I don't know about BOBs, but I know that when travelling by car, a couple hundred bucks in small bills is SOP. It solves a lot of problems and gets you out of dicey situations.

It also rewards honest citizens/Good Samaritans who stop and help you out. Most people won't accept "payment;" but the offer is important, and you can say "have a beer on me" or "donate it to your favourite charity." If they still turn it down, say "no problem, I'll just pay it forward;" good people get that.

BTW, in out-of-the-way gas stations, I still see the old card machines. They use them when the lines are too slow, provided you have other ID.

I have bills hidden in my belt (sshhh!) that range from $5-100 in denomination. Canadians love the $1/$2 coins - I like to keep a roll of each as well for vending machines. But add to the money things like pre-loaded credit cards and telephone cards (make sure they don't have expiry date!) Not a bad idea to add a little foreign currency as well.

BTW, nobody is going to keep a BOB unattended for 30 years, it has to be updated or review regularly (ie. 6-12 months) You never know when a local event will require you to relocate temporarily - (Heavy rain, flooding, tornado, ice storm, power outage, etc).

In a non-TEOTWAWKI type disaster, cash is king.

Have as much as you can, but no more than you can afford to lose (depending on how you store your cash, in a BOB, home safe, etc.) Supplement that amount if and when you see trouble coming.

A number of valid points made here and I offer one more for consideration. In addition to the larger denomination bills, 5, 10, & 20s that are routinely carried, carry at least 20 - $1 bills, reasonably new and clean. The rationale is simple, many vending machines take the 1's when they won't take quarters, (ie: rest areas, hospitals, hotel lobbies, etc). It might well be the difference between eating and going hungry. Additionally, it may prevent the carrier from being overcharged in a situation where the rule is cash only and little small currency is available to make change. If carried seperately from the other cash, it could be used as a diversion to get out of a bad scenario, mugging et al. YMMV.

I never said "no cash". I keep an reasonable amount on hand, but not an excessive amount. Between my wallet, my wifes wallet, our gear bags, and household drawers and hideaways we keep about $500 available. If I ever have to bug out, I expect that $500 will be enough to get me to some better location that will accept credit cards. If not, then I think the situation will be quite dire and widespread, and people will need to be thinking about bartering with tangible goods rather than hoarding more paper money that won't be worth squat.

Do I think things will likely get to the point where paper money is worthless? No, I don't. Do I think things will get to the point where my credit cards won't work after I bug out from the immediate disaster area, and that banks/etc. won't give me the money I have on deposit? No, to that question too. But if that bad situation ever does develope and I run out of my $500 of paper money, I'll put my faith in tangible goods to trade, not larger heaps of stockpiled paper money.

In the state where I live, there are still a few remote gas stations that do not accept credit cards.

I also had the experience one time returning home late from a fishing trip. It was 8PM, I was really hungry, and still a hundred miles from home. All I had was a $50 bill. I went from place to place trying to buy dinner in the tiny towns I went through and no one would accept the $50. I don't carry credit cards with me as a matter of principle, so I might as well have been broke.

In recent years I have relented and I now carry a debit card when I travel. I also keep $500 in 5,10,and 20 denomination in my BOB for emergencies, but no $50's.

Cash is tricky stuff.

First of all, it's sure to lose value, unless we go into a deflationary economic situation, which is very very bad.

Secondly, if you lose it, it's gone and there's no getting it back.

Third, you have basically no consumer protections with cash purchases.

Fourth, it's getting harder to use cash to conduct certain kinds of transactions (like buying a plane ticket).

That said, I know that there are a few limited scenarios where cash would be preferable. Blackouts are one, and a widespread failure of the telecommunications infrastructure is another. The former has happened. The latter has only happened in limited area and for limited time.

For example, did you know that there was a cable cut last week that knocked out lines for Verizon and AT&T? http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100726-713152.html

I can't even find a record of a national telecommunications infrastructure outage in the last 10 years. There's been portions, but never the whole thing. So the credit card networks will stay up, even if parts go down.

So yeah, you might need some cash. Fuel purchases seem to be the big need, but if the power is out, the pumps are out, and no cash is going to help with that.

Food might be a concern, but you don't need a lot to eat.

I'd love to open this topic up in another thread...Bug Out to WHERE and WHY and can someone, anyone, please please please give me case history in the last 40 years where we had a "Bug Out" situation that was not related to a weather incident?

I can think of only two in the USA:

Centralia PA - fire burning in coal seam under town slowly eats it. "Bug Out" consists of packing up trucks and moving away.

Love Canal, NY - chemicals dumped turn town into hazmat site.
"Bug Out" consists of packing up trucks and moving away.

And of course, there's the all-time great example of Bug Out, Chernobyl, but that's a whole different situation, we don't have plants like that here, we don't have the same concerns and the effects of even a meltdown here would be bad, but not like there.

Earthquakes have Nothing to do with the weather,So... Starting with April 18,1906 Through to January 17,1994,I had friends Bug-Out to my place,from Northridge,for 3 weeks after the '94 Northridge Quake,& I'm only referring to California from,'06 to '94 The rest of the World has had some Major,Heavy-Duty Eartquakes,& I'll bet there are people Bugging-Out from one as, I type this!

Ah! Earthquakes...Us east coasters don't think like that!

Good point!

Cash is King!
Yes, if the end of the world as we know it happens, cash will be best for keeping warm as you burn it, but beyond that, Cash is your friend.

There are times that the credit cards don't work, and there are places that they won't work. When I was doing SAR in remote locations I would always carry at least $200 in my pack, becouse there are not ATM's in the wilderness and you can buy a boat ride home with cash when you are stranded. (I did SAR in Alaska)

If you loose the money there is no recovery, You can do Travelers checks if you are worried about loosing it but that can be another whole batch of issues. and it is realy hard to buy off a mugger with a travlers check.

Cash is also faster. in a long line of people when you need to get out quickly you can pay for gas or food and bail quicker than waiting for the credit card to clear.

If your bugg out plan involves going to another City or another very urban area, credit cards and Debit Cards may be perfect, but on the back roads in rural Maine, NH, AK, or any other state Cash can buy you a pull out of a ditch, dinner, clothing, ect...


Having cash can save you money! I have been stuck in the sand, After calling a tow truck a big 4x4 finaly came by. The tow truck asked for $90 to come pull my little car out (don't ask how it got there, it is a long story) but the guy in the 4X4 asked for $25.. needless to say the tow truck got canceled and I was on my way in 5 minutes.

Back in 1992 I had a friend get supper stuck in the snow, the only way to get him out was buy paying a Skider operator to pull him out!! That was $50 in cash and literaly the ONLY way out.

Having Cash in a BOB I would say is bordering on a necessity. How much? for me it is anywhere from $500 to $1,000. The way I calculate how much I need is by taking the place I want to get to, figuring out how much gas I need round trip, then double the cost of that gas, I also double the amount needed for lodging or food for that trip. Regretably my bug out locations are VERY far away and I drive a RAM 1500 so I need a lot more gas and well I just eat too much so the food budget isn't good either.


Sometimes carrying money in mutiple locations also helps so that when you loose one the places you store money you have other places to go.