How to keep cash safe at home without an expensive safe
Cheap lockboxes and piggy banks are easily portable, leaving physical cash vulnerable to disappearing. Upgrading to a heavy, secure safe costs hundreds of dollars, which eats directly into a modest rainy-day fund. This lack of affordable, non-portable security makes it difficult to hold cash to curb spending, often pushing people to deposit their money into a high-yield bank account instead.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using wooden piggy banks that require unscrewing the bottom or being cut open
- 2Buying fireproof safes with locks
- 3Using wall-mounted safes in closets
- 4Glueing or epoxy-sealing large plastic bottles and jars with a coin slot
- 5Keeping physical cash at home to create friction against spending it
- 6Planning to deposit the cash into a standard bank account right before a major expense
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My daughter has had piggy banks for a few years and had a good amount of bills saved up that . That's a whole other issue in itself but I want her to be able to save up money without having to worry about it disappearing again.”source ↗
“I have a bank account obviously but like to have a 'rainy day savings' of cash on hand that I can add to here and there and want it to be secure without spending a few hundred on a crazy safe lol”source ↗
“I feel like nothing is secure if the safe/piggy bank is easily portable.”source ↗
“We currently have $6000 saved but it’s all in cash to avoid spending. Obviously with this money being in cash it’s not building interested so I’m curious, would it be worth it to open a high yield savings account”source ↗
“This $6000 is the most we’ve ever had saved at one time so we’re really trying to make the “right” move with the money.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4How to save money when your parents have access to your bank account
- 5How to save money for a future nonprofit tax-free
- 80How to decide whether to invest excess savings or keep them in an HYSA
- 2How do you plan for retirement when your spouse isn't a saver?
- 2How to manage personal savings alongside a joint account
- 7Should I use my savings or a HELOC for home improvements?