I learned this lesson in 1998 when the big ice storm hit Fort Drum. Nothing electric would work for days, we had a new born son at our quarters, and no one had any money; no more than a couple bucks or so. It had just been payday but it was all on the debit card. The corner grocery store in Black River that was open with a generator has no means to debit the account for purchases. Always, Always, Always have emergency cash available.
$1000 in physical cash, in a safe, at home is appropriate. You can run your household for quite some time on that amount of money if the other bills are pushed to the side throughout the emergency time. $1000 in physical cash will buy a large amount of groceries, even at 'emergency' prices. At Fort Drum in '98, some of the outlying communities were out of power for 45 days. So, I plan around having cash for supplies that my preps cannot cover for more than just a few weeks.
I also recommend another stash in each of your family's vehicles -- enough to buy gas to get home from the furthest you might drive, as well as a hotel for a night. I learned this lesson at Fort Campbell when we had a hundred year flood. The road into and out of my house was flooded. The house was dry, but there was no feasible way to access it. You always need to have cash to find lodging and dining.
A trick I have learned as a control measure is to vacuum seal the cash to eliminate the temptation of borrowing from it. I have created for my family several money packs that serve different roles and are different sizes. Smaller packs in the go bags and larger packs for longer-term eventualities. Before I learned to seal them, I would always 'borrow' 20 bucks or so from myself. But then, of course, something always gets in the way of paying yourself back. The purpose of the emergency stash is diminished if the amount decreases and it isn't replenished. Seal the money packs and this temptation subsides.
$1000 in physical cash, in a safe, at home is appropriate. You can run your household for quite some time on that amount of money if the other bills are pushed to the side throughout the emergency time. $1000 in physical cash will buy a large amount of groceries, even at 'emergency' prices. At Fort Drum in '98, some of the outlying communities were out of power for 45 days. So, I plan around having cash for supplies that my preps cannot cover for more than just a few weeks.
I also recommend another stash in each of your family's vehicles -- enough to buy gas to get home from the furthest you might drive, as well as a hotel for a night. I learned this lesson at Fort Campbell when we had a hundred year flood. The road into and out of my house was flooded. The house was dry, but there was no feasible way to access it. You always need to have cash to find lodging and dining.
A trick I have learned as a control measure is to vacuum seal the cash to eliminate the temptation of borrowing from it. I have created for my family several money packs that serve different roles and are different sizes. Smaller packs in the go bags and larger packs for longer-term eventualities. Before I learned to seal them, I would always 'borrow' 20 bucks or so from myself. But then, of course, something always gets in the way of paying yourself back. The purpose of the emergency stash is diminished if the amount decreases and it isn't replenished. Seal the money packs and this temptation subsides.
