Our Story - EnvelopeBudget

Chapter 1: The JavaScript Calculator That Could(n't)

Once upon a time, in the distant era of Web 1.0, I thought I could conquer personal finance with nothing but JavaScript and determination. Spoiler alert: The calculator I built was about as sophisticated as a paper envelope, but without the satisfying crinkle sound. It calculated things... sometimes correctly.

Not one to give up easily (or learn from my mistakes), I dove into PHP next. Because nothing says "financial security" like a language that starts with a dollar sign, right?

Chapter 2: The Dave Ramsey Years (2009)

By 2009, I was listening to Dave Ramsey every single day. You know you're deep in the personal finance world when you start yelling "DEBT IS DUMB!" at your car radio. This inspired Inzolo.com - my first real envelope budgeting app. It was beautiful, it worked, and it helped me climb out of debt one virtual envelope at a time.

Fun fact: "Inzolo" sounded sophisticated and financial-y. In reality, I just liked how it sounded. Marketing genius? You decide.

Chapter 3: The Great Domain Acquisition (And Mistake)

Then I scored EnvelopeBudget.com - the domain name of my dreams (well, that I could afford, anyway)! Naturally, I did what any reasonable developer would do: I rewrote the entire app from scratch. Because maintaining one budgeting app wasn't enough of a challenge, I decided to maintain two.

Pro tip from past me: Don't do this. Future you will not thank present you. Present you's spouse will also have questions.

Chapter 4: The Kid Years (A.K.A. The Dark Ages of Code)

Then life happened. Five kids happened, to be specific. My "free time" became a mythical concept, like unicorns or a bug-free deployment. The apps languished while I perfected the art of stepping on LEGOs in the dark and explaining why we can't have donuts for breakfast (though I'll admit, the budget would have been simpler).

Maintenance? That was something I did to keep the minivan running, not my apps.

Chapter 5: The Renaissance (Version 3.0)

Fast forward to today. Some kids have flown the nest, the younger ones can make their own sandwiches (hallelujah!), and I found myself missing having a project that doesn't involve yard work or baseball practices.

Enter EnvelopeBudget 3.0 - rebuilt with a simple philosophy: Use the app less. Yes, you read that right. I'm building a budgeting app designed to get you in and out faster, because let's be honest, we all have better things to do than stare at budget categories. Like finally watching that show everyone finished three years ago.

The Bottom Line

If nobody else wants to use this app, that's fine. I'll keep building it for myself and my family. But I have a sneaking suspicion there are other people out there who want their budgeting to be like a good referee - doing its job without being the center of attention.

Welcome to EnvelopeBudget. Let's spend less time budgeting together.

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