Issue 12 · August 2026

Posted Sept. 5, 2026. The next issue is due the first weekend of October.

August ran $110 over the twelve envelopes, and the whole of it is one Saturday at the emergency vet: a foxtail seed had worked its way into the webbing of the dog's front paw and had to be dug out under sedation. That is $214 against an $85 envelope. Everything else in the month either held or came in light — the car envelope finished $47 under because the hospital parking pass was pro‑rated for a week of leave.

We covered the $110 from the buffer, which is what the buffer exists for, and left the savings transfer alone. The buffer is down to $160 for September, which is thin. If it empties before the March re‑set we will have to take the difference out of the eating‑out envelope, and we would rather say that here in advance than quietly do it later.

1. The method Twelve envelopes, one spreadsheet, and the four rules that keep it honest.
2. Issue 12 — August Ran $110 over. A foxtail in the dog's paw accounts for all of it.
3. Issue 11 — July Four tires, paid out of the sinking fund and not out of the car envelope.
4. Issue 10 — June The quiet month. $103 under, and the $103 went straight to savings.
5. Issue 9 — May The first published month, and the worst: $236 over on eight envelopes at once.
6. The grocery envelope What $620 buys for two adults in Spokane, and the two things we stopped counting.
7. The utilities envelope Turning a bill that swings from $171 to $291 into one flat number.
8. The car envelope One 2013 Corolla. Why fuel is an envelope and a timing belt is not.
9. The sinking funds Eight annual bills, divided by twelve, with what is in each pot today.
10. Where we got it wrong A dated log of every envelope we set wrong, kept because we keep re-making them.
11. Colophon How the site is made, why issues 1 to 8 do not exist, and how corrections work.

The twelve envelopes, as they stand

These are the planned monthly amounts. They were set in March 2026 and they do not move again until March 2027, which is a rule we have already broken once and expect to be tested on again — see where we got it wrong.

Where the rest of it goes

Combined take‑home is $5,140 a month: $1,890 from part‑time bookkeeping and $3,250 from a hospital lab technician's salary, both after tax and after the retirement deduction that comes off before we ever see it. The twelve envelopes take $3,770 of that. A further $1,100 goes out on the 2nd to a savings account at a different bank, on a standing transfer we deliberately made annoying to cancel. What is left, $270, is the buffer.

Thirteen numbers, and only twelve of them are envelopes. The savings transfer is not an envelope because we do not want it to be spendable, and the buffer is not an envelope because it has no purpose — it is the slack that stops a bad month turning into a raided savings account. If you want the reasoning at length it is on the method page.