How much emergency cash does everyone keep on hand?

I’m a firm believer in keeping a pretty good chunk of cash around and it has come in very handy for hurricane evacuation in the past. This cash also gets used as a buffer to keep our budget under control. Example: An unexpected auto repair cost well over $700.00 a couple of weeks ago. I used the stash cash, replaced said cash within a couple of weeks and thus relieved my wife of the credit card stress or dipping into our savings account. When Mama’s happy, everyone’s happy.

I started putting away cash years ago to be spent at the beginning of hurricane season for supplies. This habit has evolved into year round preps for storm season and a healthy hunk of cash.

I keep $4000.00 in 20’s, $600.00 in 10’s, $300.00 in 5’s, and $100.00 in 1’s. This cash is stashed in a couple of places around the house and vehicles. I don’t have a safe so hiding is my only option. I’ve also accumulated a couple hundred bucks face value of pre –65 silver coins but that is for another discussion.

How much do you keep set aside?

I keep $75.00 in ones, $25.00 in fives and a role of quarters in my BOB along with a pre-paid phone card and $20.00 transit card. All sealed up in a vacuum pack bag so I am less tempted to dip into it.

Cameron

I keep a reserve of around £100 in my wallet, and roughly similar amounts in odd caches around and about. I don't keep huge amounts because I am happy to dip into savings for things like car repairs.

Living paycheck to paycheck as I do, I keep about a dollar in my wallet for emergencies and rely on a stash at your house olddude. LOL

Seriously though, I keep a couple of hundred bucks around, hidden. I don't keep a whole lot around though, fearing that if disaster strikes, and it strikes my home, it may very well be lost.

If you're going to keep that much around olddude, please consider getting a fireproof safe, something that can be bolted down, something that can be found should anything happen to your home.

Man that sounded dire... Ugh. Of course I don't want anything to happen to your home or anything. Sorry about that!

It's cool, Nico. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />You are correct I should get a safe. With your tongue planted firmly in cheek, you also bring up another good point for disscussion, I'm sure many of us have heard it. The old, "I'm coming to your house" line.

I always keep a good amount of cash in my home?s safe and some in my deep-core-PSK (actually roughly 1000 EUR).
I don?t have any sorrows about carrying a lot of cash with me (the last mugger I?ve meet only asked for my watch but didn?t get it <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />). My bigger problem with emergency cash is that a lot of shops here in Europe actually don?t accept bills bigger than 100.- EUR, sometimes 50.- EUR cause they fear to get counterfeit money. So it comes to a question of storrage space how much useable cash you can carry in a PSK/BOB/...

Molf

My wife and I have his and hers BOBs. In each one I've put $50 in singles, a roll of quarters and a Rite in the Rain card with the phone and PIN numbers for two different calling cards. That's about the extent of cash we keep around. I could probably stand to pad the cash on hand a bit.

I don't think I could keep 100 pounds in my wallet. My belt probably couldn't hold my pants up...

Our contingency cash-on-hand is designed to cover three possibilities: a temporary interruption in our ability to access bank accounts/credit cards, a local disaster/emergency during which we would remain in our home, and a local disaster/emergency requiring temporary relocation away from our home.

Don't keep a huge amount on hand: $250 cash in twenties, tens and ones, and another $250 in smaller denomination traveler's checks.

During a stay-at-home situation, the most significant expense would likely be gasoline, which our cash stash covers if banks aren't immediately accessible. We maintain sufficient supplies to sustain our other day-to-day needs for a month or longer: non-perishable food, water, batteries, propane to cook and power lanterns, and other necessities.

The $500 cash-on-hand is also designed to fund 2-3 days travel in the event of a temporary relocation away from our home to one of a half-dozen out-of-area destinations (relatives and friends). Once that's exhausted, we'd rely on the ability to electronically access funds in one or all of three bank accounts, each with geographically diverse institutions having multiple branches. And then there's credit cards.

I figure that if an "event" overshadows these resources, then we've got much bigger problems to contend with.

I have no idea how much cash we keep on hand in the house, as DH takes care of it. However, this thread reminds me of a recent sad event.

DH and I had a garage sale and got rid of a bunch of stuff that was just taking up space. Of course, all transactions were in cash. At the end of the day, DH counted up the money and I privately wondered what I could buy with the money. Then comes the sad part. DH put all that beautiful cash in the safe and I didn't get to spend any of it. You see, most of the cash that we had in the safe was hundred dollar bills left over from an overseas trip, which wouldn't be very useful in a local emergency. And our bank account has never been in a position where I felt comfortable withdrawing a large sum of cash just to put in the safe. Sigh. We put all this effort into getting a garage sale together, and now we have pratically nothing to show for it. All those lovely ones and fives and tens ended up tucked away. However, it was a decent way to accumulate some emergency cash in small bills without taking money away from anything else.

-Kuovonne