Where to hide emergency cash in your home

Many of us have a small stash of cash in our homes should a significant emergency arise – a massive power outage, natural disaster, or other calamity. But where to hide it? One need only Google “places to hide money” to discover a large number of – in most cases – utterly predictable and therefore horrible places to hide money in your home. I’ll debunk a few of those in a moment and provide some suggestions for unusual and effective hiding places, but first let’s consider how a burglar thinks…

Types of hiding places to avoid!

Some of the hiding spots you ought to avoid should be very apparent, given the list above. Putting money in prescription medication bottles is just flat out dumb. Likewise, putting money inside anything that a thief is likely to grab – say a DVD player, or DVD cases themselves, is not wise. (Plus: someone – husband/wife/kids – may loan or give the DVD to someone!) Putting $500 (or whatever amount) in the pocket of a certain shirt in your closet may work – but keep in mind that “frisking” clothing in your closet takes just seconds, AND this is hardly an original idea. Likewise, hiding items in a waterproof bag or bottle in the tank on your toilet is an idea that wasn’t conceived recently (have you seen The Godfather??)… many people have had this idea and as a result, a burglar may look. In a similar vein, hiding cash inside a heating/AC vent or cold air return vent isn’t novel and if it’s taped in place, the adhesive on the tape may fail – and your money will be lost in the ductwork somewhere!

Also, try to avoid a place that you may actually forget. If you put cash in an article of clothing or an old shoe and a couple of years go by, you may forget about it. Goodwill and Salvation Army workers routinely find money in donated clothing.

With this last point in mind:  before you hide money anywhere in your home, go to wherever you store the deed for your home and put a note on it – something to the effect of “emergency $$,” or “hidden cash,” – so that you won’t move away and leave your cash in the house! In the excitement of a move, you may totally forget it!

A couple of other thoughts before my recommendations

The best place is in a heavy, high quality safe. If it’s a really heavy safe, securely bolted down (and the bolts aren’t easily accessible) your average burglar won’t bother. The cost of this type of safe may be prohibitive for many of us, however.

If you hide stuff in furniture, the walls of your home, clothing and the like – and your home burns, so does your money. Your hidden cash certainly pales in comparison to a house fire, but do you really need to lose another $300, $500, or $1000?

This is going to seem totally counter intuitive, but you may want to consider leaving $50 to $100 lying in plain sight in your kitchen. If you have a nice home, nice furnishings, but no cash lying about, a burglar may trash your place looking. If he can grab a quick $100 and run, he most likely will – remember, he wants to grab and go as quickly as possible!

We know what rooms and spots are popular with burglars, so…  finding other, remote spots to hide cash is a good idea.

Where to hide it…

A few ideas – perhaps you can use one of these, or maybe these ideas will spark an idea on your part:

If you can find an out of the way spot on this beam which is poorly lit and not very accessible (e.g., there are storage boxes in the way) it could provide a good hiding place. Put the bills in an aluminum tube or steel pipe and set it in the joint of the beam. It’s unlikely that your burglar is going to spend a lot of time searching around your basement. To facilitate removing the bills should you use a tube or pipe, tie a piece of thread around a paperclip and put the clip on the end of the bills you first insert into the tube.

• Your washing machine has a metal panel on its back which can be removed. Pull the washer out, remove the panel, and put your cash (in an envelope) in a safe spot inside – duct taping it to the sidewall of the appliance. Your typical burglar will not want to pull out your washer and partly dismantle it – it’ll simply take too much time. (Of course it’ll require you a little time to retrieve it as well. The next suggestion is less time consuming and every bit as effective.)
• You probably have a metal box hanging off the ceiling of your garage – your door opener’s motor unit. There is a surprising amount of space available inside. Remove one of the side panels, securely duct tape your envelope of cash to the panel, and put it back in place. On my opener, the side panels are attached with 4 easily removed screws – it takes about 4 minutes tops to take one off and put it back on. I apologize to 99.999% of my readers for what I am about to write, but: I am NOT referring to the translucent section of the opener where the light bulb is – I am referring to the side panels!
• A final comment: I mentioned fire earlier. If you wish, fireproof envelopes are available from a number of vendors. They cost between $35 and $50, and will protect your bills should the worst happen. Just Google “fireproof bags.”

That’s it – if you have any outstanding hiding spots you’ve dreamt up, please share them with your fellow Practical Hacks readers!