How to hide your Cash at Home

It's good to have a stash of cash for emergencies. If the grid goes down and the power goes out, an ATM or bank does you no good. But there are security issues too. Where do you put it? A safe is certainly a smart idea. You can get creative too.

What burglar would not think to look under a mattress for money? The mattress isn't exactly a most ingenious place to stash money. However, if you have lots to stash, and put just a little under the mattress, this decoy could trick a burglar into thinking that there's no other hidden money to search for.

At any rate, whether you want to go the decoy route or avoid the mattress altogether, here are some great locations for hiding cash in an envelope.

• Inside an old sock (roll up the envelope)
• Taped to the bottom of a low shelf or drawer (e.g., bottom of sock drawer)
• Think of other places to tape the envelope: back of refrigerator, bottom of crib, bottom of sofa, top of sink cabinet, top of interior of the credenza, etc.
• Inside a Tupperware container in the freezer
• Beneath the passenger seat of your car
• Inside a Band-Aid container or empty vitamin bottle (tightly roll up a wad of cash)
• Inside a bible. There's that saying, "A person who would steal would never open a bible, and a person who'd open a bible would never steal."
• Inside a picture frame between the support and the photo
• In an empty cereal box, rice box or canister that once contained oatmeal flakes, protein powder, ground coffee or whatever
• Inside a muddy pair of boots that you never wear
• Unde eath a heavy potted artificial plant (a real plant, since it gets watered, would require a saucer to separate the envelope from the bottom of the pot).
• Between the stack of paper in your printer (but when you use the machine, remove that stack and insert a second stack for actual use, then when done, replace it with the stack that contains the envelope).
• Taped to the inside of the door to the electrical cabinet
• Inside a photo album
• Inside a fake electric wall socket (these can be purchased)

Ask your kids to come up with additional ideas; you never know just what "crazy" but clever idea a child will come up with.