<prompt> Human: My wife is pregnant and we are expecting our second child in September. As we did with our first child, my wife will be taking off one or two years to stay at home with our children, especially since daycare for two becomes a net loss when you compare it to my wifes paycheck.Weve always been particularly terrible at managing our spending, and although I now track our budget using Mint and spreadsheets, its always to see where our money went rather than figuring out where it will go. My wife says she wants to talk with me and work with our budget and Mint, but I am starting to think she will never be proactive about it, and I am tired of carrying the weight by myself and trying to convince her that we need to do this.I think I have a plan to help us manage our discretionary spending, but I wanted to see if anyone thought this was a bad idea or if there is a simpler solution. Essentially, each month, I would transfer our discretionary budget from our primary bank account to another checking account. Instead of using credit cards, we would use the debit card for all purchases. Once the checking account is empty, the card would be denied, and wed both get an email alerting us that weve used our discretionary budget for the month. The credit card would then be used, with the stigma that using the credit card meant we were spending from our savings. I checked with the bank that I would not get charged any overdraft fees.This is essentially the envelope system with two big envelopes: mandatory spending and discretionary spending with an enforceable check on the latter. Thanks in advance for any advice.Assistant: If its truly discretionary spending why are you giving yourself the credit card fallback? Shouldnt your discretionary spending be done once you run out of budget money that month?Human: Ideally yes. Realistically, if youre done for the month and there is no food in the house or your car needs gas, you need the credit card. Hopefully, it will become an emergency card.Assistant: Thats not how I use the word discretionary. Groceries and gas arent discretionary. Entertainment, eating out, shopping, etc are what I consider discretionary.Human: Youre right. I dont know the term to use for spending that I cant predict. We spend a different amount every month on groceries, gas, medical, etc.  <response>: Maybe thats part of the issue. Youre right, not everything is predictable. But an important part of a budget is separating needs from wants. Groceries and gas shouldnt be in the same budget category as eating out and shopping.If youre out of money to buy groceries because of discretionary spending, you have a budget problem. 