In honor of Spring Cleaning, I thought I would tie up the loose ends about our envelope system/grocery budget post.   We have been using the Grocery Envelope for about 6 months and I have to say … I love it!

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I cannot  believe I fought the change for so long.  It has made me be more diligent with my couponing and sale shopping.  We have stayed under budget for some of these weeks as well.  This was nice when I was able to use that extra on a special week, like when shopping for our anniversary trip — you can bet I splurged on snacks at Trader Joe’s!

This change made our budget much better, as a whole.  Now there is no accidental $200 overdraw from the grocery fund.  We get what we get and that is all we can use.  This has led us to stay under budget in other areas as well and spend less than what we make.  We also sit down weekly to discuss our bills and finances.  These meetings used to end with my tears, but that is not the case anymore.  I mean, I still get touchy, but we are working better as a team.  We sit down and discuss what bills need to be paid in the next week and pay them together.  This means the stress of bill paying is not on just one of us.  These meetings also make us both feel like we have a handle on our finances.  Neither of us is clueless and neither of us is stressed out.  It does get tense, but as I said before, it’s getting much better.   Plus, I realized I can light candles all around the bathroom and end the meeting with a book, a glass of wine, and a hot bath!

Have any of you started using the envelope system?  Has it changed your life as well?  Share your budgeting sucesses (or not-so-successes) in the comments!