Cash Envelopes

This might not be helpful because we don’t use that specific method, but what my FH and I have been doing for the past year in order to save for the wedding is this: we use the Mint app which we have linked together. And we have money “buckets”, so, money that isn’t free at all (rent, electricity, car insurance, textbooks for school, gas, etc). Then we have money we have to spend but can save on (for us, this is mainly groceries)- for this, we make a goal and if we go over, we have to both approve it and pull it from our joint savings, so we are really disincentivized from going over. And finally, we decide, based on how much we have left over how much we can spend on personal “fun” stuff like dates, everyday spending, etc. Then, we deposit everything else that isn’t in those categories directly into the joint savings account. We can both see if one of us withdraws, so we literally almost never pull from it once it goes in. This has been super effective for us and we managed to save up everything for our wedding (we are paying for it) and my medical school applications this year using this strategy! Hope this helped and good luck!!

We don't, but we use the everydollar.com website/app budgeting tool, and it has been awesome for us! It is a Dave Ramsey website, but we didn't do his program. We almost exclusively use credit cards, but we pay them off at the end of every month and never carry a balance.

In my personal finance class from college, we had a project where we were encouraged to try to envelope method (not required) and keep all of our receipts for that month. Then categorize what we spent so we had an idea of where our money was going so we could create a budget.

H and I just went through this process of creating a budget. We took down all of our monthly expenses and then printed off the last 4 months of credit card bills and sorts through them. We looked at restaurants (this is a big one for us), groceries, gas, household essentials, shopping, etc. After we created averages of each category, we decided what was realistic/comfortable to spend on a category so we could really buckle down on saving money. I like that the app/website is flexible and tracks savings over time.

I love this idea and I want to say I was relieved when I read your post all the way through as I honestly thought you were going to put envelopes out at your reception for guests to put cash into!!! LOL! Hey....some couples have no problem asking straight up for cash.....

Love the idea and good for you for bringing down that debt!

Advice? Eat in as much as you can when you are married. If you plan to have kids your money will be gone before you make it, lol!!

Hey Brooke! This sounds like a great idea! It's great that you are both being proactive about keeping your spending in check as your wedding gets closer!

I really hope that it works for you!! 😊