$pending Money, here I come!

We use a cash budget. (That means at the end of every month we divide up our income into a stack of envelopes, such as "Groceries" and "Car repairs".) So, on the first, we empty the leftover cash from all the envelopes and refill them with the next month's budget. We have always had money left in the envelopes at the end of the month (except 2 months out of the last 3 years.).

So far, we have never developed a consistent way of dealing with these wonderful "leftovers". For all practical purposes, they are gone with the wind.

This vanishing cash (to the tune of $100+ every month) has created an interesting phenomenon which follows: I have zero incentive to save cash. In my mind at the end of every month, whatever money I haven't spent will be taken away from me and wasted on something I don't know about.

The other thing is, I have no spending money. Our budget has been way too tight since we used all our savings up last December paying off student loans. So, I've been feeling exceptionally deprived. (Of course Royal advised me against using up all our savings, but I finally talked him into going with my over-achieving, overly-optimistic preference of just paying the debt and hoping we won't need savings for awhile.)

Now, I need an incentive to spend less, so I have come up with a plan! Royal should give me (and himself) a certain percentage of the leftover $$ for spending fun.

So, I present my plan to my attentive husband. And, he wisely sees that I have been somewhat starved for a little spending freedom. (I am sure I'm the only one who feels that pinch when you have to be pinching pennies...) So, he suggests that I use all the leftovers for awhile. Then, in a few months, when I'm feeling spoiled instead of pinched we can re-evaluate. WOW! I'm so excited! I've been saving money all week now! And my wish list is growing and growing and growing.

Royal is just simply the best.