a great platform to use as it’s intuitive and has lots of help available if you get stuck, and they have a ton of plugins to make it easy to get all of the features you want.
Managing your Money – The framework for everything in life and business is good money management. Keep coming back to our site for more helpful tips, but if you are doing some shopping and want cash back, check out Rakuten (formerly eBates).