Budgeting... with Pretty Envelopes

I've been saying I was going to do it for months... maybe even a year but I finally did it!  (Well, mostly) I have my envelope budgeting system set-up.  Now I hear this is a Dave Ramsey thing but I have not read any of his books or anything.  I more of a Clark Howard kind of gal but anyway I decided that we HAVE to change the way we budget.  I have been doing the same thing over and over for years and it simply does not work.  My income varies greatly, we often don't have all we need to go around.  We were constantly ending up with overdraft fees which are crazy expensive because of the way banks choose to maximize on their profits by debiting your account strategically (ie. turning one overdrawn item into 5).  Added to that our own bad practices of being primarily frugal with a slip here and there and it was definitely time for a change. 


Here is the beginning of our envelope system.  As I sit here I can think of a few more categories like Travel, Baby Needs, Emergency, etc.  that I need to add. 


I made the envelopes myself with scrapbook-size card stock.  I figured if I have to look at these daily they better be pretty! 

Soon, I will hole punch the folders and put them in a binder... a cute one!  


I already love it, I was able to divide up all of our cash and now that we are bank-free everything we do starts with cash.  So we'll take certain envelopes to turn the cash into money orders and another will get loaded on to my prepaid debit card.  I know neither of these is ideal but for us it's all about breaking the pattern we were in before for a better result in the end.  


How do you budget?  Does it work well every month? 

.... And Time Flies - Photo Bomb

I have FREE time again!!! For once in the past 6 months, I am not moving, working, having a newborn or excessively stressed about ANYTHING.  Stressed, but not excessively so, LOL.  

I doubt anyone will see this since I've been so MIA but I am going to add some pics of the past 6 months.  - I promise they aren't all of the baby. 

Halloween 

 Christmas 

 Mommy's Boredom:

 Photo Time in Fall 

 6 months!

 Half Birthday Party - Long Story 

 The Fam, yes, baby is asleep and annoyed.

 With his godfather

 I made this cake stand! - And planned this DJ party for a 10 yr. old.  Too lazy to rotate pics :) 

 I saw this at the crafts store... Terrible! 

 Christmas again

 And I took two of my all time favorite photos:

Weight War Wednesday! - Update After Baby

So I am excited to be able to get back to losing weight.  It was a conscious decision to get pregnant instead of focusing on weight loss.  I really thought the emotional toll of being labeled "infertile" was going to sabotage my progress in weight loss (ie. emotional eating).  Well turns out my body had something else in mind and I stayed sick for the entire duration of my pregnancy (seriously I threw up the ice chips while in labor).  I had both good days and bad, fought crazy, unhealthy cravings and as the pregnancy progressed I was able to hold down more and more food overall.  On my bad days I retained nothing - not water, not a single calorie and on my good days I was able to eat a couple of meals.  On almost every good day I made sure to exercise, I went walking, went to the gym (still walking but on the treadmill cause it was HOT - and for a while there were some black bears running around town).  Fast forward to my current postpartum state, I am 34 lbs. lighter than I was at the end of my pregnancy, 40 lbs. lighter than I was when I was able to gain the most weight during pregnancy and 28 lbs. lighter than I was at the beginning of my pregnancy.  I feel great about it and since I no longer have that belly to help, all of my pants are falling off.  :-)

(24 hours before Cade was born!)

Happy to have a head start, I have been back to walking and am ready to reach my goal weight and lose weight for good!


So my goals from now to my birthday (2 weeks from today Oct. 12) are to:

• Walk daily - or at least 6 out of 7 days of the week
• Do sit-ups!  Daily - get up to 100 a day
• Drink 4 (large) bottles of water a day
• Eat 3 servings of veggies a day 
• Eat 1-2 servings of fruit a day 
• Stay off the scale for the whole two weeks - I love to weigh myself often but I just want to see if it's more exciting to see all of the loss at once. ;-)

So maybe I should go out and buy some fruit.

Your Shirt's On Backwards

1.  I gotta get back to business.  I miss the creativity, the chit-chat with customers... and the cash. ;-)


2.  The entrance into motherhood begins when you run two or three hours worth of errands with your shirt on backwards.  At least it wasn't inside out <--- Bright Side. 


When recapping the tale to my husband he said "Well, as long as it wasn't a V-neck!" .... Um, FAIL.


3.  The only thing more boring than a Social Studies textbook is a Social Studies textbook that focuses solely on one state.  "North Carolina's potters live in Seagrove."  Super, knowledge my kid can use to change the world. 


4.  I spend anywhere between 21 & 24 hours a day with this face: 

Although I get tired, I never get tired of him. 


5.  This website is depressing: 
http://www.slaveryfootprint.org


FYI - my number was 36 


6. I am perplexed by people who seem annoyed that we haven't visited them with the baby, but haven't bothered to visit us... or even call and see how he is.  

Reflections of the Week

1.  I gotta get back to business.  I miss the creativity, the chit-chat with customers... and the cash. ;-)


2.  The entrance into motherhood begins when you run two or three hours worth of errands with your shirt on backwards.  At least it wasn't inside out <--- Bright Side. 


When recapping the tale to my husband he said "Well, as long as it wasn't a V-neck!" .... Um, FAIL.


3.  The only thing more boring than a Social Studies textbook is a Social Studies textbook that focuses solely on one state.  "North Carolina's potters live in Seagrove."  Super, knowledge my kid can use to change the world. 


4.  I spend anywhere between 21 & 24 hours a day with this face: 

Although I get tired, I never get tired of him. 


5.  This website is depressing: 
http://www.slaveryfootprint.org


FYI - my number was 36 


6. I am perplexed by people who seem annoyed that we haven't visited them with the baby, but haven't bothered to visit us... or even call and see how he is.