Cash is King
Who could ever imagine thirty years ago that a black and white photocopied masthead full of community news would end up as a digital issue – or even what that meant back then (something to do with watches? Or fingers?)
The world is vastly different to 1993, but on closer inspection, while everything seems different, much has stayed the same.
Take budgeting. We all know about the bill stress that Millennials are experiencing, aren’t we all, but it’s worse for them because they can’t get a foothold in the property market. Paying diabolical Sydney rents, not to mention escalating utilities bills, is hard enough. On top of that is the ever-present enviro-guilt tugging at us as we purchase that chicken on special in the non-recyclable polystyrene tray, or take a long-awaited flight on a Covid-delayed trip of a lifetime (surely carbon offsets don’t actually work?)
So, I was pleased to read about a brand-new budgeting system for the twenty-somethings called Cash Stuffing, taking the world by storm. It’s proved fantastically successful in helping youngsters manage their income versus outgoings. I have two adult children, so I read on with keen interest to learn more.
I first skimmed the article and then read it again twice, to make sure I hadn’t missed anything or misunderstood – I am a Gen Xer after all, prone to memory lapses and incomprehension in all things learned from The Internet. But no, I hadn’t missed anything, and I was pretty sure I understood it just fine. This new and innovative budgetary system involves withdrawing your salary each month and then ‘stuffing’ it into labelled envelopes – rent, utilities, groceries etc. In other words, spending cash.
Can you imagine if a Baby Boomer came up with this idea? Tentatively suggested to their children that perhaps using cash, like in ‘our’ day, would help them see the money physically dwindle before their eyes? Casually mentioned that perhaps the modern way of tap ‘n’ go makes it all too easy to overspend? But it’s okay, because Cash Stuffing was popularised (invented) on TikTok, an app only launched seven years ago and used predominantly by Millennials and Gen Zedders.
I meekly sat through dozens of cash stuffing explainer videos where I was led on a step-by-step process of labelling sleeves or envelopes, and the whys and wherefores of only putting money in ‘Fun’ every other month.
A whole craft industry of colour coded envelopes has sprung up out of this need. Specific wallets lined with plastic binders abound, pre-printed with headings like ‘petrol’ or ‘entertainment’. One helpful piece of TikTok advice, up to 186,600 views and counting, is to occasionally have dinner with your folks, ‘because, you know, it’s free and they’d love to see you sometime’, advice no doubt in priority order.
It turns out that a thirty-year cycle is a thing with a name – the nostalgia pendulum. It’s basically when consumers come of age and start shaping the culture themselves. It’s no coincidence that marketers continue peddling the nostalgia ads – think Vegemite, Cottee’s, Drumsticks. Music choice is critical to success as the number one cultural association across all decades. Brand evolution is also cyclical – the latest Burger King ‘flat design’ logo, ‘reflecting a new era for Burger King and its commitment to fresher, cleaner ingredients’ - is very similar in colour palette to its 1994 logo.
There are about a million other examples of stuff that’s rolled back in. My daughter just bought a pair of Crocs, which she says she’s going to live in. Crocs! Another throwback from thirty years ago! My mother-in-law initially formed a low opinion of me when we first met in 1991 because I was wearing cut-off shorts - I was a backpacker with a limited wardrobe - but she says they were a bad look and gave a poor first impression. (I’m sure I would have made a bigger effort had I known it was my future husband’s mother and I’d be emigrating to Australia – you see what a long bow that was). I recently bought another pair of shorts with a frayed hem which I pointed out to her the other day. ‘Yeah’, she said, ‘they were like that. But today they are in fashion.’
All kinds of looks roll in and out on a continuum – bootleg jeans, miniskirts, kitten heels, wedges. Black and white wedding photographs, seen as stylish and timeless by modern happy couples, are considered old fashioned and cheap by their parents’ generation, who would’ve loved their nuptials captured in technicolour. The hirsute look is definitely back in and seems here to stay, along with tattoos and body piercings.
My two-bobs worth for the cash stuffers is this: buy envelopes from Coles instead of investing more of your hard-earned salary into a fancy craft system. And make a TikTok, to help you explain the concept of cash to your own children in another thirty years.