Rant: People think envelope budgeting means hiding cash in your mattress

I had a coworker say cash only folks are just paranoid, until I showed her my 5 envelope system from last month with $320 allocated for groceries and $80 for gas. She thought we just stuff cash in random places with no plan at all.

2 comments

2 Comments

the_beth5d ago

Oh come on, envelope budgeting is literally just hiding cash in a drawer with a label. My grandma did that with her "egg money" jar on the counter. Five envelopes labeled groceries and gas is still just physical cash sitting around. You could lose a whole envelope. Or get robbed. Or your house burns down. At least with a card I have fraud protection and don't have to worry about the dog eating my gas money.

zarapalmer5d ago

And the whole point of envelopes is that it forces you to physically see the money leave, which is exactly what cards try to hide from you, @the_beth. You're right that cash has risks, but so does swiping a card and not realizing you spent $200 on takeout until the statement comes. I'd rather lose an envelope of cash than wake up to a bank notification for a subscription I forgot about.