New Cash Envelopes

A little money update! We recently added two new cash envelopes to our budgeting system, so now we have four cash envelopes.

(I actually told you last fall that we were considering them, and we have finally officially put them into practice.)

• Date night ($10/week): We don't get out on a date every week anymore, but I think in the back of our minds we are constantly evaluating if we need one. Are we feeling disconnected or off; is someone particularly stressed out; or was there an unnecessary, uncharacteristic blow-up? That is typically how we decide that we need to get away. And as the envelope grows we get antsy about getting out of the house just the two of us. If we have a date night once a month that is at least $40 we have to use (babysitter fees come out of this, too). We've got some awesome friends and parents, though, who have given us free babysitting. We've only had to pay for one babysitter so far. Our dates are a little different than they used to be, of course. We like to be home by 9:30 or so since Rooney wakes up at 6 a.m. We usually grab some food and maybe froyo, and always run a few errands on to our date, whether it's going to the bank, getting groceries or whatever. Last time we dropped Eric's bike off at Scheel's for a tune-up. Things like that. Tomorrow night our date is going to a free healthy eating class, and a gal from our life group has offered to watch Rooney for free.

• Toiletries ($10/week): This includes laundry detergent, personal and beauty products, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, etc. We don't need all these items each week, but it seems like we spend an average of $10/week on them. Having this money set aside in cash has definitely taken the pressure off when we need toilet paper and want to buy in bulk, or to not make us feel guilty when we need more lotion. There's no hassle of having to add it to the budget, because it's already accounted for.

We also use cash for all food and hair care purchases, which I talked about here.

Do you use cash to pay for certain purchases?