Oh, Dave Ramsey!

It is no secret that our family loves Dave Ramsey… we just call him Dave around here like an old friend/uncle.  We have been living by his principles and the principles about money from God’s Word for several years now, and it has made A HUGE difference in our finances.  We were not in tremendous debt and we didn’t have gobs and gobs of credit card debt, but we were not really saving either.  We were not budgeting so that we were able to go to Florida for vacation or get that present for some one who was getting married.  We were just living month to month without planning…. we were not telling our money where to go!  We were paying our bills and our tithe, but not a lot else. That needed to change and now were are excited to be crossing baby steps off the list and helping others by encouraging them to take Financial Peace…. or counseling them using the principles from that program!

BUT, DAVE RAMSEY, I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH YOUR SYSTEM!  YOUR ENVELOPE SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE LAMINATED SO THEY WILL LAST!!  IT IS NOT A GOOD INVESTMENT TO KEEP BUYING THEM!!!  I carry several envelopes from Dave’s system with me at all times and I use them on every purchase that I make since we are a basically cash only family.  BUT the envelopes that he has in his system are flimsy and don’t last.  I have been through a few sets of them and have even taped them and re-taped them as needed.  This last set that I got I taped them before I even put my money in them hoping that they would last longer!

I HAD TO DO SOMETHING!!!

After thinking about the envelopes and checking out what other people had made on Pinterest, I decided to try it for myself with a few changes.   I used an extra envelop as a guide, tore it apart, traced its shape onto cute paper and then cut it out.  I also printed out labels for each envelope for the front and the back and glued them into place. Then I laminated that paper and cut it out.

Then I took the pages and folded them to make the envelopes.  I decided to secure them together with packaging tape instead of glue like some of the other girls I read about did.  I think this will make them really sturdy!  The toughest part was finding a way to get them to stay in the same spiral-bound set that they came in.  I had to do a lot of hole-punching but they are adorable!  I think I will have to investigate a new way to do it if I make more some day….maybe with string?!

I think they turned out  SO CUTE!!  I may have to send this picture to Uncle Dave to encourage him to get better envelopes!