Cash envelope system felt dumb until I tried it for real

I used to roll my eyes at people posting their envelope budgets. Felt like a fad. Then I lost track of spending for the 4th time in Pittsburgh and gave it a shot for 60 days. Seeing actual $20 bills leave my hand at a diner or the hardware store hit different than tapping a card. I cut my eating out from $310 a month to $180 without even trying hard. Anyone else find the physical cash thing works better than tracking apps?

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piper_reed15d ago

Sounds nice but you're basically just making it annoying to spend money so you spend less. That's not the envelope system, that's friction. Same thing happens if you delete your card from the app or make yourself log every purchase by hand. The cash didn't do anything magic, you just felt the pain more. I tried envelopes for two months and yeah I spent less, but I also spent 20 minutes at a register digging for ones while people waited behind me, and I paid a late fee on a bill because my gas envelope was empty. The apps didn't fail you. You just stopped swiping.

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