Do You Keep a Stash of Cash?

[wenrob]

It sounds like the US is more cash-free than the UK (or at least my little bubble of it). The 3 local taxi firms I use only accept cash, as do many corner shops. If I tip for food delivery, breakdown recovery etc, I have no option but cash. I have to pay the guy who cleans my bins in cash each week. Not all street parking meters accept card payment, and it’s a hassle to do. There are also plenty of pockets of areas that don’t have phone reception, should I need to pay by card for something. I would feel very vulnerable not having any cash.

I don’t even have to call to make a food delivery order anymore. I order, pay and tip online.

I think there is a difference in suburbs at cities.

I can count on one hand the times in my adult life that I have used a taxi. Whenever I have, it has been a known prior expense. I have had a friend, coworker, or family member "rescue" me from every car breakdown. There are also really no buses here where I live (there are in other parts of the US). Nearly every family has at least 2 cars. In the suburbs, there is rarely a charge to park. If I know I am going to go to the city, I'll have cash because I know I'll have to park.

I also don't see having $20-40 in my wallet and $20-40 in DH's wallet as a "stash of cash" in my house. That covers parking, tips, etc. So maybe I interpreted the question wrong?

Most of our parking garages and meters you can now swipe a credit card here. Not all though, some of the oldest hotels aren’t set up for it. In the very, very rare instances where we go somewhere with cocktail waitresses, bartenders and valet we do bring cash.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Nope. I'm almost 50 and have never had a cash only emergency unless you count milk money for the kids lunches.

Our school now does online payment for stuff like field trips.
Rarely see a parking lot that takes cash only here now. You pay by credit card or by a mobile app. All hospitals for sure take credit cards.

Taxis take credit cards (which is like once a year occurrence for me).

 

[wenrob]

Nope. I'm almost 50 and have never had a cash only emergency unless you count milk money for the kids lunches.

Or Tooth Fairy though I was pretty good at keeping a couple of ones on hand just in case. I think once we had a total surprise loss but between three adults we managed to scrape up $2 cash.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I almost never have cash in my purse, but I do keep a few hundred in the house.

 

[wvjules]

I can't imagine forgetting my purse/wallet when I'm going somewhere so often that it requires me to keep a stash of money in my car.

 

[Julylady]

When I was 16, my grandfather gave me a $20 bill for emergencies. He said a "lady" should never be without cab fare in case a date went wrong. I have passed that tradition on. I keep a supply of small bills (mostly $1, $5, and $10) in both my car and house. A few years ago we were without power for several days and the gas station/convenience store only took cash. I learned my lesson.

 

[UncleMike101]

Yup......
I'm not a fan of credit/debit cards.
I'll use them if necessary but I prefer to use cash for most purchases.
If, God forbid, something happens to our electronic banking system my cash won't disappear like the imaginary funds in the banking cloud.

 

[BillSears]

I keep some cash around just in case I get a call and am invited to go out to the casino with family/friends.

OK, that's not the only reason but it has happened.

 

[luvsJack]

We learned our lesson after Katrina. First we had a hard time believing it was going to be "that" bad. Second there was a store right down the road that had always been available and we knew he would cash a check. Well, it was worse than "that" bad and the store didn't have power either and couldn't cash all the checks he was being asked to cash.

So, now we keep some cash. During hurricane season we keep more than usual and then put the extra into savings once the season is over.

 

[NHdisneylover]

It sounds like the US is more cash-free than the UK (or at least my little bubble of it). The 3 local taxi firms I use only accept cash, as do many corner shops. If I tip for food delivery, breakdown recovery etc, I have no option but cash. I have to pay the guy who cleans my bins in cash each week. Not all street parking meters accept card payment, and it’s a hassle to do. There are also plenty of pockets of areas that don’t have phone reception, should I need to pay by card for something. I would feel very vulnerable not having any cash.

The US was more cash free 10 years ago than our area of Germany is even now (though grocery stores have begun to take credit cards in the meantime here--big yay!)

Our "local" (none in town unless we call for one) taxis do not take credit or debit, only cash. Same with the bakery, pizza places one town over (pick up or delivery) the great Asian place in the other dir3ection, the lake with a swim beach, the ice cream shop, etc, etc. So we generally have cash on us for all of those things--but i keep emergency taxi money in the first aid kit for ONLY that so we never have a medical issue and realize we cannot get to urgent car3e because we used up our money on pizza for dinner or some such.

 

[DLgal]

What kind of stores these days continue operating with no power? Everything is computerized, so if they can't accept credit cards because of no power, they also can't sell you things without a POS system...

We don't keep cash on hand. There is no reason to do so.

 

[mom2rtk]

What kind of stores these days continue operating with no power? Everything is computerized, so if they can't accept credit cards because of no power, they also can't sell you things without a POS system...

We don't keep cash on hand. There is no reason to do so.

We had a bad ice storm some years ago that shut everything down for days. Some restaurants were able to open a few hours every day, but did so on a cash basis only. Not common, but it happens.

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

I don’t even have to call to make a food delivery order anymore. I order, pay and tip online.

That sounds wonderful - I’m all in favour of anything that cuts down my human interaction!

Here, Dominos has an app, but I have to tip in cash. There are a couple of umbrella apps that cover independent takeaways but they mostly only work in the big cities, not the suburbs. If I order takeaways (other than Dominos) to be delivered, I have to pay for the whole thing in cash.

The US was more cash free 10 years ago than our area of Germany is even now (though grocery stores have begun to take credit cards in the meantime here--big yay).

I found that really odd about Germany too - I think it is worse than the UK in terms of using cards.

 

[Gigi22]

We had a bad ice storm some years ago that shut everything down for days. Some restaurants were able to open a few hours every day, but did so on a cash basis only. Not common, but it happens.

Yes. And for our second multi-day power outage, which was in the summer, restaurants were left scrambling. If they couldn't beg/borrow/buy a generator for their refrigerators and freezers, and of course there was a run on generators, they were out of luck and lost all their food. On the upside (?) every householder with a freezer immediately went through as much ice cream as possible, since that went first. People had block barbecues with the food in their freezers.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I guess one difference here is we don't tend to have big power outages or ice storms. In my 50 years of living here there has never been a long term power outage that took out the whole city. Perhaps one suburb for a day.
More likely that we would have a huge blizzard and cash would be useless as you probably wouldn't be leaving your house. And it doesn't take down the power. And least not the ones I've experienced.

In the major floods we have had all businesses would be closed in the flood zone and you would be evacuated either to a shelter where emergency services would be provided or to a large city centre where there would be banks and stores with power.

I can see if you live in a place that is at risk for ice storms and power outages I would keep some cash.

 

[Iya]

What kind of stores these days continue operating with no power? Everything is computerized, so if they can't accept credit cards because of no power, they also can't sell you things without a POS system...

We don't keep cash on hand. There is no reason to do so.

Easy to say there is no reason to do it...until there is and you need it.

 

[Cheetie]

What kind of stores these days continue operating with no power? Everything is computerized, so if they can't accept credit cards because of no power, they also can't sell you things without a POS system...

We don't keep cash on hand. There is no reason to do so.

We’ve been through a couple of power outages where stores went to calculators to ring you out if you had cash.

We always carry cash, and we keep an emergency fund at home.

 

[Kitty 34]

Nope....it's not going to make money being under my mattress!!

 

[DLgal]

We’ve been through a couple of power outages where stores went to calculators to ring you out if you had cash.

We always carry cash, and we keep an emergency fund at home.

Huh. But how did they keep track of the sales for inventory purposes? This seems crazy to me.

I live in an area with, basically, no "mom and pop" type places (besides restaurants). Everything here is big box retailers, chain stores, large supermarkets, etc. We also live in an area where there are, essentially, never power outages anyway. No weather issues here besides the occasional rain. I guess if there is an extended power outage in this area, we are screwed because I am fairly certain that NO STORES in a reasonable radius will even be open. I'll take my chances. Even if there is an earthquake, we will be good for awhile on the food and water we always keep at home, but there has never been an earthquake in the area where we live that disrupted things for an extended time anyway.

 

[DLgal]

Easy to say there is no reason to do it...until there is and you need it.

That's true, I guess. I just don't feel like we would have any use for cash if things are so bad that there is no power anywhere. I mean, at that point (considering where we live), it would have to be a massive grid failure or attack on our infrastructure that shuts down all communications. At that point, cash won't help much because we will all be screwed anyway.