You don’t have a safe, but you want your cash stashed where no one can get it. Why not use the old pirates’ choice and bury it in the ground? Modern ‘paper’ money is made of fabric, so it requires special treatment to keep it from rotting. You’ll need to make sure it’s not apparent that something is buried, and no one can see you. Keeping track of where you put things is also a big issue. Luckily I can walk you through all the steps to preserving cash underground. Plus, I’ll suggest several containers that will keep your bankable notes safe from the ravages of time.
Bury Money Without it Rotting
Before you run out to the yard at midnight and start digging like a serial killer, there are some vital considerations to burying money to keep it from rotting. Cash is cotton and linen. Sadly, that organic material means mold and rot are a serious concern. No one is going to take a wad of green or black fluffy banknotes.
More importantly, you don’t want to dig up your stash only to find an unusable, toxic mess. If you rush the process, you’ll be throwing away a resource you need for survival. A little patience and understanding will go a long way toward keeping your assets dry.
As long as anyone takes cash, you can buy supplies for when SHTF. Hasty decisions don’t help you survive, but a cache of walking around money just might. Follow these steps to bury your money.
A Guide to Burying Money
There’s nothing wrong with stashing your money away for a rainy day, even when you choose to bury it. Unfortunately, to avoid rotting, you need to take some necessary precautions. Just as you wouldn’t stick your favorite jacket in a hole in the ground alone, money requires a little TLC.
The security of knowing you can dig up your deposit when you need it is worth a little extra effort. Furthermore, it’s not difficult to preserve your paper money. Follow the simple steps I’ve outlined below to make sure you don’t lose any of your buried treasure.
I recommend getting a Kealive Domestic Vacuum Sealer Machine from Amazon for the next step. Not only can you use the dry mode for preserving your cash, but you’ll also be able to store food. I always recommend tools that have multiple uses, and the Kealive Vaccum Sealer can also help you seal cans. Find out more by clicking here.
Steps on how to Bury Your Cash Safely
- *Sanitize and dry your money.
- Roll or stack your money and place it inside a ziplock freezer bag with a double zipper.
- Add oxygen absorbers to the bag, then carefully remove as much air as possible.
- You can skip steps two and three if you have a home vacuum sealer. Use that instead.
- Place your sanitized, sealed money bags a larger gallon-sized freezer bag.
- Take your double bagged money and place it inside an airtight metal container or glass jar.
- You can bury the bags in salt within the box if you want an added layer of security. Plus, you’ll have a stock of another valuable commodity on hand.
- Seal the edges with Plumbing Goop from Amazon. It adheres to almost any surface and ensures your seals stay unbroken. This simple trick will keep out moisture and air that might find minuscule cracks you missed. Find out more about Plumbing Goop right here.
- Place the smaller containers inside a giant shoebox. Label the box “Mittens, beloved cat” and put a six-year lifespan on the lid (Say, 2000-2006). If anyone digs the box up soon, it will look like a deceased pet, and they are more likely to leave it alone. This is a bit macabre, but also very useful.
- Alternately, you can opt for placing your small containers ina larger bin or plastic tub. Make sure you fill up any extra space with bubble wrap, plastic grocery bags, or some other non-biodegradable filling like rocks to help keep the weight of the dirt from collapsing your box.
*This step is optional, but it can help prolong the life of buried cash. Simply wipe down both sides of each bill with a swab dipped in rubbing alcohol. It dries quickly and helps kill off and mold spores or other nasty business on your cash.
Burial Money Safely to Prevent Rot & Loss
Burying your money to preserve it is not a task to take lightly. If you do a shoddy job, you will get a bad result. It’s vital not to skip any of the preservative steps.
It’s important to bury your money deep enough to prevent rotting and other problems. Wild animals and pets can dig decent sized holes if they think something worthwhile is at the bottom. Always put your money at least five feet down.
If you happen to be laying a cement walkway, then you have a second option for burying the money. You can place your box right under a slab of sidewalk or paved driveway. I suggest putting it near an edge rather than in the center since you’ll have to dig it up again later.
Keep Track of Buried Money
There are three easy ways to keep track of where you put your money. Depending on how long you plan to leave it buried, the methods for remembering where it is will vary. However, if you’ve placed it under a paved driveway or cement sidewalk, you can skip this step.
Method #1- Short Term Burial
When you plan to keep your money hidden for a short time, just a year or two, you can take a photo of its location. Make sure you use a digital camera and back up your pictures on a thumb drive. Plus, you should send yourself an email with the photo inside.
Method #2- Mid-Range Burial
Are you planning to pull up your cash in a few years when you move? Try placing it under a garden bed, so you know where to find it. Plant a few flowers or a small shrub that won’t grow very much over the top.
Method #3- Long Term Storage
Maybe you want to leave the money to your children or save it for retirement, in which case you need a more extended storage solution. In this case, marking the spot with an engraved rock and putting it in your will to dig, there might be your best choice.
If you used the ‘Mittens’ method for boxing, then make a small ‘gravestone,’ for your ‘former pet’ and place that over the money.
Some people prefer to take their money out to some distant spot and bury it in the woods. Much like a pirate treasure on a deserted island, this is an excellent way to lose your hoard. If a new neighbor has an easement through your land to access their property, or you have a significant weather issue, things can change rapidly. Rather than leaving your cash where you can’t check on it, keep it close to home.
Bonus Burial Method
Instead of burying small bills, make sure you use the fifties or hundreds for this method. Instead of using any of the previous techniques, get a time capsule for your cash. Because you can do this more openly, it’s easier to bury.
Always check for powerlines before you dig. All the sneakiness in the world won’t help you if you’re not around to spend your money.
You can add other items, or not, as you like. It’s okay if the neighbors think you’re burying a mixtape, and some notes for future generations. After all, who needs to go to the effort to take something like that?
Choose a high-quality premade time capsule like the Baiyun Anti-Corrosion Time Capsule. The stainless steel will last up to two hundred years. Plus, the silicon gaskets at both ends help keep out moisture and other environmental issues that might aid in decaying bills. Check the Amazon reviews right here.
You Legally Must Preserve Buried Money
Rot is not an option. Although you shouldn’t need another reason to exercise extreme caution to prevent rotting when burying your money, here’s an important reason to follow all the steps described above. According to 18 USC 333, damaging cash is illegal.
The penalties for anyone who “mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued,” include fines and jail time.
Although it’s entirely legal for you to hide and bury your money, damaging it is a different issue. Allowing your cash to quite literally rotting away is undoubtedly a form of defacement. It would make the bills unfit for a reissue, even if they were still legible.
Trade-Up
Additionally, you might want to trade out any cheap plastic bins and opt for airtight glass storage containers instead. Most plastics are thin enough that even with packing materials inside, they run the risk of breakage. Moreover, plastics aren’t chew-proof against insects and burrowing rodents.
When you need more space than a time capsule provides for all those vacuum-sealed stacks of greenbacks, I recommend Vallo’s Large Glass Storage Containers. The airtight snap-lock lids will help preserve your cash. Borosilicate glass doesn’t leach chemicals into the soil like plastics can. Furthermore, a glass container won’t register on a metal detector. Order Vallo from Amazon by clicking here.
If you need to bury a pirate style chest, you can always place your glass containers inside. However, the ‘Mittens’ method is less likely to attract suspicion. Make sure you use a shoebox that came with adult-sized boots instead of a traditional smaller shoebox. Over time the box will rot away, but so does a wooden chest. It’s what’s inside that matters.
Burying Money Fine Points
Rotten money is the same as no money, so be careful how you bury cash. Though it’s improbable that you’d ever get arrested and fined for letting your money go off underground, it can happen. Skip the mess, waste, and loss by sealing your cash up properly.
For an excellent example of how and why to vacuum seal cash instead of bagging it, you can see how effective it is. As Green Urban Project points out in the video above, it’s a good idea to have multiple stashes, and more than one form of currency on hand. Sealed money also stores well in your bug-out bag or other convenient locations.
The idea of burying valuables dates back to the dawn of time, but our early ancestors didn’t use cotton for currency. The new era requires modern ingenuity to preserve your money underground.