I know this will be one of many posts I will do concerning the envelope method of budgeting your money. I will try to describe it briefly and then how it relates to what I am doing with gift cards.
The envelope method of budgeting deals with getting those plain envelopes that you can get in any store and using them to budget your money. I like to mark on the fronts of the envelopes what each one was for - groceries, gas, rent, etc. I have used this method before for budgeting money and found that it worked pretty good for me. I am sure that there are others out there who use this method and absolutely LOVE it and would not change for the world. As of right now, I am not using it. My pay is twice a month and I have it set up that I can pay the major bills at the different pay times.
But there are the other small items I must budget for - gas and food/groceries. I have yet to get back into the groove of doing the envelopes as I am trying something new to help with the budget. At least it seems to almost be working with the gas for the truck I drive. If I use the truck to go back and forth to work only during the week and to church on Sunday, I can fill up my gas tank once a week. When I get my paycheck I will make sure I fill up my tank Sunday evening before having to go to work on Monday and also while I am at the gas station, I will put money on this particular store's gift card. This way, I already have money waiting for the specific purpose of gas. What money I do not use for gas stays on the card and gets carried over or I may use it for lunch one day. Lunch at a gas station? Yes, lunch at a gas station. I use a store in the area I live called Wawa for my gas. If you are not familiar with Wawa, I will post a link to their website at the end of the post. Click on the link to check out their site!! Wawa has a deli where you can order sandwiches, soups, side items and they try different things to see how they sell in the store. I remember that one time they did crab cakes and even had salads. You can get your sandwiches on hoagie rolls or sandwich bread. If you want them toasted, you got it!!
Okay!! Back to the gift card budgeting!! I really love Wawa as they have lots of stuff and could go on all day but I must restrain myself. I know that you can get the Wawa gift card and put different amounts on it. I keep enough for a tank of gas. This way, I always have gas money for me and I will not forget to budget for a second tank between pay days. I can reload it for different amounts and it can be used over and over again.
I have started wondering if this can be done for other stores? Maybe I could put grocery money on a certain big box store card and have my grocery money for the different times I am paid for the month. I know doing this for gas has helped me out a lot. It is based on the same idea as putting the money in the envelopes but the money is with me when I need it. No planned trips out or having to go home to get the money and then praying while I drive to the gas station that I make it there to get gas. No more scraping together to get the money for gas because I got hungry and went to get some food with the gas money. I have made sure that when I see the card in my wallet I only think of it for gas. I have been doing this for about a month or two now and it is working. The only down side is that if there is any left over money, I cannot get it off the card to use somewhere else. That is one thing to consider before trying out using a gift card as a budget tool. It has gotten easier to do after getting paid and I hope it stays that way.
Now, I will just have to figure out how to start definitely doing a better job at budgeting for other things. One step at a time right?
The Wawa website: http://www.wawa.com/WawaWeb/
Jennifer
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