Do you keep cash at home?

[Running the race]

We use a cash envelope system, so at the beginning of the month I have around $1,500 dollars in the house. By the end it's lots less! :)

[celticmom]

Your dh is very smart. After Hurricane Katrina, it was cash-only for a good, long time. Credit card machines require phone lines that were knocked out!

 

:iagree:Three families in dh's extended family stayed together after Katrina and we were the only family that brought a significant amount in emergency cash with us.

[GingerPoppy]

A very short-term issue at ONE store with credit cards and checks used on discretionary items is quite different than an entire region not being able to electronically process sales on basic provisions. One, it's not nearly as practical to slow down transactions when you have lines of people out the door. Two, in a "needs" scenario, they aren't concerned about sales, because they don't have to be (see above re lines out the door).

 

It's just a completely different scenario. In your case, there was a short-term glitch at one store that sold discretionary items. The 'outside world' at large was not affected. That is not a valid comparison to a long-term issue at EVERY store, with people trying to buy the bare essentials, and with the world outside the stores massively affected as well with a myriad of additional issues (so that it's certainly not as simple as just driving out of town for supplies).

 

In the event of a true local emergency, you will want cash, I promise you.

:iagree:

[GingerPoppy]

I thought "Do you keep cash at home?" followed immediately by "and where? wallet? glove compartment? freezer? mattress? safe?" What's the combination? anything cute and memorable? just curious :lol:

 

I know no one here is really fishing for theft opportunities, but it's funny how much one is willing to share "among friends" online that you would never put on a billboard.

Hey, if someone wants to figure out who and where I am, drive up to Canada, break into my house, find my cash stash, and risk jail just to get my paltry couple hundred dollars... well, I am convinced that simply wouldn't happen.

 

Also, I assume that the vast majority of houses have couple hundred dollars somewhere, but that is not really an enticing reason to break into someone's house. Too much risk for too little payoff. Criminals either want a bigger payoff (house with fine jewelry or expensive electronics) or a smaller risk job, like maybe grabbing a purse out of a car.

 

In other words, I'm not remotely worried. I'd put the info on an actual billboard under a user name with no identifying information, without blinking.

[brehon]

I think that the fears of not having cash are a little over exaggerated. I used to be the cash manager at a very large electronics store (think bigger than Best Buy). One time I couldn't bring our registers up before opening (major IT issue) so we couldn't even ring up transactions and yet we still managed to conduct sales until I could get the IT department to get the system up and running. We used a calculator and accepted checks, cash and processed credit card transactions the old fashioned way and this was for non-essential items. Of course, I am an old timer and I remember before everything was computer based so I knew that it could be done. It is possible that some store managers may have no idea how to conduct business if there systems are down. I would think that ones concerned about sales would figure it out pretty quick though.

 

ETA: Come to think of it, I remember when we had a tab down at the general store. Yeah, I am that old. ;)

 

Hmmm...I don't think most stores even have the "old fashioned" card swipers any more. [Can I say how funny it feels to type "old fashioned" and "card swiper" in the same sentence? :tongue_smilie:] And most clerks probably wouldn't know how to use them even if they did. Many stores who take checks, at least in my area, run the checks through the cash register in some sort of verification (of funds?) procedure.

 

I'd hazard a guess that almost everyone who reads these boards lives in an area which could suffer a major natural disaster: hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, major floods, wild fires, etc. A sustained regional outage of power (so, not just one or two stores in a given locale) would make life very difficult for people to obtain necessary supplies. Even a short term outage could adversely affect people who haven't made any emergency preparations.

 

Having lived through most of the above natural disasters in my life I've found that cash on the barrel head to be a life saver. Our emergency preparations include a stash of cash.

[Heather in AL]

A very short-term issue at ONE store with credit cards and checks used on discretionary items is quite different than an entire region not being able to electronically process sales on basic provisions. One, it's not nearly as practical to slow down transactions when you have lines of people out the door. Two, in a "needs" scenario, they aren't concerned about sales, because they don't have to be (see above re lines out the door).

 

It's just a completely different scenario. In your case, there was a short-term glitch at one store that sold discretionary items. The 'outside world' at large was not affected. That is not a valid comparison to a long-term issue at EVERY store, with people trying to buy the bare essentials, and with the world outside the stores massively affected as well with a myriad of additional issues (so that it's certainly not as simple as just driving out of town for supplies).

 

In the event of a true local emergency, you will want cash, I promise you.

 

:iagree: Back in April when the tornadoes whipped through here, and power was out for six days, cash was important. ATMs didn't work for a few days and stores couldn't process CCs and wouldn't take checks. Gradually, generators rolled in and ATMs were brought online at various locations, so that made getting cash easier.

 

I've seen posters mention having money at two separate banks. That's smart in general, but wouldn't have helped in a situation like ours.

 

That said, however, those scenarios are (thankfully) rare, and as such, one shouldn't need a lot of cash on hand.

 

In a perfect 'prep' bag, I would have at least $200 in various denominations and coins. When we first ventured out after the tornadoes, I had with me a bunch of ones and change (left over from a garage sale) in addition to $20 in fives, two $10 bills, and some $20s, as I wanted to try to have as close to exact change as I could because we had no idea what we would find at the store. It turned out that they had a small generator, and had powered their debit machine with it. We did see several people unable to pay, however, because they only had checks or CCs.

 

So, to answer the OPs question, yes, we do have some cash, but it's certainly not a lot. In fact, it's less than some people keep in their wallets.

[KAR120C]

Hey, if someone wants to figure out who and where I am, drive up to Canada, break into my house, find my cash stash, and risk jail just to get my paltry couple hundred dollars... well, I am convinced that simply wouldn't happen.

 

Also, I assume that the vast majority of houses have couple hundred dollars somewhere, but that is not really an enticing reason to break into someone's house. Too much risk for too little payoff. Criminals either want a bigger payoff (house with fine jewelry or expensive electronics) or a smaller risk job, like maybe grabbing a purse out of a car.

 

In other words, I'm not remotely worried. I'd put the info on an actual billboard under a user name with no identifying information, without blinking.

It's not the random stranger driving all the way to Canada from NC that I'd worry about... it's the weird next door neighbor who quietly cyberstalks you, who you never knew had any idea who you were online, but who keeps track of just a little too much detail and fills in with neighborhood gossip. Between messageboards and blogs and FB, it can be unreasonably easy to figure out who's who if you have even a slight connection... And I've always thought if I were to cyberstalk someone (not like I have that kind of time *or* inclination!) I'd cast a wide impersonal net on a messageboard, get several dozen responses that I didn't care about, and wait for the one that I wanted. If that's not enough, drum up a little righteous indignation and people will seriously overshare.

[beaners]

If I do, I wouldn't admit to it on the net :tongue_smilie:

 

I'm even more shocked when people discuss this in person at gatherings with many people. It's great if you want people to plan for the unexpected, but I wouldn't tell a group of people that you keep at least $X on hand for emergencies. Even if none of them would take advantage of you, who knows how freely they would share that information with others.

 

I read an article once about where thieves are most likely to look for valuables. If I get a chance later I'll try to look it up. Let's just say I would never hide any valuables in the bedroom if I happened to have any. (Ha! My wedding band was $25, so we aren't really the place to come looking.)