Banks are great and all, but everyone should keep a little bit of emergency cash stashed somewhere at home. Frugal Dad offers up a list of seven hiding spots that should beat all but the most determined thieves.
1. The Freezer: Wrap your cash in aluminum foil and stick it in a ziplock bag.
2. Picture Frames: Slice apart the cardboard backing and insert the cash.
3. Under Heavy Things: Place the cash in an envelope and slide it under the corner of something heavy, like a piano or entertainment center.
4. Soup Cans: Why buy one of those fake-bottom cans when you just re-use one of your own?
5. Fake Plants: Put the cash in a ziplock bag and bury it in the fake soil of one of your fake plants.
6. Books: Improve the worst book in your collection with a knife. Hollow out the core and hide the cash inside.
7. Toys: Hide the cash in an old toy your kids don’t use anymore, and bury the toy at the bottom of the toy chest.
Of course, any household location can work just fine. The real trick is remembering which hiding place you chose. Send yourself an email with the location—if the thieves have broken into both your email accounts and your home, then really, all is lost.
Seven Secret Places To Hide Cash In Your Home [Frugal Dad]
(Photo: fazen)
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my cash is sitting in an envelope on my desk.
Given the amount of crap on my desk, there is a pretty good chance a thief wouldn’t notice it.
To really hide your valuables you need to get into “hidden places” construction versus this run of the mill list.
There are various books on amazon about this. Alot of them use magnet catches or nail catches which require a magnet to remove the nail
One quick one is to cut out a section of the top of a hollow core interior door and hang or drop a bag with a recovery string down there…
I recently found five hundred dollar bills in the freezer I’d forgotten about from two years ago!
Yes, many of these places (especially the freezer) are common places for thieves to look. Also, the risk of something being thrown out or forgotten is huge. Don’t hide in any place that is disposable, like soup cans, even table lamps. If you bury a can in the back yard, write a note in your safe deposit box or something to remind you.
To all the Katrina references, not all disasters are warned in advance and it is a good idea to have cash on hand. Remember the Northeast blackout!?
Ive hidden stuff inside my PC. You can tape all sorts of stuff in an empty drive bay or any empty space inside a case, theres lots of room. And if your afraid of having the PC box stolen you can store your cash in a spare power supply. All that will be seen is wires sticking out like they should be. All sorts of computer components will work, just need to know how to take them apart. An external Hard drive enclosure is good but easily removable (stolen). How about underneath a stand alone freezer, not in it.
when we were broken into by teenage gangster wannabe thugs, they went straight for the laptops, flat-screen tv (which we don’t have), and trashed our bedroom, flipping the mattress and pulling out the top drawers looking for guns. they left the jewelry, the digital camera and other low $ electronics. it’s all about what they can grab in the 20-30 seconds after they kick in your door before the house alarm starts blaring and the cops auto-called.
Dang it! now everyone knows where I keep my cash. Bad Consumerist! Bad!
My mother in law stuck $100 bills in all her window blinds which she kept rolled up. We could never understand why she had roll up blinds under louvered blinds and curtains till we were cleaning up after she died.My husband pulled down a blind and thousands of dollars started raining down. She never told a soul.
Um, is this really a good idea anymore? Considering the woman in Israel who threw out her mother’s mattress, that her mother had hidden $1,000,000 inside?
Use some common sense when hiding valuables in your home. A hollow book only works well if you have a large number of books. Same with soup cans – only useful if it’s one of a cupboard full.
What people searching for things tend to watch for is the thing out of place. The shelf with only one book, the cupboard with only one can of soup, etc. Make your stash look like part of the normal clutter and it’ll be much safer. Watch out for places that leave traces when you access them – the drive bay cover with much less dust than the others or the TV stand with scratches where the TV has been moved frequently will attract attention. Skip those “fake cans” that are sold as secret safes – the thieves have seen those too and recognize them on sight: they’re not identical to the real product.
And don’t think that the common places will be ignored. The toilet tank WILL be checked, as will “under the mattress”. Dresser drawers and closets will also be checked. Plants too – especially if there’s just one. The freezer always gets checked so this isn’t a very safe place to hide things unless your cash packet looks just like fifty other packages in there.
The best places will almost always be in plain sight and absolutely normal looking. If you’ve got a file cabinet full of files, an envelope with cash inside can sit in the bottom of one of the folders. If you have a large CD collection, a surprising amount of cash can hide in a CD case.
Remember that your thief is thorough, but he’s also in a hurry. This is where hiding things in collections works in your favor. He’ll probably check the one or two CDs you have out – but the 300 in the rack would take more time to go through than he can afford to spend.
And you might find it useful to put a small (but not tiny) amount of cash under the mattress or in the toilet tank. It’s entirely possible that when the thief finds it he’ll figure he’s got your hidden stash and get out of there before he gets caught.
Remember, it doesn’t have to be hard to get to or super well hidden – it just needs to be somewhere that prevents it from being located quickly. Professional thieves know how long it will take the police to arrive after the neighbors call in or they set off the alarm and they’re done and out of there in less time than that. If you’ve got some tweaker coming that doesn’t care if he gets caught or not then all bets are off.
This discussion is starting to go off the deep end.
I think the initial topic dealt with storing small amounts of money to be used in case of an emergency – not what to do in the event the FDIC shuts down.
Homeowners’ insurance may cover small amounts of cash (typically $500) in the event of burgularly, subject to your deductible. In contrast, money in a bank or Credit Union is insured up to $250,000.
$100 or so laying around is enough for gas and food for a few days. If I sense a greater risk (such as a hurricane watch being issued), I’ll grab a few extra hundred from the ATM.
Damn if only there was a building with trained professionals, electronic records and a big vault. Where you could put your money and basically no cost to you.
Anyone know something like this?
While hoarding thousands of dollars in your home (ala the woman whose daughter threw out her millino dollar magttress) is a bad idea, it is definitely a good idea to keep emergency cash on hand. The northeast has seen numerous ice storms that left people without powers for days or even weeks. Any hurricane could do the same, and we all remember the power outage that left the entire northeast without power for several days a few years back.
I mention this because without electricity an ATM is not going to give you any cash.
Not to mention that in a true emergency it’s possible the atm will be emptied by hoardes of people desperate for cash.
I have a nice safe hiding spot for $400 just in case.
and I’m not telling you where that is.
Mainly because I don’t remember where that spot is.
/s
Our house was broken into, and those places were the first they looked. They also ripped open seat cushions and emptied all my canisters full of flour, etc. The only safe thing was that I put a fake wall outlet in our bedroom, and they didn’t look there. We got a floor safe (a man had to come out and put a hole in our slab foundation for it – it was worth it) and a burglar alarm. My sister has a dark curtain in her bedroom that she sewed cash into the hem of.
When I used to have a cat. I’d put money in 2 ziplock bags and then slide it under the plastc liner in the litterbox. A great hiding place!
When I used to have a cat, I would put money in a ziplock baggie and slide it under the plastic liner in the litterbox.
I bet drug dealers really appreciate this post.
My grandma’s friend hid money throughout her house. After this lady passed away, her kids had a garage sale to get rid of her stuff. A very honest person who purchased a vacuum cleaner came back and returned over $5,000.00 their mother had stashed inside the vacuum canister. They started going through items and found cash everywhere, particularly in books. By then they had sold many items. Who knows how much money they lost that day.
Unless there are extremely large cash needs, a non obvious cache is usually sufficient. Of import is considering your risk. Burglary, employees, children, relatives, guests, or DEA agents? How often have you had cash stolen? What else has been stolen or damaged — the cash might be the least significant issue.
What was the name of that congressman who was found with $90K wrapped in tin foil in his freezer? That made headlines so I imagine a lot of thieves will be looking there if they break into your house…
I hide my cash in a safety deposit box, but I don’t have alot of it…
Growing up, I can remember one of my older relatives hid all her jewelry in the way back of her kitchen cupboard under the flour and sugar. I always thought that was so odd, but it makes more sense than hiding cash.
Is hiding large amounts of cash in your house for emergencies or is it some sort of anti-bank thing?