Gosh today was interesting.

We had 46 mph winds and rain all yesterday and last night. i was feeling fortunate that the power never flickered once. Actually amazed. Well ds#1 had to drive himself to class this afternoon and his truck has been on E since Saturday.....he's fortunate too I guess. So he went to our nearby town 12 miles away to get cash from the ATM and put gas in his truck. I told him to take a gas can just in case, but he said no he'd call me if he ran out. Well he putters into town to find everything dark, and the bank closed up. He went to the gas station in hopes of finding an ATM only to have the clerk tell him that the power was out all over, and if he wanted to buy something the old fashioned way in the store he could, but anything electronic like the gas pumps or using the ATM or using a credit/debit card would not work. Ds just has a ATM card for his savings acct., and had no cash on him at all. So he started driving down the road to another gas station a few miles out of town, hoping it would get there on fumes. He calls me, and I met him over at that gas station since it had no ATM for ds to get cash for gas. I had no cash, and prayed that there was $40 left in my checking acct to cover the debit charge....which there was. So ds thanked me profusely and promised to pay me back when he got to a bank.

Got me thinking, what about the folks that have Bridge cards (food stamp EFTs)? If there was a prolonged power outtage for natural disaster or terrorist threat, they could not get food. Anyone relying even on debit cards, could not purchase things. Gas pumps would not work. Yikes. It would not take much to bring everything to a stand still quick. I think maybe we rely on power and cards way too much now. After all, the gas station owner would still process sales 'the old fashioned way'...meaning with cash.

My DH and I use debit cards for almost every purchase. Unbeknownst to him, I have about $100 in small bills stashed away for an emergency. It might be a good idea for me to put aside some more.

Thanks for the wake-up call I am the world's worst to keep no cash on me and use the debit card for everything except for purchases made over the phone then use credit card.  I should know better because we live in a tornado area and have power outages a lot but I guess it is like other things you take it for granted unless you need it.

Our cash jar has been empty for quite some time now. i think we all got too relaxed about our cash stash. This really made me wake up to the fact that things do happen sometimes and what we take for granted (the bank will be open, the gas pumps will be running..of course!) could be taken away, even temporarily.

 My husband keeps a stash of emergency cash in his car for times like that.  I rarely have any cash though.  I should probably keep some on hand for times like that.

We have an old water bottle that we toss coins in, mostly pennies, the coins would have to be rolled but in a pinch like that it's better than nothing. 

We don't have a stash of cash but we have a large jar of coins and I have 4 rolls of quarters (so $100 in quarters). I guess someone would take my coins if we were in dire straits!

DH and I have talked about keeping $100 cash tucked away for things like this.

 Wow, that's sobering. I can't imagine how hard that would be for folks on assistance of some kind! We do keep some cash on us, but it would be a problem if we weren't able to access the account for several days. Hm...time to rethink how much we keep on hand. Thanks for the wakeup call

We always keep cash on hand for times like this.  But alot of the gas stations in town will not sell you anything at all even for cash if they have no power or the computer is down.  They lock the door, put up a sign telling you that they have no power or computer, and  don't do any business even for cash. 

Shellia