GREENSBORO, N.C. — Budget versus Spending Plan.Both deal with your money and where it goes, but does one sit better with you than the other?
There's an old budgeting trick that is making a comeback. The TikTok generation calls it 'cash stuffing'. You may remember it as the envelope system.
Basically, you put cash into separate envelopes labeled for specific needs such as gas, groceries, or rent. Once the money is gone, the spending is over.
Jasmine Taylor posts TikTok videos about how she uses cash stuffing. "I personally use what's called a zero-based budget so, what that means whatever I get paid, every single dollar I make I give it a place," said Taylor.
She started it on her 30th birthday and now talks about how it has helped her.
"I think more people are attracted to it because so many people just aren’t financially literate, so just having a straightforward method of budgeting in the times we’re currently living in, where you know you have money set aside for groceries and gas and things like that, and things like that are just so much more appealing to people," said Taylor.
What are the benefits of cash stuffing?
"Well, the biggest benefit is that it's not using your credit card. It's not going into further debt or reducing the debt you already carry," said Stewart Fields, Managing Partner, OpenAir Advisers
This is a positive. Remember, not using a credit card won't help you build credit when you need it, like buying a car or with your credit score. Another downside to the cash system is that cash can disappear.
"Cash can be lost, it can be stolen. Many homeowner insurance policies, many renter insurance policies, don’t cover lost cash, and if they do it’s very minimal," said Fields.
While this new generation is using an old method, it is also cashing in on this new craze. Tempesst Swinson is an entrepreneur and has built a business on this cash-stuffing method. She makes the envelope system into a booklet that is styled, has personality, and makes the organization appealing.