I carry a credit card which is what I would have used in stealthedc's situation. I also carry normal cash and "reserve" cash. I am happy to spend the reserve cash like any other cash; the main difference is that I rarely need to because I top up the normal cash before it gets to that point.

It's a bit like petrol - I try to keep the car half full, but on long journeys I let it get lower because it's inconvenient to stop to fill up too often. Unless I know a disaster is coming (eg a hurricane warning), I figure disasters are very rare and I'm not going to let preparedness intrude too far into my life. Many of my preparedness habits are things which make my every day life easier rather than harder, and if they do get too hard I give them up. For me the point of having reserves of cash or petrol is to have it available for the little things as well as disasters.

I actually feel a bit paranoid about going into detail about money amounts.