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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 12:11 PM   #41
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

We keep $200 in 5-dollar bills in the house for emergency access to cash.

Other than that, I typically walk around with no cash in my wallet, although my wife probably usually has $20 or so on her most of the time.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 12:53 PM   #42
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

No less than $15K. Never know when you might have to cut & run or pay someone to get out of the blast radius.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 01:23 PM   #43
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

I usually keep about $150.00 in cash .During hurrricane season I usually up that to $500.00.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 01:27 PM   #44
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

I use limits of $100 and $400. Charge everything over $10, pay cash for the rest. Usually lasts 3-4 months between trips to the ATM. Never use any ATM other than my own, never pay a fee, and don't waste time, energy, and gas using them more frequently.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 01:48 PM   #45
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

$200 in my wallet everytime I go to the ATM
$100 hidden in my car for emergencies
$200 in the safe at home
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 02:14 PM   #46
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

I would like to explore the reason for cash some more as well. I've lived through a tornado and hurricanes and just never needed cash. Some folks have said they needed cash when their illegally parked car was towed.

For hurricanes, you need water, gas in the cars, battery powered radio, flashlights, a gas outdoor grill, some random food, some roof repair supplies, maybe a gas-powered chainsaw, but you don't need cash.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 02:28 PM   #47
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

I have a big floor safe at my house. I keep all my cash in the safe in 1 dollar bills so that I can go swimming every morning and evening in my money. Very therapeutic.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 02:40 PM   #48
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by LOL!
I would like to explore the reason for cash some more as well. I've lived through a tornado and hurricanes and just never needed cash. Some folks have said they needed cash when their illegally parked car was towed.

For hurricanes, you need water, gas in the cars, battery powered radio, flashlights, a gas outdoor grill, some random food, some roof repair supplies, maybe a gas-powered chainsaw, but you don't need cash.
If power and phone lines were down (reducing the ability to sell things using credit cards), I suppose there might be some businesses that would sell things for cash. Still, when I've been in such situations, the folks at the registers don't know how to make change, and the owners generaly just find it best to shut their doors rather than try to conduct business.
BTW--when's the last time anyone saw one of those manual credit card-inprinter thingees?

If there were some type of huge cyber of physical attack on the US financial/banking system, I suppose it is possible electronic banking/credit card transactions/ATM functioning, etc might be shut down while companies tried to figure things out and assure that all the account balances etc were correct before coming back up. Having a few hundred bucks in cash could be handy at a time like that, but there would be far bigger problems to deal with than running out of groceries.

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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 02:41 PM   #49
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SecondCor521
To those who have more than a few hundred in cash, when have you actually needed it? And in those cases, what would have been the impact if you had not?
Frankly, there haven't been very many recent situations where having a kilobuck or so cash in the house has bailed me out of a liquidity jam. On the other hand, if it wasn't here, it would probably be in the checking account which pays only about 1%. That's about $10/yr pretax, not much of an opportunity cost.

Because we're conservative folks and plan ahead pretty well, there's only been a couple of times over the years where being able to reach into that stash has helped us or the immediate family avoid a sticky situation. But those two times were impactful enough that they have an "urban legend" status amongst those who know about the incidents. Convenience-wise, since we bring the stash along when traveling, having it here at home saves us a lot of in-and-out transactions at the bank/ATM at minimal expense.

And there is the peace of mind (justified or not) I have when I watch events like 911, Katrina, etc., where having a little stash at home might possibly help.

Because the ease of using credit cards or checks has increased a lot in the past decade, if either the cost or the risk of having cash at home was high, I wouldn't do it.





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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 02:49 PM   #50
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

LOL!, I'm not much of a "stay home and try to survive" kind of person. Both DH and I are small people and we'd be easily overpowered by a mob. In the case of an emergency (I'm thinking Katrina) I'd rather get out of town. To that end, we always keep about $1000 cash on hand. About $400 of that is spending money in our wallets and the rest is in a small locked and fire proof box that is bolted to a closet shelf. The car has a good supply of emergency gear and I'm confident we could pack a week worth of food, supplies, clothes, and important documents in about 10 min and be on the road. As far as missing the interest on $1000 bucks... meh.. it is a tiny percentage of our networth so I'd rather have the emergency peace of mind.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 03:53 PM   #51
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by bbuzzard
I have a big floor safe at my house. I keep all my cash in the safe in 1 dollar bills so that I can go swimming every morning and evening in my money. Very therapeutic.
Especially if its DEEP!
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 03:55 PM   #52
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by bbuzzard
I keep all my cash in the safe in 1 dollar bills so that I can go swimming every morning and evening in my money. Very therapeutic.
A couple weeks of that routine would bring new meaning to the phrase "money laundering"!

Quote:
Originally Posted by samclem
BTW--when's the last time anyone saw one of those manual credit card-inprinter thingees?
We bought a couch at an Asian furniture store's warehouse clearance in Kakaako. (You've seen this warehouse street in every drug-dealer movie.) He was running the place from a cell phone & Craigslist-- extremely low overhead. I think most of his sales are probably to collectors & decorators.

Quote:
Originally Posted by LiveWell
As far as missing the interest on $1000 bucks... meh.. it is a tiny percentage of our networth so I'd rather have the emergency peace of mind.
Peace of mind for only $60/year and the cost of a fire safe, plus a place to store important papers, backup HDs, & DVDs. Of course if it's checking-account money then it's even cheaper, more like $10-$20/year. I'm going to have to think about that.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 03:58 PM   #53
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

$200 on hand for general cash expenses. Use a credit card mostly and pay balance off at the end of the month.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 04:19 PM   #54
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

This is a little off the subject...sorry? Has anyone watched "To Catch a Thief", I think that's the name, on T.V.? They stage a break-in and then go back and tell the homeowner what they need to do to prevent theft? Anyway, they are always talking about getting a floor safe and bolting it to the floor. Is that what most of you do that have safes? I have these dinky little fireproof boxes that anyone could walk off with....don't like that.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 04:36 PM   #55
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

I have a 800 pound gun safe/fire safe bolted to the monolithic reinforced concrete slab-on-grade foundation with four 5/8" anchor bolts (on the interior) with a total tensile strength of about 30,000 pounds. I am not too worried.

OTOH, it would take about 60 seconds to cut a 18" diameter hole in the door with an acetylene torch. Hopefully the ammo and black powder would go off at some point in the process and kill everyone involved . Anyway, If they want it, you can't stop them.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 04:38 PM   #56
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

Usually keep less than $100 on me. But we keep between $2k-$4k on hand. No real compelling argument why we need that much, but we drank the kool aid (most of it) a few years ago and believe if we pay in cash we spend less. I find it very traumatic to let go of US greenbacks and very painless to slide the card. We still charge gasoline paying at the pump is so much more efficient and a few other things, but cash is the primary media. Might be handy in a natural disaster, but I think it's tough to build a good case that we need this amount it just feels comfortable.
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 04:43 PM   #57
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

The TV show is called "It takes a Thief". http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/it...kesathief.html

I have a cash stash of about $300-$350. I'm not sure why I keep it, I've never used it for anything. I just know I like to have some cash in the house. Whether it's for a natural disaster or terrorist attack or whatever it just seems sensible to keep some cash on hand.

In addition to my stash I keep an assortment of small bills so that I can make change for others in the house who don't have time to make it to the bank and instead go to the ATM and end up with $20 bills. They need the smaller bills for the vending machines in the lunchroom at work.

Every payday hubby and I start out with $30 in cash for carrying around. He usually uses his up and I rarely use mine, so I supplement his wallet. But we both use the check card for most things lately so we are both using a lot less cash. I've always kept piggybanks and jars for change. We don't have a lot of change anymore.

Last time I was at the bank I got 5 of the new $1 coins. So far, I haven't used those, either.

Anyone have opinions on whether the new $1 coins will be used and circulated? Or will they just be collected and dropped into jars and piggybanks?

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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 04:55 PM   #58
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by samclem
If there were some type of huge cyber of physical attack on the US financial/banking system, I suppose it is possible electronic banking/credit card transactions/ATM functioning, etc might be shut down while companies tried to figure things out and assure that all the account balances etc were correct before coming back up. Having a few hundred bucks in cash could be handy at a time like that, but there would be far bigger problems to deal with than running out of groceries.
Banks and other financial institutions disaster-proof themselves quite a bit, as do infrastructure folks like telephone lines and electricity folks. Even 9/11 only shut down the stock market for a few days, and that was I think more because they were concerned about panic selling affecting everything and not because they couldn't in practical terms process the transactions.

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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 05:27 PM   #59
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

I get checks for reimbursement of my travel deferrment (train tix here in noCAL). I cash those at $150 and tell the teller to give me a benjamin - I *hate* breaking those - I've got 2 in my wallet right now - and I need to cash another check soon - I like the security of at least $100 in my wallet - many times I'll pay cash for something small - most times I use the credit card, though.

When in Europe, used two flaps in the wallet - one for US and one for EU - usually had about $100 US and that or more in EU - sometimes they didn't take credit cards and cash is still used fairly widely there.

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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?
Old 04-13-2007, 05:50 PM   #60
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Re: How much cash (actual greenbacks) do you keep on hand and why?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sue J

Anyone have opinions on whether the new $1 coins will be used and circulated? Or will they just be collected and dropped into jars and piggybanks?
not until they create a $1 coin that is easily distinguished from a quarter when rooting around blindly in a pocket/purse full of loose change. And even then they may just have to stop printing the paper dollars for it to take.

As to the point of the thread, we do the "envelope method" for most of our expenses (pretty much everything that doesn't involve writing a check), so we've usually got a fair amount of cash on hand--oodles at payday, less as the pay period rolls on. no big wads of cash in the house (and even if we did, would I tell the whole internet?) The most likely disaster to hit in our neck of the woods is a tornado, and technology's good enough that we'd probably have plenty of time to scoop up the cat, grab the bug-out bag (including the debit cards which can access our emergency fund), and drive a good ways away from the storm (at a 90-degree angle to the storm track. Kids, don't try this at home unless you have a 1+hour cushion and are VERY experienced with severe weather). In addition, we have plenty of blankets and a weather radio stowed next to an internal bathroom in case we don't get the alarm in time to head for the hills. We've had to do this dance twice in the last few years(one false alarm and one near-miss). When the May 3rd monster hit OKC, the ATMs never flickered except where the power went out (and the power was back up in most places that were still standing by the next morning). Unless a hurricane manages to strike 500 miles inland, a week's worth of petty cash, access to our e-fund, and all of our paperwork should see us through most likely scenarios. Depends what sort of disasters you tend to get in your area, I would think.
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