You may be asking yourself, who uses cash these days? Or why would I want to hide money at home? While the vast majority of our shopping is done with a credit card or on an application, sound financial planning is all about preparing for any situation. And while no one wants to think about getting burglarized, you are better off preparing for the worst and feeling a little peace of mind. Sometimes it can also be helpful to have cash on hand for quick use.
The first place a thief is going to look is in the obvious hiding places, such as under your mattress or in your sock drawer. So below, we go outside of the box to find ingenious ways to stash your cash where no one will find it.
If you have some extra cash and want to find a hiding place in your home for it, you have come to the right place. Get those crisp bills together and read on to find the best ways to hide money at home.
Hide Your Cash In a Fish Tank
Create your own buried treasure in this foolproof way to hide your money. All you need is a sealable plastic bag and a solid colored jar. Seal the cash, place it in the jar, and place it in the fish tank as decoration. If you have a fish tank, this is an easy way to keep your money hidden from whoever might be looking for it.
Stash Your Cash In a Hollowed-Out Book
You have likely seen hollowed-out books in movies and television shows, but it is actually simple to create a hollowed-out book of your own. If you don’t have your own book, or don’t have one that is expendable, take a trip to a used bookstore and pick one out. Flip through a few pages and then take a knife to cut out a rectangular hole in the middle. Insert cash, close the book, and place that very expensive volume onto a bookshelf.
Stick It In a Plastic Bag and Hide It In a Bag Of Coffee Beans
A thief is unlikely to go through your cupboard to steal food. But even if someone is clever enough to look through your food, it’s unlikely that they will dig through a bag of coffee beans. The beans will also help to mask the smell that only cold hard cash can produce.
Use the Bottom of a Dresser Drawer
Hiding money in a sock drawer is one of the first places that a thief would look. But someone can rummage through your drawers all they want and not find anything if instead of placing the money in the drawer, you attach it to the bottom of the drawer. Take an envelope and place the cash inside. Now, pull out a drawer and tape the envelope to the bottom facing down.
If You Have an Attic, Hide the Cash In The Insulation
Unless a thief is looking for an old family heirloom, it is highly unlikely that they would go into your attic. But even if a thief did take the time to climb into your attic, it is highly unlikely that they would rummage through all of your insulation. Find a spot you’ll remember and cut a slit into the insulation. Insert the cash, close up the insulation hole, and take a picture of the area just to be safe.
Bury It Under a Doghouse
If you would rather your cash be hidden outside of the house and you have a doghouse, you’re in luck. Simply dig a hole, place the cash in a solid container, cover it back up with dirt, and place the doghouse on top.
Put Your Cash in a Pain Reliever Bottle
Pain relievers such as Advil and Tylenol have solid colored bottles, so they make for easy places to hide some extra cash. Use a rubber band to pack your cash tight and place it inside a large pill bottle and hide it high up in a medicine cabinet.
Roll Your Cash into a Flashlight
For quick access to your cash, you can hide a roll in a flashlight. Typically, flashlights have hollow handles to hold large batteries. If you are storing a smaller amount of cash, you can simply wrap the bills around the batteries. If you have a large wad, remove the batteries and insert the cash.
Hide Cash in The Freezer Between Frozen Meat
You will need a vacuum sealer to make this work perfectly, but if you happen to have one, this is an ingenious idea. Take your cash and put it in an envelope or plastic bag and place it in between two pieces of meat. Now vacuum seal everything and place it in the freezer. A thief is not likely to look in your freezer, but if they do, all they’ll see is frozen meat.
Hide It in A Toilet Paper Roll
At the end of many toilet paper rolls is a cap that you can pop off, revealing a hollow center. This is the perfect place to roll up some highly valued dead presidents and store them for a rainy day.
Stash Cash on the Top of a Door
This is one place literally guaranteed to be thief-proof. The way you make it work is you drill a hole into the flat top edge of your door and insert a metal tube that holds cash or jewelry. A cigar case could be a source of the tube if you happen to fashion a stogey every now and then.
In the Pocket of a Shirt You Never Wear
Do you have an old shirt that’s been hanging in your closet unused for years? Try placing a few bigger bills inside the pocket of the shirt. It is highly unlikely that a thief will steal your old, boring shirt.
Make Your Own Hide-a-Key
You can buy plastic rocks to hide your spare key, but it can be pretty obvious that those are fake. Instead, take a real rock and glue it on top of a plastic bottle, such as a prescription bottle. Dig a hole in the ground to lower the bottle, while the rock stays on top.
