Earlier in the week I talked about the Envelope System and how it can save you money. I also mentioned in that post that I am not a cash type of person. My transactions are almost exclusively on plastic, whether that is debit or credit, or completely electronic when banking online.
In fact, the only cash transactions I seem to do at the moment are at the Sunday Market for my fruit and veg every Sunday morning. I realised that last Sunday I still had the $8 change in my wallet that I'd received the previous Sunday. No cash entered or left my wallet for a week.
The Envelope System Without Money
Instead, I have come up with an envelope system that you can use without money. It's not as accurate or as flexible but it'll do for my needs. It goes something like this.
Collect yourself a set of jars, containers or some other smallish holders. You need as many jars as you would envelopes i.e. as many jars as you have categories for your spending. I have a number of old empty spice jars which I am going to use.
The Bead System
Then get a number of counters, be it beads, tiddly-winks or any other kind of small item which you can use for counting. Each of these represents $1 each and it is these you will use instead of cash.
At the start of the month, if you're going to spend $250 on groceries each month, then you would count out $250 beads into that particular jar. Maybe you'll also count out $50 into the Entertainment jar. Trust me, this doesn't take as long as you think and it's only a once a month job. After a while, you'll probably get to know how far up the jar 250 beads go (or maybe if you had good scales, you could use them - yes, I jest).
Then, when you're entering your expenses into your accounting program at the end of the day, you can just take out the number of beads per dollars spent from the appropriate jars and put them in a special spent jar. Since you're keeping good track of your expenses, this is not much more overhead than having to remember envelopes each time you go out and buy something. It is also easier for those transactions which have expenses in two or more categories.
Rounding
When using this system, you should consider that those beads represent full dollars and that you can't actually split a bead up any more than it's whole. In which case, if you have an expense which ends in a fraction of a dollar, just round it up to the next dollar and shift those out to the spent jar. The reason to round up is so that you don't actually go over your budget.
Even though the system isn't wholly accurate, it doesn't matter. Hopefully you track all of your spending in an accounts package so this system is just for a general idea rather than for exact detail.
Advantages of Using the Bead System
The bead system is a very visual one, especially so if you have bright blue glass beads in clear jars. It also doesn't require you to either count cash or load up your accounts on the computer just as you're heading out to the shops.
Just a quick glance can tell you approximately how much you have left in any jar. It's very easy to mentally take note of what's left in your most important jars and after a while you'll know approximately how many beads it takes to quarter, half or fully fill each jar. Knowing at a glance when you go to the supermarket how much you have left in your groceries budget is very powerful.
I'm sure that there will be times when you completely forget how much is left in any jar but in reality, most of your spending wouldn't be big enough to go over by a huge amount, unless you were doing it on purpose. If you were going for your weekly shop at the end of the month, you'd be pretty likely to find out how much you have left in the grocery jar before you left, ie. only when it's important. If you ended up getting milk on the way home from work, then I suspect that's not big enough to worry about even if you did go over.
Finally, the last advantage of the bead system is that it works without actually having to store all your cash in envelopes for the most part of each month. Instead, that money would be sitting pretty in one of your accounts earning interest instead of just sitting there not working at all.
December is Trial Month
I shall be trialling this system in December and I'll let you know how it goes. I should be able to find any deficiencies in it and then change it to make it work better. Let me know if you spot any problems or have any suggestions.
Are you going to try the Bead System? Please share your experience with our readers by leaving a comment below.
2 comments:
It's a cool idea, but maybe for kids since they're into beads and visual things
But counting 250 beads would drive me bonkers LOL
I'd like to see it in action though
I would have to agree with Fabulously Broke. Although creative I don't have the time to count beads.
Great idea for my nieces and nephew to teach them about balancing funds.
ps to check out my blog.I recently started myself.
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