How much cash do you keep at home?

[jhd815]

Ebizpro: Your story made me laugh. In my family it wasn't my parents but my aunt. They were bullheaded Germans who didn't like banks. After my aunt's husband passed away, we moved her to a small apartment to be closer to us so we could keep an eye on her and visit and such.

When it came time to move her, we of course started going through things to decide what to move with her, what to donate to charity, and what to donate to the garbage collector.

About halfway through our "adventure" my brother discovered an envelope taped to the bottom of their kitchen table (the table tipped over as he was moving it outside). Being curious, he untaped the envelope from the bottom of the table and opened it ... to his surprise he found 10 $100 bills in it.

Our aunt was also suffering from early stages of dimentia and couldn't recall if they had hidden money anywhere else. We wound up having to go through all the clothes, books, nick nacks (sp?), furniture and cushions, etc. to see what other goodies might be hidden in/under/around/near them.

To make a long story somewhat shorter ... we wound up finding nearly $20,000.00 in cash in various hiding places. It wound up making this more of a treasure hunt than a move. My father at one point wanted to begin sawing furniture in half to see if they somehow found a way to hide money in table legs etc.

God Bless You Aunt Marie and Uncle Henry ... you gave us one heck of a story to share within our family tree!

[kashi]

WOW!!!!! $20,000!!!! that is incredible. what a story.


I haven't tried the envelope method. I have considered it but just haven't come to the point where I want to try it. I don't have much money at home, like a lot of people here. I'd like to have a cushion stashed away, but I can't seem to keep it. cash flows through my fingers like you would not believe (then again, maybe you would!).

I wouldn't hesistate to try it...but maybe you'd be best off putting the envelopes in a very safe place and not telling too many people about what you're doing.

[mom-from-missouri]

I keep $500 in the house. This goes back to about 25 years ago, before all the ATM machines and no where in this town was a business that was open 24 hours. I had an emergency phone call, that my grandmother was ill, not expected to make it through the next 24 hours, and had to leave town, and no place to get cash. After driving for 4 hours, I reached St. Louis, where a grocery store let me cash a check. since that time, I have kept it in the house, in the deepfreeze.

[csaville]

We use the envelope system and like it. We use it for groceries & entertainment only. We pay all our bills with bill pay and that just leaves enough for gas and not much else in our checking account. We like the envelope system b/c we don't have to keep track to know when we're out of money for food or entertainment. When it was in our checking account we would overspend and not have enough money for bills or gas. That's not a ton of cash though. I think we have $220 in cash every pay, but half of that is spent immediately on groceries.

[crosses]

I always have at least $100 in small bills since I enjoy going to garage sales. We probably have another $50 in our change jar that gets used for little things from time to time. Then we have another $200 or so in emergency cash that we try hand have around just in case.

[barbd00]

Except for coins and collections absolutely none. I never ever have cash on hand. My hubby usually has between 10-20 bucks

I always use my debit card. My bank not only doesn't charge a fee but gives me rewards points... over half way to a $100 gift certificate at a great place!