once a week

The beauty of using Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover is that he encourages families to communicate about their finances. So I reviewed our checking account this morning and then Hubs and I looked at it together. $49.83 is what we have for the next three weeks. ...that is until Mark gets his middle-of-the-month, "extra" check. (He does a couple of extra curriculars at the middle school he works at a few nights a week, and gets paid for it on the first of the month.) We are so frustrated!

I could go through each transaction to give you the story behind the frustration, but I will just echo that he's a teacher, I am a stay-at-home mom and a bottle of albeit cheap wine just *may* not be wise...or a few extra books, though they are 1/2 price at a going-out-of-business Borders sale...or even a really cool gift for a friend who's getting married.

Mind you, we are not technically overspending. We're just not getting ahead.

Our game plan is one that I know a lot of people have chosen as a solution for their family. We are going to try the envelope system. On the 15th, we're going to work out the balance of our account -- how much is left in checking after we've accounted for all of our bills and other obligations -- and split it up among the 4 or 5 weeks in the month. We'll get the cash out for the week and put our debit card away until the next week. What's in that envelope is all we will have (access to) until we withdraw the money for the next week.

What I am really excited about is that at the end of the week, which just so happens to fall on Friday evening, if we have an extra $10, we can go get a really fun bottle of wine. Or maybe a banana pudding shake from CFA! Ooo, Sabbath treat. That's what I'm talkin' about!

At the middle of the month, we really want that extra check to go toward our debts, which include paying off our Pilot and my student loans. It's only a couple hundred here and a couple hundred there. But those hundreds add up very quickly. Here is to hoping that a new system will help us to move in the direction we have been intending to move!