Personal Finance Blog | Money Management Blog | Financial Help

It amazes me how money touches almost every single part of our lives. If your finances are in disarray, it can affect the way you feel, act and think in a negative way. On the opposite spectrum, if your finances are in order and you have control over your money, it can impact you in a positive way. You feel like you can accomplish anything and that everything is swinging your way. I have mentioned before that my four-year-old daughter has been catching on to the way we handle money now and this, too, has affected her positively. I love it!

The other day we were driving home from Grandma’s and she started saying that she was hungry and that she wanted to go to McDonald’s for dinner. We set aside money each month for eating out, so normally this would have been fine. This month, however, we had unfortunately already depleted that envelope. What happened next was completely unexpected! We started to tell her that we didn’t need to go to McDonald’s because we were just going to make dinner when we got home. She quickly returned an answer and began the debate with us as to why she wanted, needed and deserved dinner from McDonald’s. Pretty much out of desperation, I decided to throw into the conversation the real excuse of how it wasn’t in the budget, completely thinking this logic wouldn’t phase her at all. But to our surprise she took the “grownup” excuse very well and simply said, “Oh, okay.” That was it. End of conversation and argument. My wife and I looked at each other, completely surprised. I mouthed, “wow,” and she just shrugged her shoulders. The rest of the drive home was great, to say the least! And that dinner was one of the best we’ve had in a long time. Once again, we owe it all to our trusty envelope budget!

Kristopher Higley, Designer

I’m the proud mom of two kids: an adorable 19 month old daughter, Arwen, and a mature-for-his-age six year old, Callin. And without going into too much detail, I think it’s appropriate to preface my blog entry with a little bit of personal history.

Before joining Finicity, my life was a rollercoaster (financial and otherwise). I went through some tough times as a single mother trying to make ends meet during my pregnancy, and my poor spending habits did not help at all. Fortunately, everything worked out and I now have a great job and am able to provide for my two wonderful kids.

Well, my son Callin is extremely intelligent and comprehends so much that it often surprises everyone. Recently we went shopping and I had a little extra saved in my “kids misc.” envelope, so I decided to buy each kid a toy. We went to Toys R Us and Arwen fell in love with a baby doll that was $20. Whenever possible I try to spend equal amounts on my kids because it just seems more fair to do that. So, I checked my envelope balance using Finicity’s mobile capability and I had enough in there to spend $20 on each of my kids. Ok cool. I informed Callin that he could get something up to $20. Well, there was a REALLY COOL Batman set (exclusive to Toys R Us) that featured Catwoman, Mr. Freeze, Penguin, Robin and Batman - the whole nine yards! Callin wanted it, and I wanted to get it for him (I mean, I wanted the Catwoman figure for my own collection!). But then I saw the price - $49.95. Ouch! So I tried to figure out whether I could take the money from somewhere else to cover the expense and still make both kids happy.

Looking through my various envelopes in the store, it turned out that I just couldn’t make it work without slaughtering my budget. Reluctantly, I had to tell Callin that I was sorry, but I just couldn’t get the Batman set at that time. To my astonishment, my six year old son replied: “Ok Mommy. You’re doing a good job saving your money. I’ll find something that’s not so much. You should NOT spend too much money.” and he walked off to find something, kinda laughing on his way.

After recovering from the shock of hearing that from my son (who wasn’t even pouting or angry about it), I realized how cool it was to hear him say that, because that means he is understanding that money isn’t free, and that you need to work hard and manage wisely what money you do have. He understands that he can’t get a toy every time we get some money, and that sometimes we have to go without the things we really want. I was SO touched to receive such an insight from someone so young, and yeah, I’m pretty much the luckiest mom in the world!

Cassondra Baker, Customer Support Operations