We made our last hospital bill payment a couple of months ago. It was a long 18 month journey and we are very grateful to be done. We fell off the budget wagon after that and spent some money. It was time for us to start shopping for a new vehicle this summer so I knew we would have to get back on track with our budget.
We found a truck for Paul and were able to purchase it two weeks ago. We have not had a car payment in 1.5 years. It was time to get back on track with our finances.
We use the cash system by Dave Ramsey. We tried the multiple envelopes, but that didn’t work for us. What did work best was to have one envelope for everything for the two weeks. This will include groceries, Target, gas etc. Our monthly bills are not included in this.
In the past we didn’t really stick to it fully. The second weekend would come and there would be no more cash in the envelope for groceries. We still had to eat, so I would end up using my card. This defeats the purpose of the system. So, this time around I set aside a little money for the 2nd weekend’s groceries. It did help so much to have that already set aside! We used our card just a few times: date night, oil change etc. For the first week being back on track I think we did well all things considered.
The pay period before we were just using our check cards and did not come close to our budget. This last pay period we did so much better! I also did try to stick with just one trip a week for groceries. That way we wouldn’t be over spending.
You can see the two different pay periods listed below. The left side is the one with our check cards. Look at all those transactions. The right side is using cash. You can see we didn’t go nearly as often and we spent $358 less paying with cash.
The cash system really does work. It helps you see the cash as it dwindles in the envelope. I am hoping to pay off the truck in less time than the loan. And if we can stay on track and put that extra money towards the loan vs frivolous spending we could shave off 2 years. How wonderful that would be.
Make it a great day,
Jen
The Mommy Diaries 