There Will Be Disputes about the Envelopes

 This week I wanted so bad to eat at Panera. I was really sick last Tuesday and I was talking to Shane about whether or not it was ok to use money from the Entertainment Envelope to eat at Panera because we were at ZERO dollars in our restaurant envelope. He said NO. I was like, “but I’m really sick and it would make me feel better.” He said NO. I tried again, “But there’s only one more weekend left in the month and we’re not doing anything expensive so I know there will be money leftover in the envelope.” He said NO. Then I do what my 4 year old niece did when she was 2. I put on a face of painful desperation and whined “PLEASE” When Shane said No again I said please right after that and again and again. I lost that battle but I understand why Shane was holding his ground and I knew he was right. We had spent all that there was in the restaurant envelope, and we’re not going to be successful if we give into any temptation we have. This little tantrum took place Tuesday and Shane knew that I was going to Panera on Saturday with the women from church so that’s another reason why he didn’t cave in.
I didn't do very well with the envelopes toward the end of the month. We went $17.71 dollars negative in the Groceries, and 6.33 dollars negative in the Blow Money Envelope. We had $41.84 dollars to spare in the Gas Envelope, and $56.02 in the Entertainment Envelope. Last night when we looked over all our envelopes we decided for the next month that we are going to have to add more to Restaurants and Groceries, less in Entertainment, less in toiletries, less in Gas, and add a new envelope called Personal Envelopes.         
Now this new idea is Shane's. He wants for each of us to have our own $20.00 to spend on anything guilt free. He is going to use that to save up for his video games, occasionally buy lunch at Subway or I could use it to get my nails done. As he was explaining this new concept I said..."But that's what the blow envelope is for, and that's what the restaurant envelope is for, or Entertainment." Then his logic was, our envelopes are for our family and video games are not entertainment for the whole family nor is going to the nail salon. We're going to try it. If this new envelope works out we will keep it. I still think it's considered Blow Money and maybe we can just say that the Blow Envelope should be split in half for each of us to do as we please with our own half of the money.
Dave guarantees that there's going to be fights when you first do the budget together and create your envelope system. When we didn't agree on certain details we began to bicker, and started speaking forcefully trying to push the words out through clenched teeth. One would say, "you're not on the same page as me," while the other would get frustrated because their logic was misunderstood.  Getting this envelope system straight was pretty tough on us. Luckily,our meeting didn't turn into a serious fight when we didn't see eye to eye because we're not stubborn with each other or too proud to say sorry. We had to be patient and realize that after one is done giving their suggestions then the other can layout ideas too. In the end we got every one of our concerns taken care of and we ended our heated discussion on a good note because we went to bed cuddling.