Stash of Cash?

ExFlyBoy5

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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I've never held onto a large amount of cash, but the targeted attacks today (denial of Internet service) and a lot of grumbling of 'it's going to get worse before it's better' by some pretty smart IT folks (like Krebs) has me thinking that having some cash on hand may not be a bad idea. I'm not a conspiracy theory kinda guy, but I like to be prepared too...so, I am curious as to what some of the fine folks here are thinking.
 
You mean in the bank or in the mattress?
 
I have a few hundred "under the mattress" and about 2 weeks worth of food.
So even if the internet died, besides all the free time I'd have :D
we would survive until the grocery cashiers learned how to add without cash registers.
 
I've always kept a few hundred in the house just on general principle. And that means always. Going back decades. Because Ya never know
 
I have a few hundred "under the mattress" and about 2 weeks worth of food.
So even if the internet died, besides all the free time I'd have :D
we would survive until the grocery cashiers learned how to add without cash registers.

I suspect you'd starve before that happened.

I've got a couple thou stashed. I got it during the 9/11 worries, and have just kept it since. The only time I ever think about it is when one of these threads come along.
 
Dunno. We tend to have cash stashed here and there, but it isn't shown as a tracked item in Quicken and it only gets counted when we look. 5-15k
usually.
 
I usually keep a couple or three hundred in cash in the house just in case. It has come in handy on occasion and it would be an easy months worth of gas and groceries in an extended power outage or internet disaster.
 
I've never held onto a large amount of cash, but the targeted attacks today (denial of Internet service) and a lot of grumbling of 'it's going to get worse before it's better' by some pretty smart IT folks (like Krebs) has me thinking that having some cash on hand may not be a bad idea. I'm not a conspiracy theory kinda guy, but I like to be prepared too...so, I am curious as to what some of the fine folks here are thinking.
Good idea! I don't think it would do any harm to get a few hundred from the ATM tomorrow, and to fill the car with gas. Right now I have $20. That won't last me long. :LOL:

Also, I am way overdo to go grocery shopping. Meant to go today, but just didn't. My refrigerator and freezer are almost empty at the moment. I suppose I could survive for a few weeks on what I have in my pantry, but survival and eating well are pretty far apart.

It's odd - - last night I asked F if he had had trouble with internet connections (since we have the same cable provider). It was that noticeable to me. But from what I gather, from Reuters, supposedly it didn't start until this morning.
 
It is interesting that the habit of stashing cash was big with those who were adults during the depression. (likley the period around the time FDR took office and the banks were all closed). Recall that it took a couple of weeks for them to reopen at the time. (and some had been closed for weeks before hand)
 
Dunno. We tend to have cash stashed here and there, but it isn't shown as a tracked item in Quicken and it only gets counted when we look. 5-15k
usually.

Oh, you are PREPARED!!! I like that and probably should think about doing the same in the future. It must be hard to know where to put it, though if one gets that little issue figured out then it would be handy after a hurricane or whatever.
 
You should always have a comfortable chunk of money close at hand. We have an account at a nearby bank for that very reason, even though our main bank is an internet bank.

For paper cash in your house, make sure you have a hundred or so in each small denomination -- $1, $5, $10, $20. In a SHTF scenario, you don't want to have to pay a chainsaw guy $20 but only have $100 bills. Instead of getting $80 back, your tree removal will suddenly be a $100 job.
 
Oh, you are PREPARED!!! I like that and probably should think about doing the same in the future. It must be hard to know where to put it, though if one gets that little issue figured out then it would be handy after a hurricane or whatever.

I've put it in books, a mantle clock, odd places in the attic, up on a shelf behind a sink ... I've also re-found money in the pocket of an old coat. Earns no interest, I'm sure some has been misplaced and lost, so it's kinda dumb. Still, when we bought a used BMW a year ago we just had to bring some piles together and go buy it. A long established habit from when I played savings games with myself - hundreds couldn't be spent, so they just grew into thousand dollar stacks. Still tend to just keep the hundred dollar bills that cross my paw...
 
We were on Maui this summer. They had fires that caused loss of power and internet to most of Lahanhia one afternoon. 90% of the stores were still doing business. A few did close down. Our hotel was without internet for a couple days but luckily they were still serving drinks by the pool. Point is I think our society will survive.
 
You should always have a comfortable chunk of money close at hand. We have an account at a nearby bank for that very reason, even though our main bank is an internet bank.

For paper cash in your house, make sure you have a hundred or so in each small denomination -- $1, $5, $10, $20. In a SHTF scenario, you don't want to have to pay a chainsaw guy $20 but only have $100 bills. Instead of getting $80 back, your tree removal will suddenly be a $100 job.

It might not hurt in addition to have some quarters as well.
 
I usually have anywhere from $50 ish to $300 in cash... a few times more if I know I am going to be using some... there are too many times when the DD comes by and says "I need $10 for this"....


My now deceased BIL used to have $10K to $30K in cash in a floor safe he installed in his house... I think it was because he was a contractor for many years and just carried around cash for many things...
 
Have 1000 squirreled away in the wine cellar. Probably not a bad idea to have more. (Not like we'll suffer from the loss of interest available in our BoA checking account!)

Anyone gets into that storage area, the cash will still be safe. :cool:
 
We were on Maui this summer. They had fires that caused loss of power and internet to most of Lahanhia one afternoon. 90% of the stores were still doing business. A few did close down. Our hotel was without internet for a couple days but luckily they were still serving drinks by the pool. Point is I think our society will survive.

One afternoon is nothing.

A better example would the the NorthEast blackout of 2003.
I was there, and gas stations could not pump gas as they didn't have electric power (some got smart and used generators).
Banks were closed.
Large grocery stores were closed as the frozen and refrigerated food spoiled, and their cash registers couldn't work.
And they decided not to sell anything as the stores were dark (dangerous) and grocery stores have an inventory system, when you buy X, the system knows how many more X to order. So selling without using the system would cause them more headaches.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

"
The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, just after 4:10 p.m. EDT.[1]
Some power was restored by 11 p.m. Many others did not get their power back until two days later. In more remote areas it took nearly a week to restore power.[2] .........The outage, which was much more widespread than the Northeast Blackout of 1965, affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states."
 
It might not hurt in addition to have some quarters as well.

Yep, nickels, dimes and pennies as well. Makes for exact change. Added advantage: Rolled up in a sweat sock, they make a great weapon which, so far, has not been outlawed - helping you to hang onto the paper money.:cool:
 
I've got about $500 worth of pennies taking up space. I'll consider that my backup stash.:biggrin:

My mother kept about $1000 in $100 bills. I was thought that was silly but looks like she was ahead of her time. Probably a good idea to keep some pigeon holed somewhere.
 
Now you have me worrying that I don't have a big enough chuck of cash available. Of course, if it gets bad enough that you need loads of cash guns may be in more demand. But that is another thread.
 
I learned after hurricane Andrew how quickly cash is king when power was out for over a week.
 
I've put it in books, a mantle clock, odd places in the attic, up on a shelf behind a sink ...

Googling "most common places to hide cash" returns as first result:

1. In an envelope taped to the bottom of a kitchen shelf
2. In a watertight plastic bottle or jar in the tank on the back of your toilet
3. In an envelope at the bottom of your child’s toybox
4. In a plastic baggie in the freezer
5. Inside of an old sock in the bottom of your sock drawer
6. In an empty aspirin bottle in the bathroom (bundled up with a rubber band around it)
7. In the pocket of a particular shirt in your closet
8. In a “random” folder in your filing cabinet
9. In an envelope taped to the bottom of your cat’s litter box
10. In an envelope taped to the back of a wall decoration
11. In between several pages in a random book or two on your bookshelf
12. Buried in a jar in the back yard (my grandfather, incidentally, did this very thing)
13. In an envelope in the glove compartment of your car
14. Underneath a potted plant (or even buried in a small jar in the soil)
15. In an envelope taped to the bottom of a dresser drawer (so you can reach it from the
inside of the dresser below it)
16. Inside of a big coffee cup in the back of a cupboard
17. Inside your Christmas decoration box
18. Inside of an empty bottle of Guinness in the back of the fridge with the cap seemingly in place (smash it to get the cash)
19. In a plastic baggie inside of a flour or coffee container
20. In an envelope inside of a DVD case

If you think you're being clever by using one of these hiding places. Well, maybe not.
 
I've never held onto a large amount of cash, but the targeted attacks today (denial of Internet service) and a lot of grumbling of 'it's going to get worse before it's better' by some pretty smart IT folks (like Krebs) has me thinking that having some cash on hand may not be a bad idea. I'm not a conspiracy theory kinda guy, but I like to be prepared too...so, I am curious as to what some of the fine folks here are thinking.

I'm thinking "WTF is this guy talking about?" lol

Seriously, I noticed no impact from any DDOS yesterday. Neither did any of our users at work. I'm in I.T., so I would know about that if it had happened.

So think about that. Most people and web sites were never impacted by this. I can't imagine why having more cash on hand would be useful.
 
Have 1000 squirreled away in the wine cellar. Probably not a bad idea to have more. (Not like we'll suffer from the loss of interest available in our BoA checking account!)

More important that the wine cellar is full!
 
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I'm thinking "WTF is this guy talking about?" lol

Seriously, I noticed no impact from any DDOS yesterday. Neither did any of our users at work. I'm in I.T., so I would know about that if it had happened.

So think about that. Most people and web sites were never impacted by this. I can't imagine why having more cash on hand would be useful.

Potential for large scale state sponsored cyber attacks seems like a reasonable rationale to me.
 
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