Creative Living

There are so many books about finance—personal and investing. I have a whole shelf in my personal library full of them and I have read most of them. They are good. I gain ideas.

But wisdom comes from Above.

That’s why I started using cash envelopes. I started on a day that the mail box had a bill in it. Not a letter from a friend, but a bill that I couldn’t pay and I could never remember when it would come due. A car registration and taxes due once a year.

We didn’t have the money to pay for that.

But we might in a year. No I don’t mean that I wouldn’t pay that one for a whole year. I paid that one, but I knew when it would come due again—in a year. If I planned and saved from the moment I opened the envelope until the next year, I would have the money saved by then.

Creative saving.

I started the system Cash Envelopes about then. A cash envelope for food, for entertainment (who doesn’t want to see a movie now and then?), fuel, water bill, eating out, and others.

I can’t tell you how much freedom this gives us. Yes, it takes a little work to set it all up. How much do you spend for food, for eating out? Then figuring out how much per envelope, per paycheck, per denomination that you need. (Check out my Shop at www.bonnielacy.com for Cash Envelopes: You’ve Never Had So Much Money.”)

But once you have it all set up and envelopes made and the system going, there is so much freedom! Such peace. Then as life changes, the envelopes can be just as fluid. When our son found the love of his life and a wedding was on the horizon, I created a cash envelope for Wedding. Yes, out of the same amount per paycheck. There are some weeks that I can skip an envelope or two so I can build up one like the Wedding envelope.

For example, I use vitamin supplements. But if there is already money in that one and I don’t need anything for a month or so, I skip that one and load the Wedding one.

As life changes, spending changes, and saving changes.

The creativity of this system is powerful.

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