Young people discover cash and hashtag it

#CashStuffing and #100EnvelopeChallenge showcase young people rediscovering cash

Wednesday 23 February 2022:

Young people and students in Australia, New Zealand and globally are rediscovering cash – and hash tagging it. 

Controlling their budget and saving for goals are the key reasons why increasing numbers of young people are rejecting phone, card and Buy Now Pay Later payments apps to use cash.

The hashtags #CashStuffing and #100EnvelopeChallenge on Tik Tok, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook feature students, young parents and influencers explaining how they use cash to set a budget and save for specific goals.

#cashstuffing means using physical cash kept in labelled envelopes or folders for planning spending and saving. Envelopes are labelled ‘groceries,’ ‘bills,’ ‘splurge,’ ‘clothes,’ ‘transport,’ ‘savings,’ and the like. Each payday the envelopes are filled with the specific budget for that period.

@CaroCashBudget

#100envelopechallenge is about saving $5,050 in one hundred days. Participants label one hundred envelopes with numbers 1 -100. Each day they pull one envelope from their stack and put place dollars in it equal to the label on the envelope. So, if the saver randomly selects envelope number 37, they place $37 in that envelope as their savings for that day. The next day they might select envelope number 7 and are required to save $7 that day.

If the person follows the challenge correctly and saves each day they will have $5050 after 100 days, a little over three months.

Cash stuffing envelopes, folders and binders are popular and selling strongly on Amazon and hobby / handcraft site Etsy which currently lists 990 cash stuffing binders and associated products.

“Cash is the most powerful budgeting tool of all,” said Jason Bryce, spokesperson for the CashWelcome.org campaign.

“Cashless payment systems, cards, Buy Now Pay Later apps and phone payments all reduce the user’s ability to budget and save by minimising the ‘pain of paying’.

“Inevitably young people, students and everyone on a budget recognises the power of physical currency to impose discipline and give budgeting power back to the user.”

American financial adviser and media celebrity Dave Ramsay coined the term “cash stuffing” and it has been adopted by young people around the world as a method of controlling spending and setting savings goals.

In Australia, these are just a few of the many social media influencers promoting #CashStuffing and #100EnvelopeChallenge:

Tik Tok:

@aussiebudgetqueen
@budget_fanatic
@traidmarc
@cashstuffingau
@carocashbudget
@jadebudgets
@cashstuffingau
@clkbudgets
@dieseldollarbudgets
@sarah_stuffs
 
YouTube:

CAROCASH
Ellen.plans
Frugal Aussie Adventures
Money talks budget
Gabbi Marie Cooking
Ellen Twibbles Around Aimlessy: Budget With Me
Janswallet
Vicky_Plans_Budgets
 
Cash Welcome is on Facebook and Instagram.

Cash is Australia’s favourite way to pay according to this  online survey which has collected more than 7,000 responses.