Checking

We're moving our checking over to one that allows us to pull out all our 'envelope' (food, fuel, entertainment, household, medical, etc) money from the ATM since our local credit union has a daily limit that is kind of annoying. We're using USAA, where we also have all our insurances through, and have one credit card that has the lowest rate/highest balance so is last in our debt snowball to be paid off. They're great, they have the lowest rate for car insurance that I've found. I don't think their life insurance rates are the best, it sounds like Zander Insurance that Dave Ramsey supports would be cheaper, but hubby was none too happy about the whole 'physical' thing and I don't think he'll consent to go through it again. I suppose I could change mine, maybe I should call and see if it would really be that much cheaper. We have 100K on me, I stay home, 15 year term, and 250 on him, 30 year term.

I'm glad that I can get life insurance on myself. We chose 15 years because it's cheaper, and if needed I can renew it then. And also, likely if it was a real emergency (ya know, I think it would be if I DIED) my now toddler should be able to step up and 'do' most of what I do in 15 years. I'm not able to get disability insurance on myself, which is something I looked into because if I become permanently or long-term disabled, someone is going to have to take care of the kids. But they only cover loss of income for disability. Hubby does construction, and I'm pretty sure disability insurance is way out of our price range for him.

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Switching banks

With our envelope system, we end up withdrawing an awful lot of cash (for me, at least). Honestly, I feel like a drug dealer asking for all these specific denominations (this many 50s, this many 20s, this many 10s, this many 5s...) though the bank teller assures me that it's not abnormal. We do that so they split into the envelopes easily; ie 75 to Clothing, 300 to groceries but I don't want 100s, 250 to fuel but 20s are easiest to deal with there.

Anyway, with our local credit union I have a limit on our ATM with drawls; 200/day. Which would be fine, but I like to do all our envelopes in one day and I have a pretty strong aversion to unloading the kids just to walk in the bank. And I don't like going through the drive through, it seems to take quite a while. So I called our bank that we get insurance through, USAA, and switched our checking over to them. Seriously, now they own our life. We have life insurance, renter's insurance, car insurance, a (closed) credit card, and now our checking through them. But we can withdraw 1000 a day and they reimburse the atm fees for using other bank's atms. And we can call ahead and get the w/d limit raised if we're doing something like pulling out cash to buy a car.

We have to mail in our checks, but since we're not cutting it so close any more, the 3-4 day wait time for the deposit is fine with us. Honestly we end up holding on to our checks for 3-4 days anyway before we actually make it down to the bank.

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Envelopes as money saving tools

I first heard about envelopes from my mom and dad, they had used them when my mom stayed home to raise us kids. Since we've been doing Dave Ramsey, we've been using them too. The thing that we've figured out is that we have to budget realistically, rather than ideally. In reality, hubby needs new work boots once a year, 2 new pairs of carhartts, and I need clothes once in a while, not to mention the kids. We were trying to get by with $40/month for all clothing but that just plain didn't add up. For a $120 pair of work boots, there was 1/4 of the years's budgeting allowance.

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Budgeting and shopping

Since we're doing 'the envelope system' (the old fashioned tried and true method where you keep your grocery, clothing, etc money in plain envelopes to physically limit your spending) shopping yesterday was good. It's good to watch the envelope get thinner :) One thing that I forgot, though, was to bring the clothing and Tracphone envelopes, both of which I needed. I did have money in checking, though, and my ATM card, so I used the debit card and kept the receipt. Then I have an envelope at home that's 'checking' that I re-imbursed with the designated money; 10 from the phone envelope for a new phone, and 65 for the socks, insoles, PJs and kid's shoes that I bought. Not ideal, but my best solution for forgetting envelopes ;)

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