Cash Stuffing

I came across this term “cash stuffing” when I was flicking through my instagram Search page. I saw this woman’s hands with a cutie little binder and she was jamming money into little envelopes talking about Cash Stuffing and how it’s a great way to bring awareness to your finances and how to start budgeting. Since I am on my way to improving my financial relationship + I like cute things, I’ve decided to give Cash Stuffing a go and thought I would share the journey and process with y’all. Now, that being said - keep in mind I’ve just started this, so this blog post is going to be focused on getting set up and the approach I took to the challenge and then I will write a follow up in about a month, to let you know if my ADHD brain lost my little binder OR if it’s a system that works for me!

1. Get yourself a little cash stuffing binder

I got mine from Amazon because that’s where I went before looking around to see other options (and if you know me, I don’t do my research…like…ever. ) In any case, I had an Amazon gift card so I actually purchased 2 (one is a gift for a friend of mine - shhhhh!). Anywho, here is the link to the one I purchased: CASH STUFFING BINDER

If you want to avoid supporting Amazon and want to support other folks, check out Baddies and Budgets - they have really cool ones! Once mine wears out I will be grabbing one of their beauties!

2. Figure out your ideal budget

For this part, I went to my bank account and looked at 4 random months purchases to give me an average of how much I was spending on certain categories and then considered how much I wanted to be spending on certain categories. I also used this to see where I was most likely to spend money consistently, whether or not I had the income to back it up! I liked to do it this way, because as much as I would like to say I’ll only spend $50 on clothing in a month, if I’ve been previously spending $300+ a month on it, I don’t think it’s a realistic goal at the moment.

My previous spending habits:

Books - $300
Clothes - $200
Food (takeout, coffee, etc.) - $200
Photography - $200

My dedicated budget for the next month:

Books - $100
Clothes - $100
Food (takeout, coffee, etc.) - $200
Photography - $100

I also arrived at these numbers by looking at what I was spending and WHY. For books, I will usually buy 2-3 books on the same subject at the same time, but I won’t necessarily read them all at the same time. By reducing my budget for books, I will be more intentional about the books I choose, making sure I’ve read them before purchasing new ones! Similarly with clothing - I looked at why I was spending $200+ a month on clothes and why. I’ve talked about this before, but I usually buy clothes when I’m bored/feel insecure and it is most often an impulse purchase and because it is spent ONLINE most of the time, I don’t even see the money leaving my bank account until a few days later and then YIKES! Food I kept the same, BUT the difference is being intentional about what I am getting for that $200/mo. I will be less likely to spend that on just a quick trip to the drive thru, when I know I want to spend it on hanging out with friends. Essentially, I want to maximize the $200. Then, lastly, photography - this essentially was how much I was spending on buying/developing film every month. Film is not a cheap hobby and I have been known to “waste” my film in an effort to finish my rolls - so this will give me pause before getting them all developed. The other thing I do is save up all my film because I don’t want to drive downtown for like, 2 rolls of film so I wait until I have 5+ which obviously costs a lot more all at once.

3. Go to the bank and actually take out money

Go to the bank??? That’s so silly! I rarely go to the bank unless I need to cash a US cheque or talk to someone about my accounts, so having to visit the bank monthly to withdraw actual cash is a good practice in keeping myself accountable. Because so much is done online, I recognize that convenience is something I will opt for if I have the ability to do so and this removes me from my money. My plan is to make money withdraw day like a celebratory date day or something of that nature.

4. Now it’s time to stuff!

Now, comes the fun part! Taking your cash and divvying it up into different envelopes for the different categories you want to budget! I had a bit of cash lying around after having to pay some folks for modeling for me, so I took another envelope and called it “savings” with the plan being that any money that doesn’t get spent out of the envelopes at the end of the month will go into the SAVINGS folder and once it hits $1500 then that goes into my investments! This might not sound fun for you, but I love a good gamification! My little binder came with some words so I stuck those on having to be clever about a few (gifts = photographer, education = books), then I moved everything over from my old wallet to this new wallet binder!

Now, one of the concerns I had was about how to handle online purchases because it is inevitable….at some point I am going to buy something online so how does that factor in? Well, just the other day after I used up my Amazon gift card, I wanted to buy….you guessed it…a book! So, I put ONE book in the cart and then immediately paid the banker: my husband in cash (my Amazon is attached to our joint credit card). So, anything I purchase online I use a specific credit card and then have to use cash to pay it off immediately.

The other thought that came up for me, was the idea that this is “restricting” myself from abundance - but I realized it was actually in fact, the opposite. This process is designed to help me become more intentional in what I’m spending in why and to encourage conversations between myself and my money instead of slipping into default “purchase anything you want because you don’t want to feel an emotion” way of being. I don’t see this as restricting but rather as a form of relearning - how to bless my money to get it to do what I want it to do. Give it direction, so to speak!

And what if I want to buy things outside of these categories? Then that’s fair game until the following month and I decide to add it in as well! Basically, I am just turning this into a game to see what can happen and to train myself to be more intentional with my spending.

Why is this important as a creative entrepreneur? I found that when I was in my business, I would spend so much money on shit I didn’t need/want, but somehow I still bought it impulsively. Being intentional about the purchases I make for my business allow me to be more strategic and smart and thinking like a business instead of someone who tries to cover up their lack of value with stuff. Learning different techniques just gives us more options to not only make more money, but also to keep more money so that we can spend it on people and place and things that are truly in alignment with who we are and not who we think we should be.