The Envelope Accounting System

Daniel & I have been working on our budget/accounting system the last few months.  We want to make it easy & efficient to stick with our budget & account for the money we spend.  Our latest idea that we are trying is the receipt envelope system.

We have spending categories in our budget (Groceries, fun, gas, eating out, etc.) For our new system, we created a coresponding envelope for each category.  As we buy things, we put the receipts in the correct envelope.  At the end of each week we can easily update our budget spread sheet with everything in the correct category.

This is  an accounting system more than a budget system, but it works for us.  It is up to us to not overspend, but our envelope system makes it easy to record our expenses each week. This has also solved our problem of what to do with all of our reciepts.  After they have been recorded, we throw them away (unless I am keeping them for a rebate).