What Do Gen Z Know About Cash Stuffing?

‘Cash Stuffing’ has been blowing up on the internet lately, with the hashtag amassing 519 million views on TikTok alone. But what is it?

Cash Stuffing is the act of using physical cash to distribute your income to pre-assigned categories. Most do it on a monthly basis and use exciting planners and envelopes to make the process more aesthetic, but the process of categorizing regular paychecks remains the same.

Google searches for ‘cash stuffing’ saw an incredibly high peak in July 2022, as living costs continue to soar in the US, and Americans look to manage their money better.

According to a recent Student Beans study, one in five US students don’t feel confident managing their finances. That’s more than 4 million young people who don’t know how to look after their money.

You would think that cash stuffing would be an easy fix for these financial fretters, no? Well, you’d be wrong.

Yes, a good third of Gen Z’s know about this money management method. However, it has become apparent that those who are less confident about their finances are also less likely to know about or use Cash Stuffing, defeating the aim of this money simplifying method.

Of those who know about it, a huge fifth of Gen Z’s are actively using cash stuffing to categorize their allowances.

But, the financially literate are twice as likely than unconfident money managers to use or think about trying cash stuffing.

Young people are already struggling with rising inflation, so it’s important we equip them with the financial knowledge to feel confident in managing their money.

How to ‘cash stuff’

1. Sit down with a notepad and look at how much you receive every time you are paid, whether this is weekly, monthly, or an ad-hoc basis.
2. Sort out the essential spend first, and write down how much things like rent, groceries, gas, insurance, and other bills will cost you.
3. With the remaining money, it’s up to you how to designate this cash. Maybe you’re saving up for a new car you really want or perhaps you want to start putting away money for birthdays and Christmas gifts. Either way, it’s up to you to decide how much to allot to each category. We’d always recommend putting some into savings.
4. Once you’ve got these amounts down on paper, it’s time to put the method into practise. On your next paycheck, take out the physical cash and sort into your allocated pots of money. The goal is to not touch the money unless totally necessary.
5. If any of your bills or costs are taken digitally, make sure you have the money in your account before the cash is taken out to avoid any unnecessary stress.

Methodology