Do You Keep Cash on Hand? How Much?

[mrfeh]

Unless I'm traveling, I'll have less than $20 on my person. Never more than $300 at home.

 

[RE2Boys]

$23 in my wallet right now, always less than $40 unless traveling. At home usually around $200 or so.

During Y2K had about $2000 at home just in case ATM/banks/CC systems had a glitch, actually had two stores that could not take CC in Jan 2000.

Recently went on two week trip to Arizona with $500 cash. Came home with $300.

 

[flyingaway]

I keep a few thousand dollars of cash in my safe due to frequent overseas trips.

 

[Senator]

Huh? Never heard of this before. They should be paying you for depositing money, and not the other way around.

Yep, in a business account, that's what they do. At least the type I have.

 

[LOL!]

We had a situation where our bank at the time (Bank of America) prevented all withdrawals from our accounts for about 3 weeks including checks, ATM, and bill pay. That is, we had no access to getting any cash for 3 weeks. We found that we didn't need to use any cash at all because credit cards worked for us all the time.

 

[tuixiu]

Normally when I run low on cash, I go to the ATM and withdraw $300. So, at most times I have between $20-$300 in my wallet.

We're almost same as this.

Pull out $300 when out of cash, except I'll usually take about $40 and stash the rest in our hiding spot. Wife and I will both pull about $40 at a time from there until no cash again, then repeat.

 

[Chuckanut]

A few years ago a windstorm knocked out power to my area for several days. During that time some merchants opened their doors, but with no electricity all business was done by hand with cash. No cash = no food, etc.

 

[gcgang]

I haven't used an ATM since I was in college, mid 1970s.

Usually have $10-20k for poker/Vegas money in the house.


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[Live And Learn]

I withdraw $400 every 12 weeks. I replenish when I get to $100. DH and I usually only carry $10 each, the rest is in the house. In a disaster I'd probably drive far enough away to find a place where credit cards are working.

 

[Rustic23]

W2R +1

When I get below $20, I check how much DW has, if she is the same we withdraw $300. We travel with a little more.

 

[Sue J]

DH took over grocery shopping (our largest monthly expense) last year and he shops at a store that takes only cash, check or Discover card. He wants to shop with cash so every month I withdraw the grocery cash, pocket cash for both of us, some eating out cash and an extra $300 for our "other" category, which is anything that's not groceries, gasoline or bills paid online.

Some months we use all of it but most months I have some excess so cash accumulates here at home. It's nice to have an extra $500-$800 available at home. When the cash bundle gets too big I take less from the bank for the next month.

I also have my own cash stash (currently $350) which is my accumulated monthly wallet cash that I don't spend, plus birthday money or rebates or whatever. In June I used that to jump on a one day price drop at Best Buy on the iMac computer I had been considering. I didn't use the cash for that since I already had Best Buy charge card that had a 6% reward for Best Buy purchases. Instead I used the Best Buy card and later deposited the cash in the bank.

I used to enjoy using credit cards for the reward points. DH was always hands off on anything connected to money. I always wanted him to be involved and he said he would be if we used cash, so that's why we changed.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Hubby and I each get 100 bucks per week allowance, been that way for 27 years. Use it for lunches, coffee and things we don't want each other to know about like cigars for him and I hoard for travel and gifts. I just had $800 stashed and put it on a chase liquid card to buy Christmas prezzies.

 

[mickeyd]

I have very little use for cash so I don't carry much on me. Virtually all I purchase is with a CC. For example I tapped the ATM for $60 2 weeks ago. I think I still have the same bills in my wallet right now.

 

[Mulligan]

I probably have way too much. I past years, I have had near $100K...

For anyone reading this, I do not have any now, do not try to break in. It is not worth your life (or mine).

So I assume when you do the cash is moved at night to under your mattress12 inches away from your Glock on the nightstand? I always have to have a couple hundred dollars cash available to me at home. I think it is more a throwback from pre ATM times than any current reason.


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[Palmtree]

I keep $800 in small bills in the safe for emergencies.

 

[Cobra9777]

We use cash-back credit cards for everything possible, including some bills. It's free money that really adds up. Any merchant that doesn't accept credit cards doesn't get our business. We usually take $200-300 cash on trips, just out of habit. But we usually return with most of it still unspent. Right now, we have about $250 in the house from a trip several months ago. When we travel internationally, we use cash at smaller, local merchants, where the risk of credit card fraud is high. Last time I can remember using cash was to pay for offsite parking at a baseball game several weeks ago. DW and I usually have less than $20 on our person.

 

[Redbugdave]

I guess I fit in with all you tight wads. I normally carry around $60 or so in the wallet and keep around $1000 at the house. I do like cash and it helps in a crunch.

If a crook knew how to identify the Skin Flint ER bunch...we would be exempted from all holdups at the liquor store...

 

[jon-nyc]

I never kept money at home, just what I had in my wallet which would be between 0 and 300 depending on how long it had been since I visited an ATM.

Then 9-11 and the blackout of 2003 happened, so I started to keep 1000 or so at home, in 20s.

It has come in handy despite not having any more emergencies since 2003. Usually for paying tradesmen in cash and getting a discount.

 

[ziggy29]

Usually a few hundred bucks at home, rarely more than $100 in my wallet. As much as a techie as I am, I am slowly becoming more and more of a Luddite as it seems like high-profile hacking is becoming a weekly event, so I'm doing more with cash and checks than I used to even a year ago.

 

[papadad111]

I am an outlier. I carry 2500 usd in cash in my wallet in Ben franklins. That's 25 bens folded nicely. New and crispy ones. I seldom spend that stash during daily life.

I keep about 5000 usd cash at home in a buried spot in the Back yard too. I like cash.

Have come across many deals in my life where waiving cash gets an easy 20 to 30 percent discount over writing a check. It's negotiation leverage that costs almost nothing.

I also like knowing that I can provide for my family if something not good happens. Not a prepper or doomsdayer. Just always been this way.

Was worried as a kid that parents didn't have enough for groceries so started carrying to fend for myself. Been this way ever since.

 

[sengsational]

We had a situation where our bank at the time (Bank of America) prevented all withdrawals from our accounts for about 3 weeks including checks, ATM, and bill pay. That is, we had no access to getting any cash for 3 weeks.

Another reason not to use a giant, crappy, impersonal megabank!

 

[freedomatlast]

Since I do old cars as hobby, I always have at least $1000-1500 cash ready for an "opportunity".

Same here. I normally keep about $2000 for the same reason. When an opportunity comes along, you have to close the deal right then and there with cash.

 

[pb4uski]

I use credit cards for most things but still carry $40-$200 in cash. Usually, when I get down towards $40 I start looking for an ATM to top it up to $200. Also, keep some cash around the house for potential emergencies.

 

[calmloki]

$7k in hundreds, just because I had a habit of trying not to spend them, which went well with LBYM and my thrift genes. Now if someone pays rent in cash it gets entered into quicken and I fall into the old game of making $1k bundles. SO and I split random cash or checks that come in and she tends to have various stashes and wads spilling out of her purse(s). She buys her nicorette lozenges with cash so I don't know what they cost.. supposedly. Oh the games couples play.

May go look at a '97 BMW 318ti with California roof today 50 miles out from Roseburg Oregon in the middle of the woods, which would make cash handy. No town or ATMs (which I don't use anyway) and private car sales aren't usually done with checks. Could be a fun hearken back to her '61 VW bug with cloth moon roof.

 

[mpeirce]

I never carry more than about $100 in cash. I used to go through it fairly quickly, but these days it lasts about a month before I refill from the ATM.

There are only a few items I still buy for cash - my barber, the local farmer for eggs, sometimes food, but most places take CCs now and the 1%-3% kickbacks are an incentive to use the card.

I also keep an "extra" $20 bill in my wallet, folded, behind the CCs. I ignore that it's there, but it's there if I need it. Useful self deception. I also keep a $20 in the car "just in case" as well.