Californians Andrea, 36, and husband, Evan, 37, have three children, ages 10, 7 and 4. Andrea has been a stay-at-home mom since her oldest was nine months, and until she discovered Mvelopes last year, fought to stay on top of the bills.

“It’s my job to balance and stretch the budget,” she says. “The bills would just stack up, because it wasn’t something I wanted to do. I hated to balance the checkbook–because it took so long, it just wouldn’t get balanced. I needed something to make managing our finances easier to do and to get me to do them more often.”

She discovered Mvelopes in 2007. Andrea had balanced the budget in part by taking advantage of zero-percent interest credit card offers, and rolling over her debt. “Now they charge you a (rollover) fee, but there was a time when they wouldn’t,” she recalls. “Mvelopes helped us see how far we were living beyond our means.”

Andrea worked hard to master Mvelopes. “Initially, it took awhile to set up my envelopes and my funding plan,” she recalls. “I am very detailed and I have a lot of envelopes. The customer support staff was very helpful. At first, I felt stupid asking questions—I’m not a computer person—but they were so kind. I don’t require much help anymore.”

Andrea wanted to pay down debt, boost savings, and set aside cash in advance for family travel. Vacations are important to Andrea, who grew up on a small farm. “We couldn’t find anyone to milk cows and goats (in our absence), so we never took family vacations,” she says.

Using Mvelopes helped Andrea and Evan identify spending on things they didn’t really value–such as eating out. Gone are the breakfast burritos and donuts every Saturday morning, and Andrea occasionally prints a report for her husband detailing his spending at Starbucks. “Using Mvelopes helped to put a spotlight on the things that we think are important, and where our money is actually being spent,” she says. “My kids are my priority and eating out isn’t. It’s definitely better for us to sit down as a family and enjoy meals at home.”

To reduce her food bills further, Andrea recently started a dinner swap with four other families. Each week, the participants buy ingredients in bulk and make one large meal to share among five families–and they each get four meals in return. “Our family is definitely learning the importance of budgeting,” she says. “We have a new slogan at our house–‘Nothing new, make do.’ My four-year-old has learned the slogan and repeats it all the time.”

By slashing costs on food and dining out, Andrea and Evan have been able to shift funds to their bigger priority: vacations. In 2008, the family took a two-and-a-half week trip to Colorado for a baseball tournament and a tour of Yellowstone, saving for the trip in advance. To celebrate their 15th anniversary, Andrea and Evan are going to New York for a long weekend and then taking a cruise–a trip that’s already paid in full. Next summer, it’s South Dakota and Mount Rushmore–and they’ve already begun saving for that getaway. “Travel is a new experience for me, and I’m totally loving it,” says Andrea.

Andrea and Evan also used the Mvelopes’ debt calculator to pay off their credit cards. “When I put our credit card information in the debt calculator, I always saw red when I pulled up my account,” says Andrea. “That was a huge motivator to me; I don’t like to see the red because I know that means I don’t have money. Anytime we had extra money I was trying to make those red numbers smaller.” The family’s renewed focus on their highest priorities and greater sense of control have enhanced more than just their finances. “My husband trusts me and he knows that I now have a handle on the money situation,” says Andrea. “We don’t fight about money.”