Could you find £300 in an emergency?

i find this more concerning than the ‘massive mortgage’ thread!

i have had an ‘ahh **** it’ fund in the bank for several years now, well over 12months sallary. if work gets too much then i know i can have a flounce and walk out (or they decide they no longer require my services 🙂 )

i dont remember any time where i havent had cash on the hip (enough for what i want/need) but i do know people who have lived like that for long periods of time. having been fortunate enough to be in a position to help them out, i dont really want to be in the position of not knowing where our next meal is coming from.

If there was some kind of civil emergency/cyber attack/bank systems failure (see RBS) how much food and fuel could you buy with the cash you’ve got with you?

I think we need to weigh up the relative risks here…

Losing your wallet / having it stolen / spending it just because you had it on you: happens all the time; don’t carry lots of cash, sorted

Failure of a single banking system: happens occasionally; carry a spare card from a different bank, sorted

Societal collapse / all banking systems failing at once / zombie apocalypse etc.: really not worth worrying about, let’s be honest

Societal collapse / all banking systems failing at once / zombie apocalypse etc.: really not worth worrying about, let’s be honest

True, but much more fun to prepare for…

Always good to have access to hard currency in case of emergency.

But don’t put all your eggs in one basket, try to keep a range of currencies Sterling, Euros and Dollars are always good and tend not to raise suspicion when being spent or exchanged especially in lower denominations.

If at all possible then a range of identity documents of different nationalities can also help in an emergency. Also keep any at least one firearm loaded, but no live rounds chambered, keep it sensible.

I bet the other half are loaded….

not even close to half US citizens are loaded…

I always have cash on me, it’s annoying not having cash for random things, despite using cards most of the time (and Apple Pay a lot)

Classic example, went out for dinner last night, card machine was down. Notice outside, saved me having to find somewhere else

Have an emergency £20 on my keys, and an emergency £60 in my wallet. It’s hidden away. Only spent if I really need it, and I then replace it straightaway

I carry cash, but I seem to be a dying breed.

I hate those who get to the bar, buy their own pint and pay with a card, as do the three mates they’re with. Buy a round, or get some cash you numpties.

Likewise the idiots in the paper shop who want a copy of the Sun and a box of matches and want to pay with a card.

The only time I’ll pay for small items with a card is if I’m at a self service checkout. I don’t mind doing so then.

the irony being that most of the time paying by card for low value items with contactless is quicker than doris paying with cash and the cashier counting out her change…..

there are certain establishments i only use cash in though – the pub is one of them.

My Wife & I are both fairly risk averse (& boring) when it comes to money. We don’t have mega bucks stored away, but we have enough that if the boiler blew up tomorrow it wouldn’t be a big deal (just a bloody annoyance) to get a new one.

I would be too stressy if I didn’t have some kind of buffer, but I know many people who seem to spend everything they receive (and sometimes more) in a month & have no savings at all or no back-up plan.

While not well off, I realise that we are in a fairly fortunate position compared to a lot of people but I do sometimes wonder if that’s just because we’ve made ‘boring’ choices, whereas they’ve lived a little more…..

A mate of mine who earns more than me & lives in a fairly cheap part of the country spent years saving for a deposit to buy a flat, but ‘never had enough money for savings’. Mainly because it all went on food, drink, clothes, holidays & gadgets. He would get pretty whiney about how hard it is for young people to save for a mortgage & how it wasn’t even worth bothering to attempt it.
Any mention of reigning in his socialising, shopping & holidays was met with more moaning about how he didn’t see why he should change his lifestyle just to afford somewhere to live.
In the end his sister gave him a loan for the deposit on a flat he bought……pretty lame, to be honest.

nope.. not without selling something or borrowing

I hate those who get to the bar, buy their own pint and pay with a card, as do the three mates they’re with. Buy a round, or get some cash you numpties.

WTF? Nothing to do with cash, they could just buy a round with a card.

not even close to half US citizens are loaded…

Good film, seen it before but still shocking watching it again….

There must be a lot of people who keep a stack of 1,000 CHF notes under the mattress for emergencies.
60% of Switzerland’s printed currency is in these beasts and I don’t think they’re much use for paying for groceries.

I usually have around £100 in cash in my wallet and a £k or two accessible in the current account, exact amount fuluctuating depending on the time of the month and how expensive the last month or two was. Plus £10k available on the credit card, but that would cause me some probelms if I maxed it out, usually less than £1k on it and paid off each month.

Used to keep a grand in cash in the house for ’emergency’ purchases. Eg cheap cars (normally land rovers) that came up and needed to be snapped up quick to turn a profit (usually by breaking and selling the bits). Don’t have the time for that these days with kids.

Likewise the idiots in the paper shop who want a copy of the Sun and a box of matches and want to pay with a card.

As above, swiping a paywave/paypass card is much quicker than cash, unless you have counted out the correct change beforehand – in which case you have bigger issues…

Yes, not an issue. Couple of months of salary in the current account (which pays good interest), and plenty squirreled away elsewhere in ISAs and accounts for the children. Was not always like this, but have worked hard to get into a fairly comfortable position.

I don’t even have a wallet, got a money clip for cards and notes but ditched having a wallet a while back, haven’t missed it.

I own a crowbar and have pretty easy access to firearms, so I’ll be fine.

The attitude to cash is changing for sure, clearly this depends on where you are and what establishment too.

If you walk into a Pret or Itsu and pay for your munchies with cash, they Huff and Puff and have to reset the card reader that they’ve already set.. 😆
Walking into my favorite Local Pub, in the Whole World, and try to pay by card and you’d be turned away along with a raised eyebrow and a snort, which I like.
In Waitrose the checkout Kings and Queens look confused if you reach a wad of £20’s to pay for food, it’s such a PITA for them to count them out.. 🙄

But I do see the benefits of contactless, I use that too, it’s an easy way and very quick if buying <£30 worth of Sherbet Bonbons, I expect the limit on this to be lifted to £100 within a year..

But cash rulz, nothing like feeling a wad in your trews pocket…

just looked in my desk drawer ….

6000 nigerian naira , 100 danish kronar and 30 Azeri manat.

oh and a cheque book….

All pretty much useless i guess.

I only wish my emergencies where around £300!

I was reading an article somewhere or other recently the gist of which was that retailers really like contactless, Apple pay etc because people spend more with them than they would with cash. It’s so easy to pay ‘small’ amounts instantly that most people do it multiple times without thinking, whereas taking £30 of cash out of a wallet / purse for each purchase makes you stop and think about it.

Edit. In answer to the actual question, I do like to have a decent amount of cash with me most of the time, but then I’m paranoid about cash machines eating my card and leaving me stuck with no method of paying for stuff!

I’d have to ask my butler to lend it to me.

lucky7500 – Member
whereas taking £30 of cash out of a wallet / purse for each purchase makes you stop and think about it.

Exactamundo! Thats why I use cash, hexakerly for that reason.

I think we need to weigh up the relative risks here…
Losing your wallet / having it stolen / spending it just because you had it on you: happens all the time; don’t carry lots of cash, sorted

Doesn’t stop some people having a massive panic if their card doesn’t work or gets stolen.

Failure of a single banking system: happens occasionally; carry a spare card from a different bank, sorted

How many of the general public (who live on credit and spend every penny every month) have cash in two different banks? How many people who have two accounts think they’re different banks but are the same? Halifax/BOS, Lloyds/TSB etc. Loads of non-obvious ones too that catch people out.

Societal collapse / all banking systems failing at once / zombie apocalypse etc.: really not worth worrying about, let’s be honest

Only takes one to fail for pressure to be put on the others, this can cause a domino effect. Just look closely at the effect the run on Northern Rock had on any other banks at the time, cash reserves in all branches and cash centres were at the limit for a week or so.

The other problem is that cash movements between banks/cash centres/supermarkets (most cash is in one of these places at any one time) is undertaken by only three companies in large amounts. If one of these fails then no cash moves for a few days while the logistics are sorted, cue a run on cashpoints, banks and panic-buying of bread, milk and (most likely) fags and booze.

Hence why I always have £50 stashed at home for a week’s shopping, the system should be back up and running by then! If not then I’ll just go round to my uncle’s who has £1k hidden in each room of his house, probably over £12k in there 😯

I have 300 quid in my bedside cabinet if anyone needs it.

£8.70 dont like to carry large amounts of cash around (over £100)
being self employed i like to have a years worth of living expenses (mortgage/bills/food) in the bank or i get twitchy. i have seen what a recession can do to my work in the past and don’t want to go through that again without knowing the essentials are covered.

From a commercial point of view, the banks make it quite unattractive for businesses to work with cash – my other half and I own and run a pub in rural Devon, and it’s now quite noticeably cheaper for us to take every payment by card, even if it’s just for one drink, than it is to take cash. Most of the business accounts out there will charge a one off fee plus ish 1% for cash deposits. Add in the fact that we’ve got to drive into town to get to the bank, makes encouraging card payments the obvious choice for us now. Didn’t used to be that way, but card provider charges are dropping quickly.

I do get why people like to use cash though – especially in our line of work. But I’m more than happy to entertain the card only carriers…

Also – to answer the question – same as many people here – could happily access that amount of money now. Wouldn’t have been the case without using a credit card, if it was 10 years ago.

Exactamundo! Thats why I use cash, hexakerly for that reason.

True, I find paypal worst for that, it’s good at hiding the true scale of bike bit buying. I found I could quite easily get through a month having spent ~£5 every day on some widget or consumable for bikes, cameras or boats. None of it strictly necessary! But the instantaneous, ‘ohh I need a UV filter for that lens I use once in a blue moon, indoors’ and it arriving on the doormat in 48h was getting daft. These days unless stuff is in a really good time-limited sale it goes on a list and if I still want/need it at the end of the week/month then I buy it. More than anything it forces me to go through the spares boxes looking for stuff rather than just buying new!

Oddly I have far more self control in person, a shopping trip usualy comes back with 3 days food and nothing else, maybe a bar of chocolate and a few ales, but not an excess of stuff. The OH on the other hand can come back with more spent on treats and ‘stuff’ than food!

Hang about, I’ve just remembered I’ve got two 5CHF coins in the ashtray of my car, a nice chap who manages a carpark in Geneva gave them to me as a gift.

Probably the second most accepted currency in the world after the US dollar.

Don’t worry about me lads, I’ve got just over seven quid in ‘hard’ currency, really hard – they’re big like UK coins just aren’t anymore.

I’m using cards for any tiny amount now. Takes a few more seconds putting in a pin, but more places have contactless now which makes it a lot quicker for small amounts.

I’m finally getting rid of old penny jars as I never used fiddly change like 1/2/5p so it just piled up over years. Whatever I cashed in would get refilled quickly with more of the useless stuff. Now I get very little of it.

Only issue is paying workmen. If they want cash though it’s a no as it always was. Just some still ask for cheques. Long since ran out of them and bank never issued any more. They’re supposed to be dead in a couple of years I think anyway.

Recent one was okay giving me their bank details for a transfer, although been reading there are some more clever scams going round where someone you’ve just dealt with has had their PC hacked / malware and a scammer will send a very genuine looking invoice that you were expecting but with the scammer’s bank details instead.

I try to offer payment via Pingit/Paym or PayPal (warning them the latter will cost them in fees to receive on a business account).

“If they want cash though it’s a no as it always was.”

whys that then ?

You would insist on an invoice + reciept as you always would when you pay a tradesman to prove payment and amount.

I have no issue with that. All the risks on their court if they play funny buggers and dont declare their income.

if you’d have asked me that a year ago i would have said no. had no savings at all. we set up a savings account when we got married and all the money we managed to scrimp together went on the deposit for the house…after that it stayed empty for a good few years.
we’ve only just started to save up again in the last year so it wouldnt be a problem now…but looking back if i’d have needed that amount of cash back then it would have meant selling something at a loss

thisisnotaspoon – Member

True, I find paypal worst for that, it’s good at hiding the true scale of bike bit buying

Yup. I just sold a bike, and as a result accidentally bought some carbon cranks and a 3D printer 🙂 But over the last year, I’ve set up a little pocket-money side business on ebay and as a result, I’ve almost always got a paypal balance- and I’ve definitely spent more as a result. It’s not real money is it? Luckily I still come out ahead but by way less than I should

Yes,

My parents always taught me that I should have a few months salary saved and available for emergencies. It has been handy a few times. It hurts to spend it but means don’t end up really stuck when something expensive goes wrong like car repair bills.

Rarely carry much more than a tenner on me as my day to day spending is low. Take my own food into work and travel by bike. Got a good selection of cards between current, credit, joint etc should one bank have a problem. In case of zombie apocalypse – I have a plan and I’m not sharing it with you fools!

This place is absolutely obsessed with money

trail_rat – Member
whys that then ?

You would insist on an invoice + reciept as you always would when you pay a tradesman to prove payment and amount.

I have no issue with that. All the risks on their court if they play funny buggers and dont declare their income.

Part of it is the risk to myself carrying large sums of money from a bank or getting it from cash machine.

I stopped paying cash in hand when years ago a bunch of kitchen fitters were insisting and pressuring me into paying cash for the fitting fee of over £1k. Cheery guys but persistent and I eventually gave in but was very uncomfortable getting the cash. They gave me an invoice and receipt sure, but while it sounds a bit Daily Mail, I had a strong suspicion this was not going to be declared and would be going back to their home country. By the time revenue may be on their case they could be back home anyway.

While I may “optimise” my tax bills legally 😉 , I do still pay in a fair due. I’m not comfortable however supporting someone illegally evading tax. More so as there’s potential to be prosecuted for assisting tax evasion. i.e. if I was suspicious but I paid them anyway. It’s down to revenue to prove it and unlikely, but still it could involve the faff of an investigation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/6014070/Taxman-clamps-down-on-cash-payments-to-builders.html

cx_monkey – Member
From a commercial point of view, the banks make it quite unattractive for businesses to work with cash – my other half and I own and run a pub in rural Devon, and it’s now quite noticeably cheaper for us to take every payment by card, even if it’s just for one drink, than it is to take cash. Most of the business accounts out there will charge a one off fee plus ish 1% for cash deposits. Add in the fact that we’ve got to drive into town to get to the bank, makes encouraging card payments the obvious choice for us now. Didn’t used to be that way, but card provider charges are dropping quickly.

Whereabouts in darkest Devon? I go down to South Hams on holiday, if you’re somewhere handy I’ll check you out next time I’m down that way.
As for available money, I could easily access £3-400, probably more, I’ve got £40 in cash in my wallet at the mo’, and since ApplePay came online with Lloyds I’ve used it a lot for small, <£15-20. My regular little coffee place in town had a new card reader, so I asked if it took ApplePay, and was met with a shrug and ‘no idea’, so I tried it, got the ‘ping’, and got wide-eyed amazement at my using my phone to pay for a beverage.
Good thing we live in enlightened times, otherwise I’d have been burned at the stake!

I was skint until I wast 25 then the last 20 years I’ve spent the cash before it came in, fortunately I usually had a good income to cover it.
Now I usually have £100-200 in a wallet and pay cash for stuff under that price (fuel, food, childcare). I leave £100 in the house “in case”, and I carry a visa that I could buy a new car with and have a couple of grand in the bank on the side. The rest goes on living,saving and fun.

I’m nearer 50 than 40 now…..it took me a long time to get to this stage!