After getting rid of the credit cards and a medical bill, dh's income just barely reaches our expenses. But enough so that we are going back on Dave Ramsey's envelope system. Since dh never spends money, or uses his atm or debit card, this works pretty good for us in the past. The first paycheck of the month and part of the second payweek goes to filling the envelope, Gas-Grocery-Household-Livestock-Dining-Misc.Personal Cash. These 6 categories we can usually pay cash for. All the other monthly expenses we typically write checks for.

Here's hoping going back to cash envelopes reins in our overspending.

 Good luck! I write checks for almost everything, so when I tried the envelope method, I kept forgetting to bring the cash with me to the store or gas station. I know it works well for some, though. 

We are doing the opposite of the cash system. We are using debit cards for our shopping instead of the cash I had been using.

I find using the debit card actually easier to do the basic "envelope" concept with a Budget Map register and on Quicken. Separating cash into envelopes never worked well for us.

yeah, seperating is a pain. But it's psychological for us. Paying with a card vs real cash makes it less emotional to spend hard earned money. It's too much like a credit card.

Do you carry the budget map with you? Often I wouldn't know untl later how close to budget we were on something until it was too late. With cash it's easy to see when the well runs dry.

Cinnamonhuskies:

But it's psychological for us. Paying with a card vs real cash makes it less emotional to spend hard earned money

I don't spend any more with the card than cash.

But for us, it's a convenience issue. I am not doing the banking anymore and my husband doesn't like to have to take the cash out when he deposits his paycheck. He recently had that fiasco of loosing the grocery money he took out for me. It was found but it was very stressful and I'd ike to avoid that.

Cinnamonhuskies:

Do you carry the budget map with you?

A Budget Map registertakes the place of the standard one so yes it can be taken along just like the other kinds can.