Cash in the house

If you have an alarm, neighbors like ours with cameras all over the place, plus neighbor hood watch, I think most thieves would be in & out in a flash.

Yes I do. Hate the fact that I totally rely on cards.

Doodledog

Norah

We keep cash, locked in our home.

Cleaners, exterior window cleaner, garden workers, hair stylist, yard workers (apart from the gardens). However, if banks weren't working I suppose most of the cash we'd need would be for food and petrol.

We'd make do cleaning our home, windows, mowing etc.

Yes, in the sort of extended emergency that required cash for any length of time, I don't suppose clean windows would be top of the priority list

Indeed.

I'd prefer to eat and feed our grandchildren - rather than exterior of the windows washed. Or the interior of the house cleaned, come to that.

We spend cash hoping to be able to hold cash for emergency.

I think I have about £300 left in the house, the thread has reminded me to get some more cash tomorrow. I used cash in three different shops these two days. They all take cash in my little town. It is safe in my safe home

I keep enough cash in my purse for a bag of shopping, to last a couple of days. I considered getting a safe with a padlock, to keep cash in at home, but don't think it would deter a determined burglar. I've started to keep the car filled up and I've got enough emergency food for a few days. I haven't built up a big enough supply of water yet though. I agree with Silverbrooks that we'd probably need an alternative way of cooking and heating water in an emergency situation.

I withdraw one or two hundred and use it to
Pay the man who
Mows the lawns, the man who cleans the windows and the woman who cleans my house - they’re all fortnightly . I get more cash when it’s used up
In small shops I ask if they want cash or card. Most want card

As I have said on other threads, I definitely use cash. Whilst I am happy to pay direct debit or whatever for bills like electricity etc, I want to have the choice. Choice being the operative word. If you live in a city or large town you may have excellent broadband and can use your card for everything. However if you live in the country or smaller places, and are also affected by the quality of signals you would indeed be very stupid to only have cards to pay with. In fact higher up in the dales and in other areas you would definitely be better paying with cash. Also I choose to pay cash on the market. We want to keep our open markets who have fresh and good variety of things for sale. They have to pay a cost if you use a card and ultimately that will increase the cost to everyone in the end. I definitely want to encourage local business and having a genuine contact with people who get to know you as a regular and I think I have much more choice that what the supermarkets decide we should have and it is ecologically sound too. There are many people who for various reasons do not have a bank card and as the banks are closing branches left right and centre , cash will not be going out of fashion here.

I'm not really asking about how people use cash and cards though - more about the purpose of keeping a stash of cash in the house in case of emergency. We can all pay with cash if the cashpoints are working, and having a few quid to pay the window cleaner is not the same as a few hundred in a box under the bed 'in case of emergency'.

It is not obligatory to keep cash.

If you havent been convinced by any of these posts, then maybe it is not for you.

Are you addressing me? If so, I'm not suggesting it is obligatory . I am wondering whether or not it is a good idea to have an emergency supply and if so, what sort of emergencies it would cover. I understand people using cash out of their purse as and when, but that is not the same as keeping it for non-spending purposes in the house.

I suppose it’s because none of us know when a cyber glitch might happen and ‘card payments’ might not be accepted for a couple of days or more Doodledog. 🤷‍♀️

No, I know. And also who will accept cash for what. It could be that IOU-style invoices would be accepted for some goods and services, at least for a while.

Let's hope we do't find out any time soon.

Supermarket and petrol station tills can still operate when the internet is down, so it’s wouldn’t be a problem shopping with cash.

I was in M&S cafe at lunch time today, and staff with a couple of managers were faffing around the payment machine. They did serve everyone but asked us to return to the counter to pay in the hope that the glitch would be sorted, but NO! it wasn't so our lunch turned out to be complimentary. Good this time, but we are all so reliant on computer systems. I think it would be a good idea to have some cash at home, I don't fancy having a month's worth though, how much would they be? A few years ago, pre Covid it didn't occur to me there would be a time when I'd hardly ever have cash on me.

No I don’t have cash in the house . DH likes some cash in his wallet maybe £100.
We use our cards for everything. We don’t have a cleaner , window cleaner or gardener . And use Uber for taxis .
I keep basics stocked up in the larder and andfreezer and the logs stocked up in the woodshed . Cyber glitch’s rarely last long .
My neighbour was burgled a few years ago and they left TVs and PCs but ransacked the place looking for cash and jewellery.
Thieves know all the hiding places. The only safe place is a safe attached to a wall .

Doodledog

Are you addressing me? If so, I'm not suggesting it is obligatory . I am wondering whether or not it is a good idea to have an emergency supply and if so, what sort of emergencies it would cover. I understand people using cash out of their purse as and when, but that is not the same as keeping it for non-spending purposes in the house.

I'll answer broadly.

We keep cash enough to pay for food for ourselves, our daughters & GC/GGC, petrol for all of us, items as donations, parking & tips.

We have, in 2025, changed the number of months.

Of course the numbers would vary by households.

Casdon

Supermarket and petrol station tills can still operate when the internet is down, so it’s wouldn’t be a problem shopping with cash.

This. We can eat at least, with cash.

Some people (American mostly I think) are ‘preppers’. For Armageddon really. They stock basements and outbuildings with bottled water, medicines, tinned food, candles, radios with batteries.

I’d frighten myself to death thinking along those lines.

I always have £100 in cash as a reserve, we both carry cash so between it all probably have £200. We use cash for small payments in shops, coffee, charity boxes, an ice cream on the sea front, passing grandchildren - that sort of thing. The ‘reserve’ I would anticipate using for food if there was a short lived crash.

We were in M&S this afternoon. They couldn’t take swiped cards, payments from phones, vouchers or gift cards. The cafe was closed as all ordering is via a screen and all payments by card. They could take chip and pin or cash. Chatting to one of the staff she explained they had been up and running this morning but again identified unauthorised activity so had closed the system again. She was reassuring that no customer details were or had been at risk. Assume she knew what she was talking about.

Norah

Doodledog

Are you addressing me? If so, I'm not suggesting it is obligatory . I am wondering whether or not it is a good idea to have an emergency supply and if so, what sort of emergencies it would cover. I understand people using cash out of their purse as and when, but that is not the same as keeping it for non-spending purposes in the house.

I'll answer broadly.

We keep cash enough to pay for food for ourselves, our daughters & GC/GGC, petrol for all of us, items as donations, parking & tips.

We have, in 2025, changed the number of months.

Of course the numbers would vary by households.

Petrol is a good shout. In an emergency we may well need to use the car, and it would be just our luck for the emergency to strike when it was running low on fuel.

There's just the two of us now, so unless we could physically get to the children to hand over cash that's not really a consideration. So I'll work out how much a tank full of petrol and enough to keep going in perishables for a while would come to and work around that. I do have the things you mention FGT, but not by the basementload . I have a box with a camping stove, bottled gas, lanterns and batteries, a power pack to charge phones, loo roll, tinned and dried food, a first aid kit, inhalers and paracetamol. The idea has always been that in the event of flood or a power cut we'd be ok for a while - we could grab the box and take it to an emergency shelter or use it in the house. I used to keep tampons and board games too. I think there's still a pack of cards in there, in case we get bored with community singing .

I think there's still a pack of cards in there, in case we get bored with community singing

With my vocal abilities it would be the community that would insist on the cessation of community singing 🤣🤣

I like to keep the cash float in the house without having any real idea of what it would cover, but it makes me feel more secure. From what I haven't the foggiest!

Well I’ve got enough tinned tomatoes of various brands - even some small sized ones not to mention baked beans

Dried milk and long life milk (wish they’d sell that in smaller cartons like they used to) Porridge oats, tinned veg by the tonne.

Dried onions!
Oodles of noodles/pasta/ stock cubes.
That’s just from a quick glance at the front rows of the food cupboards.

Yes probably around £100. We live in a rural area where some people still like to be paid in cash. Always useful to have a back up. We always take cash as well as cards when going out so if the card machine fails or there is no signal say for example in a restaurant then we always have a means of paying. Would not want to rely on cards alone.

I do get cash out for my Cleaner and Tips for Hairdresser, Beauticians etc
Otherwise, I just use my card.

I have twice recently had the experience of being in a cafe with a friend who was treating me to lunch out to say thank you for something I had done for them, when the card machine stopped working.
Flustered friends do not have any cash. I paid....

Draw cash out each month and use it otherwise we will lose the use of cash. I refuse to shop at card only places unless absolutely necessary. All it takes is one big cyber strike to jam all the card machines and we are stuck. Always like to have a back up plan!!