by a.b.
So after my first “envelope outing” I have to say I already have serious concerns on the effectiveness of the envelope system. As I previously mentioned, Mr. B and I are trying a modified envelope system, using the paper enforcers only for food and gas. It’s a lot harder than I thought.
First of all, I have allotted $120 every two weeks for us, including any paper goods. I started this at the worst possible time; the cupboards were bare. I spent $75 dollars for this week’s foodstuffs, which in my opinion isn’t bad. (I can certainly do better, and will.) We were out of cheese, milk, olive oil, meat, butter, pretty much every staple outside of flour.
The hard thing for me is to decide how to allot monthly items. Obviously we won’t go through two pounds of cheese in a week, but I’m not going to weigh the cheese at the end of the week to see how much was used.
I’ve decided to try this for at least eight weeks to give it a fair try. The main deficiencies I’ve determined are all mine: hesitance, confusion, lack of planning. I’m pretty sure if I can get on the ball, the envelope system will cut our food bills substantially and allow us to track our car bills better. Like everything else though, it is work.
