I have tried to use the concept of envelopes for years but always made the system too difficult for myself and my husband to use. After awhile our budget would get pushed to the side as I got frustrated, feeling it was a lost cause. We thought we would never get out of debt.

When you let us use your Mvelopes for a month free, I thought for sure we would use it for a month and then cancel. We started in July 2006 and we are still using it. We have found many benefits to using Mvelopes. The greatest benefit we have found since joining Mvelopes is that we will, as of November 2006, have paid off four credit cards debts.

We still have a ways to go, but we have faith that it will be paid off. We have used the Mvelopes Debt Calculator and found that if we continue with the spending plan we are using at this present time we will be able to pay off every credit card, every mortgage, and every car loan in six years. We used to think it would take forever, but we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and are looking forward to finally being debt-free.

We thank you for creating this program for those of us who seem to have fallen for this world's lies, and started borrowing more than we could handle. Thank you again.

My fiancé and I have been able to sit down and make a budget together. We have been able to budget out how to 1) eradicate over $10,000 in debt, 2) manage a debt free Christmas, 3) create a workable spending plan, 4) be able to go on our honeymoon without incurring debt, and 5) be debt free by the time we get married in June at the age of 23. Thank you!

Last week, I decided Mvelopes wasn't for me anymore and I was going to switch to Microsoft Money. As you will see below, using Mvelopes has treated us well, but I felt like another program could perhaps offer more.

So I went to Best Buy and bought Microsoft Money Deluxe 2006. I was happy to see all the features I had missed in Mvelopes: integrated debt reduction planner, cash flow forecast and bill integration.

I was starting to pat myself on the back for my decision. Then, a couple of things happened. As I started to go through the budget, I saw how Microsoft Money (and Quicken for that matter) is completely ineffective and inflexible when it comes to budgeting. The "bill integration" feature I loved so much started taking over my budget. There was no functionality for amassing any amount of money over a period of months for anything.

Everything started getting more complicated. I started waking up in the middle of the night worrying about it. The other thing that struck me is how much my finances have changed since I started using Mvelopes. For full disclosure, here's a summary of my financial picture from April 2003, four months after I started using Mvelopes:

Total Credit Card Debt: $28,188.29
Total Student Loan Debt: $38,675.36
Total Car Loan Debt: $14,595.18 Total
Unsecured Debt: $82,007.90

Well, over the past three years, dealing with two Mvelopes upgrades, dealing with my own financial issues like putting my wife through graduate school (paying cash), buying a new house and doing thousands of dollars of remodeling (paying cash), and dealing with three career changes in the family, here is my current financial picture, as of March 4, 2006:

Total Credit Card Debt: $0
Total Student Loan Debt: $36,702.33
Total Car Loan Debt: $0
Total Unsecured Debt, as of March 4: $36,702.33

This is a pretty compelling use case for what simple budgeting can do for ones finances. I learned long ago that it doesn't matter that you know all the details about your money (the stuff that Money and Quicken spend a lot of time on). That's ultimately not important. Your financial picture is your financial picture. What is vastly more important is what you do with the money that comes in every month. And, I'm telling you as a software engineer who has expertise in the business, Mvelopes completely dominates the competition when it comes to helping you manage your cash flow month to month. Period.

Now, with $36K of student loans within range, what software am I going to use to get me to $0? I'm going to use Mvelopes. I could go on and on about different strategies we used with the program to make that happen. I suppose the story isn't finished yet. Hopefully, in two years from now, I'll be able to write: "Difference between Mvelopes and Microsoft Money: $82,000."

Thanks for reading.

Brought up in a pastor's home in Africa, my childhood was punctuated by significant love and service, but few financial resources. While my parents were financially very careful, they essentially lived hand-to-mouth. While I eventually entered a profession that was better remunerated, my parents' modeled a financial behavior pattern that I instinctively adopted as a salary earner.

I began to live hand-to-mouth and then progressed steadily into personal debt. It wasn't until the Lord graciously and generously enabled me to work in the USA, that I was forced to settle all my personal finances and relocate geographically, emotionally, vocationally and financially. Knowing my past financial management was inadequate, and aware that I would have to live within in a reduced budget and new, foreign parameters, I decided to turn over a new leaf.

This was initially forced upon me as I collected checks—waiting upon a SSN that would enable me to open a bank account. Those first two months forced me to live an exceptionally frugal lifestyle and to make the decision to continue to live within a budget.

I have adopted the Mvelopes system as my personal financial management guide and can only marvel at the change that this has brought in my life! My family has commented that they do not recognize the person who pays bills the same day she receives them. They are proud of the savings I have accrued, and the separate holiday fund that allows me to truly, fully relax when spending time with them. I am most pleased that my new behavior is reflected in the increased tithe devoted to and happily returned to the Lord!

I am still in transition; there are new expenses and demands that require me to adjust my budget quite frequently. Mvelopes is flexible and comprehensive enough to accommodate my unique situation. It has provided the framework for my financial maturation and I now possess a beautiful home and drive to an amazing work environment each morning, knowing that I am absolutely debt-free for the first time in my adult life!

To Crown and Mvelopes – thank you for providing a product that has enabled me to be more responsible as a child of God, to mature financially, to give generously, and to save happily. Knowing exactly my financial situation, I enter each morning grateful for what God has given me, confident that I will continue to grow in this area of my life and excited about the opportunities God will open up in my day.

Since starting to use Mvelopes four months ago, my wife and I have had some interesting revelations with regard to our finances and spending habits. We just didn't know where the money was going, nor did we have a plan to achieve our goals.

However, starting this New Year, we are excited that we have almost paid off our credit card, and are working on accelerated payments on our mortgage as well as planned renovations. Thanks for this great tool!