The Envelope.

I just did a little simple math. I added up how many books I've read since January 1, 2010.

135.

That seems like a pretty big number to me. Until I realize I wanted to read 100 books in just one of those years. Anyways, that little bit of math leads me into a subject I wanted to talk about....

Budgeting.

I really believe that is one of the ugliest words in the English language. It is simply a word that can not be made to sound sexy... even with a British accent. The act of budgeting is even more off-putting, it is restrictive, judgmental, and really depressing. What it comes down to is that budgeting is no fun. In a perfect world it just wouldn't need to happen. Alas, I live in an imperfect world. So budgeting is a necessary reality. My problem is that I'm not very good at it. Right now my method goes a little something like this:

I don't spend more money than I make, I pay all my credit cards off every month, I pay all my bills, and I don't ALWAYS buy everything that I see and want to buy (despite what it may seem like).

I would say that isn't the worst ever budgeting plan..... I'm not in debt and some months there is money left over that I do save. But! I'm reckless with my cash. If I want to go out to eat or grab a coffee, I do. I don't consider in that moment what a good idea it would be to save the $22 instead of eating it..... What if I didn't spend that $22 dollars once every month? Maybe that could be a plane ticket at the end of the year. Anyways, it would be nice if I was working hard now for the future rather than just the present.

I've tried budgets before and always fail, usually on the first day. It is easy to think something will work when you are sitting at your desk looking at a bunch of numbers then when you are walking down the aisles of your local grocery store.

Today on PINTEREST I found a PIN with a budget plan that seemed completely doable for me. She calls it her "Easy Envelope Budget Technique."

Watch the video, it explains everything really well.

The video also opened my eyes to something else... This woman only spends $400 dollars a month on  groceries for her family of four. She says that the national average spent on groceries per month is $400. I can't believe my eyes or my ears!! In all the FAILED attempts at budgeting I've FAILED to meet my grocery budget of $300 dollars for JUST ME! No joke. I'm kind of embarrassed to be honest. To make myself feel a little bit better I will say that Brian does help eat some of the food I buy.... but wow! If that didn't make me think twice about my un-budgeting ways, I don't know what will.

I'm going to let you read her post about how it all works and attempt to make the Envelope Technique work for me. While I don't know that I could live off of ONLY 100 dollars in groceries (including toiletries etc) a month.... I can definitely try to cut back a lot.

$100 a month isn't doable at this point so I googled it and found a neat little page from the USDA. If I am reading this correctly then I was definitely on a liberal plan and as a single 19-50 year old women I was pretty normal. I'm not sure I could manage thrifty.... but I would like to aim for the low-cost model... around $200 a month in groceries. This might seem really high, but it is SO easy for me to go into the grocery store and drop $35 dollars on just a few items.... and sometimes $100 when I'm making a bigger trip that includes quality produce and meat.

So, starting Friday February 1, 2013 My monthly budget for groceries will be $200 and my budget for other things like eating out, haircuts, manicures, gifts, and other essentials will be $150. Monthly bills and gas are already set aside (that reminds me to turn down my heat).

The bottom line here is I need to be more conscious of where my money is going and maybe make some hard decisions every now and then.

Words of encouragement are always welcome :)