Curiosity - how much physical cash do y’all hold?

[lutorm]

Given that we live in an area that has hurricanes, we keep something like $500 somewhere along with the stash of water and canned food. I literally never use cash, but it's entirely possible if a hurricane hits and there is an extended power outage that cards won't work.

[Fishindude]

I'm in the rural midwest.   There are still a few little restaurants / diners around that refuse to take credit cards, cash only. 
Many small business owners prefer cash as they are charged a fee for credit card use.   

Always prefer to leave tips in cash so it goes directly to the person you want it to go to.   When you write a tip on a credit card receipt, who know if your waiter / waitress gets it?

[mountain mustache]

when I lived in rural Colorado I kept more cash. There were several stores/coffee shops/restaurants that only took cash. Also if you are driving around in the middle of nowhere and need gas, often the only place you can find will be cash only. It was just handy to always have $20-$40 around.

[fat-johnny]

I normally keep ~$500 at home, locked up, for Craigslist purchases, and the like.

I normally keep ~$50-$100 in my wallet.

EMERGENCY petty cash:  I keep a $20 bill folded up and tucked inside my cell phone case.  Nobody but me would ever know it was there.   I have never lost/misplaced my cell phone, but if I did, losing my $500+ cell phone would be more worrisome than losing the $20 bill.  It comes in handy about once every 3 months when I need cash for something, or forget my wallet, or what have you.  Nice little emergency stash.

FJ

[HeyMickey!]

This is an amazing turn-out of responses, thanks guys!

I'm impressed the most common answers seem to be 'nothing'!

[Blue Skies]

In my wallet - an emergency $20.  Almost never spend it, but it comes in handy once a year or so when I end up somewhere that will only take cash.
In my house - between $100 and $200, about half of which is actually my kid's.  That gets spent in the summer at various cash only markets.
I much prefer using a credit card, but there are situations where that doesn't work, so we keep enough cash on hand to deal with those and replenish from the ATM as needed.

[bikeboise]

I think I have ~$12 stashed around my car in one dollar bills, I like to hand out a few dollars here and there to people who are down on their luck. An emergency $50 in my wallet, and about the same in fives and ones for cash tips.

[Dicey]

@Frankies Girl, you're the best. I love that you're still hanging out with us here, all these years post FIRE. Thanks for the laugh of the day!

[Frankies Girl]

@Frankies Girl, you're the best. I love that you're still hanging out with us here, all these years post FIRE. Thanks for the laugh of the day!

Where else could I go? I don't fit in most places. :D

Glad I can provide some help/amusement to anyone here. ;)

[Sailor Sam]

In my wallet, nada.

$1,000 in the emergency go bag.

50 silver rounds tucked away. 99.9% for shiny fun, 0.1% for the end of the U.S. as we know it.

[DrinkCoffeeStackMoney]

I typically keep $100-$200 cash in my wallet and another $700-$1k at home.

[Just Joe]

I try to keep $200 in my wallet all folded up and hidden. Emergency money. Hold over from when I didn't have a credit card a million years ago and traveled alot.

There is also a variable amount of petty cash in my wallet that I inevitably give to my kids a little here and there or buy a sandwich with if I'm out and about with coworkers. That also pays the little $10 here and there for coworker birthdays or retirements or for sympathy flowers. Normally I get ~$40 cashback at the grocery store and make it last a month or more.

At the house I try to keep some cash. It is truly emergency money in case we needed to buy groceries or gasoline or escape to some other part of the state and if our cards were not working for some reason. Sounds silly but then a couple of months ago I never expected to experience this pandemic. I think there is $1500 there. Would like to increase that to $3000. We have an emergency fund in the bank but what if the bank was inaccessible for a month?

Two things have made a big impression on me: the statistic that says most Americans couldn't access a few hundred dollars easily on short notice. I refuse to be that guy. I have a family to take care of. Also, stories of people fleeing a regional emergency. Need to eat, need to pay for a place to stay, etc. In theory we would flee to friends or family but some of those people don't have alot resources of their own.

[One Noisy Cat]

100 quatloos which translates as $2100. My doctor advised it as he felt there could be a run on banks...before that it was 50 quatloos ($1,000).

[John Galt incarnate!]

If you’re comfortable answering - curious how much paper cash mustachians hold? I used to keep some on hand ($500 but creeps up to $2K sometimes) for purchasing from small businesses, tipping, and emergencies, but with it being ‘corona times’ it’s time to re-evaluate. Thoughts?

 

For years I've carried  5 $100 bills in my wallet for an on-the-spot emergency.

About 2 weeks ago I increased  the amount to  10 $100s  due to the unprecedented "new normal"  attributable to COVID-19.

[BicycleB]

Generally, $400-1000.

Currently, about $900. Had it prior to COVID, no changes. If an emergency wipes out a key network (power, banking, telecom), I can pay for something like transport or several weeks of supplies. It's right below my go bag and water stash in making me feel ready for surprises. (Technically, some of it is part of my go bag.) When COVID came, it was very nice to know that I didn't need to visit the bank to gear up in case something further happened.

I think a lot of people have never been in an emergency before. They can happen to any of us.

[PDXTabs]

Right now I have $16 in my wallet.

I also have $200 with my passports, but I'm considering increasing that to more like $500-1000.

[alsoknownasDean]

In my wallet? Typically between $20-80, and I find that I'm topping this up rather less often nowadays. $41.35 at the moment :)

Always good to have a little in case the card reader doesn't work, or it's a very low value transaction (a couple of dollars or less).

There's also a little bit at home.

[Dicey]

100 quatloos which translates as $2100. My doctor advised it as he felt there could be a run on banks...before that it was 50 quatloos ($1,000).

😂

[BussoV6]

I keep the local equ of $1000 in my safe at home and carry around 50-100 worth of local currency in my wallet. I also have a few high value notes kept hidden in my car.

[imadandylion]

Maybe like $600. Our families give us cash for events or just because, and our online banks can't do cash deposits. We often forget about it because they're just lying around in some drawer, and then we get surprised about it every so often (recently I did a 'spring cleaning' so I know how much is actually on hand). Plus, we have some change in various currencies from our travels. In our actual wallets = zero cash, only cards.

[jinga nation]

I keep the local equ of $1000 in my safe at home and carry around 50-100 worth of local currency in my wallet. I also have a few high value notes kept hidden in my car.

Laughed so hard at this, good memories, my dad and grandpa did the same living in Kenya. Dad still does it in 'Murica.
Egoli, eh? Like the show, or for real RSA?

[PDXTabs]

Egoli, eh? Like the show, or for real RSA?

I'm not South African, but isn't Egoli a Sotho word while RSA is a reference to apartheid South Africa? I'm very curios.

[seattleite]

Pre-FIRE while I was still accumulating it was maybe a few hundred at most, during the 2008 crisis I increased that to a minimum of $1000. Post-FIRE I like to keep about 1% of net worth in cash "just in case" — It has minimal impact on my portfolio but could be very useful in the extremely unlikely case that I'd need it.

[jinga nation]

Egoli, eh? Like the show, or for real RSA?

I'm not South African, but isn't Egoli a Sotho word while RSA is a reference to apartheid South Africa? I'm very curios.

Egoli is a Sotho word for Jo'burg, per wikipedia. (There used to be a TV show called Egoli Place of Gold that I used to watch as a kid.)
RSA is the official name of South Africa (The Republic of...), just like the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa

[soccerluvof4]

2k hidden and 1-200 usually in my wallet.

[phildonnia]

I've had $8 in my wallet since March.  I'm seriously considering making March 2020 the last time I ever handled one of those disgustingly dirty pieces of rag from the Federal Reserve.  In so many ways Coronavirus has shown the way to the future, and this is completely doable.

I also have $40 in each of my cars' ashtrays, for emergencies.

[HBFIRE]

tipping and cash only restaurants.   Usually around $60-$200, fluctuates.  Everything else is CC for buyer protection and rewards.

[RedmondStash]

Not a lot. However, there are businesses that only take cash, so I have a little on hand for that. I don't expect the downfall of civilization, and frankly, if that did happen, some paper rectangles and pressed metal discs wouldn't be of much use.

But mostly I pay for everything in other ways. Seems safer, contamination-wise, these days, though "safer" is of course a relative term.

And yeah, any cash I have tends to sit around for years. I don't use it often.

[Tyler durden]

$3-500

Things come up. Bought a cord of wood ( I buy it green and let it season to save money ) - gotta have cash for those transactions. Strangers don’t accept personal checks from me and neither do I.

[HBFIRE]

One thing cash can be good for is getting a significant discount with small operations (like my mechanic) or contractors.  We know the reason for this, but it's none of my business.  That said, caveat emptor -- no buyer protection.  Gotta make sure you're working with someone reputable.

[BussoV6]

Egoli, eh? Like the show, or for real RSA?

I'm not South African, but isn't Egoli a Sotho word while RSA is a reference to apartheid South Africa? I'm very curios.

Egoli is a Sotho word for Jo'burg, per wikipedia. (There used to be a TV show called Egoli Place of Gold that I used to watch as a kid.)
RSA is the official name of South Africa (The Republic of...), just like the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa

Yup, Joburg resident. Never watched the show though.

[YttriumNitrate]

These days, about 90% of my phyiscal cash transactions are Craigslist related, and I probably have a couple hundred lying around for when I receive an alert for a good deal. I also have a stack of $2 bills I used to use for tipping street musicians, but I haven't gone into Chicago in the past few months.

[jmechanical]

I usually keep around $1500 - $2000 USD in physical paper cash in mostly USD since I'm american. Usually I have about $100USD in my normal wallet, $150USD in my travel/passport wallet, and another $1000USD in a safe. Sometimes I go to places like farmers markets that only take cash so I always carry a little bit on me.

Currently I've also got around 2500 RMB since I can't figure out mobile payments in china and debit/credit cards are practically useless there. I also have about $100CAD

[sixwings]

Usually about 60 bucks before I go to the farmers market to get my produce for the week. Other than that, none. If I want to support small businesses by lowering their cc fee's I use my debit card.

[afox]

reminds me of this movie scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgHcYxKjwVE

[Captain Cactus]

reminds me of this movie scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgHcYxKjwVE

LMAO!

[American GenX]

I try to keep about $50 in cash in the car.  I don't normally carry any in my pocket wallet unless it's for a specific planned spend of cash.

I normally use a CC, but it comes in handy at times for cash gifts, contributions/collections, a low cost drive-through order where I prefer not to give them my CC, cash vending machine, and on the rare occasion that I forget my wallet.

[bbqbonelesswing]

I keep a few hundred in cash. There are still many restaurants near us that don't take cards. Cash comes in handy for tipping, gifts, gas, lunch from the halal cart, etc.

[Chris Pascale]

$110 at the moment. Oh, wait, my wife just found out. I got nothing.

[SpareChange]

Presently $15 in wallet. Been there for months. $1.25 in vestigial quarters from when I used to use my apt complex's laundromat. Now they just help me live up to my username...

[MyAlterEgoIsTaller]

Less than usual, because I've been dipping into my cash stash instead of going to ATMs because I'm worried about touching widely-used buttons and screens. 

[Cranky]

I still haven’t used any cash since March 15.

[PoutineLover]

I hardly ever use cash but I usually keep about 20-60 bucks in my wallet. I haven't been to an atm since this whole thing started but I've received cash a couple times for using my card to pay for a group activity or selling something. Much prefer cards, but certain stores only take cash and it's nice to have when splitting a bill.

[dcheesi]

I withdraw $300 at a time from the ATM, so 0-300 in my wallet. I also have a few hundred stashed in various other places. Maybe ~$1k total?

I still haven’t used any cash since March 15.

That was the case for me as well, until the tree removal guy asked to be paid in cash for the second part of that job, so he could pay his guys working on a weekend. That took a trip to the ATM in addition to what was already in my wallet. I didn't mind doing it, though, considering how hard this pandemic situation has been on small businesses and contractors.

[partgypsy]

It's good to have some cash like 200 or less. I do because sometimes hurricanes come through, knock down power and I've been in situations the atms are down and stores only take cash. Hasn't happened in a few years but it has happened. And things return to normal in days up to a week. Also a couple local places that only deal cash, and for tipping. I don't see the purpose of hoarding large amounts of cash?