Money can be kept safely at home by putting it in a safe or by hiding it in the house. Home safes can be used to hide money and other valuables inconspicuously so no one but the owner knows the money is there. This offers additional financial security beyond the bank.
Keeping money safe at home is a good idea even when you have a flush bank account.
Since most funds are electronic now, keeping a cache of currency is a good back-up if there is ever a problem with your account or bank access.
Keep reading to learn more about the safest ways to store money at home.
Benefits Of Keeping Cash At Home
There are many advantages to keeping a store of cash at home. Here are just a few of the reasons a person might benefit from doing it:
- Emergencies: If you lose your purse or wallet or you get robbed, it can take some time to get new credit cards and replace any cash you lost (if you can). Having a back-up stash of money at home means that you’ll still have money to live on while you get your purse or wallet and its contents replaced.
- Accessibility: Money stored at home rather than in a bank can be accessed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This makes it a much better choice for emergencies than money kept at the bank since bankers keep strict hours. Even ATMs are not necessarily a surefire bet when it comes to money access.
- Savings deposit: Many people find it easier to accumulate savings if they put five or ten dollars here and there in a convenient deposit. Small amounts of money found on laundry day or lying around the house can also be contributed to this savings over time without the fuss of adding it to a formal savings account.
The main disadvantage of keeping cash at home is that it becomes a security risk if your house is robbed or if people know there are large amounts of cash hidden in the home.
So even with the benefits gained, it’s still a good idea to keep security in mind when you store cash at home.
Where Can I Hide Money?
There are plenty of places around the home where you can hide money – even if you don’t have a formal safe.
These are places that will keep it hidden from people who wouldn’t know to look for it (or from a thief who is looking to get in and get out without spending time hunting through your home).
Keep in mind, however, that professional burglars will be aware of the most common places to hide money in a home.
For this reason, having back-up security camera systems and other safety measures is always a good idea.
Here are just a few of the many places where you can hide money around the house:
- Stuffed animals: Buy a couple of stuffed animals at a thrift store, then remove enough stuffing to insert a baggie with cash in it. Replace enough stuffing to make the item look properly plump, and sew up the opening. Then place on a bed or on a decorative shelf in a room (or put them in a storage bin in the closet).
- Pillows: This is similar to hiding your cash in a stuffed animal. You can do this with bed pillows (both for sleeping or decorative) or decorative pillows on the couch.
- Clothes storage container: Put the money in a ziploc, then put it between clothing items in the storage bin. Make it harder to find by putting that storage container in a stack with other, similar, storage bins.
- Freezer: The freezer is a good place to hide money since if your is anything like mine, it’s usually jam-packed. In a rush many burglars may forget to check here. Money kept in the freezer should be placed inside a plastic bag to protect it from moisture damage, then hidden inside an empty frozen TV dinner or other freezer item to further disguise it. Just be sure not to accidentally throw it out!
- Pantry: Hiding money down at the bottom of a can of coffee grounds or in a bag of flour is also a good way to keep it hidden from people who might be combing the house looking for valuables. It’s a good idea to mark out this pantry item in a way that makes it stick out slightly from others so that it isn’t accidentally used or tossed in the garbage during clean-ups.
- Floorboards: For older houses that have hardwood floors, setting up a secret hiding place under the floorboards can be a great way to store money and other valuables. This spot can then be covered up with a throw rug to make it even less conspicuous.
- Furniture: Taping money under bureaus or other pieces of furniture can be a good way to prevent it from being found. This is a spot that many burglars or other thieves will forget to look. Hiding money under furniture allows you to hide it in several places at once, too. Furniture close to the ground is better than furniture that is high up enough for people to look beneath.
The key to finding a good place to hide money in the house is to pick a place that is both inconspicuous and won’t be easily forgotten.
It’s also a good idea to write down the location of hidden money in an encrypted memo on your cellphone or computer so you have a back-up in case you forget where some of your money is hidden.
Here’s why – I once bought a paperback at a used bookstore and was delighted to find a $20 bill inside.
You can bet the book’s prior owner forgot to check through it before taking it to the bookstore – but they could have retrieved it if they’d written down their hiding place!
Where Should You Not Hide Money In Your House?
There are certain places where you should not hide money in your home for a couple of reasons: either they are so common that anyone would know to check there or places where your money might not “survive” for long.
What do I mean by saying your money wouldn’t survive?
Case in point – a relative of my former mom-in-law thought it was a great idea to hide money by digging holes in your back yard and burying it in several coffee cans. She hid literally thousands of dollars this way.
The problem was that coffee cans corrode and rot if they get wet repeatedly (which is what happens when it rains and a coffee can is under the dirt).
When she dug up a can years later, it was rusted through and the money had disintegrated into a soggy, moldy lump (yup, she also hadn’t put it into a baggie to keep it dry).
Moral of the story – think through your hiding place for potential pitfalls.
Common places that everyone knows to look are:
- in your purse(s)
- in your drawers
- in the toilet tank
- in plain sight in the freezer (ie: just sticking money into a ziploc bag tucked behind the frozen vegetables)
- under your mattress
Will Paper Money Burn In A Fireproof Safe?
Paper money and other paper documents will burn if exposed to fire, but they generally won’t burn inside a fireproof safe.
Fireproof safes are insulated to the point that even if they are engulfed in fire on the outside, the inside of the safe never reaches a temperature hot enough to combust the paper inside within their rated range.
The biggest issue with fireproof safes is the duration of the fire.
Most fireproof safes are rated to protect paper and cash currency for up to either an hour or two hours of temperatures exceeding 1700 Fahrenheit (see the best fireproof safes here).
This means that fireproof safes can protect cash and papers as long as the fire is put out relatively quickly.
However, fire safes that are exposed to fire temperatures over two hours are not guaranteed to protect the items inside.
Prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures will raise the interior temperature of the safe to damaging levels even through insulation.
Best Safes For Keeping Money Safe At Home
The best safes for keeping money safe at home are easy-to-hide safes.
One of the biggest disadvantages of hiding money in a small money safe, however, is that these safes are usually small enough to be portable.
If a burglar finds the safe, all they have to do is take it with them. Later, they have plenty of time to destroy it to reach the money inside, while at a secure location.
Safes that aren’t built into the walls of a home or hidden under the floorboards should be made to look inconspicuous so they don’t draw a potential intruder’s attention.
Here is a list of some of the best-hidden safes you can use to keep your money secure around the house:
- Ohuhu Book Safe with Combination Lock: This book safe designed to look like a dictionary will fit in well on any bookshelf and is easily hidden among textbooks or other large books to make it less conspicuous.
- Trademark Gambler’s Clock Wall Safe: This wall safe is a fully functioning clock, so visitors will never be the wiser when you hide money and other valuables behind its face. This safe also features multiple shelves so you can keep your cash separate from other items like jewelry.
- 770 Flat Wall Safe: One of the major benefits of a wall safe in the home is that it can’t be picked up and carted out by burglars. This safe allows the owner to access it with either a key or a combination code.
Picking a good home safe is a balance between finding a safe that is secure from intruders and having a safe that is easy to get into when you need to.
Either way, keeping money safe at home means investing in a safe to keep it.
TIP: It’s also a good idea not to openly talk about the cash you have in the house in case the wrong person hears about it.
Money At Home Means Financial Security
Banks are reliable for keeping and handling your money most of the time, but whether it’s for a small emergency or a major catastrophe, keeping cash on hand around the home is a good back-up plan.
This is a security risk, however, so make sure the money is hidden and in a hard to access location in your home.
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