Bill B. has been a careful steward of his money since he and wife Elizabeth married 20 years ago in Greensboro, North Carolina. Bill is a teacher and Elizabeth is a youth minister, and they have two daughters, 15 and 13. “We had the conviction starting off that we would never live above our means,” he says. “We wanted to be able to use the resource God provided to really bless others.”

They always used the traditional envelopes system, tracking their budget with pencil and paper, Excel and Money Matters budgeting software. Bill also attended Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. “The hunt for finding Mvelopes was born out of conversation with a friend at a 40th birthday party,” he recalls. “I said that in an electronic age, there has got to be way for traditional envelope budgeting to be done in an online system.”

Shortly after the conversation, in May 2007, Bill discovered Mvelopes.com. “Not having to type in every transaction was the key selling point,” he says. “I liked the automatic download because we’d get behind at times and burn a Saturday getting caught up with entering checks and receipts. It’s freed up time to be with the kids. As they’re entering their teen years, we need to be available when those windows of opportunity come open to listen and talk, and not be involved in something you can’t break away from.”

Knowing exactly where his money goes, Bill can free up funds for charity – supporting their church, sending needy kids to camp, and hosting a college student from Ethiopia in their home, among other activities. “Giving is really important to us; we knew we needed to keep good handle on what we were making and spending, and not getting into debt,” he explains. “When we purchased our first house we were able to have a low monthly payment because we put money down.”

Bill liked Mvelopes so much he began teaching workshops on the system at his church, and dozens of friends signed up. “I am so excited about the difference this software can make in people’s lives and marriages,” he says. “My hope is that people will be able to get a handle on their finances, eliminate debt and be freed up to live financially fit.”

His own financial education came from his parents, Bill says. “They just really impressed upon me when I got out of college that you don’t put money on a credit card if you can’t pay it off that month and I took that to heart,” he says. “As we counsel folks on budgeting, a lot of times it’s not that they don’t want to be on a budget, but don’t understand what means to be on a budget. They don’t have a way to track it. That’s what I love, Mvelopes makes the tracking so easy, and you can log in from anywhere.”

Over the years, Bill found numerous programs that showed him where he’d spent his money. “But the Mvelopes concept is about saving in advance toward things that are important to you,” he tells his workshop attendees. “If you want a Starbucks envelope, that’s fine, just know what you’re spending and when the envelope is done, stop spending. If you want a 42-inch plasma TV, God bless you, but save the money in advance and go to Best Buy and really enjoy your purchase. That’s great; it’s the concept of saving in advance, putting the money in, watching the envelope grow, and then having the freedom to enjoy it.”