Forget the Joneses Continues

Today is day 10 of our Forget the Joneses project participation as a family.

I love that we are teaching our children about the basics of money. We have spent a lot of time discussing our spending freeze with them. We've talked about only buying things that we need, focusing on our spending so that our family can meet goals, and prioritizing and really thinking about each thing we buy.

I think this does an amazing job of modeling how I want them to spend their own money. I'm sure that you, like me, have had those moments where kids make quick decisions with birthday money while you cringe. I know that the toy is junkie and will break.......probably before we even get home with it. I talk, and talk and talk about making good choices, wise spending....sometimes they hear me, other times not so much.

As part of this process we wrote a family mission statement, and are using that as a guide when making purchases. Xander educated most of the Athens Kroger on Tuesday as to the basics of a spending freeze as he simultaneously inspected EVERY item I put in my buggy. ("We're on a spending freeze - you can buy Lucky Charms but we can't - it's not on our list".......repeat.....every aisle)

We are also using our mission statement to guide our discipline, our time spent together as a family, and our goals for house projects.

Today, as a family, we made envelopes to organize our spending. We are going to be using the Dave Ramsey cash only approach this calendar year.

The basic plan is that you pay all your bills, and then withdraw the amount of money you have budgeted for spending - in cash.

You divide the cash out into envelopes - we have groceries (week one and week two), gas, family fun, and date night.

For other expenses that we are saving for - car oil changes, tags, insurance, etc. - I am transferring those balances directly into savings so that we never "see" those funds.

I find myself much more careful in the Kroger when I know that I only have cash to pay at the checkout!

For the kids, they will have three envelopes - save, spend, and give. They will begin to give of their own money at church (which I guess technically is still our money....).

Thanks to my friend for sharing this great site with me that taught me how to make these fabulous envelopes today!

Mikaela's three envelopes - give, save, spendMikaela's envelopes bounded together

Xander's three envelopes - spend, save, give

Family envelopes - groceries, gas, family fun, date night

envelopes bound together - aren't they going to be cute in my checkbook holder?