Losing your wallet out on the town on a Friday night with the bank not opening until Monday is a common scenario.
I'm curious as to what emergency expenses requiring cash would pop up between Friday night and Monday morning though.
Usually, the very annoying situations are when you get two or more annoyances striking at once, combining into a major PITA. For example, you could be scheduled to drive to see relatives several states away that weekend. Or have a potluck on Sunday for which you don't have all the ingredients.
I wouldn't quite consider either of those two instances to be emergencies, but rather inconveniences (things that can be cancelled/rescheduled/do not need to take place).
Let me just say what prompted me thinking about this.
This summer, my youngest cousin passed away suddenly. When I flew in for the funeral, my grandfather (who was like my Dad), fell ill and passed the day of the cousin's funeral. So I was traveling between Chicago, SC and VA at the time. (On another note, the parents didn't have all the money to bury my cousin so I gave and raised funds towards that.). The emergency money I had was in my Capital One 360 account, which took days to get access to. It was quicker to use my own personal funds from my checking account, credit card, and even transferring money from my ROTH IRA was quicker than getting the funds out of the Capital One 360 account.
I had to travel out of the country for work this month. It was my first time out of the country. I got pic pocketed and lost about 200 Euros, my drivers license, credit/debit cards, company credit card and passport. I had to stay in the country for extra days to get an emergency passport. When I called my mother in the US for assistance she did not help.
Upon looking back on these two times this year, I obviously need to do a lot better at planning for (all types of) emergencies. I learned a lot from the Paris trip. For instance, about leaving certain cards/backup cash and my passport in my hotel safe (which I had planned to do but was in such a rush to get out and enjoy the city that I left out with everything in my wallet.)
The two funerals over the summer taught me that I needed more money in my EF (which I was building at the time but lost about all of it after those things happened). And it taught me I needed the money to be in a more accessible place--a place I can access the money the same day if needed. For this reason I think I will split my EF fund across several accounts.
So, the things that have occurred this year have me thinking...do I need money at home too in case something happens? If so, how much? I don't want to keep more than is needed in cash just lying around. I think enough money for getting locked out of my place is realistic. It's other things I haven't experienced that I think I need to anticipate.