Anyone using Mvelopes?
I am a new subscriber to the Mvelopes website and I am just curious if other Budget Strechers are using it as well. So far so good, but I have not been able to apply the spending plan function. I do not have a money reserve so each paycheck gets manually divided to pay what I need to pay at the time the money comes in. We are living paycheck to paycheck and desperately want to break out.
Anyhow, I do have a general budgeting question:
In categorizing your expenses, how do you account for personal items you might buy like shampoo, razors, etc. Is this a grocery or do you create a sperate spending category for personal care items?
Houshold items - again - what is the best way to account for having to buy light bulbs, cleaning supplies, a new vacuum.
Small items like you mentioned would work well in your household expenses or your grocery budget. To try to categorize these would make your budget almost impossible to manage.
Create
I suggest you add a category for personal items. I have one. As for expenses for other things , you should budget for them and save so much each month to give you a total at the end of the year. Say 100.00 for a vaccum. At the end of the year if you didnt use it just save it or add it to your basic savings.
I also have a budget of 25 dollars a week in my household items budget for things like light bulbs, Toiler paper, cleaning things etc. Maybe that woudl work for you to.
Re: Create
I keep $30 in an envelope per month to pay for personal and household items. I always have money left. (DH works for a paper mill so we get free paper towels, TP, kleenex, napkins and wax paper) We try not to buy household and personal products at the grocery store. We watch for good sales at other stores and only buy the things we really need at the time.
Mvelopes
Lucky you using mvelopes. With the exchange rate from $US to New Zealand $$ it would work out pretty expensive for Kiwis to use the system. The cheapest option (the 2 year plan) is $278 to us instead of $189 to Americans, and if I pay monthly instead it is $19.37 NZ to equal the US $13.20. I wish some bright spark down here at the bottom of the world would come up with something as good!
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