Stuffing Cash Envelopes | March 2020

We are stuffing cash envelopes in this post! Now more than ever it feels like spending, savings, and balancing out debt are more important than ever.

With this world crisis going on, having enough money set aside for emergencies and staying within budget on variable spending can seem like it can make or break everything.

I wanted to share with you my first cash envelope stuffing with our first paycheck of March. This is becoming a fun process. I’ve been challenging myself to keep cash in there, even it’s only a dollar, for as long as I can!

Our second paycheck for the month is coming up and I can’t wait to share how much I have left, if any at all, and what’s happened throughout the month!

What is the point of all this cash envelope budgeting?

The reason why I’m sharing these videos with you is twofold: I need accountability with spending and staying within budget, and I’m hoping if you need accountability and someone to budget with, I can be here for you too. Whether you want to save, pay off debt, or just get better with your finances, we can do this together!

The Difference between Fixed and Variable Expenses

I feel like bills are bills. They are inevitable. They can pretty much stay the same month to month, that’s why they’re called fixed expenses, right? We can find ways to lower our bills but for the most part, they will stay the same month to month. Rent/mortgage, car payment, phone, cable, these are things that don’t really fluctuate.

Those, for me, are the easier things to budget. Why? Because I have to! Haha, right?! These are the things we need to stay in our home, keep the lights and heat on, keep the WIFI on!

The things that are harder for me to control, anyway, are the variable categories. If you want to see the categories that I set up for my cash envelope wallet, you can read this post here. These are the things that can get out of hand really quickly. There have been so many times where I spend more on food than I wanted. We spend more on clothing than I anticipated. This is where I need to work and focus.

Using the Cash Envelope System

I’m not going to lie, as much fun as it is to create envelopes, stuffing cash envelopes, and see it all put together, it’s been a transition to using cash. I’ve been so used to swiping my card, mainly, for its convenience. But using cash, it hurts. I don’t want to pull money out of there. When I see the cash in the envelopes, I want to hoard it and snuggle it and love it. 😂

Usually, I keep the envelopes that I would need with me, the other ones just stay at home. This way I’m not carrying too many envelopes with cash with me all the time.

Remember that this is a process. Even though we think we make mistakes, we can take those and use them as lessons for the future. Unexpected things will come up. Surprises will happen. You are in control of your money and you can tackle anything life throws your way!

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