How much money do you keep in the house?

[Belindabelle]

I received some money for Christmas in cash. I put in my bedside drawer and it is still there. Just wondering if I should keep it in a safe place in the house as I never need to go to the bank and I probably won’t spend it for a while. I mainly shop online now anyway.

I know my Mil has a small safe with a few hundred pounds in it and one of my Great Aunts always had a supply of dollars and euros in case she needed to leave the country quickly!

Just wondering what other people do.

just wondered why anyone would keep such large amounts in cash

Unreliability of power/telecoms outside major cities increases the risk of not being able to use cards - Storm Desmond a classic case in point where power/mobile phone was down for a few days meaning no one could use cards!

As others have said, "some" people keep cash to ensure their bank savings are low enough to qualify for state benefits.

There are also lots of tax evading traders who give discounts for cash to avoid VAT and other taxes (and probably means they claim benefits too!). Some people don't have any morals/qualms about paying traders in cash when they know (suspect) tax evasion by the trader. If you don't have cash in the house, you can't pay your tax evading cleaner/plumber/scaffolder!

I always thought there was quite a low limit in the amount of cash that was covered by insurance,there always has been on our policies.

Depends on the policy. Some policies have very low limits but you can usually upgrade to better policies with higher limits or you can get a higher limit by increasing your excess. These days it's easy to compare and tailor policies to suit your needs.

A couple of Grand in a safe. The bank I bank with has had issues with their systems in the past so have it as a buffer. Also tend to have fifty euro in cash at anyone time. I shop in a couple of very small local shops/market stalls that only take cash.

What do people do with their £1/£2 jars? Like you can't just go and buy a holiday with £800 in coins can you?

common sense:

• more than one bank account with different banking groups. IT failures happen on a regular basis.
• some money in your purse/wallet/pocket
• some money stashed in the house. Enough to get a taxi to a hospital if needed plus any regular cash outgoings.

relying on a chunkphone or cards for all transactions is gormless because stuff goes wrong.

I've actually grown to dislike cards, I have cards decline for no reason at all except that it's a uk card I'm a foriengn country. I'm a slave to the American dollar now! 😁

hardly any, just what is in my bag. Have 2 bank accounts in case one is doing maintenance.

Rainy puddles (wouldn't let me tag you for some reason).

I guess you could pay with the change, but it would be embarrassing, time consuming and at the travel agents discretion!

Our local bank has a machine similar to the coin star ones in the supermarket that you tip the money into (but it doesn't charge you), it counts it and prints off a slip that you take to the cashier who can either give it to you in notes or pay it into your account.

Before the machine was introduced at the bank, I would count the money and bag it up to take to the bank!