My husband and I cannot seem to do a traditional budget system. It just doesn’t work for us. However, we have figured out a method that is working for us. Today, I am going to share that method with you. If you find you struggle with any and all kinds of budgeting, keep reading. This method takes a lot of the executive function out of the process.

A quick internet search tells me that what I am doing is called unbudgeting. Kind of like unschooling, this method is not the traditional method, but it still works. It requires no spread sheets, no pie charts and no tracking beyond checking to make sure you still have money before you go shopping.

Multiple Accounts

Our unbudget method relies on using separate accounts to keep track of our money. My husband and I have set up two checking accounts and a savings account that draws interest. Each paycheck is divided into those three accounts. Separating the money into these three piles helps us make sure we have money where and when we need it most.

Checking

Account number one is a checking account for regular bills and overflow bills. This account receives enough to cover all those regular bills like the power, water and cellphone. We try to put more in it than the minimum so that annual bills like our car tax can also come out of this account. Most of those payments are automated, so the money goes in and out of that account with very little help from us. My husband is in charge of keeping an eye on this account. If for some reason the account starts to accumulate more than we need to have in it, we note that there is money there that can be used for car repairs or other unexpected expenses.

By having the bills account separate, we can’t accidentally spend the water bill money on eating out. I don’t have to remember to budget for the bills, the system does it for me.

More Checking

Account number two is our second checking account. This is our household account, and I keep up with it. This is one used to buy food, clothes, gas and whatever we need during the month. We found over the years, this is where we could often spend more than we had. For a while, my husband was in charge of budgeting and if I said we needed something and we were out of money, he just put it on a credit card. Instead of doing that, I now monitor this account closely. Here’s the “trick” when we run out of money, I just say no to all purchases until we get paid again.

Is that 100% possible? No. Sometimes a child needs a co-pay for the doctor or other things that cannot be delayed. However, we have built up some money in savings that I can dip into to cover things that must be paid for when the amount we budgeted for spending that pay cycle is gone. I keep a certain number of emergency dinners in the house at all times, so even if the money is gone, we will still have food. It might mean we are eating beans and cornbread, or pasta with a jar of sauce, but I usually only have to delay my grocery shopping for a day. By delaying the shopping trip for a day, I prevent myself from putting those groceries on a credit card and going into debt we don’t want.

This method also means I know we have a very clear limit on extras for the month. There have been times we had no money for anything extra, but at this moment I know there is wiggle room in the budget to purchase birthday gifts or other things that don’t happen every month. I also know that we can only do so many extras before we go over budget. For example, if I take the dogs to be professionally groomed this week, that is going to be our family’s “splurge” for this paycheck. They don’t need groomed all that often, but I don’t want to give the dog his bikini wax, okay? Your big expenses are probably different than mine. That’s okay. This method still works.

Savings

I know, savings in a luxury for a lot of us, but I’m going to explain the two ways we use the savings account that you should consider. First, if my husband gets a bonus at work that is not part of our regular budget, we put the money in our savings account. This is money we can dip into later when the budget isn’t working or an unexpected vet bill comes out of the blue.

Second, I put money in the savings account every paycheck with the plan that it is going to pay our mortgage. The money is pulled out before we do any spending, so I know it is set aside. We put half the amount needed for the mortgage plus a little into the savings account each pay check. For reasons you don’t need to know, the mortgage doesn’t align with our other bills and we don’t automate it. It is our biggest monthly expense, so it has its own method of getting paid. My husband gets paid every 2 weeks, and our budget is based on that. This means that there are one or two paychecks each year that are not necessary for the mortgage to get paid. However, I will still be pulling that same amount out and putting it in savings from every pay check. This results in a bit more of a cushion in the savings account.

You can use this method of pulling out money and setting it aside in savings to cover anything you want. Saving up for a vacation? Pull some out of the living expenses account and put it in savings each month. Have some other irregular bill, like college tuition? Hide it in a separate savings account. As long as you are disciplined about what you can take the money out for, it will work.

Debt

If you are an adult in America today, you are probably in debt. I am not a financial expert and I don’t have any magic tricks for getting out of debt. I do recommend you create a plan to pay down your debt as a regular bill that gets paid out of checking account number one. At this point, I don’t think any of us should be embarrassed or ashamed that we have debt. My only advice is to keep an eye out for offers with better interest rates and use them when you can.