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In five minutes you'll understand what the envelope method is and how Sobres works. No jargon: just your money, split into envelopes.
What is the envelope method?
Imagine you get your paycheck in cash and, before spending anything, you split the bills into labeled paper envelopes: one for Rent, another for Groceries, another for Gas, another for Vacation. When you want to spend on something, you take money from the matching envelope. If an envelope runs out, that category is done… unless you move money over from another envelope.
That's the envelope method, and it has worked for decades because you can't fool yourself: you see exactly how much you have left for each thing. Sobres brings that idea to your iPhone, without carrying cash around.
Give your money a job before you spend it. Instead of looking at your bank balance and asking yourself "can I afford this?", you look at the envelope and you already know.
The 4-step cycle
Using Sobres means repeating this cycle every time money comes in:
- Add your accounts and balances. Tell the app how much you have today in your checking account, your cash, your savings. That's your starting point.
- Record your income. When you get paid, you write it down. That money lands in your account and shows up as "Unassigned": money waiting for a job.
- Assign all of it to envelopes. You spread that money across your categories until "Unassigned" reaches $0. All of it now has a destination.
- Spend and record. When you buy something, you record the transaction and choose which envelope it came from. That envelope's available amount goes down. That way you always know how much you have left.
You get paid $10,000. You split it like this:
When "Unassigned" reaches $0, you're done: all your money has a job.
The only goal that matters
It's not about having a zero balance. It's about getting "Unassigned" to $0, because that means you've already decided, calmly, what every bit of your money will be used for. After that you just follow the plan you made yourself.
Money you don't spend in an envelope isn't lost: it stays there and rolls over to the next month. That's what we mean when we say the available amount "accumulates". Your Vacation envelope keeps growing month after month until you take the trip.
What now?
You have the map. The next step is understanding where your money goes when you tap each button: that's what will give you complete confidence with the app.