DIY Envelope Money System Dividers

My husband and I are currently on Baby Step Number Two of becoming financially free. We have hit a few bumps trying to becoming pros at budgeting, but we are already seeing a great benefit to telling our money where to go vs. trying to figure out where it went!

We initially used mailing envelopes to keep our money in but from the picture below, you can tell how great that turned out!

My giant purse/bag doubles as a diaper bag, so I had everything crushed inside of it. My daughter's sippy cup actually leaked a little on this envelope. Change was also falling out of the envelopes and into the bag. It was a hot mess. 

I really (really, really, really) want a Savvycents wallet or a Dave Ramsey Wallet, but we just can't afford the splurge at the moment. I felt I had to do something though so we could feel organized.

I decided to make my own inserts for my wallet that I already have. 

I'm a high school teacher, so I do have lots of office supplies lying around the house. I decided to repurpose two folders that were from my oldest daughter's school year. I also used these stick on tabs that I got from Office Depot a few years ago. I've had my wallet for six years now; my husband gave it to me for our first Christmas. It's stayed in great condition throughout the years!

First I made a list of the divider labels I would be needing. I ended up adding two more categories for each of my daughters. When we budget we have so many more categories, but a lot of what we pay for is automatic or paid online, so they aren't needed to be pulled out in cash.

Next I got an estimated measurement of the size the dividers should be. 

I marked the measurements on the folder and cut it out. I did end up needing to cut a sliver both horizontally and vertically, so it could fit into the wallet. After the first divider fit perfectly, I cut the others by tracing the first one. 

After cutting out the dividers, I made labels for the categories. I do have a labeler because I purchased one for my classroom years ago. If I didn't have one, I would have just written on the dividers or the sticky tabs I used. 

At first, I wrote out the word for my first label, then realized I could save the use of my labeler by just using symbols for the rest. 

As mentioned before, I did end up adding two more categories for my daughters, but with theirs I didn't add the sticky tabs. 

I may go back and remove the sticky tabs for appearance reasons. So far, they are very helpful to see the division of the categories. They also are flexible, so they aren't getting ruined when I close my wallet. We've already made I first few purchases this week with my "new" dividers and I'm so happy! I feel more organized and less stressed about keeping track of envelopes. I am even more happy that we saved some money instead of buying a whole new wallet!