Financial Self-Control

I have another resource for you! :) I think I have finally- on about the 3rd try- gotten Mvelopes set up and running and working for me! Mvelopes is an online program that takes the concept of using cash envelopes for family budgeting and brings it into the 21st century where it's all about plastic- be it debit or credit. In this program- which is reasonably priced at $10/mo.- you are able to see ALL your spending-be it checking account, credit cards, whatever (ok- if you pay cash, they can't track that- but who uses cash anymore?!?!). Each day- you have a list of transactions and you drag them to the appropriate "envelope"- for example- I bought a gift on Amazon for $15. I have an envelope that says gift- and we've budgeted a certain amount for gifts each month. When this transaction shows up on my list- I drag it to the gifts envelope. Now I paid with my credit card (because I earn 3 points for every dollar spent on Amazon!) and the program sees this and keeps track of how much I owe the credit card and where in my budget that money came from. It subtracts the $15 from the Gifts envelope and moves it to the "Pay to the Credit Card" envelope. Brilliant!

The ONLY drawback to the whole scenario is... you have to actually log in and assign the transactions every day- or every other day- or at the very least once a week! Otherwise, it looks just like another bank statement and is too overwhelming- nor do you remember what you bought at Amazon, why, and with what money you intended to pay for it! (been there, done that!) But, this time- I'm really making a go at it!

Here's my tip for remembering to log in and assign my transactions- I set my homepage to Mvelopes. And when I get online each day- there's just one or two transactions- not overwhelming in the slightest- and- as I make purchases now, I'm thinking "what envelope is this going to come out of?" - and it is inhibiting my spending with reality. This is a good thing :)

Try it out at www.mvelopes.com. Let me know how much debt it saves YOU from going into! :)
Blessings!
Katherine