A Vintage Budgeting Method Is Back
Kiplinger's Personal Finance|February 2023
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
A Vintage Budgeting Method Is Back

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.

This story is from the February 2023 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

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This story is from the February 2023 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

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