An emergency situation it’s likely that you’ll run into situations that you weren’t able to plan for and where you might need to buy extra supplies, or they emergency might last longer than a few days you’re ready for. For this reason, it’s always good to have a debit or credit card accessible just in case (for emergencies where the banking system is still operational, like a house fire) but in many emergency situations you might not have access to a chronic forms of payment. Because of that it’s important to make sure that you always have cash on hand to obtain any supplies or services you might need.

If at all possible, you should aim to have $250 or more per person. Although for many people it’s not possible to set aside this amount in one or only a few months, with a little planning and budgeting an average family can save up to these amounts in only a few years on less than the average cost of a cable or satellite TV subscription.

In your emergency cash, you should make sure that you only have small bills aim to have nothing larger than $20 bills (but smaller bills are better, as in many cases you won’t be able to get change) is also important to have coins although bear in mind that these can quickly add weight onto your pack so use moderation and try to focus on larger value coins like quarters or one dollar coins.

Another important thing is to never let anyone else know that you have that cash saved for your home might be a target for theft and make sure to hide the cash in unusual and difficult to find places, not well known hiding places like your freezer or toilet tanks.

Also, should you need to evacuate or travel, make sure that you carry the cash and different secret pockets distributed across your person and pack so that if you do get robbed hopefully you don’t have to give up all your cash, or if your pack gets stolen you won’t lose all your cash with it.