Frugalicious Friday No.3

Welcome to another FRUGALCIOUS FRIDAY!!!
Thanks Tina from The Vining Family, for sharing the real deal last week. I know there was probably a collective "sigh" as people read that and thought, "Now, I feel normal that everyone has had that debt-monkey on their back."

Friends the word is spreading that it's cool to not have debt. Even if getting rid of that debt-monkey leaves you looking a little, can we say unpolished, on the world's terms. That is only because the world is stupid about a lot of stuff.

Now, some have asked us on the down low: What Up With Envelopes? What does a budget meeting look like? So I'm going to break down the system that my husband and I use. It will need to be tweaked to meet your own needs of course! So the tip for this week is a budget meeting and cash envelope how to. And I'm not trying to have this be the Dave Ramsey weekly commercial post. Please come back for tips each Friday!

So here you go. This is the process my family uses (by the Grace of God and the teachings of Dave Ramsey) to achieve a cash budget...
Budget Meeting:
1. The night before payday we (that sweet husby and I whilst Leelah slumbers) both sit down with the budget box: the bills that are due, my planner to know what is coming up like birthdays, dinners out, etc., calculator, envelopes/index cards, and the 2 worksheets.

2. Pray. You've got to have a Come to Jesus moment. You don't have to. But this only works for us with Him on board and in charge. We pray together asking/pleading for God's wisdom to lead us in getting our finances in check.

3. Bi-Weekly Bill Sheet: we use the bill worksheet to add up all our bills that we can think of like electricity, gas, etc. AND we try to estimate gas (took a while to get down) since that will come out on the check card, church tithing, John's student loan, netflix- stuff that gets debited out during the pay period.

4. Blank Envelope sheet we use this to help with our envelopes which for us are actually index cards we write the amounts down on in my cool red expanding wallet (Forever 21- $7.00- they also have them at Hobby Lobby now):
Don't judge or rob me please!! Although I do have a Croc Dundee knife in my car for any robbery attempts because I'm a mom that will cut you...




To really get our cash planned for the next 2 weeks, we consult the planner and actually plan out what cash we will need for that time period. Then I go to the biz-nank and collect my dollar bills y'all. I give them the tally card we make with all the amounts. Because the actual breakdown of denominations is important. God help you if you mess up that up. You must be good at math at that point. I usually cry about it...
I will tell you that Food is groceries-toiletries, cleaning supplies, and sometimes a popcorn combo at Target. I struggle with this category and it's hard to not constantly pull from it. A friend told me this weekend to just divide it in half and leave the half at home for the next week so I wouldn't be tempted. It's hard! We always have the same amount in that one, but we did just increase it to cover the increase in food prices.

I want to give a special shout out to our church. Our old Bible Study class, The Vine, had a Total Money Makeover study and there were couples who are our beloved friends that sat us down and showed us their envelope system. It became cool to get hooked on envelopes. Thank you The Richardson Family for getting our class hooked on this and thanks to the Belue's too! We now have our family tree changed because of this!

And don't get discouraged. It takes a while to get on the same page (if not already) with the husb and get a system that works. But I love the fact that we have a plan now. We're not letting our finances just be whatever they happen to be in the bank account that day and then be all like "Crap! I just overdrew again!!!" That feeling is horrible and scary.
Now if that isn't real, I don't know what is! Have we not all done this? Please just say yes. I can't tell if I'm embarrassed or hot flashing as I type this!!!

And please- comment with tips that work for you! We are all in this together! May God bless you on your endeavors to live like no one else!!