Envelope categories?

**sunshine** · 06-23-2008, 04:27 PM

I know what ones we have, but curious as to what ones YOU have? I'm thinking of making some fabric envelopes for my family members that are going through FPU right now, and I'm wondering what categories most people use.

**missmanny** · 06-23-2008, 05:56 PM

Mine at home are as follows...

Christmas
General Presents
Blow money / Entertainment
Groceries
Gas

All of my electric and other bills come out of my account automatically but I like to put a little bit aside each pay towards Christmas and also general birthday presents etc.

Hope this helps. I think that the gift idea is a fantastic one by the way! I'd love to recieve them, esp if I was doing FPU.

**JessieMom** · 06-23-2008, 10:13 PM

We have:
Gas
Groceries
Tolls (I commute to work)
Kids lunches
Clothing
Babysitting
Vet/pet food
Car maint
Misc Household
Dr/scripts
Personal Spending Money
I love the thought of fabric envelopes (I am always replacing my envelopes) - what a great idea!

**zakity** · 06-23-2008, 10:34 PM

fuel
DH lunch
groceries
misc
eating out

I also have a "presents" category, but that lives in our EF until xmas rolls around. I usually take that money out of our tax return. I try to make the "misc" section stretch to cover the presents throughout the year.

**TheRootedNomad** · 06-24-2008, 07:56 AM

Gas
Groceries
Christmas/gifts
Vacation
Extra (money not counted on that has come in we use it for the oddball stuff)

OPC - 3 month bill(pest control company - I'm a roach and rodent and flea phobe, can't sleep if I think there is one - I am the company's "crazy lady" that calls if she thinks her husband has been in an infested house and wants a precautionary check. This is my sanity money. I have a contract. I bet they wish I would just forget to pay so they could cancel me .... or maybe they like that they get money and just get to come "look and chat") sorry .... I digressed there...see the problem
car insurance - 6 month bill
garbage - quarterly bill
H20 - bimonthly
extra gas and electric - (I put us on a budget. We put the same amount every month in the envelope for this bill. The months we don't use the heat and air the money builds for when we need it)

**NMMatt** · 06-25-2008, 04:03 PM

I've been budgeting pre-TMMO so I do know where my money goes already, but I'm transitioning these areas to the envelope system as I tend to overspend here:

Work lunches (I'm cutting these back, but I'm starting with where I'm at in order to be reasonable)
Coffee shop (see "Work lunches"

)
Giving
Grocery Store/Walmart
Dining out (see "Work lunches")
Blow Money
Gas and Oil Changes

I'm also continuing with my yearly cash flow system for irregular expenses - those things that are 0 one month and 500 another month. I'm a bit of a nerd with this, but what I do is have an account with a 1000 buffer (apart from my emergency fund). I Write everything that I plan to spend each month going out a year from now (birthday gifts, medical expenses, clothing, new tires, car registrations, trips, christmas shopping, taxes etc.) My Excel worksheet calculates the cash flow into and out of the account each month allowing me to spread out the cost for bigger items such as taxes. Also I can remove want items in order to keep the cost down when adding need items. For these items I plan to mix it up - obviously cash for Chirstmas shopping, but probably debit card for new tires.

**tigo** · 10-07-2009, 08:46 AM

I only have four because all bills are paid for by check (and marked off on the budget spreadsheet).

Groceries
Gasoline
Household Blow (used to buy things like winterizing items, lawn and household needs or adding to stockpile)
Personal Blow (used for haircuts, clothes, school items or eating out)

**Thevail** · 10-08-2009, 07:50 PM

I sewed a bunch of little drawstring bags (great use for tiny leftover scraps) that the money goes into. A different color for each purpose, and then made a bigger fold-over sort of wallet that they all fit into for my mom one year.

Since I don't use the envelope system, I just made 6 different colored bags. She says it's working.

**littleplum** · 12-11-2009, 05:21 PM

I heard DR say a few days ago that when he started, they did EVERY category as an envelope category, but now they are down to a reasonable 4 categories.