Intro
I don't know about you but budgeting has always been a difficulty for me and my husband. We would enter every new budget scheme with enthusiasm but would eventually fail. So we decided to go with the envelopes of cash method. But quickly found it was still too easy to splurge with envelopes of cash with us. So we thought we could do the cash method with something more difficult to carry in a purse or wallet. Enter jars. Everyone has a jar or something full of change right? So why not apply jars for budgeting?
The System
We didn't do jars for everything; just for the things we often splurge on. As a hair stylist, I had to add a jar for hair products which most people probably don't need. We already went grocery shopping every Sunday and decided to make that our cash withdrawal day. Every week we pull $20 for date night/eating out, $20 for gifts, $80 for groceries, $40 for everything else 'other' and $10 of 'fun money' for each of us per week. This will just add up over time so sometimes we won't have a date night for a few weeks and then can splurge on an $80 date or buy steak if we have a few under budget grocery bills in a row. Tithe, rent, other consistent bills, and gas all still just come out of our checking account at their regular times. This will hopefully allow us to stick to our budget completely and continue to build up savings for the next phase of life.
The Project
This was a super simple and fun weekend project. We spent $0 on the entire thing :)
Step 1: Find Jars- We happened to have quite a few jars lying around but you can find jars pretty easily at any thrift store, dollar stores, and grocery stores. It wouldn't even need to be matching jars and could add to the art of the project if they were all different.
Step 2: Paint- Since these jars will be full of cash, we thought it best if they weren't clear. We happened to have some left-over latex paint from another project that we used and it worked well, but any kind of paint will work. Just put 6 or so spoonfuls of paint into the jar, roll it around so the paint covers the inside of the jar, pour out the excess, and allow to dry in a warm, dry place. If you have paint leftover from a bunch of projects, you could do several colors and make a super fun piece. This is also a fun thing to do with a boring glass vase.
Step 3: Label- We also had these cute label stickers so just made use of them. You could use chalk markers, permanent markers, or label stickers to do your jars. I've seen these used for herb gardens as well and it was oober cute.
Step 4: Display- We chose to hang ours but they would be super cute even just on a shelf. We used twine with a slip knot around the rim of the jar to be able to remove it easily. We also decided to hang it in our bedroom where we can have a reminder of our plan but without having jars of cash out for guests to see. And we put a reminder of what is truly important right there with them.
I don't know about you but budgeting has always been a difficulty for me and my husband. We would enter every new budget scheme with enthusiasm but would eventually fail. So we decided to go with the envelopes of cash method. But quickly found it was still too easy to splurge with envelopes of cash with us. So we thought we could do the cash method with something more difficult to carry in a purse or wallet. Enter jars. Everyone has a jar or something full of change right? So why not apply jars for budgeting?
The System
We didn't do jars for everything; just for the things we often splurge on. As a hair stylist, I had to add a jar for hair products which most people probably don't need. We already went grocery shopping every Sunday and decided to make that our cash withdrawal day. Every week we pull $20 for date night/eating out, $20 for gifts, $80 for groceries, $40 for everything else 'other' and $10 of 'fun money' for each of us per week. This will just add up over time so sometimes we won't have a date night for a few weeks and then can splurge on an $80 date or buy steak if we have a few under budget grocery bills in a row. Tithe, rent, other consistent bills, and gas all still just come out of our checking account at their regular times. This will hopefully allow us to stick to our budget completely and continue to build up savings for the next phase of life.
The Project
This was a super simple and fun weekend project. We spent $0 on the entire thing :)
Step 1: Find Jars- We happened to have quite a few jars lying around but you can find jars pretty easily at any thrift store, dollar stores, and grocery stores. It wouldn't even need to be matching jars and could add to the art of the project if they were all different.
Step 2: Paint- Since these jars will be full of cash, we thought it best if they weren't clear. We happened to have some left-over latex paint from another project that we used and it worked well, but any kind of paint will work. Just put 6 or so spoonfuls of paint into the jar, roll it around so the paint covers the inside of the jar, pour out the excess, and allow to dry in a warm, dry place. If you have paint leftover from a bunch of projects, you could do several colors and make a super fun piece. This is also a fun thing to do with a boring glass vase.
Step 3: Label- We also had these cute label stickers so just made use of them. You could use chalk markers, permanent markers, or label stickers to do your jars. I've seen these used for herb gardens as well and it was oober cute.
Step 4: Display- We chose to hang ours but they would be super cute even just on a shelf. We used twine with a slip knot around the rim of the jar to be able to remove it easily. We also decided to hang it in our bedroom where we can have a reminder of our plan but without having jars of cash out for guests to see. And we put a reminder of what is truly important right there with them.
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