Everyone is stacking their money on Tik Tok right now. Where cash stuffing comes from, why the trend to collect cash is worrying and how you can budget your money more easily and securely.
How much money do you spend on food? Attention: this includes not only the weekly shopping, but also restaurant visits, Lieferando deliveries or the morning pretzel with coffee to go from the bakery. If you add it all up, it’s no longer surprising why saving doesn’t work. Thank goodness Tik Tok has the solution for this! Cash stuffing, a new trend that Gen Z in particular is celebrating on the platform right now. More and more accounts often feature young women sorting, counting and dividing into piles their monthly budget in cash. The result is recorded in nicely structured planners, the money kept in colorful binders.
This is how influencers promote budgeting for their own money. Every area of life has a budget that you have to stick to. In this way, they can keep an eye on their spending and keep the impulse to buy under control. Sounds logical but also quite old-fashioned – and of all people from a generation that was born with a smartphone in their hands?
Translated, cash stuffing means “stuffing cash” – and by that means methods such as a checkout or budget planning. This is not a new financial planning strategy, it used to be called keeping a household book or budgeting. But why is this method now finding its way back to us via Tik Tok?
A Schufa survey from May 2022 shows: 99 percent of the young people surveyed agreed that financial reserves and savings are important. At the same time, the number of people who get into debt through online purchases and installment payments has been increasing for years. Clearly divided budgets and the safe feeling that cash in hand gives are just what you need.
A budget book is generally a great idea to get an overview of income and expenses, to identify and clean out cost hogs. Plus, budgeting creates value for wages, labor, and the luxuries of everything from air travel to new clothes.
In fact, paying with cash does have some advantages. We spend less in cash. According to studies, shopping and paying with a card is classified as significantly more satisfying and rewarding – and our consumption is increasing. With a credit card or in online shops, we are therefore much more generous.
In addition, online offers tempt people to make quick purchases, and installment payment offers tempt people to accumulate debt. (By the way, this trend already existed on Tik Tok: Young people use it to show how much debt they have accumulated, for example because of the installment payments with Klarna.)
You can read about why sustainable financial planning is important from a young age in this short article or watch this video on our YouTube channel here.
One of the biggest downsides that isn’t mentioned in any of the cash stuffing videos is the depreciation of the cash. Especially in times of inflation, young people want more control over their spending and gain financial security. That fueled the trend. Inflation means that money that is at home or in the bank loses value! With rising prices, your money loses purchasing power.
In this video of our finance flat share, we explain why your money loses value and why you earn less in times of inflation despite a salary increase:
It is therefore better to invest savings that you will not need in the near future. Watch this video to learn how to get started:
In addition, cash is being used less and less; especially in countries like Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands or Ireland. This shows that the global trend tends towards digital numbers. Also, it is not very safe to have much of your wealth in cash at home or in your pocket because of the possibility of burglary or robbery.
However, the basic idea of budgeting and keeping track of your finances is a great way to save and avoid unnecessary spending! But why bother with cash when it’s easier, more modern and more secure digitally?
If cash stuffing appeals to you that it works traditionally with pen and paper, then keep a budget book and enter your income and expenses conscientiously. But no tricks, every expense, no matter how small, must be written down! It is best to work here with a subdivision into areas such as “food” or “clothes”. If you have an overview of your expenses, you can clear things out – where are you throwing money out the window, which streaming services or fitness memberships do you no longer need, etc… If you know what you need and want to spend your money on, you can plan budgets . Are your hobbies worth the money or is there a cheaper way? If you want to save for a big goal, you can also create sub-accounts in your checking account and deposit monthly savings there. This is particularly useful for larger travel plans.
However, all this can be done just as well without paperwork: with Finanzpps. Because apps can also divide your monthly salary into budgets, they record your expenses directly with the card by being linked to all your accounts, even PayPal. And you can cancel unnecessary charges directly from the app. Here you will find good alternatives to cash stuffing with cash; both housekeeping apps that keep an eye on your expenses, as well as tips for the classic housekeeping book with pen and paper or Excel spreadsheet:
You finally want to know why you are in the red every month? Then track your finances with a budget app. You can find out which app is best for this here.
Author: Franziska Laßotta
This article was written by Alisha Ogidan
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The original of this post “Why the new Tik-Tok trend of stacking cash is of no use to anyone” comes from Kleingeldhelden.
