Personal Finance

I think 2 or 5 is closest. Basically, we pull our savings target on payday, and we track spending for each category, but we don't check up on spending until the end of the month, and sometimes not every month.

We discuss deviations every few months and make adjustments as needed. For example, our restaurant spending was steadily rising, so we set a goal to cook more and try to prepare new foods, and that cut the desire to eat out.

I think this works because my wife and I are both quite disciplined and frugal. We do make more than the average household, but we spend a similar amount I think ($60-65k for a family with three kids; median household income is >$75k for my area).

When I was a student, I did envelope budgeting because most of my expenses were fixed (housing, tuition, etc) and I didn't have a lot extra. When I got married and my first real job, we lived the same way for a couple years until we had a nice cash cushion, then gradually expanded our spending as needed. For example, we got a bigger apartment when we wanted kids, got a house when we planned for a second kid, had a single car when I could bike to work and bought a second when I couldn't. Each spending increase was intentional.