Prepping - cash in the house?

[FollowYourOwnNorthStar]

I have a small folder in a safe at home that has all relevant documents in it. I update it once a year (doing it now), and it has what you would expect - birth certificate, passport, will, all different types of insurances I have, copy of my last tax return, credit report, etc.

It’s supposed to be a ‘go-to’ thing for me to grab in the event I need to evacuate my house (flood/fire etc) and I also think of it as a bit of a ‘go-to’ place for people to work out my affairs in the event of my death, so it also has a list of bank accounts I have, direct debits to cancel etc, etc.

I’ve also kept £500 cash in there. This was meant to be part of the ‘grab money’ if I needed to evacuate in an emergency. I guess it would also be helpful to people after my death to pay small bills if there was a delay in getting access to my accounts.

However, in our increasingly cash-less world, I am starting to wonder if I need to keep this money there. Is it really a waste, and would be far better in the bank?

Does anyone else keep cash like this (for this purpose) at home? I appreciate some people have large amounts as they don’t trust banks, whilst others keep a small float to pay for small expenses that come up - but does anyone keep any for this reason (evacuation/emergencies) and do you think I need to keep doing so?

I keep some but I've dipped into recently. I usually try to have £100

It won't earn much in a savings account so not worth being in a bank, and if society broke down to the extent bank cards didn't work then money would be worthless too. Keep a couple of hundred for emergency cash payments, but don't feel it's necessary

I keep cash at home for this grab and run purpose. I've been in an earthquake when the electricity was cut to the bear minimum and cash machines and card readers weren't running. Access to cash was the only way to get hold of the essentials - including water which became unsafe to drink from the tap.

People won't be quibbling over the mode of money transfer if the shtf but cash isn't going to disappear on you.

I keep a fair amount of cash in the safe for emergencies, in twenties. I need to get it all changed at the bank at some point into the the new plastic notes.

Ok, thanks everyone. I’ll keep it for now. Maybe reassess again next year when I check/update the documents again.

Just make sure the money is new notes
Can imagine some people have been caught out this way

Well OP, I was reading about a shitstorm at Glastonbury when the bars had to go cash only as the Wi-Fi crashed. Apparently people were getting really aggressive as they couldn’t buy a drink after queuing for ages.

For that reason I would want some cash on me. Saying that, make sure it’s current plastic notes, not the paper ones.

To be a real prepper though gold bars would be best!!!!

I keep emergency funds in gold coins & a couple of hundred cash.
We have some silver too but it's really bulky if you had to travel.

That way, over the long term the coins will stay approx the same spending value unlike cash which is devaluing massively right now.

If you get gold coins which count as legal tender (from about £180 for 1/10 oz Britannia coin at the moment, I count them as being £150 coins, if I had to cash them in today) they are VAT & CGT free.
You pay a higher premium for smaller coins, so 1/4 oz is about £415 right now.
You can sell them anywhere in the world & they are still worth the same amount of money.
You could stick a grand in your shoe or wherever they are so tiny, so they are really portable.

Preppers don't get gold bars as they are liable for Capital Gain Tax.

Gold is really easy to sell on because it's gold.