Cash at Home

[Deleted]

How much cash do you keep at home? At this point we have $0. We could maybe scrape up a hundred or so in change. I want to get some cash to have on hand in case of emergencies, but I don't know how much. The thought of having a couple of thousands just sitting at home kind of scares me for some reason. So, how much do you have and where do you keep it?

[Deleted]

We keep about $30 in singles in our butcher block for tips for food delivery.

[ssmjlm]

We have $100 in our safe. After Hurricane Isabel cash was the only way to buy anything as tons of stuff was w/o power.

Now that I think about it, we should probably up that to $200 in reality.

[SJ]

We don't keep any cash at home.

We rarely carry any either.

[chessie]

I have 0. For any real emergency I have ever been in locally, all stores were closed anyway.

[sillygoosegirl]

We try to keep about $200 at home in cash.

[Deleted]

We try to keep $100 or so. We mostly use it for food delivery. During Sandy, by the time stores were open again we could use our credit cards.

[Deleted]

I have about $50. H has significantly more, probably $1,000+.

[dexteroni]

We don't keep cash at home - just what's in our wallets, which is hardly any. What kind of emergencies are you thinking of? Because I can't imagine why I couldn't just go to the ATM for any unexpected cash-only expense. If every single ATM is down, then there's probably something very huge and very bad going on, and stores also won't be open or staffed to buy anything with cash.

[Deleted]

We always keep a few hundred in cash at home.

We had a major windstorm in the midwest several years ago caused by a hurricane on the gulf coast. It knocked out the power for about a week in my portion of the state. We had very little groceries or any other supplies and the stores were only taking cash....I had no cash on me...and obviously all of the ATM's and banks were down. I had to drive about an hour to find an ATM to get cash so I could buy necessities.

(This is also why I try to keep some gas in my car, because I'm pretty sure by the time I found that ATM my car was running on fumes.)

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2012 10:39:13 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

We have $100 in our safe. After Hurricane Isabel cash was the only way to buy anything as tons of stuff was w/o power.

Now that I think about it, we should probably up that to $200 in reality.

We get extra cash out when we know a hurricane (or what-have-you) is coming. But then we don't leave it lying around afterwards.

We also tend to have at least $100 in our two wallets.

[fences]

We have about $100. I try to keep enough to buy a tank of gas and a few grocery items.

[mbcdefg]

We don't keep anything around.

I rarely carry cash. MH usually has some cash on him, but maybe $50 max. We go to the ATM if we know we'll need cash for something.

We usually pick up our takeout food for this reason, plus we live within walking distance or a two-minute drive from our usual takeout places anyway.

I throw all our loose change in a jar, but I recently cashed it in (I think I got $55) so it's pretty empty right now.

[countthestars]

We have a few hundred. I don't feel the need to keep more than that in my home.

[sillygoosegirl]

For us, it's not about emergencies, it's about convenience. I have better things to do than go to the ATM most of the time.

[my4girls]

nothing. I could probably raid my kids piggy banks and come up with maybe $50-60 if I were desperate

[pitterwoo]

I could see keeping $100 or $200 dollars, but I wouldn't do more than that. H probably has that, I don't really ever have cash since I prefer to track as much of my spending as possible on my cards.

[heyrebekah]

Just whatever is in our our wallets. Maybe $100. In random places in the house? I don't really see the point of that.

[ssmjlm]

Dec 19, 2012 10:41:50 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

We don't keep cash at home - just what's in our wallets, which is hardly any. What kind of emergencies are you thinking of? Because I can't imagine why I couldn't just go to the ATM for any unexpected cash-only expense. If every single ATM is down, then there's probably something very huge and very bad going on, and stores also won't be open or staffed to buy anything with cash.

After Isabel there was no power, but ice and water were being brought in on trucks, so you could line up and pay cash for that kind of thing.

Also, it's easier for us to have it on hand, esp in smaller bills vs getting $20s out of the ATM.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2012 10:53:10 GMT -5 @vicmo said:

I've never experienced an emergency so bad that I couldn't get to an ATM or that ATMs were down. If it were a planned emergency (like a big snowstorm), we'd be more likely to stock up on food ahead of time than stock up on cash.

We dealt with that this year. But as AmeliaPond pointed out, the ATMs were down because power was out etc., and because of that there weren't many places to spend money anyway. Grocery stores and such were closed.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2012 10:39:30 GMT -5 SJ said:

We don't keep any cash at home.

We rarely carry any either.

Ditto

[ladygrey]

None, except for what happens to be in our wallets and even then, it's not very much. I hardly ever carry cash on me; I'd much rather just run to the ATM if I need some.

[takeonyou]

About $500 or so.

[winnied]

Dec 19, 2012 10:39:30 GMT -5 SJ said:

We don't keep any cash at home.

We rarely carry any either.

Same. We just started carrying our personal fun money in cash, to see how it goes, but that's it.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2012 10:59:25 GMT -5 @vicmo said:

Dec 19, 2012 10:56:58 GMT -5 v said:

We dealt with that this year. But as AmeliaPond pointed out, the ATMs were down because power was out etc., and because of that there weren't many places to spend money anyway. Grocery stores and such were closed.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. (Or were you agreeing with me?)

Just adding to it

[jackpackage]

We keep about $500-600 hidden. My BIL is a former police officer and it was something he learned in academy.

eta: posted too soon. We don't keep it in a safe, but he suggested that we offer it if we have a break-in. Instead we use it to tip delivery drivers, buy Girl Scout cookies and other "emergencies" .

[biscoffcookies]

We have a couple hundred. I decided to do this after Sandy -- I read stories about people in the NYC area who were trying to buy things at some of the open bodegas and other stores and finding out that those stores were only accepting cash. Those same people said that the nearby ATMs were not working, so they were SOL.

I'm not going to keep my life savings in a mattress or anything, but it gives me some peace of mind to know we have enough to get a few supplies should the need arise.

[calico]

None and we rarely carry cash.

[noodleoo]

We have a few hundred. My H took a bunch out for Y2K and I think he just kept it. We almost never use it and I keep telling him to deposit it in the bank, but he seems to like having it at home. I just think it is funny that we've had it for YEARS and we forget that it is even there.

[glitzy07]

$0.

And it's amazing if I have more than a few pennies in my wallet too. Although I have been carrying around a $1 bill for about a month now.