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how to start

ALL you need to start is an envelope and some money. That’s it, babe. You can do this.

If you want to get fancy… I have so many ideas for making envelopes fun. There is literally nothing more fun than whipping out a dollar bill from a fancy pants envelope that you made, yourself, just like that. Well, ok there are maybe more fun things in the world, but this is really fun.

It is also very satisfying to use a plain white envelope for your cash. I’ll show you how to do that too!

Here are some options for you. I’ll even show you how to measure and make custom envelopes out of things you likely already have in your home… things such as…

scrapbook paper
wrapping paper
plain white envelopes
magazine pages
newspaper pages
brown paper bags

Here are the supplies you need to make your own customized envelopes. You can use any denomination of bill.

And… here we go! Here is how to measure your paper for a custom cash envelope:

Just find a flat surface, and start measuring & cutting. It does not need to be perfect.

You can color coordinate scrap book paper to your wallet. That’s darn fancy, folks.
look here. If you are lucky enough to live near a Hobby Lobby, that’s where I found this particular pattern. There are so many patterns & styles. It was super hard to decide on a pattern, but I finally decided to do something a little different from my usual style, and went all fancy pants. And I love it!!!!

I did find the large size version of this (it’s 12″ by 12″) on amazon, here. I love that yellow. I keep seeing people wearing it… it must be a 2019 color. hip you know, relevant? trendy? anyone?

Here is another color scheme… this might be my favorite… I haven’t decided yet. It’s almost a peach. Fun fact… I grew up in the peach capital of my state… yet… I’m allergic to peaches… what does that mean?????

You can even use a $100 bill to measure. Just throwing that out there.
Hi Benjamin!

Here is some scrapbook paper I had laying around the house. Quite often, you can buy scrapbook paper for super cheap. Magazine pages, newsprint, paper bags, wrapping paper…. all make great cash envelopes too.

You can customize your envelopes by making your own with scrapbook paper. All you need is some tape, a pen and a ruler. Cut out the rectangles to be 6 1/2″ by 3″ to fit dollars perfectly. (I don’t know about other currency, but my tip is to measure it and then add 1/2″ or about 10mm total).

see? so pretty.

This is the incredible fast track way to start yourself on an envelope system. All you need is an envelope. And a pen. This is what I have in my wallet at this very very minute. I think this year I’m going to mix it up, and use the plain white vanilla envelopes for groceries, and my pretty envelopes for the other categories. What do you think?

This is last year’s IKEA Christmas paper. Any wrapping paper will do.. it does’t even have to be super thick. Any wrapping paper will work. Paper bags all work. Actually, I think brown paper lunch bags would make super cute envelopes. If I had any, I’d make some & show you! Might be worth a trip to a recycling bin to find some paper bags, a newspaper (that would be super cute… definitely want to try that… but we don’t get the newspaper.. because I, like Squidworth, am allergic to newsprint..).

eye candy…..

eye candy….

more eye candy…..

One advantage of using the plain envelope system is that you can write on it & store your receipts for further reflection or just showing off. You can also clip them together with a big clip, and then store them in a pretty box. I’ll tell you a little something about receipts though… I’m talking about receipts that you (translate..ME) keep for years as trophies… they actually fade over time! It’s like they are made with disappearing ink. What the heck! So if you have a receipt you are particularly proud of, take a picture, it’ll last longer.

This was in my wallet until about 5 minutes ago.
How organized is that!!!

These are the wallets I used for the above pictures. I bought them from Francesca’s… on a super sale. There are also some neat options on amazon, like this for a bifold wallet, and this or this.

Look at this bounty of leftover scrap paper! Bookmarks for ever. A pretty paper chain? Pinterest fodder for sure.

You can store your envelopes in a box.
This is how 52 plain white envelopes would look in a box.
You can label the envelopes, so each week they are ready & waiting for you.
Use dollar tree clips and stickers to organize the months.
Cool thing is that you can keep all your receipts in each envelope.

Here are some helpful links for you: