Trading cute for clunky.

Last week, Caleb and I had a serious talk about our finances. We kind of went off the deep end the last few months. We've basically agreed to never look at our bank statements from this summer again because it will just make us sick (I literally felt physically ill after seeing how much miscellaneous spending we did). As embarrassing as it is to admit, I'm going to put it out there because that's just life.

However, there is no sense in beating ourselves up over something we can't change now. So we asked ourselves how we could get back on track? The overwhelmingly obvious answer for us was going back to using cash only (for things like groceries, personal spending, gifts, groceries and a miscellaneous envelope for the random necessities that come with life throughout the year - haircuts, new shoes when ours wear out, oil changes, etc.!).

We used to pay for everything with cash a bit after getting married, and it was just awesome. At some point last year we gave ourselves too much credit and thought we could go back to using our debit cards and our spending wouldn't be affected but BOY were we wrong. So, I visited Dave Ramsey's site and found two Deluxe envelope systems for HALF THE PRICE and jumped on it. I asked Caleb what he thought and we both agreed it would help us get back on track.

We received them in just a couple of days! Sunday we switched our wallets over and haven't looked back!

Sure, the wallet is a little too big for a guys back pocket...but Caleb takes a gym bag to work every day so he just keeps it in there, and half the time we go out for dates I end up carrying his wallet in my purse anyway so it works for us.

Someone at work asked me this week how my "granny wallet was going?" and I couldn't help but laugh. I know she was totally kidding and my response was "its clunky and uncomfortable BUT so is debt!!", ha! So true, isn't it? The wallet has a few spots for cards, a plastic sleeve for coins, the envelope system itself, extra envelopes for on the go, a notepad and a checkbook holder. I'm kind of obsessed.

We pulled out our cash from the bank, wrote our envelope categories out and have stuck with it all week, I actually haven't even touched my personal spending envelope for the week! Woo! Our debit cards haven't been swiped once, either! It feels great because I know a typical week for me would've consisted of hitting up Kroger on my lunch break for random work snacks that I don't need, traipsing the aisles for more stuff I don't need, etc.!

Caleb and I just have some pretty big goals for ourselves in the next year (like potentially buying a home!!) and want to set ourselves up to be debt free by the time that happens. Sure we may have gotten a little off track (or a lot), but all that matters is we're changing that NOW! Cash is king, friends!

Have a great Thursday!