What is TikTok’s viral ‘cash stuffing’ trend?

A new trend called ‘cash stuffing’ has gone viral on TikTok, as people are saving thousands with the useful budgeting hack.

Thanks to a new viral trend, which has been viewed millions of times on the social media app, budgeting has become a lot easier for people who struggle with overspending.

The ‘cash stuffing’ hack, also known as the ‘envelope system,’ has managed to save a woman about $11,829 for a house deposit, The Sun reported earlier this year.

Now, teenagers and millennials are jumping on the bandwagon on TikTok, as they test out the viral trend. Here is an explainer for how the saving trick works.

Viral ‘cash stuffing’ trend explained

Cash stuffing is a way of budgeting where you divide up your notes and pennies, and tuck them into different envelopes based on the categories you want to budget for. Popular categories on include fuel, food, electricity, and water.

Some TikTokers place their money in envelopes or binders that are brightly coloured. Others go as far as to embellish their envelopes with stickers and rhinestones in order to add aesthetic appeal to them.

The idea is that having a visualisation of what you are spending should make it easier to control your money and make you less likely to overspend. 

In 2020, researchers from Warwick business school analyzed transactions from 260,000 consumers and found that people with contactless cards spent “significantly more” than those without. The researchers concluded that contactless: “promotes increased spending and can promote decreased cash usage and increased use of debt.”

With prices going up on food, energy, and fuel, many young people are turning their back on contactless payments, and stuffing their cash into envelopes to easily manage their money.

The search term ‘cash envelope stuffing’ on TikTok has 426 million views, while the hashtag for cashenvelopestuffing has over 96 million views, as the budgeting hack trend continues to grow.