Evolution of the Jars

I know plastic ruins a LOT of lives, but five little jar shaped pieces of plastic saved mine. Honestly.

They provided a way for me to visibly control my expenditures.

Such a gift those little plastic jars were.

I started on Money Jars in December of 2008. It was an exciting day. I had started this blog 6 months prior and was using an envelope system. I laugh hysterically when I think of what I had been putting in those 'envelopes' for each category. HUGE amounts. Unnecessary amounts. Unrealistic amounts. Nothing like deciding what was going in the envelopes before considering my income, my expenses and my goals. Such a newb!! 

but at least I tried.

But 6 months into this little budget experiment of mine, I slowly grew wiser. The jars were calling my name.

What are these jars?   Well I had been voraciously watching every episode of Gail Vaz-Oxlade's Til Debt Do Us Part. Part of her way of helping people was calculating variable expenses and putting them in jars for people to SEE how much they had (or didn't have) for the week.

The sheer simplicity of it was genius.

Here was her premise of what to do. THE JARS


My original amounts were higher than what I have now, but I don't seem to have them written down in the blog.  I had five categories back then: Gas, Entertainment, Grocery and household items, spending money and Clothing and Gifts.

Since then my dollar amounts and how I handle them have evolved slightly. Here are two instances where I actually wrote the amounts down.

June 2010

1) Food and Household - $680 a month ($170 a week)
2) Spending Money - $80 a month ($20 a week)
3) Gas/Transportation - $200 a month ($50 a week)
4) Entertainment - $160 a month ($40 a week)
5) Clothing and Gifts - $100 a month ($25 a week)

And

August 2014
Gas - $60 a week
Entertainment - $40 a week
Spending money - $20 a week
Grocery and house hold items - $220 a week

I know when I first started I had amounts that required me to get bills other than $20s. That proved to be annoying as the machines didn't cooperate and it meant my going in to the brick and mortar. So I tweaked them not long after to reflect ATM cooperative 20s.


Over time...
I used to have my Clothing and Gifts in a jar but it proved to be easier to make this an invisible 'category' in my savings and just transfer it.

My gas money increased because gas prices kept soaring.

My entertainment money was cut in half. I wasn't using it properly and that other $20 could go to a dif goal.

Grocery went down to $180 when DS1 left and I reallocated that $40 a week towards money I was transferring to him.

I found this great post in 2009 that talked about how the first month of jars went. It was interesting to go back and read it after all these years.


I have to say, I have started and stopped a ton of 'new routines' for diet, exercise, money, housekeeping...you name it. The jars is the ONLY thing that has had this longevity.

If you are thinking of starting a system to help you save, or get out of debt, DO. Whether it's jars or envelopes or online tracking. Whatever works for you. Just start! Know that adjusting your amounts or how you do it is NOT a failure. It's showing you are learning from the experience.

Just start.