Thanks for taking a look at my post & blog, and doing such a thorough analysis of my approach to budgeting.

I certainly hear what you’re saying, and it’s a bit of a contradiction in my own life as well. Let me explain:

I am a big advocate for simplicity and streamlining financial processes. When I kept a “traditional” budget (assigning limits to my spending), I used only 10 categories with no sub-categories. It was about as simple as I could get it.

About a year ago, we switched over to an envelope budget. Since then, I’ve found that the opposite holds true–we are more effective with the budget when we get very specific, not general. This is because each envelope functions as a “mini-savings” account for a very specific purchase (like, for example–paying our taxes in April, or the car insurance bill next month).

The application of roles was a natural extension of this because it allowed us to categorize all the expenses into things that made sense in our own life. If you notice in the original post, I make a distinction between “administrative” categories like bills and “role” categories, like family (which I’ve kept to 8).

I agree with you that people starting out will want to keep their budget simple. Once they get the hang of it, this may be the next step?

I hope I’ve explained a bit better our decision to be so “complicated.” :) I welcome more question about what we do and I’m excited to see what your readers think!