Finance/Money Management

"I am trying something new in the art of money management, that I thought I would share.
When it comes to money, I am completely lost.  I have spoken with professionals, read books, tried software, etc...
What it comes down to, is that numbers on a spreadsheet or bank statement, simply have no meaning to me.  I cannot visualize what the numbers mean.
I am the same in my professional life.  Since I was 10 years old, ,I have always been able to repair hardware or mechanical issues, without any thorough understanding of the thing that I was working on.  I could just see the problem, when others could not.
 However, despite several years of computer networking schools, software issues have always alluded me.  I cannot pick up a piece of software, turn it in my hands, and see the problem.  Therefor I am lost.

Also, I am self employed, so I like to use my debit card for all of my purchases. This allows me to have a record for my accountant, but again, bank statements don't help me very much.

Since budgets are deemed absolutely essential to money management.  And since writing down a budget does not help me in any way. I decided to try a new approach".

The above user copied pretend money and divied it up into sections (still totalling the amount their paycheck would normally come to) Fun, Bills, Expences, Kids, groceries, savings.

"Now that I have my fake money, I can take my paycheck or bank statement and represent it in a tangible way.

I Label envelopes with my various categories of expenses.

I then divvy up the money into whatever category I want to budget for.

Some of the books that I have read, suggest that when budgeting, All of your money should be accounted for and placed into a category, with none left over.

Every pound has a job, so put every pound to work.

That is the approach that I am trying.

I keep the envelopes in my car.  Whenever I have to buy groceries or a tool,  I simply remove that amount from the correct envelope and place it into the spent pile along with my receipts.  When the envelope is empty, I don't have any money left to spend in that category.

This has allowed me to divvy up my money while keeping it in one bank account.  Meanwhile I can continue using a debit card or checkbook for all of my purchases.  It also makes it easier for me to reconcile my bank statement at the end of the month, by just counting cash in my envelopes.