Some time ago I was awarded a portion of a class action lawsuit. When the check came, I cashed it and shoved the money it in an envelope thinking I would do something with it at some point. I put the envelope in a pile of papers that were too important to toss but not important enough to require any sort of immediate attention. Notices that my colonoscopy is due, retirement fund info, stuff like that.
Anyway, I went through the pile yesterday and found the envelope with $140 in cash in it. It took me a minute to recall where it had come from.
So, I put it back in the pile. Maybe I’ll find it again in a year or two.
mmm
I used to use cash as bookmarks occasionally when I couldn’t find anything else. About 20 years ago I opened a book I hadn’t picked up for awhile and found two $20 bills in it. Ever since then, I have made sure to flip through my older books when I pick them up just in case, especially since I started divesting myself of them the past few years.
Back in 2006 I had a little bit of money I wanted to put in a savings account for the kids, but savings rates were pathetic so I bought some savings I-bonds then forgot about them until recently I came across the “key card” and was like wth is this? OH YEAH, i forgot about those, logged in right away and there they were still chugging away at 3.10%. I think i’l leave them be!
I was close to running out of gas 14 years ago so I pulled in to a gas station, only to discover I’d left my wallet at home. I wasn’t far from my 17 year old daughter, and I’d just helped her buy a car, so I called her and asked for some help.
Five minutes later she arrived. She gave me $20 and I put some gas in my Jeep. While I was pumping, she reminded me of the advice I’d giver her when she was learning to drive. I told her to put a twenty in her glove compartment and it might save her some day in an emergency.
I remembered giving her that advice, and sure enough, when we checked my glove compartment there was a twenty.
I’d like to answer your intriguing question by saying, “Yes, I have, but I can’t remember any details to provide…”
I just KNOW I have done that several times in the past. More than I’d like to admit!
It happened recently enough (I think!) that it put me on an all-out search through
drawers and boxes and all sorts of unusual places where I thought I MIGHT have
stashed some “findable money” for later use.
And not just money! I tend to “hide” things from myself and often with troubling results
when I “remember” THAT I had hidden it but not WHERE. I even do that sort of
keeping secrets from myself when I make notes on things “important enough to remember later.”
And once the time comes to remember the details I will have to play all sorts of guessing games
or – even worse – asking others if they have any clues as
to where I must have stashed whatever it is!
To make things worse, I’m in the middle of a project to try to organize old e-mails into
the “keepable” group and the “disposable” group. It’s painful work with no end in sight.
At least I have a sense of how squirrels must feel when they’re really hungry
but can’t remember where they hid all those damned nuts!
Not money, but when I was a kid, I took my Xmas cash one January and bought everyone’s presents for the next Xmas and then stashed them. And forgot them. Until I found them Spring of the following year.
I once found about $4000 worth of uncashed checks a year and a couple months old after cleaning out my closet. I deposited one from the big corporation, and it went through despite the “void after six months” on it, and the other I contacted my client and sheepishly explained the situation and they wrote me a fresh check. How I forgot to cash these I don’t know. They were received in November, which is slow season for me, so four grand would be especially welcome that time of year, but I somehow never noticed.
No, but my dry cleaner did. 1420 bucks. Left in a suit after a good night in the casino with customers, which involved enough alcohol to forget about the windfall. I gave them 80 bucks to give to the person that actually found the cash - no idea if it made it there.
Since I haven’t been in a casino for possibly as long as a decade, this is quite some time ago.
I’m sure most people, like myself, have found money in a coat pocket when the time of year hits to wear the fall coat and then the winter coat.
I used to put money in my college books, telling myself I could only go out once I’ve studied enough to get to that part of the book. You’d better believe I checked those book often.
I have lots of hidey holes around here. Mr.Wrekker is a poker player. Couple of nights, every week. He often has cash in pockets or in wads on the bathroom counter.
I gather it up and stash it. I call it ‘Kitty Kash’.
It’s been useful on many occasions.
Pah—lease, I, beckdawrek have never misplaced even a thin dime!! (;))
I know I put two Ben Franklins in a book in the home office before it became a closet. I’m sure to find the cash if I tear the room apart this afternoon.
Another low end one. A few months ago I was going thru some old stuff looking for pictures and what not to scan. Came across a birthday card from a grandmother with something like $5 in it. She died over 30 years ago.
I have 20 Swiss Francs sitting in an old wallet. They’ve been there since 2012 when I went on a ski holiday in Switzerland. Every now and then I forget they’re there until I open that wallet looking for something (old credit card for example).
Recently I either discovered cash I didn’t know I had or an ATM miscounted a cash deposit I made. I’m not sure which. My girlfriend and I get cash allowances when we overnight away from home as part of our work. It’s not always convenient to bank it and we don’t use cash for much so sometimes we have an envelope waiting to be deposited.
Anyway, I was on a trip to Australia and had what I thought was $160 Australian dollars with me that was left over from a previous trip. The hotel gave me $375 and I intended to bank the total of $535 at an ATM. So I get to the ATM, put the wad of cash in, and it says I’ve deposited $735! An extra $200. Now one of two things must have happened, either I had more money than I thought to start with or I literally had “Bank error in your favour, collect $200”. Normally I’d count the cash before depositing, this time I didn’t, so maybe I really did have an extra $200. On the other hand, I maintain a budget for my Australian funds where every dollar is accounted for. The cash account in the budget matched what I thought my cash was, ie $535 AUD, and it would be very unlikely that I would get $200 and not budget it. I think it’s most likely that the machine miscounted, some of the notes were a little dog-eared.
My then girlfriend’s car broke down one day and while we were waiting for roadside assistance I just started fiddling about and soon discovered coins everywhere, centre console, glove box, arm rests, seat pockets, under seats and so on, she had hundreds of dollars strewn about. I think it paid for the repairs as well as lowering the fuel consumption once removed.
I keep two $20 bills hidden in the car for emergencies. (used to be a single $20 until the mid 90’s)
I like to bring $200 in twenties for road trips. Just in case my cc gets declined or my wallet is stolen. Some of the money is hidden in my suitcase and some inside the car.
I have found my suitcase money many years later. I had never removed it after a trip.
I don’t remember doing so. I have done the opposite though: when moving from one place to another I lost some misprinted $20 bills and I vaguely remember thinking they’d be easier to transport in my wallet and I probably spent them. Oh well, they were printed long after collectibles were a thing so there are probably millions of them still around.
A g/f at the time asked to borrow a coat, I gave her one of my older coats. After some time she found a few hundred dollars I stashed there 10 years earlier. That was the last time that coat was used, so without her that money still would be there 5 year later.
When Daddy died I was tasked with going through his closet. He dressed in suit and tie most days. He had lots of Suit coats and Sport coats. I found lots of low denomination cash in the inner breast pockets. And one with 2 $100 bills. It had to be at least $500. In total.
He also used $1 bills for book marks. I opened every book he had before donating or storing. Found a few bucks there.
