Iodine tablets (available at your nearest sporting goods store) are a lot easier to carry around than bleach, and a lot less likely to make your water foam up like a sinkful of dishwashing water than Clorox does.

Some of us keep a year’s worth of food on hand, in the form of canned and dried staples such as beans & rice.

And if you live in a part of the country where you’re allowed to own one (and you know how to use it), in the kind of disaster our communal paranoia is summoning up here, a decent shotgun and a few boxes of shells would be worth a whole stack of benjamins. But if that scenario comes to pass, $500 in cash will keep the wolf from the door for a few days, and that’s it. Maybe as citizens we should work together to keep this sort of thing from ever overtaking us? Could it be that Americans should never let another New Orleans happen again?

Sew some cash into the hem of a grody looking coat or other garment that isn’t likely to be washed very often (or stolen).

Remember the movie “Shawshenk redemption”? Have some money (small bills, gold chains) buried in a location away from your home. Make sure its in a waterproof container and a spot where you won’t be visible to others while your digging it up. Use a GPS to hide (and find it again).

What about food and water? What is you have nothing to eat or drink? What is you are unsure of the quality of what IS available? Campers carry small bottles of bleach so they can purify questionable water. Another very handy item to have would be one of those Hammacher Schlemmer handheld germ eliminating lights. They have a few sizes. One is the size of a cell phone and runs on two AAA batteries. (You DO have extra batteries for flashlights, etc. right?!) Hospitals use them to sterilize all sorts of things. You hold it over whatever food your going to eat for 10 seconds. It will kill Ecoli, Staph, Salmonella and other germs. God only knows what food will be available when things go south. Better not to get sick from food poisoning while your trying to get out of town. The hospitals will be too full to help anyway.

“If all you have is $20 denominations, everything costs $20″.

This is SO true. I recall during the blackout of 2003 that stores were charging big bucks for bottled water because they ran out of change. If you had a $20.00, thats what you paid for ONE bottle. Get a pack of 100 singles and some 5’s. Ask your bank for new money. Its stores more compactly than used bills. Pre-mark the bills with a counterfeit pen so it won’t be turned away by someone who isn’t sure if its legit or not. Your less likely to be robbed for singles than a stack of 20’s.

Keep in mind that the coming oil crisis (peak oil) will lead to a global economic crisis. It may hit suddenly, like the great stock market crash of the 20’s… or it might come slowly. Either way, it is coming.

Even if there is only a 1 in 100 chance on the year that the global economy will collapse, doesn’t it make sense to be prepared? How much effort would it take to make sure that you have heat, water, food and cash if the economy fails? What would you do if the gas stations ran out, or you couldn’t afford the high prices? What would you do if the banks closed? What would you do if the electricity went out? How about all happening at the same time?

The most important thing about having cash at home is that it takes time to retrieve. Imagine that you are a thief who knew exactly where the money was. If it takes 10 minutes to get to it, then it is probably not going to be stolen. Thiefs will toss your entire place, including the bathroom, closets, drawers, kitchen and etc… but if it is going to take them 10-minutes to get to it, you’re pretty much safe. Just don’t tell anybody (except your spouse) where it is.

Peak Oil, if you are failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

I have an all cash envelope system set up and keep it in a special box, that I keep in my back pack which I carry with me when I go out. I prefer backpacks to purses because they don’t scream “steal me” like a purse does and they are easier to keep up with.

To me, a good idea is to have an emergency bug out bag ready to go, with cash tucked into a drawstring bag(coins, $1,$5,$10,$20’s). Have some real silver coins in case the paper currency becomes worthless. And most important, have that bug out bag stashed away where it’s out of sight, but instantly accessable.

For me, the convenience of avoiding unscheduled ATM trips and always having change if needed outweighs a few pennies of interest every month.

While I’m hardly an alarmist, I do realize that our system (electrical, information, etc.) is not 100% fool-proof and that it’s smart to have a low-tech solution, like cash, for when there’s a hiccup.

Originally I earmarked the money to use to treat myself. I never thought of it as emergency money but it has come in handy when it would be really inconvenient to hit the ATM—paying the housekeeper or leaving for a trip or an unexpected emergency.

I think keeping five $20 bills would make more sense than keeping a $100 bill any day. Why, you ask? because many places, such as smaller stores or gas stations will not accept large bills. Benjamins are sometimes looked upon with suspicion of being counterfeit. On the other hand, almost nobody would think twice about accepting a twenty.

Most people have a good idea of what they are worth as you see them for sale in every mall, unlike gold coins which very few people are familiar with. Most people see jewelry as more useful compared to coins.

How did I end up eating? I volunteered to stand in the pizza line for over an hour so that my friends could hang at home on the couch. I scored the last two pizzas and actually feared for at least my wellbeing on my way out of there!