envelope budgeting

in the past, i have posted about some tips & tricks that have helped me to become a better saver, but since our engagement, i haven't really talked about envelope budgeting.

when i first started planning our wedding, my good friend carmella told me that envelope budgeting was the way she and matt paid for their wedding (she also talks about it here). the concept is soooo incredibly simple, but because we've become an electronic-focused society, i think people have forgotten about setting cash aside.

i was looking at my pinterest feed, and somebody pinned this post from one good thing by jillee. the thumbnail was of money inside of an envelope, and i thought, 'hey, that looks familiar!'

photo from one good thing by jillee

as i read this post, i thought about how great it was because she explains everything so perfectly, and it's pretty much exactly everything randy and i do to save money for the wedding. like i said, it's not hard - basically figure out how much money you need for something, and put that amount of cash inside the designated envelope.

sure, randy and i could have just as easily put all of the money into our "wedding savings" account, but let me tell you, it's been working out so much better that we've been allocating money to specific things and keeping everything separate. i do keep some money in our wedding savings account for when i need to order wedding items online, but let me tell you, if we had as much money in our savings account as we do in our envelopes, i would be etsy's #1 customer by now. out of sight, out of mind, so i don't think i have all this money to spend when in fact it's already spoken for.

one of the staple new year's resolutions is to "save more money." try this, and see how much farther you'll get with your financial goals!