Am I the only one who thinks the envelope system is overrated?

I tried the cash envelope method for groceries back in March after seeing it all over YouTube. First week was great, I felt in control. But then I forgot my envelope at home one day and had to use my debit card. That threw off the whole system for the rest of the month. I ended up overdrafting my account by $40 because I lost track of what I had spent. Has anyone else had the envelope system backfire on them or am I doing it wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam18614d ago

Oh man, I had a buddy who tried this exact same thing and it went off the rails. He was super into the envelope method for like two weeks, then lost his "fun money" envelope somewhere between the gas station and his car (probably fell out of his pocket). He spent a whole weekend looking for it, finally found it under his seat three days later, but by then he had already pulled cash from his "eating out" envelope to cover the loss. It completely messed up his budget for the month and he ended up eating peanut butter sandwiches for a week to make up for it. He told me the system just doesn't work if you're even a little bit forgetful like most normal people are. I think the whole thing works great on YouTube where you can edit out the mistakes, but real life is way messier than that.

haydenhayes14d ago

Is it bad that I'd probably lose the whole wallet before losing just one envelope (definitely something I'd do)?

kai8396d agoTop Commenter

Oh, you mean like the time I tried to be all organized and made separate envelopes for each day of the week? I had Monday through Friday labeled and everything, felt like a genius for about three hours. Then I grabbed the wrong envelope to pay for tacos, used Thursday's money on a Tuesday, and spent the next day trying to figure out why I had no cash left for lunch. I ended up dumping all the envelopes into my sock drawer and just guessing how much was in each one, which basically turned into a chaotic pile of bills and receipts. The funny part is I still use that sock drawer, I just call it the 'mystery fund' now.