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1711 sharesLet’s be honest: sticking to budget is tough. Especially in the world of online shopping and credit cards.
But sticking to a budget gets a whole lot easier when using cash envelope templates and the cash envelope system.
And in this post, I’ll go over what the cash envelope system is and give you over 15 free printable cash envelope template pdfs that you can download right now.
Which means in just a few minutes, you could be well on your way to financial peace and freedom by setting up your own cash envelope system.
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While popularized by Dave Ramsey, the cash envelope system has been around since there were both cash and envelopes.
It’s a simple cash-based system that makes it easier to spend less, stick to a budget, and take control of your finances.
Instead of making purchases with a debit or credit card, you use cash for all variable expenses that you run the risk of overspending.
For example, groceries, eating out, clothes, shoes, entertainment etc.
While fixed expenses (like rent/mortgage, car payment, Netflix, phone bill etc.) come directly out of your account, you use cash for other expenses.
Here’s how you figure out how much cash to put in each envelope:
Step 1: Calculate Current Spending
To figure out how much to budget for each category, you’ve got to actually know what you’re currently spending. Which means calculating current expenses.
Dive into your online bank account and check out out the breadown of expenses to get an idea of your spending over the last year.
Step 2: Create Budget
Then, with that knowledge on hand, you’ll create your monthly budget. Or rather, decide how much you’ll spend maximum in each variable expense category.
Make sure that the sum of all expenses does not exceed the total income for the month.
For more details on creating a monthly budget, check out How to Create a Monthly Budget. You can even grab the free budgeting printables.
Step 3: Make Cash envelopes for each category
Next, make a different cash envelope for each variable category you’ll pay with cash. Note that not ALL variable categories make sense to have a cash envelope.
Fore example, utilities (electric, water, gas, garbage) may vary but as they are generally paid online, it wouldn’t make sense to use a cash envelope.
So which categories will you want to make a cash envelope for? Basically, you’ll want an envelope for all variable expenses in your budget in which you could reasonably pay cash.
While these may be slightly different for everyone, here’s some basic cash envelope categories to consider:
I highly recommend having both a Miscellaneous and Emergency envelope. Miscellaneous covers those little random things that rarely come up (like stamps).
While the emergency envelope covers when a true emergency pops up and you don’t want to dip into savings or use a credit card. I recommend squirreling away a bit each month for each.
However, if you find that you’re constantly dipping into both the miscellaneous and emergency fund, that’s a sign you need to revisit your budget or re-evaluate your spending.
(For how to use a cash envelope for online purchases, check out the tips section near the end of this post.)
Now for the fun part! Let’s dive into all these free (and fabulous) cash envelope template printables so you can reduce spending and stick to your budget.
These are super cute and simple cash envelopes that make for great basic starter set. Some even include cute quotes.
Note: downloading requires signing up via email.
This template has no pattern or color. It’s simply a basic vertical cash envelope that can be printed on colored, patterned, or white paper.
This instant download includes 6 cute and colorful floral cash envelopes. Fun and feminine! You can get the floral cash envelopes here.
I seriously LOVE these templates from Mommy Over Work. They’re really cute, have trackers on the envelope itself, and come in 5 designs.
Plus, you can download instantly (no sign up required).
This instant download (no sign up required) comes with 4 colorful cash envelopes to add to your collections.
My Frugal Home has both a cute simple horizontal cash envelope design AND a vertical template, Great for printing on patterned paper.
Here’s another vertical template I’ve created. Comes in 3 different colors and is simple yet fun and modern.
These are cute, colorful and come in both horizontal and vertical styles. Note that downloading requires signing up via email.
While some cash envelop template have a built-in tracker, many don’t. And so if you want to track your spending, you’ll want a cash envelope tracker printable to insert into your envelope.
The following are free printable tracker inserts for your cash envelopes
This simple cash envelope tracker can insert into any cash envelope to track your spending.
Here are a few tips to help you be successful in using the cash envelope system.
To make your cash envelopes last a long time, I recommend printing on cardstock. It makes a big difference in durability since they’ll be in an out of a wallet/purse.
Like a lot of people, when we first started using the cash envelope system, we didn’t have enough cash on hand to put the monthly budgeted amount for each category in the cash envelopes.
So we used the budget by paycheck method with our cash envelopes.
So instead of putting the entire monthly amount of cash in each envelope, we’d put in cash based on the paycheck. Since we get paid bi-weekly (which means 2 paychecks most months), we take our monthly budgeted amount for each category and divide it in half.
And that’s the amount per paycheck.
With the ease of online shopping, it’s pretty realistic to assume that some of your purchases will be online. So how does this work with the cash envelope system?
First, make a cash envelope for online purchases. When you make a purchase online, put the cash in your online purchases envelope and treat it like money in your bank account.
You can then do one of the following:
One of the biggest obstacles to using cash envelopes are when you go to a store like Target and find yourself picking up groceries, shoes for your kid, birthday party supplies, and makeup.
Well, the key to success with the cash envelope system is to stick to it. Otherwise, things get fuzzy and you don’t reach your financial goals.
So I recommend going through the self checkout line (so no one behind you can feel like you’re holding up the line) and making separate purchases by category.
It take a minute to get the hang of it at first, but once you’ve got it down, you can do it pretty quickly.
And it’s worth it to stick you goals!
Budgeting your Christmas expenses across the entire year is a great way to get to the end of the year without wracking up credit cards.
When budgeting, calculate Christmas expenses and divide by 12. Then put that amount in your Christmas Cash envelope each month.
That way, once November/December rolls around, you’ve got a the cash to buy gifts without using credit cards or overspending.
After you set your budget, you’re ready to get started with the cash envelope system and use your cute new cash envelope template printables.
Make sure you have an envelope for each category and most importantly, stick to your plan. When the money’s gone, stop spending. Keep going when you mess up.
Are you serious about creating and sticking to a budget? Then check out…
Make it easy to take charge of your finances with the Master Your Money Budgeting Bundle. It has everything you need to create a monthly budget and track your spending & debt.
And best yet, the PDFs are fillable and calculate automatically. Meaning you don’t have to be good at math to organizer your finances and crush your goals.
Hi we are really wanting to get going with this whole budgeting thing.and starting using the cash envelopes system. And we have just got so many plans. This year and I’m really going to need your help and advice on where to start first with our finances. And get current with things. And start budgeting and then start getting some savings challenges going on.and then start getting things sorted out where by we eventually start elevating the debt cycle and start saying good bye to debt. Once and for all. As it’s no way to live. And it’s long over due.and now’s the time to do it. And as soon as possible.as debt steals from you every month. And also steal’s from your future.and it’s really about learning how to budgeting your finances/money properly. And learn how to do the debt snowball system/method.and learning how to be a very good steward with more and the money that god give’s you. As if you can’t really manage on what you have coming in now. God really look’s at if you ain’t really managing his money well now and it’s only a small amount of money then he’ll know if he gives larger amounts. Then that’s not really going to be managed well. So it’s about the learning process. With being a very good steward with money and god’s money. And learning how to budget. From each pay check. Instead of just existing from debt and just living pay check to pay check. As this is no way to live. And what we are really looking forward to doing is each paycheck is to pay all of the bills and pay some debt off. And start budgeting in such a way that we want to build up some money so we can then go and get paying off our debt. That’s what our main plan is for this year and would like some hints and tips on how to do it. And start budgeting process properly and then properly learn how to use the cash envelopes system properly to.as we don’t want to start getting this wrong. And not do it right.so we just wondered if you could be so kind as to give us a few hints and tips on how to do this please and what to do please. As we’re both just starting off at the moment and really want your advice please as we would really appreciate it thank you take care bye.
Thanks for all the tips & tricks 👍I love the idea of self check out and breaking down your cart into each envelope! That has been a huge issue for me, how to separate categories.
