Last night I was out for dinner with friends and we were comparing drivers licenses. When I pulled mine out my friend Heather pointed at the $100 bill I had stashed behind it and said something along the lines of “Whoa, rolling!”
I kind of forget about that $100 bill. It’s been in my wallet for almost four years now.
The very first trip I took alone after my high school graduation was down to Vernon to visit my best friend Michele for her birthday. My dad gave me $100 for “emergency money”. I never gave it back and I never spent it.
This August, it will be four years since my dad gave me that $100. I feel like it’s almost sacred now, ya know? I mean, sure, I’ve thought about spending it before, especially in the last couple years when money was tight. But then I remind myself how long I’ve had it and that it’s my “emergency money”.
I think maybe one day I will spend it, when I actually do have a real emergency or I feel like it’s time to spend it but until then it will likely just sit in my wallet where it’s always been. I’m serious when I say that I kind of forget about it, it honestly doesn’t even occur to me that it’s there until I take my drivers license out for something and see it!
Anybody else have emergency money that they carry around? Could you hold onto a $100 bill for four years without spending it?
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, kudos to you for not even spending it! I know I’m not good with cash. Cash makes me think of free money!
My parents always told me to have at least $50 stashed in my wallet for emergency purposes. Which I did, until I got my first “real” job, in college, at a credit union and I had free banking privileges and never carried cash again. Somewhere along the line, I did replace it and I’d totally forgotten I had it until I was cleaning out my wallet last week and found it.
I also found a stash of US currency (over $100) in there as well, probably from my last trip to Seattle, which was last August!
Who knew my wallet had such treasures?! I really need to clean it out more often
I can totally imagine stashing cash in my wallet sight unseen and forgetting about it!
I used to have something like $5 in my school bad for emergency bus/food.
I never carry cash though – hate it with a passion – so you’ll never find any in my wallet. As long as I don’t forget to top up my bus card regularly, I’m safe. I think I do have 5 or 10 Malaysian ringgit in there that’s not worth converting to NZD.
Thats very smart. I used to do something similar but with a $20
I hate to carry cash…always use debit and have had money stolen from my wallet in the past a couple of times. I am to trusting and always leave my bag lying around at parties and such. It is a very smart thing to do, though and of course since you have it…you have never needed to use it!
I do sometimes have a little emergency cash- not nearly as much (baller!) and clearly I’m not as good about not tapping into it as you are! :p
I love that you took it that seriously!
I have emergency money in bank accounts, but not in cash, I’m terrible about spending what I do have!
I don’t really do the emergency money thing, though its a good idea. I almost never have cash which is a terribly bad plan obviously haha. However I think I could keep a $100 bill for a long time because I hate spending $100s…I just rarely have something that expensive and I hate asking for something so big in change. I never even had a 100 dollar bill until a year or two ago when I told a friend I never had one and he used a 100 to pay me back and I was like I still don’t want one haha.
I feel like that $100 will come in handy at some point though…so definitely save it
I had emergency money when I was in university. But I spent it once and never replaced it….
=)
If I have cash, I spend it quickly. Usually, the only time I carry cash is if I know I won’t be able to use my debit card somewhere.
I rarely carry cash with me aside from $5 or so. I used to wait tables and on any given day you could find me with at LEAST $200+ dollars in cash in my wallet. Scary!! What if I got jumped? Or lost my purse? I keep my emergency fund in my savings acount now. That said, I don’t think there is anything wrong with keeping emergency money on your person – it’s just not for me… I’m too much of a worry-wart!
Four years?! That’s a long time to hold on to that much money in a wallet. I’d be afraid of losing it. I’m always bad about spending my emergency money, but I usually don’t keep much either. I figure that’s what my credit card is for.
Good for you for still having it! I think it’s a really smart thing. I guess the only question is, if you have an emergency, will you spend it?
i really personally don’t like carrying cash. i’ll get cash if i want to pay way less for gas, or when i’m going out to dinner with a big group of people…then i’m on a set budget. or if we went on a trip – like we did recently – and just took out cash and used that money for our trip. instead of going crazy and charging my card all the time.
I would NEVER be able to keep $100 in my wallet without spending it! Maybe if I framed it, you know, so it was harder to access, I might be able to… but wow, you have willpower lady!
I am horrible with cash. I have $5 in my car for when I need it for a parking garage or something. I almost never carry cash so I usually find myself in some sort of predicament. =)
Maybe if I stashed it away and COMPLETELY forgot about it I wouldn’t spend it.
All of my emergency money is in the bank; I don’t think I’d last too long with cash in my wallet.
I do not carry emergency money… But I do try to always have at least $20 on me because you never know when you will need cash. Especially on nights when I go out with friends.
My emergency money is in an ING savings account. It takes 3 days for it to transfer over, thoguh, so if I was ever in a pinch and needed a sizeable amount, I’d have to charge it and then transfer money over and pay off the charge.
That’s so funny that you haven’t spent it! I am pretty sure I would have spent that years ago!!
I don’t know if I could last four years but then again I’ve had a lot of ‘emergencies’ in the past two years
Good job to you! That is most impressive
I can’t keep $5 in my wallet without spending it, let alone $100! I never carry cash! My dad always tells me to keep a $20 bill on hand in case I need a cab or something but that just gets too expensive for me
Holy Moly Amber!! Hats off to you, that would totally burn a whole in my pocket!
Have a super weekend
Tam.
I don’t have any emergency money on my person. In fact, I rarely carry a lot of cash. However, ever since I bought my first condo, I have always kept a minimum amount in my savings account, for emergencies related to my home. Kind of like your emergency money, you just never know when you’re going to need it, so it’s good to have it.
I keep a little bit of money in my car in case I need gas or have an emergency. Love the idea of keeping some behind your license, though!
Yeah, I could hang on to it. When I was in elementary school, and I would babysit for money, I always made sure I had $40 in jar that I would never spend. It made me feel good to know it was there.
That’s amazing that you still have it and haven’t spent it! I definitely would’ve spent it on shoes, clothes or something I “desperately” needed.
I keep a spare cheque in my wallet, but chances are if I ever needed to use it, the place wouldn’t accept personal cheques.
Oh wow! I wish I had emergency money! I used to, but we had an actual emergeny (unemployment) and had to spend it.
I am super impressed that you managed to keep $100 in your wallet for FOUR YEARS! It would (maybe) last 4 weeks with me. I’m terribly with spending cash. I usually don’t have much cash on me, although now I’ve taken to keeping it on me so as to spend less on frivolous items throughout the week. And forget about emergency money…I don’t even have money stashed away if something crazy happens! I’m working on it, though!
I do have a lot of random stuff in my wallet, but no emergency main. The main reason being that whenever I get large bills like that I just deposit it into my bank account so I don’t loose it. And once it’s there it pretty much just gets mixed in with the rest.
I have an emergency toonie for coffee but thats about it! lol. Good for you for keeping it for so long. I’d have spent that baby in no time!
I love that story! But to answer your questions … no and no. I’m hopeless with money. It would have been long gone. :-/
DUDE! I totally did this for years! I always kept $100 behind my license! I only quit when basically everyone started taking credit cards.
That is actually a really good idea. I don’t have an emergency fund like that now but I’m definitely going to now. I don’t think I’d actually put it in my wallet though, I’d keep it somewhere else just in case my wallet ever got stolen or lost.
If I have cash I have to fight myself not to spend it. I do better using my debit card cuz I seriously consider the money better that way!! I do hold on to gift cards like no other haha.
I always keep a $20 stashed in my wallet and some money in my glove compartment as well. I think it’s wise to have some cash because there are still situations in which it could come in handy
I think it’s cute that you’ve never spent the money and have saved it all this time!
WOW thats awesome!!!! i give you props thats fabulous!!!!!!!!! I need to keep money stashed somewhere like that too!
Honestly, I don’t have emergency money in my wallet because if it’s stolen, I’m SOL. But I do keep one credit card in a separate part of my purse so if the wallet is lost, stolen, etc. I can still get home. Good idea having that!
Pretty impressive to have that for so long!
Nice post…Because everyone can face the bad situation.But i have always some money in my pocket. It is a good idea for emergency situations..