Daily Links: Leftover Loot, Ready Cash, and the Vacuum Cleaner Museum
Published on - January 19th, 2008 (by J.D. Roth) On Thursday, I shared a web site that helps users find unclaimed property. I hoped some readers might find it useful, but I didn’t expect it to be nearly this successful. Commenters report finding $50, $100, or even more missing money. J.L. wrote:
Since your blog yesterday, I have been personally responsible for finding for co-workers and family over $5000 in unclaimed property. Everyone in my office wants to thank you for the post yesterday. Too bad that I didn’t have any unclaimed property, but oh well.
On a related note, Yahoo! Travel has some info on how you can score leftover loot — surplus items and confiscated goods from various state agencies. I’ve never looked into this before, but now I’m curious. I’ve bookmarked the State of Oregon surplus property page for future reference.
Next, Nickel discusses the notion of keeping some cash on hand, hidden away somewhere around the house. “How many people do this?” he wonders. Kris and I don’t keep any money around our place, so it’s interesting to read all the commenters at Nickel’s site who keeps several hundred dollars hidden in their homes. This concept had never even occurred to me.
Elsewhere, On Moneymaking has created a “logical guide” that explains how to find work that you love:
You might need to go through this process several times. You’ll start your dream job, find out you don’t like it as much as you thought, and then move onto the next one. I’m going through that process for the fourth time in nine years. Every time, I get a little closer, enjoying my work a little more. And know what? It’s worth it.
Finally, here’s an example of creative frugality. Parents frequently find themselves looking for cheap ways to entertain their children. My three-year-old friend Henry loves vacuum cleaners. Today, his mother and father took him visit a free vacuum cleaner museum. I’m not sure which part of this I find most hilarious: that Henry loves vacuums, or that there is a museum devoted to them. Regardless, I applaud Henry’s parents for finding an inexpensive way to indulge their son’s interest.
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I usually have a few hundred dollars ($200-300) around the house. Mainly cause I’m always needing cash, but I don’t like to have more than $60 in my purse at one time, and I don’t want to go to the ATM 3 times a week either. But I’m stupid enough to keep it in the kitchen. I really should have it upstairs in the fireproof box, just in case a fire breaks out.
Another good reason to keep cash on hand is you never know when the power might go out for an extended period of time, which means no ATMs in service. Winter storms, hurricanes, freak wind storms can knock power out for a week or more. Thats a good reason to have some cash on hand (it also a good reason to keep your gas tank relatively full – learned that the hard way).
A reason not to keep cash on hand is fear of theft. But I simply don’t keep so much on hand that I couldn’t afford to lose it. No way would I want to have a few hundred stolen, but if someone enters my house and demands money – I’m giving it to them. At least $200 might be enough to make them leave and keep me alive. I know that sounds crazy, but I do live in the city with the highest larceny rate in the country.
So I guess its a personal decision as to whether or not you feel comfortable having cash in the house or not. But personally I like to keep a little on hand just in case.
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I think it is always necessary to have cash on hand in the house for emergency situations. I would recommend locking it in a safe place however not an obvious hiding spot. For instance put 500 dollars in an old Tylenol bottle in your medicine cabinet with the your other vitamins and pills. Who would think to look there for cash. As for myself you would find my cash pot on top of my computer desk in a piggy bank stripped like a zebra. I don’t know why I don’t take my own advise.
Chris
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I live in earthquake country so I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night without a decent amount of cash available at a moment’s notice.
As for vacuums – you’d be surprised how many kids love them! I almost got my kid a toy Dirt Devil on clearance at Target but was wary of the “fully functional” part of it.
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I keep money in my cars, too. I actually use this more frequently than the money in my house. Imagine having all your stuff rung up and finding you don’t have any cash! Being able to dash out to the car and fish out a few twenties is great.
I do this less often than I used to, of course, since I pay for almost everything with credit card (pay in full, rewards).
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It’s not as frugal as a free museum trip but I hope Henry’s parents buy him a Henry vacuum cleaner!
http://www.parish-supply.com/images/1389200.jpg
It’s always been a favourite of mine, though I’ve never had one.
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I read Nickel’s article and now have a secret cash stash. I also have my change rolls in addition to Sacajawea dollars, $2 bills, half dollars and other hard to find coins. You never know when you might need to use them.
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When we lived in earthquake country, a $100 roll of one dollar bills was in our emergency bag – the bag with the debris masks and extra shoes. We also stashed rolls of coins around the house. After the Northridge earthquake, many stores were open but couldn’t make change. We’ve gotten out of the habit of storing our change after rolling it, but now that we’re in tornado country it might be worth a rethink.
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My first comment here ever–
My MIL discovered that my husband had unclaimed funds with the state of NY. After months of faxing documents and getting things notarized, we got our check on Thursday.
It was for $3.67.
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I also keep cash in my car. $40-50 usually. There are times when you need gas and the card reader at the station goes down etc…
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Cash in the car scares me. I’ve had my car broken into 5 times in the 8 years I’ve lived in this city. Since car theft is a pretty good possibility here, too, I just shy away from anything in the vehicle at all (including, prescription glasses, jumper cables, canvas bags – all of which have been stolen). But I’m glad you guys live in a safe enough place to be able to do that – it probably isn’t a bad idea, but I’d keep the amount very low.
I used to have an old Nissan that had a little caddy in the console you could pop out. It wasn’t intended to pop out, but it did. I’d sometimes stick money in there if I didn’t want to carry it. You’d never know it was there – great little hiding place. Unfortunately my new car is too well built to allow something to “pop out” like that.
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I liked the vacuum cleaner museum idea. Kids this age – and a little older can have special trips that cost little or nothing. My son was fascinated by animals. We found a local University that had a free natural history museum, included a reproduction of a prehistoric Giant Sloth – almost as cool as a dinosaur! Though the zoo was an obvious choice, we also went to a large pet store on rainy days – and bought some small item to pay the owner for our hour or two of entertainment looking at the tropical fish, exotic birds, and various rodents, rabbits etc.
Once we took a bus to a local pond where people fed the ducks with old bread. The bus ride was part of the fun, since that wasn’t our usual mode of transportation. My Mother also used the bus idea every December. We’d take the bus downtown, look at the Christmas decorations in the shop windows, visit the Christmas Fairy (a Kansas City tradition), buy nickel cokes (OK, now they are a dollar or more) at the soda fountain and pick out one ornament and one figurine for the creche. It was a whole afternoon and I thought it was great.
Many young children are fascinated by machinery. If you can find an accesible construction site, you’ll have a great time watching the big shovels, bulldozers, and cranes working.
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I keep about $60 in cash in my underwear drawer and my fiance laughs at me. In the past I have “hidden” money from myself in random books on my bookshelf or in pockets of clothing I’m putting into storage for the winter. It’s a pleasant surprise to find months or years later, even if it’s only $5.
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You should encourage your friend’s love of vacuum’s. He could end up like this kid:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D5wn7St3A14
Of course, it sounds like he already scored the ultimate vacuum-related financial move.
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My son (almost 3) loves vacuums. When we go to Target, we “visit” the vacuums – we have actually taken advantage of this to teach him colors and counting. Plus it is a way to keep him engaged as we shop (in a few more minutes we’ll see the vacuums) without it being about purchasing anything.
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