“Guess what’s all the rage now,’ my husband said to me, looking up from his digital newspaper. “It’s got a new name, but it’s exactly what we did when we first got married.”
Cash stuffing, it seems, is all over TikTok, where young consumers are urging each other toward this low-tech, age-old hack on how to stick to a budget.
Back when we were newlyweds, we’d been shocked by the cost of living. Who knew that heating a small house could cost so much? And the bills kept coming—groceries, car insurance, appliance repair, and quarter after quarter of college tuition and books.
To make our money outlast the month, we labeled envelopes and stuffed them with the cash we budgeted for each category. The first Friday of each month, I’d pull bills from the Groceries: Week 1 envelope to take to Meijer, an expansive new store offering a plethora of foods, most of which never landed in my grocery cart.
One spring break, though, we found that cash stuffing carries risk.
We were packed for a road trip to visit my parents. Just as my husband turned the car key, I had a thought.
“Could you wait a minute?” I said to him. “I have one more thing to do.”
He turned off the ignition.
Back in the house, I lifted the tin box of newly-filled envelopes from the bottom filing cabinet drawer. This box held our living for the next month. And I was having an uneasy feeling. I cast my eyes around the room, and, on impulse, stuffed the box under the dirty laundry in the hamper.
Whoever broke into our house that weekend didn’t find it, but not for lack of trying. The thief emptied filing cabinet drawers and riffled through cupboards and rummaged in closets. But our cash was safe.
Cash stuffing might not have been fool proof, but it did curb our spending. With credit and debit cards, we could have lost track. We could have derailed our budget and accumulated debt.
And I hope this new, age-old hack going virtual on TikTok also helps today’s young consumers make their money outlast the month.