While there is excitement about heading into the new year, many people will be worried about how they will take care of their expenses due to rising costs of food and petrol as well as an increase in interest rates.
As consumers face tough financial times, it’s hard to imagine them saving money when they are all financially stretched to capacity.
However, with even more price increases predicted, it is imperative to have money saved up to stop living from pay cheque to pay cheque.
Cash stuffing which is similar to the envelope method is a new way people are saving money.
Cash stuffing is where people count their money then separate it into colourful envelopes or clear sleeves in a binder, are labelled with the name of a particular category such as ‘groceries’ or fuel’.
A new spin on the cash stuffing trend is the “100 envelope challenge”. This challenge has 100 envelopes that start from R10 and go up to R1 000. Each envelope will have it’s own value, such as R280 or R450, and the value of each envelope increases by R10. This means that the first envelope will be R10, the second envelope will be R20 and the third envelope will be R30 and so on, all the way to R1 000.
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People can then start cash stuffing each envelope with the amount of money on the front of the envelope. By the end of the challenge and after you filled all of your envelopes you would have saved R50 500.
It’s important to note that you don’t have cash stuff your envelopes every day; instead, you can do your cash stuffing whenever you have money.
Here is how you can start the 100 envelope challenge:
1. Get organised
Whether using regular or colourful envelopes or clear sleeves, it is important that you get organised. Have a binder or folder that will hold all of your envelopes or sleeves; you don’t want to lose an envelope or the money inside it.
Find a dry, safe and secure place in your home where you can keep all of your envelopes, especially if you have kids in the house.
2. Label
You should write down on the envelopes or create labels for your binder sleeves to show the different values ranging from R10 to R1 000.
3. Envelope checklist
Have a checklist where you can tick off all of the envelopes you have completed. You can also colour in the blocks, as in the video.
4. Be disciplined
Don’t start cash stuffing and then forget about it. To ensure you are really saving money, you need to be disciplined with your cash stuffing. Remember that you have to constantly work on your cash stuffing.
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