A Vintage Budgeting Method Is Back

Millennial Money - if you struggle to keep your spending in check or are working on a savings or debt-payoff goal, cash stuffing is one way to get on track.

- By Lisa Gerstner

In a video from TikTok account AbundantGains, a woman separates cash from her paycheck into clear plastic envelopes with labels: $40 for Black Friday shopping, $50 toward getting a tattoo, $355 to save for a future home purchase, $215 for a vacation. There’s something satisfying and soothing about watching her neatly tuck away the bills.

With more than 11 million views, the video resonates—and it’s one of many on TikTok about “cash stuffing,” a budgeting method that relies on dividing physical cash into spending and saving categories. While millennials and Generation Z have made cash stuffing a viral trend on social media, it’s hardly a new concept. Budgeters have long used the strategy—also known as the envelope method—to set hard limits on their spending.