[Nicola]

Hello from England – I am trying to understand all about cash stuffing budgeting etc, It seems quite overwhelmin. I have got the The Budget by Paycheque Workbook and I am reading her boom “My Money MY Way”.

I wanted to ask is it best to have an Emergency Fund inplace before starting the actual cash stuffing?

[Elloise]

I’m also from the UK. I struggled with using cash due to a lot of places being cashless now and our lack of high street banks to make withdrawals.

I do cashless budgeting so leave the money in my account and use an app to track each “envelope” instead of using a physical one e.g food, health & beauty.

You can also print cashless trackers and keep those in your purse (I used to do this but the app is free and I don’t have to print and cut out the trackers each month!).

You can start your emergency fund whenever. I take a little bit from each time we get paid and add to it. It soon builds up.

[Jasmine]

UK, here, too. The cash stuffing is separate from your emergency fund.

The first step would be to go through your last couple of months of expenses. Figure out where your money is going and use THAT information to make an educated decision on how much money to allocate to each category.

You need to be 100% sure that you’ve got enough money in your bank account(s) to cover any direct debits or standing orders and once you’re clear on that, you can start your cash stuffing.

I actually set up an online-only bank account once I had my regular payments understood and I now get paid into that. I swap enough money into my old account each month to cover the regular payments, send a small amount to a savings account and then allocate out what is left.

Don’t miss: What is one thing/advice you wish you knew when you started budgeting?

[Elizabeth]

I’m also in the UK. Since Covid I am almost cashless. I find it helps to use the cash tracker cards to note my spending and how much I have left in each category.

I started at the beginning of the year and have just got my spending under control so I no longer dip into my savings. I have built up a bank cushion for unexpected expenses and I am just starting to build up an emergency fund.

Now I am tracking my spending I am in much more control and have cut my spending in several categories.

[Julz]

No! After budgeting and cash stuffing for a year and watching so many other you tubers I personally think it’s better to put cash towards things coming up so essentially sinking funds so things like birthdays Christmas if you have any events or maybe a big hair session etc so that you have the money there!

If you focus fully on emergency fund then you will find yourself dipping in to it for things you could have saved towards!

I would personally say they go hand in hand! So put some money towards your emergency fund for sure but also to sinkings funds even if initially they are not ‘necessities’ xx

[Kendra]

Yes, in my opinion.

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