FREE NEWSLETTER

The Envelope Returns

Marjorie Kondrack

HAVE YOU HEARD of the latest budgeting technique? It’s called cash stuffing. No, it’s not shoving money into your mattress. It’s the new name for an old budgeting method, where you divide your weekly pay into envelopes earmarked for various spending categories, such as food, gas, rent, vacations, clothing and so on.

For each expense, you spend only from that envelope and, when it’s empty, that’s it. No cheating. No dipping into other envelopes.

I’m sure you get the idea. After all, this isn’t a new phenomenon. I remember my parents sitting around the kitchen table, apportioning the family salary into various envelopes that they’d carefully budgeted money for. My father had one marked “house money”—a catch-all for food and miscellaneous small expenditures related to running our household.

This time around, cash stuffing has sprouted into a popular industry. You can buy all manner of envelope sets, such as envelopes of different colors for different categories. There’s a budget planner binder and even a genuine leather all-in-one deluxe version for $89.

The more you spend on these organizers, the more sophisticated and supposedly inclusive the binder, with all manner of compartments and zippered pouches. You can get them personalized, glamorized and customized.

We’re now offered cash-stuffing budget sheet planners, stickers and even tear-resistant envelopes—on and on, ad infinitum. You can purchase a plethora of these must-haves on the Amazon and Walmart websites.

The market for products relating to cash stuffing seems to still be in its infancy. Soon, an even more amazing variety of items will no doubt be available. You get it, don’t you? You have to spend money to budget money. Oh—and some sellers have renamed the cash envelopes “currency envelopes.” Fancy schmancy.

Before long, we’ll need a new budget envelope to pay for all our cash-stuffing supplies. Whatever happened to “keep it simple”?

Browse Articles

Subscribe
Notify of
26 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Chazooo
1 year ago

Is this the last gasp of cash before we are forced to accept universal digital currency and sacrifice the last tiny bit of our privacy?

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Chazooo

I hope not but in case you want to get ahead of the game, Capital One has a very good description of how the digital version of cash envelopes work with their high yielding accounts.
Thanks for commenting.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago

The website describes this. System.

Doc Savage
1 year ago

I’m a dinosaur who loves cash. I’m not overly paranoid (I don’t believe) but I think every transaction made digitally is sucked into various databases in this day and age and I prefer anonymity as much as possible.
Also, having to pull a number of bills out of my wallet makes me think more about the necessity of each purchase. It’s not deferred into the future. It costs money right then and there, which has given me pause a few times.
However I don’t use the envelope method. I keep those ‘envelopes’ in my head.

Philip Stein
1 year ago
Reply to  Doc Savage

I’m another dinosaur who hopes cash always remains an option. Some benefits:

1. When you make a small purchase with cash, your transaction is not recorded on a server somewhere. No institution can track you.

2. Identity theft isn’t possible with a cash purchase. Cash can’t be hacked.

3. When I see Boy or Girl Scouts standing in front of a grocery store selling cookies or other goodies to raise money, I give them a cash contribution (and let them keep the goodies). I’m not aware that the adult standing with them has the ability to process credit cards. Besides, why dilute the contribution by paying a transaction fee to the credit card company?

4. Cash is the only way to feed the tip jar at a local business.

5. In times when the internet is down for a prolonged period, say during a blackout, cash will still allow you to make purchases.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Philip Stein

No doubt cash has its advantages and is probably the best remedy for identity theft. Using cash and electronic payments to their best advantage may be the best option
Your comments are appropriate.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Doc Savage

You have developed good money handling skills and are judicious about your purchases. A lot of people could benefit from your mindset.

Paula Karabelias
1 year ago

I remember reading in the Wall St. Journal during the recession of the early 1980’s about a struggling casual dining restaurant chain. Part of their statement was ” our customers are the type that allocate their paycheck into envelopes. If they have anything leftover they eat here”

mytimetotravel
1 year ago

How very retro! But how many people, who would spend money on something unnecessary like this, actually use cash? Aside from a check to my cleaners (and my yard service before I sold the house), and a rare tip in cash, everything I buy goes on a credit card. Mostly I use an American Airlines affinity card, on which I earn FF miles, and sometimes a Capital One card, with cash-back. I’m not sure why I even carry cash any more.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  mytimetotravel

Some people use a digital approach to this budgeting style to avoid carrying cash…everything old is new again. Thank you for commenting.

AmeliaRose
1 year ago

I hadn’t heard of this. People go to the bank and withdraw their paycheck (which was probably direct deposited) in cash? I predict this fad won’t last more than a month or two.

Philip Morgan
1 year ago
Reply to  AmeliaRose

Yeah I didn’t know we had cash anymore! In all seriousness, my college-age kids haven’t carried cash at any point in their lives. Envelope budgeting isn’t a fad – as someone else pointed out, it’s a legit budgeting tool that been around for decades, but using actual cash in envelopes is obsolete. If someone wanted to produce something actually useful, a bank should make an option that stores your money in virtual envelopes and if you over spend from one, it cuts you off unless you explicitly override the envelope.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Philip Morgan

Interesting perspective. Thank you.

Purple Rain
1 year ago

It is not about budgeting. It is about , well (one of the reviews):

“The thing about these envelopes that really stood out to me is actually the customer service. Initially when I received these I thought I had received the wrong color. The color I received was different from what was appearing on my screens and I was a little irked at what I thought was a seller mistake. I reached out to the seller who immediately made an attempt to make things right and sent me another pack, letting me know that they only sell one color. Upon receiving my second package of envelopes I realized it was actually my mistake🤦🏻‍♀️. I am just so impressed with this seller’s quick response time and willingness to make things right even when the mistake was clearly mine. Just overall a positive experience.”

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Purple Rain

Thank you for reading and for your viewpoint.

Guest
1 year ago

This reader is grateful we will never have to resort to cash stuffing.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Guest

Isn’t that a relief ☺️

Stuart Yancy
1 year ago

Sounds just like the envelope system that Dave Ramsey has taught about for several decades.

Rita Lally
1 year ago
Reply to  Stuart Yancy

I have recently discovered Dave Ramsey (I live in the UK) and find it very interesting and a good window into America. Iv been totally shocked by the amount of debt so many Americans have and often his advice takes me back to my frugal parents and frugal upbringing.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Rita Lally

Rita…we have been spoiled by living in this land of abundance but not all of us are profligate spenders and do believe in conservative values,
greetings from across the pond. Thanks for your comments.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  Stuart Yancy

Right. I think his version is $89. Now reduced to $55. Thanks for your comments.

R Quinn
1 year ago

First I heard of this new fad. Seems a bit like the pet rock. People will buy anything, especially if it’s a gimmick.

Who am I to talk, I use several envelopes- except they are bank accounts.

https://humbledollar.com/2020/07/banking-from-a-to-f/

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  R Quinn

You’re so right Dick. If it is packaged and pitched just the right way some people will buy anything. Thanks for reading.

R Quinn
1 year ago

By the way, I really like your writing style.

Marjorie Kondrack
1 year ago
Reply to  R Quinn

How nice of you to comment on my writing. I certainly have benefited from the knowledge in yours.

Free Newsletter

SHARE