Cash in the house

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.

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.

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.

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

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 !😊😉🤞!!!

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.

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!

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.

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

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 ….

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

There’s always cash in our house and I usually have about £300-£500 in my purse in case I spot something when I’m out and about.
I prefer to use cash in the hope that if we all did it we wouldn’t end up a controlled cashless society.

I’m amazed by the number of you who are living in the past and carrying or hiding large sums of cash. Serves you right if you get mugged or burgled.

watermeadow

I’m amazed by the number of you who are living in the past and carrying or hiding large sums of cash. Serves you right if you get mugged or burgled.

Nice. That charm school was worth every penny, wasn't it?

The current advice is to live in the future, and be prepared for a possible cyber attack or other type of outage. M&S is suffering from just such a situation right now - online and in stores. Obviously we can go elsewhere for a meal deal or pack of knickers, but if the whole high street stops taking cards or online orders, cash will be all we can use.

I have maybe £20 in my purse but sometimes nothing as I barely use it. I use parking apps and most people, even small traders have some sort of cashless payment option. It always fascinates me how many people still use cash. I have enough food in the house plus our allotment and I bet the utility companies would soon sort out a way for us to pay come the apocalypse!

watermeadow

I’m amazed by the number of you who are living in the past and carrying or hiding large sums of cash. Serves you right if you get mugged or burgled.

I’d be equally amazed that you are so ignorant of the risk of cyber attack and don’t follow sensible advice, but I wouldn’t be rude enough to say so had you not made a post so dismissive of other peoples perspectives.

watermeadow

I’m amazed by the number of you who are living in the past and carrying or hiding large sums of cash. Serves you right if you get mugged or burgled.

More likely to get your piece of plastic cloned.

watermeadow

I’m amazed by the number of you who are living in the past and carrying or hiding large sums of cash. Serves you right if you get mugged or burgled.

Do people who get mugged for their phones and watches deserve it too?Or what about a home that gets burgled where there's no cash but the jewellery, computers and other electronics get taken?
The idiocy of ever thinking anyone deserves to be the victim of crime never ceases to amaze me. How muggers and burglars know who's carrying cash or has it hidden in their homes is a talent I never knew they possessed.

watermeadow

I’m amazed by the number of you who are living in the past and carrying or hiding large sums of cash. Serves you right if you get mugged or burgled.

I wouldn’t have put it quite to meanly but you do have a point.

If ever GN’s servers and member database were hacked (and frankly it doesn’t appear to be the most secure set up considering how much bot-generated spam is posted) then the hackers could link a members’s email address with what’s already held on the dark web about that person. That is very likely to include their name and address. Data harvested from the dark web by hackers is routinely sold for large sums of money.

They would know who is keeping large sums of cash on their person and in their house.

Don’t think that if you use a different email to access GN that it makes you immune. Multiple email accounts can be linked through the IP address of your broadband router.

If you want to see what data is held about you on the dark web then you can check using a credit score agency.

That’s one of the reasons I think GN members ought to be very careful about what they post about themselves on a public forum beyond the very general. The daily GM thread makes me wince. People say where abouts they live (which would confirm dark web data held about them); who they bank with, where they shop, their daily movements, when they are going to be away from home, when they are going on holiday, how ill and frail they are. I know it’s all done in the spirit of friendship but it’s very, very naive to do this on an open, public forum.

For the record, I am not unaware that retailers have temporary IT glitches but I thought this thread was originally about keeping cash in the home along with an emergency kit for a serious event rather than tipping a hairdresser or shopping in M&S.

The reason I dont answer properly some threads, including this one.

I dont care if hackers know some details, but not some of the stuff you describe, for the reasons you describe.

I hadnt thought about the ill and frail part.

I dont say if I am going away, for example.

Gransnetters are very unlikely to be personally targeted by burglars because they have said online they keep (relatively small) amounts of cash in their homes though, to suggest that is somewhat paranoid. Burglars are opportunists, looking for somewhere that’s near where they live, and easy to break into - or they target rich homes where are likely to be lots of valuables. I won’t be losing any sleep.

I was asking about emergency money, and more than once tried to stop the move towards people over sharing. I’m not sure that details about Gladys in Macclesfield will be all over the Dark Web though. That does seem like scaremongering.

watermeadow

I’m amazed by the number of you who are living in the past and carrying or hiding large sums of cash. Serves you right if you get mugged or burgled.

Charming! I am so glad I am not connected to you in any way. What an unsympathetic person you are!
If you ever have money stolen, please don’t come on hee bleating about it!

It’s neither paranoid nor scaremongering. It’s being sensible about what someone divulges on a public forum.

If it’s possible to get someone’s email address through a database hack (which it is) then that opens the door to piece together all kinds of data about a person’s life - just as the Police and HMRC do in investigations - part of which is searching social media for data about that person, their possessions, their habits and their movements.

Say GrannyIvy posts on GM every day. A would-be scammer could already have pieced together a lot about her life. Today she writes: Good Morning from a chilly Macclesfield. This morning, we’re going to Barclays to collect our Euros, then to M&S to buy me a new swimsuit. We’re taking the dog to the kennels this afternoon then we’re off tomorrow on the 10:00 am flight from Manchester to Alicante for two weeks in sunny Javea.

Good chance then that the house is going to be empty else the dog wouldn’t have to go to the kennels.

Say the GN members database has already been hacked and the hackers now have everybody’s email address. They search the dark web and find an entry which links [email protected] to an address Remote Cottage, Quiet Lane, Macclesfield and a phone number. Bingo.

They sell the data to a criminal network who now know the house is going to be empty for two weeks. And/or it’s sold to scammers who will call Ivy when she gets back. Hello, this is Barclays Bank. We’re calling about an irregular transaction on your account relating to M&S.

There was a recent thread about Suckers Lists. If you don’t believe that a forum populated mostly by elderly women posting daily about their lifestyle and activities could be a target for criminal networks, that’s up to you. I’m just saying that it’s possible and that people should be careful about what they divulge on a public forum including how much cash they carry or keep in the house. Thieves aren’t necessarily looking for large amounts. Some just want enough cash to pay their drug dealer. And if they now know where GrannyIvy lives and that she always carries £200 in her purse, she’s making herself a sitting target to be mugged as she walks to the bus stop.