The Best Places To Hide Cash At Home
I recently saw the movie, Mad Money and in the movie, the main characters accumulate large bags of money in their homes. They had so much cash they had to fill every drawer and cabinet in their house.
If you have a significantly amount of cash to put away, where would you hide them? There are people today that still don’t like keeping all their money in a bank. These people would store cash in their homes, in places that they think nobody can find. In fact, I heard a very interesting true story about a couple hiding their cash.
One couple safely put away $20,000 in hard cash behind a stove/gas unit in the kitchen. It was hidden in a sealed area completely out of sight and nobody would even think about looking there for cash. Many years later, the couple sold the house and moved out. Needless to say, the cash was so well contained and stored away for so long, the couple had forgotten about the cash. The new house owners somehow later discovered the secretly stored stash of cash. It was like winning a lottery for the new house owners.
A very popular place to store cash is under the mattress. In the old days, people always put important things under their bed. Over time, everyone knows about the under-the-mattress secret location, so people have become more creative and have thought of new places to hide cash. Here are several places I could think of that are great for hiding cash.
Living Room
- In a place that looks boring and doesn’t seem attractive
- Behind a clock
- In a self-created mouse hole
- In a CD/DVD case on the bottom of your collection
- Underneath the couch
Kitchen
- In an old food box behind other food boxes on the top shelf of the cabinets
- Under the sink
- Behind the oven/stove
- Behind the refrigerator
Bathroom
- Behind the toilet
- Behind the cabinet mirror
- Inside a medicine box on the top shelf of the medicine cabinet
Bedroom
- In the pockets of an old jacket in the back of the closet
- In an old shoe box
- Inside a desk lamp
Free free to share your thoughts and let us know what do you think is the best way to safely and secretly store cash at home.
on June 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Do you think thieves would check the bottom of the tampon box in my bathroom cabinet?
For a lot of cash, I’d try to first get it changed to large denominations (fewer bills to hide). I’d put individual thousand-dollar bills inside books. I could put some in the trash bin, between the garbage bag and the can. I wouldn’t think thieves would check there, either.
I wish some former burglars would comment and let us know of good/bad places to stash cash!
on June 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I would never store money at home. In the bank, earning interest. In a brokerage account. Contribute to my IRAs. If it’s “dirty” money, then I would launder it. There are lots of how-tos on the Web on money laundering.
on June 23rd, 2008 at 6:55 am
[…] Smarty of Growing Money discusses the best places to hide money at home and asks if you have other ideas. Of course, don’t lose the money like the people in one of her examples! […]
on June 23rd, 2008 at 10:20 am
I think I’d put it in a shoebox in my closet — I have several in there, and I doubt thieves would be checking out my Easy Spirits.
My mom bought a mixed lot of books on Ebay, to keep a few and resell the rest, and found a $20 in one of the books… that was more than she’d paid for the whole box. Don’t forget which books you hide the bills in if you go that route.
on June 24th, 2008 at 11:58 am
While I probably wouldn’t store money at home, if I did, it would be inside my piano. No one’s moving that sucker!
on June 24th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
The CD/DVD case is a bad idea. When I was robbed once, the crook(s) took the CD collection. Don’t hide something you don’t want stolen in something else that would be stolen.
on June 28th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
@devil
$100 is the largest denomination currently printed
on July 6th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
devil,
$1000 bill exists, but $100 bill is the largest bill for regular people like us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denominations_of_United_States_currency
I wouldn’t think thieves would check the trash bin either, between the garbage bag and the can, but wouldn’t that risky? What if the cash were accidently disposed?