Cash in the house

Also - I don’t believe in paying cash to trades people - tax dodging usually .

If the system really collapsed I’m not sure a bit of cash would help … all the tills would be off anyway! Better to stock up on a few weeks of essentials plus meds. And warm clothes … . I like like to use cash for my treats that way my DH doesn’t know I’ve just spent a fiver on tea and cake 😂😂. He couldn’t care less and it’s just a joke but for some couples this would be really important - using a card all the time means you are very trackable ….

I like cash rathercthsn cards and ascallnlocal banks are closed I keep cash in safe in house

M&S had a cyber attack over Easter . I had unexpected visitors coming and nipped there to top up. It was cash only or card with pin and certain other cards refused. I had a chippy tea tonight and DH had to pay with card and pin. m&S card I mean was the one he had with him. (I was stunned that two haddock and one chips cost over £20. ) I haven’t had fish and chips for over a year.

Like other GNs here, we always try to have about £100 in the house. Years ago I attended a talk by Police, who advised keeping some cash in the house "in an obvious place" though not in open view. They said it's quite possible that burglars would take that - and then leave. Another reason we keep cash at home has already been mentioned here - it's in case of the breakdown of modern payment systems, as in supermarkets, or in the case of electricity cuts. One winter several years ago, we had long electricity cuts over several days in our area. Cash was a very useful thing to have at that time!

We keep some money in the house, in a container amongst our herbs and spices. Our herb tins are all labelled but only we know which tin it is because of a certain unusual herb name. It has come in handy in emergencies, eg if a casual jobber wants cash in hand and there is nothing left in my purse or DH's wallet.

Mt61

Labradora

It's six and half a dozen.
I can see the argument for keeping some cash at home in case the banking system fails.
On the other hand we returned from holiday(our valuable documents and jewellry were with us) to find that our house had been burgled.Our French Doors had been broken to gain access. Nothing had been taken however , our elderly second hand computers and an elderley Iphone had all been ignored.
All the drawers were rifled, fruitlessly because there were no valuables.
Cops said that thieves were looking for jewellry....... and cash.

We bought a Patlock from Amazon to put on the French doors. We now leave that on all the time.

Thanks for the kind thoughts Mt61.
The whole house is alarmed now !😊😉🤞!!!

Always cash, I've a bit in the house.

i
I know how much my food etc, costs each month, so I would have twice that amount in an emergency fund.

If the Internet is down, or banking infrastructure is affected we cannot pay utility bills and that sort of thing, so I would not worry about those.

I do my own shopping and pay in cash, or by visa anyhow, so it is really only a matter of assuming that atms and paying by v isa won't be possblly if Russia or anyone else should chose to attack us.

Doodledog: It’s the 'in case of what?' question that I'm struggling with though.

Indeed. I’m accused of taking a very bleak view, and maybe I have read and watched too many dystopian novels and films, but equally, if people think any kind of infrastructure failure or any natural disaster would only affect them for few days then surely they could manage without cash.

It would depend on where one was when the event happened but as you are talking about holing up at home for a month then I don’t see what good cash would be, especially if almost everybody else, other than emergency workers, were at home too.

Only those struggling from day-to-day with little food in the house (and some are) would be really disadvantaged because all we need to survive is shelter, water and food (and a fuel source for heating water and cooking food in the event of power failure). Even without, one could survive on fresh water (assuming the supply is still on) and food that is edible uncooked and cold.

A good strategy would be to imagine what kinds of emergencies might arise and whether one would seek safety at home or elsewhere. If it were a situation where people had to assemble en masse, emergency provisions would be provided. There is contingency planning for such things. Late DH and I used to volunteer as “actors” in emergency planning scenarios. Emergency supplies would also provided if people are advised to stay home. Remember the network of people delivering food to vulnerable people at the beginning of the pandemic.

DH usually has about £100 in his wallet and I use that as my cash machine. I rarely carry more than a £20 note + a bit of loose change. We pay the window cleaner with cash but no one else - trying to avoid supporting the black economy.

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!!

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....

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

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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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

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.