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October 22, 2022
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Manicured fingers meticulously place cash in transparent envelopes marked "food," "gas" and other categories, demonstrating in a TikTok video a retro technique for controlling what you spend that is newly popular with some money-conscious Americans.
Returning to cash to control spending may be old fashioned, but in an era of high inflation, a growing number of consumers find that it works.
Judia Griner, 25, started "cash stuffing" two years ago when she was a student at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Now, her TikTok account has more than 200,000 followers.
"I was like, I need to somehow use my own money to pay off the tuition so I won't be in too much debt," Griner told AFP.
"I realized that I had no idea how to do that, because I just didn't know how much money I had," she said.
"I would swipe my card, and I would just kind of cross my fingers and hope that it wouldn't be declined."
It was a similar situation for 31-year-old Jasmine Taylor, who launched her Tiktok channel in February 2021 and now has more than 620,000 followers.
"I had a degree but no outlook for a job. My finances were bad," Taylor, a Texan, said. "I was a pretty big impulse shopper."
Both women decided the way to turn around their spending behavior was to rely on the technique of paying cash for everything.
Once they cash in their pay checks, they separate it into different envelopes for specific expenses -- rent, shopping, etc.
On TikTok, the hashtag #cashstuffing has now reached more than 930 million views.
- Old method, proven results -
The method is reminiscent of the age-old piggy bank system, and was popularized in its current form 20 years ago by financial guru Dave Ramsey, before the era of smartphones and contactless payments.
Despite being outdated and at times inconvenient -- some businesses refuse to accept cash -- the method has allowed Griner to save $7,500 to finance her education.
"The card didn't feel like real money to me," Griner said.
But using cold cash made it very real.
"I could physically see myself spending all my cash and it just went away and that's what helped me curb my spending," she said.
Taylor, too, saw immediate results. She pays 95 percent of her expenses in cash, got rid of $32,000 in student debt, $8,000 in credit card debt and $5,000 in health care debt.
Wracking up debt is a national affliction in a country with abundant credit card offerings that goad households to take on more and more loans.
"It's a problem that my generation kind of suffers from: consumerism and just overspending everything," Griner said.
- Sense of comfort -
For Priya Malani, founder of Stash Wealth, a financial advisory service for young professionals, the economic downturn plays a role in the current success of the envelope system.
"With so many insane headlines -- crypto crashes, market pullbacks, looming recession, the list goes on -- it makes sense that people are looking for a little more control," Malani said.
"A dollar bill you hold in your hand provides that comfort."
But, Jason Howell, a wealth management professor at American University warned that "2023 is probably the worst time to keep your cash in your house" because it earns no interest and depreciates.
Taylor, who keeps her envelopes stuffed with small bills in a fireproof safe in her home, is well aware of this. She still deposits money in the bank when she saves $1,000 or more.
The two experts acknowledge that there is no broader movement back to cash in the United States, where the trend has been the gradual decline of cash in favor of card or mobile payments.
In 2022, about four in ten Americans (41 percent) said they would not make any cash purchases in a typical week, compared to only 24 percent in 2015, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.
According to Griner, the envelope method still represents "the perfect kind of system for a beginner" to manage a budget.
For her, the change has been dramatic: "I trust myself with money."
Howell said that sense of control is a notable achievement.
"It makes you think, it's the greatest benefit of this system," Howell said.
© Agence France-Presse
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Actors from the smash-hit comedy series "Ted Lasso" will meet President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday to discuss the importance of mental health, the administration said Sunday.
The Apple TV+ series, whose third season premiered March 15, delves into various characters' mental health, with storylines tackling issues with bullying, anger, relationships and self-esteem, as well as panic attacks.
The show stars Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, an out-of-his-depth American football coach who is recruited to lead a dysfunctional English soccer club in the aftermath of its owners' divorce, and as Lasso faces his own mental health issues.
The president and First Lady Jill Biden "will welcome Jason Sudeikis and the cast of Ted Lasso to the White House to discuss the importance of addressing your mental health to promote overall well-being," the White House said in a statement.
"'Ted Lasso' has inspired the world through its universal themes around optimism, kindness, and determination, and the Lasso philosophy to 'believe,'" Apple TV+ said in a statement, as reported by entertainment news outlet Deadline.
Biden on Sunday tweeted a photo of the Oval Office with a sign reading "BELIEVE" taped above the door -- a reference to Lasso's mantra.
The Biden administration said it has expanded mental health resources for young people and provided nearly $500 million to help states transition to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Anyone experiencing a mental health or suicide crisis can access confidential counseling by calling or texting 988 in the United States to reach the hotline.
"Ted Lasso" won Emmys in 2022 and 2021 for best comedy, best lead actor in a comedy for Sudeikis and best supporting actor in a comedy for Brett Goldstein, among other wins.
After winning in 2021, Sudeikis said the show was about family, mentors and teachers, and teammates.
"And I wouldn't be here without those three things in my life," he said.
© Agence France-Presse
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With its cactus-filled garden and breathtaking views of the rocky peaks of the Arizona desert, Wendy and Vance Walker's home in the Rio Verde Foothills seemed to be a little slice of paradise.
Until the water was cut off.
The neighboring city of Scottsdale decided it could no longer afford to sell its dwindling supply from the Colorado River, as a decades-long drought bites the American West.
For three months, the couple have eaten from disposable paper plates, had lightning-quick showers only every few days and collected rainwater to flush their toilets.
"A lot of people don't take the drought seriously," said Wendy, as she stood in the kitchen of their $600,000 home.
"And we, even though we live in the desert, we really didn't take it seriously either.
"Until you have to."
- Tankers -
Homes in fast-growing Rio Verde Foothills have never had running water -- there are no mains pipes -- so the 500 households without access to their own wells bought tankerloads from Scottsdale.
Most of that city's supply comes from the Colorado River, a mighty watercourse that rises in the Rocky Mountains and winds 1,450 miles (2,300 kilometers) through seven US states and Mexico, providing a lifeline for 40 million people.
But what was one of the world's great rivers has now shrunk.
Human-caused climate change means the once-bountiful snowpack that feeds the river has dwindled.
What snow there is melts more quickly because of higher temperatures, and more is lost to evaporation.
What does become river water is subject to a more than century-old agreement on who can take how much.
That agreement, made when it rained more and there were fewer inhabitants, was always a fiddle -- a political fix that allowed users to take more water than was added every year.
Now the federal government in Washington has told river users that the difference must be brought into balance: they must slash consumption by a quarter.
City managers in Scottsdale, faced with meeting their own targets, decided Rio Verde Foothills -- which they view as profligate development -- would no longer be able to buy their water.
On January 1, they closed the city's supply station to delivery drivers like John Hornewer, who says he now has to drive for hours to find enough water to fill his 6,000-gallon (22,000-liter) tanker.
He reluctantly doubled his prices to cover the extra cost of the gasoline and the overtime.
"We've become the first domino to fall and feel the effect of what a drought actually means," he told AFP.
"As water becomes more and more scarce, and it becomes more and more valuable, cities and communities are going to want to protect their own."
Public or private ownership
Arizona state officials stepped in last month to urge Scottsdale -- run by the Democratic Party -- to offer an accommodation to Rio Verde Foothills, an unincorporated settlement in Republican Party-run Maricopa County.
For a transitional period, Scottsdale would be allowed to buy additional water and -- for a cost -- reauthorize deliveries.
There was one catch: the county would have to cough up the cash.
Maricopa officials balked, and negotiations are stalled.
Ultimately, Rio Verde Foothills knows it will have to come up with a stable solution, and the town's residents are at loggerheads with each other over how to do that.
Scottsdale wants Rio Verde Foothills to establish a public body that will be able to plan for the long term, and will be subject to the same government rules as other water suppliers.
But well owners in Rio Verde Foothills say such a body would effectively be sucking their water out from underneath them and redistributing it to others. Why should others get what we have paid for, they ask.
- 'Drunk on growth' -
The uncertainty was too much for Lothar Rowe, a German immigrant who has 50 horses on a ranch in Rio Verde Foothills, where he has lived for two decades.
He splashed out $500,000 for a piece of land with its own well -- good for as long as the aquifers are.
"I can't believe it," says the 86-year-old.
"We're talking about the United States: they went to the Moon, they're trying to go to Mars, and they have no water here."
Fellow resident Rusty Childress said the problem stemmed from head-in-the-sand development.
"The issue from the very beginning was that we were all in denial," the 64-year-old told AFP.
"Nobody really thought this was going to happen."
Childress, a photographer, says developers exploit legal loopholes and continue to build in the area, despite not being able to guarantee the luxury homes they sell will have water.
"Buyer beware! No water in Rio Verde," reads a sign he put up in front of his house warning people who come to tour the half-built housing estates nearby.
"We're getting drunk on growth here," he says.
"But we can't have out-of-control growth with a real water issue."
© Agence France-Presse
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