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A friend told me to stop using the envelope system and switch to a cash app for budgeting. Now I'm not so sure it was the right move.
My buddy Mark in Austin kept on me for months that I was wasting time stuffing cash into envelopes every week. He swore by a popular cash app that rounds up your purchases and puts the spare change into savings. Said it was easier and more modern. So I tried it for 4 months. The app did save me about $180 in spare change, but I also overspent on groceries twice because I didn't have that physical limit of running out of cash. With envelopes, I had to stop buying once the cash was gone. Now I'm stuck wondering if the convenience is worth losing that hard stop. Has anyone else gone back to envelopes after trying an app?
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sage_dixon2d ago
Had a friend who tried the app thing for two months and wound up back in the envelope system after she accidentally blew her whole gas budget on pizza. She said missing that physical cash limit felt like driving without brakes.
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murray.spencer27d ago
Ngl I went back to envelopes after trying a budgeting app for about six months. The app made it too easy to dip into savings or just ignore the budget entirely when I was out with friends. With envelopes, when the cash is gone it's gone, no way around it. That $180 in spare change you saved is nice but it doesn't make up for overspending on groceries by probably way more than that. For me the physical limit was way more effective than any app feature.
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Totally agree with @murray.spencer, the physical limit is the whole game changer here. Once I switched back to cash I realized I was tricking myself with the app by just moving money from "groceries" to "eating out" when I was out with friends, and then feeling guilty about it later. With envelopes, I literally can't spend more than what's in there, so I actually plan my grocery runs better and don't grab random snacks at the checkout. The spare change thing is nice but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds I was bleeding on impulse buys every month.
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