My mother used to hide money everywhere

[conuly]

Inside books, inside pill bottles, at least inside a cigarette wrapper (she was pissed when I didn't tell her it had fallen out of her pocket on the bus, but c'mon, Mommy, it's garbage, how was I supposed to know you had $40 stashed in there?), inside skeins of yarn....

She told me she started this as a way to thwart my father's inability to control his spending if he actually knew where the cash was, but sometimes I wonder if she was always just a little like this anyway and used him as a justification. (She was like this with food, too, claiming that some weird trait wasn't hers, it was his. She said "If your father ever found out you had a favorite food, it'd always be in the house", and that's not wrong, but Daddy is not the one who just this past year bought three five pound bags of Andes mints. I still haven't eaten them all!)

Oh well.

Eva's birthday I brought an air conditioner down to the basement, and then I started crying, so while I did that I started rummaging in all the yarns to see if there was any money there, and there wasn't but I did find a stitcher's magnifying glass on a chain with a pretty butterfly cover, so I brought it up and gave it to Eva on the grounds that Mommy would likely have approved that particular bequest.

Eva said it's useful but a bit awkward, being around her neck. I suppose what she really needs is a chatelaine, but that might be taking things a little far.

Comments

[sallymn]

I can understand the feeling of maybe insecurity? - that prompts it, we were very por when I was a kid and now, even though I retired with a comfortable income, I still worry and put money aside. (I also find it sometimes in odd places but that is because I have no memory to speak of and forget it was there)

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

in the days when one had to have help, one hid money so that if petty cash in fact was needed, it could be accessed without going to the locked drawers.

This would serve the governesses and lady companions, not by thieving, but by stashing money as bookmarks etc so if things were 'awkward' they'd at least have travel fees to get to safety.

It's like keeping a twenty in your shoe. Boy, is that dated.

[malada]

Two stories:

When my grandmother on my father's side died, my uncle went through all the drawers in the house - and found over a thousand dollars in small bills stashed away. My grandma raised 6 kids during the depression of the 1930s and knew a little money stashed away was a good thing.

Years ago, a meet someone who'd just gotten out of a weird household where her housemates couldn't be trusted. She had to hide money in strange places so it wouldn't disappear from her purse. She'd just moved when she met me and handed me a sci-fi book she thought I'd like. Inside I found a 100 bill she'd hidden away and forgotten about. When I found it - I felt like the Universe was testing me because I was broke and unemployed. Of course, I returned it to her. I passed that test with ease.

-m

[lauradi7dw]

Almost done with clearing out my late parents' house. One of the standard pieces of advice is to go through every book, looking for bills. That was a non-starter for a couple of reasons - there were books in almost every room of the house plus hallway and drawers and closets, so that would have been interminable. Mainly it was because we knew that after a (cleaning lady? Never proved) had stolen some money, my mother put a stash in a jacket pocket. That was easy, found it quickly, but then by chance found more in another pocket, so them it became a systematic search, and there ended up being hoards in two or three of her jackets, plus one of my father's. Also a couple of waste baskets full of tissues and mints.

[frandroid]

My father was a construction worker and would pick up all kinds of bits and ends from construction sites, and both my parents are very working class, so they kept stuff. My mother first divorced and moved out without too much stuff. A few years later when my father died, my two sisters, who had been packers for a moving company, had to deal with all the stuff. One of them told me that a usual household would have about 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of stuff, but our father's easily had 30,000 pounds worth of stuff. The reason I was not involved is that I was living far away, and all my sisters kept for me was a filled toolbox. They were also able to make a full toolbox for each other. If I had been there, I'm afraid I would have kept lots more stuff, like say, an anvil, an electric saw, etc... I'm glad I wasn't there. My apartment is full enough already.

[affreca]

I'm a stasher. I try to limit the number of places so I don't forget, but I've forgotten my wallet (or just not taken it for some reason) enough times that emergency stash has helped me.

For example, I couldn't find my wallet Saturday when I left for a fiber guild meet up. On the way home I decided I wanted to pick up some groceries to do a test run of a recipe for a potluck. I had a twenty stuffed in my phone case (and my drivers license), so it was no problem.

Other stash locations include my toiletry kit (after the time I took off for Hawaii without my credit card) and my work ID (sometimes I pick up lunch at a food truck during my morning walk). I haven't rediscovered a stash since the time I found 1000 yen in my pocket (same trip to Hawaii, which is thankfully the one place in the US that you can find shops that will take yen).

[readerjane]

A friend’s mom had a similar habit with hiding money here and there. Over a year after she died, my friend found an envelope under the basement stairs with an enclosed note: “Jeannie, this is not lost.”

[adafrog]

:)

[gale_storm]

I understand many of your family’s intentions or tastes or reactions you talked about here! Your father’s taste in Andes mints, your sister’s mystification at chatelaines (but I did come to find it bloody useful after some time!!) and even your mother’s tucking away something she didn’t necessarily want your father to know she had. Funny that!! :-D