Envelopes--Tuesday Tip

We have long been advocates of the envelope method of budgeting.

As you know, I am saving for my PhD, that is a little more than an envelope worth of money, however, the new kitchen door and security screen we want is going to cost us about $800 installed. Here is what we do...

We get an envelope and put a few dollars in it every week. Both of us contribute out of our personal spending money. When we get the money saved up, we buy our doors and hire our installer.

We never feel the pain of a large purchase such as that. Sometimes it takes us longer than other times, but we can always reach our goal.

Once we hired a surveyor for our property, he was going to charge us $600. He finished before we had the whole $600. I got out my envelope and told him that I would give him the $400 we had saved up and the other $200 on payday.

He laughed and said, "You have been saving up for this and you only have $400 in that envelope? I'll take that and call it even."

I love a bargain.