How long can you survive without cash?

I have a nagging desire to be frugal because once I get cash, new hitherto less pressing wants become needs and I find myself using money I could have saved for more important things getting used up on recurrent expenditure. I also find it hard to spend even a singular day without using cash though sometimes this is as a result of financial contingencies.

 

I have run both ends of the gammut, but currently I am pretty thrifty. I am working on establishing an emergency fund so that all needs would be covered and there will be no need to carry balances on credit cards. It's going well. I can tell you one thing about cash. More of it is needed in the city than in the country. I can go all week and not spend a penny, but when I go to town, my savings gets considerably depleted that day. In the country, the more self-sufficient you are, the less often you have to go to town. The more you save.

 

How long can you survive without cash? Depends on the situation, if you're out and about in a forest or somewhere surviving you can do without cash as long as you know how to hunt, cook, build a shelther and plan your days out. If you're living in a city or rural area it's going to be pretty hard to survive without any cash if you don't have farms and a way of getting electricity without paying for it (nowadays it's pretty important, especially for water).

 

Someone once said, if you're planning to go nowhere, you will definitely get there. This aptly applies to our finances and where we end up with our hard earned cash.

Without a proper financial plan, we're likely to end up doing nothing tangible with our cash. And this plan comes in the form of a personal budget. This is where you outline your expenditure.

My budget comes in three parts. My daily needs, my monthly needs and my future needs. My future needs are further split into two, long-term and short-term goals.

This means, in my daily and monthly needs, that's where my recurring expenditure is outlined. In my future needs, I outline my savings and investments.

Above all, self-discipline is vital so as to stick to the budget.

 

I read an article a while back about a woman who has lived without cash for several years now. She's apparently done this by living off the grid and growing most of her own food. However, I forgot the details about how she got clothing and all of that stuff. Maybe bartering? Working for goods rather than a cash payment? Maybe. If I could give up money by doing what she did, I totally would. I don't think money is essential to life, therefore I'm pretty sure I'd get along fine without it with a decent plan.

However, some places are easier to survive without cash than others. I mean, running out of cash in a metropolitan area sucks. You can't grow your own food, live off the land, or use nature to help you make a sustainable lifestyle. You're trapped on the pavement unless someone throws you some cash to get a bottle of water. On the note, I don't know what I'd do. Peddle, beg and busk, I guess.

 

You can survive without cash for a long a time if:

- You don't have to buy food or other essential necessities.
- You don't have to pay for any utilities.
- You pay no rent.

If you don't spend any money on the above listed things then you may not need money. Drugs/medicine however that you may be forced to buy.

 

I live in a farm and I grow my own food. Therefore, I don't need money to pay rents or buy food. I have biogas installed which gives me free gas. I have solar pannel installed which gives me free electricity. Thus, I don't money to manage my day to day life. If I don't travel, or use phone and internet, I can manage my life without money for many months.

 

You are really touching a hot topic on this one, because I couldn't survive long without cash, because I care for my four children and four grandchildren and my mother that was diagnosed with breast cancer with a host of other terminal health issues and I live in the city where no farming is aloud! So me surviving without cash would only last about a week and that's only if we stay home and just eat what I already have available to eat and not to mention that I have 2 dogs and 2 cats; that needs my 100% support as well!

 

Good day: Vinaya: That is great that you have resources available as such, because I live in the city where the houses are on top of each other literally and if I bring a cow, chicken or goat home they will call the city on me and have me fined; so having available resources that you have will be beneiful to me and my family!

 

Good day: John Your statement is so so true, because I have all of those bills that you mentioned above and then some and not including the separate water and gas bill that we have and credit card bills; I would have to get rid of a lot of stuff!

 

In all honesty, I wouldn't survive a day without a cash. I live in a city wherein everything comes at a price. I need cash with me all the time. I buy most of my food. I commute to work. I pay an outrageous sum for my apartment. However, I'm also a frugal spender so even though I spend a lot of my money on my daily needs, there's always some left that I put in the bank. The general rule I follow is that I don't spend more than what I can afford.

 

In modern day society I think that most of us will have to spend money in order to get by, and while we might not actually want to believe that we are slaves to money, the simple fact is that we are. Along with paying bills, I'm sure that we all like to buy ourselves things with our money and while it might not be essential to survive, I do think it's an important part of our happiness and sometimes that can be just as important.

If the bills and the food is paid for, then there's no doubt that we can survive without any other money, but that's all we'd be doing, just surviving and not living and enjoying life. Those people that say you don't need money to enjoy your life, are more often than not those that have a bank account that's full and have never had to struggle a day in their life in my opinion.

 

I think it also depends on where you are staying and what the circumstances are. I take for example my current situation where I live in the city and pretty much every need I have involves money so I don't think I would be able to survive for long in the city without money. When I used to stay in the countryside though, I could spend days of not using money because there's an ample choice of food in my garden and my source of water is free since it comes from a well. The only thing that needs to be paid back in the countryside is my electricity.

 

Even in a metropolitan area, if you are willing to act in a manner outside the law, you could survive for several months (or longer) without cash. It would require theft, shoplifting or other petty crimes to get the cash and/or supplies that you would need. It would not be pleasant (or legal) but, if you could evade law enforcement, it would be an option in an extreme emergency.
As a side note, there are a lot of areas where the indigent can get access to free food, shelter and medical care in metropolitan areas so that could be a secondary option.

 

I could go a long time without needing to spend money, if you don't count the money I need to pay the house payment and utilities. As far as clothing, food, and things like that go I have enough for awhile. Sadly those other nagging bills have to be paid monthly though!

 

I've gotten hooked on the idea of saving money. Of course some expenses cannot be avoided. Still I am finding more and more ways to save. We've come a long way from this time last year, when we were depending on credit cards a little or a lot every month. I keep finding more and more ways to save, there seems to be no end to it. Financial blogs can be very helpful for redirecting your financial path. One of my favorites is thepennyhoarder.com .

 

Well, technically speaking, I can survive without any cash for a pretty long time if I spend it right away into food a non perishable provitions. See, maybe I don't have any cash but I have plenty of food and water in the other hand. Now the real question for me is, How sustainable is a situation where you can't acquire cash anymore? Like quitting your job and currently living with savings or live in the streets and rely on charity.

 

As long as I have food to eat, clothes to wear and a shelter. I usually want money to buy those basic things. Without the basic commodities you'll be forced to look for money. I can also survive without money as long as I am healthy. If you're sick then you'll probably need money to buy drugs.

 

I live in a farm and I grow my own food. Therefore, I don't need money to pay rents or buy food. I have biogas installed which gives me free gas. I have solar pannel installed which gives me free electricity. Thus, I don't money to manage my day to day life. If I don't travel, or use phone and internet, I can manage my life without money for many months.

 

I think this depends a lot on the particular situation of each person because the needs related to money can vary greatly (many times more than we can imagine). But particularly speaking, I'm the type of person who doesn't usually have many luxuries and artificial things in my life, so... Considering those factors: I think I would live a long time without money (and I would live very well).

 

Do away with your credit card if you can. keep only enough for emergency. Make sure you have the neeeded foodstuff and try and stay with a friend. We sometime feel the urge to go shopping when we are idle.

 

Simple. Keep only as much things as you need to stay alive. You don't need money to keep breathing. Keep it out of reach, at least, for now.

Each time you receive your income or allowance, buy all the basic necessities: food items, soaps, tooth pastes, etc., that you'll be needing for, at least, the next one month to stay alive.

After shopping for all of that, keep your wallet empty, and your credit card far away from your reach. You may hide it in a section of your room where you always feel reluctant to go to.

After a while, you will get used to not spending often, but only when necessary.

 

I think it depends on how much food, fuel, and supplies you have stock piled. If you have enough of everything in place you could probably survive for quite some time. You would also need to have medicine if you are taking medicine or just basic medical supplies like aspirin and so forth. If you could barter you could probably last a long time.

 

I don't pay rent and I have a garden + supplies, but I have bills. So I'd say if we don't talk about the bills I'd survive for like 4 months.

 

I don't think I can go much without cash. I have found that most of my work goes with the cash. Be it food, fuel, transport and other things. As you can see things are not that easy. You'd find me struggling even with cash. So sometimes I just have the netbanking option just in case if the cash runs out. And it does work when it comes to buying things online.

 

How long we can survive without cash is a good thing for people to be thinking about. There is heresy that we could have a temporary total economic collapse that could last a while. This is based on a conspiracy theory, it's not a fact. But it's something to think about and prepare for. How would you prepare for this? By taking your money out of the bank and finding a good hiding spot for it.

 

I have tried this some time ago too. I must say it depends on whether you have other supplies in the house. whether some emergency situations that will force you to spend money wont come up. When i did this i was able to go for a week without spending cash. This is because i had enough food supplies.

 

I am like you, and I am usually on the frugal side. Alas, I still spend cash even when I don't want to because I might be in a long class and get bored and hungry. I can stress eat. I can eat when I just feel like eating something. It varies. I had not eaten at most for two days before I started feeling dizzy and fainting. I even felt like throwing up. It's as if your stomach gets a black hole.