Morning, guys!!
What a giveaway last week! Sooooo much fun going through all y’all’s entries and getting a sneak peek into your lives!! Felt like such a voyeur, and loved every bit of it! Haha…
We now have a winner of the safe and $100 in cash, but before we get to that I wanted to share some of my favorite entries as some of them were REALLY good (and creepy, fun, entertaining, smart!).
I learned a lot of great uses from y’all, but even more so just enjoyed laughing my a$$ off on some of these which helped me get through the week ;) Here they are below, followed by the lucky winner…
Thanks for participating!!
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The *funniest* items people put in their safes
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- “Vibrator 😱😬”
- “My cat when he’s naughty (KIDDING)!”
- “My stupid law degree as an artifact of humans making stupid financial decisions”
- “My authentic 1.10 carat diamond ring from my first marriage and my fake 1.50 carat from my second!”
- “My “grudge” list of people who have wronged me throughout life”
- “The last tan M & M’s I saved before they were discontinued for the blue ones”
- “My husband’s divorce papers. Really important. We don’t need that raising its ugly head again… I mean, her, I mean… oh whatever. ;)” (Fun fact: “divorce papers” was one of the most mentioned items passed over! I guess those are some pretty important papers! :))
- “Box of Twinkie’s they last forever and good for bid we have a need for a fire proof safe. A Twinkie will brighten anyone’s day”
- “The WIFI BOX, cell phones, & remotes when the kids are naughty, where I hide the GIRL SCOUT COOKIES & the “good snacks””
- “Money, documents, photos, and bricks to weigh it down a bit more. Might as well give any burglars a workout.”
- “Multiple sets of collectible playing cards (Pokemon from my childhood), a couple pistols…” (EDITOR’S NOTE: found it hilarious to see “Pokemon” and “pistols” next to each other in the same sentence ;))
- “I would create a treasure hunt around my home for those who “crack the safe” to keep them confused!”
- “All the things my teenagers keep swiping from me. Cell phone chargers, kindle, the expensive chocolate I keep hidden from them (but obviously not well enough), even the overpriced hair conditioner that mysteriously ends up in my daughter’s basement bathroom.”
- “I’d obviously fill the safe with marbles then ask my wife to open it and shout, you’ve lost your marbles!”
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The most *interesting* items people put in their safes
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- “A bosun whistle my late father gave me…”
- “A letter I received from Mother Teresa in 1989.”
- “Autographed poster of the Miracle on Ice Team signed by all members with the exception of Herb Brooks.”
- “Secret family recipes for spaghetti sauce and meatballs. My husband is Italian, and he learned how to make it from his father, who is am amazing cook. (Fun fact, my FIL is willing to give out his recipe, but it’s not actually the real one, he makes a couple of tweaks. Still turns out fine, but not the same as HIS sauce. Once we have kids I’m sure my husband will love teaching them.)”
- “The most beautiful obituary I have ever read, written for a man unknown to me. I clipped it from a newspaper in 2002 and have kept it ever since.”
- “My book notes… I spent ten years as a tour guide overseas (mostly in Iran and the former Soviet Union) and took meticulous hand-written notes in little notebooks while on the bus, during stolen moments in restroom stalls or on excursions and, of course, after they all went to bed at night each day. There is SO much material that I would like to include in this book, but it is taking me a while to make it through this heap of scribbles and craft it into a coherent volume. So these precious little booklets are the most important group of items in my safe.”
- “A small ledger belonging to my great great grandfather in the 1870s (he was a farmer and chairmaker with 11 children).”
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The *creepiest* items people put in their safes
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- “The gross collection of baby teeth my parents kept and no one wants, but no one will throw away.”
- “I keep the locks from my kids’ first haircuts. Plus some financial stuff ;( Why is it tradition to keep baby hair anyway? I find it super weird but I’ve been told it’s good luck so we’ve got it locked away. Is that the weirdest thing anyone said?”
- “My funeral expenses are paid in full with the Neptune Society and that came with a nice box that contains a few blank thank you notes and a small box for cremains! As a friend’s nephew said…”so, if I get a package from you, it might actually be you?”
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The *smartest* items people put in their safes
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- “All our prescription medications.”
- “An inventory of all the belongings in my home on a flash drive, along with some video footage of the house with the belongings I have in there. It’s SO important to have an updated home inventory in case disaster strikes.”
- Emergency contact info (if your phone dies or is lost, do you know the phone numbers for all of the people who are important to you?) (EDITORS NOTE: Also, as another person commented: “Make sure you share the combination/key with another trusted individual!”)
- “I’d stick in some MREs, extra emergency survival water, batteries, first aid, general survival stuff. Did you know you could have practically all your essential survival tools in a card? They are called survival cards and are very space efficient. You could stack a lot since that’s how thin they are.”
- “I would definitely stick some kind of tracker underneath or outside of it. What happens if you’re sleeping and check and see that your entire safe has been displaced? Like some tornado took it away or something? You go to your tracker and see where it’s been taken away!”
- “I would use it as a motivational tool. I mean, safes represent wealth, so I would probably keep it as a reminder of my goals, and instead use it to lock up my distractions, such as my Kindle or whatever I spend too much time on. Out of sight, out of mind. :P (There was a Kickstarter safe that I backed once–but the company pulled out so I got my money back, but never got the safe–because it had a timer on it. Whatever you put in there, you couldn’t get back out until the time had elapsed. They recommended using it for phones when eating dinner together…. haha)”
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So there you have it. All the creepiest, coolest, funniest, and most helpful answers of what’s good to keep in your safe ;) Thanks for participating, everyone!! Such a fun giveaway to do!
And now to the big winner of the Stack-On safe + $100 of cash…
Mr. Randomizer plucked out a winner, and that lucky winner today is… SARAH D! Congrats!! Look out for an email from me soon so I can get all your info for it :) For everyone else, I hope you do still find room in your budget for a safe, as they really can be life savers!! Plus they’re just a great way to keep all your important stuff nice and organized in one central place!
Huge thanks again to my friends at Stack-On Safes and Alpha Guardian for hooking us up this week, and we’ll be back tomorrow for some more riveting thoughts on life and finance ;)
Happy Tuesday!
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Today I’ve learned: Burglarizing a safe isn’t worth the risk of accidentally grabbing a handful of baby teeth (or a VERY angry cat!)
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal notwithstanding. :)
[that might actually require fissile material as well, I’m not 100%]
Schrödinger’s cat, but with more teeth.
Science is going too far.
No idea what you guys are talking about, haha…
Honestly, I would be curious about the text of this obituary.
I might invest in that at some point. I didn’t enter and didn’t get to read the comments then, but I guess I would stack the IDs I don’t carry around, jewelry, birth certificate, copyright certificates, and a few special keepsakes. Not the cat, however annoying, I still don’t want the destruction of the rest :D
I’ll keep that post in mind. The inventory idea is a great one :)
I’ll see if I can get a copy of it for you :)
UPDATE: Here you go! Scanned in copy of the obituary –> Jack William Bullington
And then here is the backstory :)
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I am pretty sure I encountered this obituary during a free trial subscription I had to the Seattle Times in college. I loved reading all the sections of the paper and I never skipped the obituaries. But this one – to Jack William Bullington from his wife Gayle – got me right in the feelers and I clipped it to save immediately.
What I love about this obituary is that it is simply an ode to a good husband. We know nothing about where Jack was born, his descendants (if he had any), his civic involvement, education, achievements or what he did for fun, though we can infer that he spent some time in the Navy from the photo his wife chose to feature. We see this departed husband only through the lens of a woman who loved him dearly and who is overwhelmed with gratitude for the 42 years she was given with him on this earth. Does it get any better than that?!
Now here’s where I really get dramatic; I believe the late Mr. Bullington is partly to blame for why I am single today. Because I have kept this obituary for the last 17 years (i.e. most of my adult life!), I have asked myself at various times in my life if I could write such an obituary about whomever I was with at the time. I didn’t just cut and run if the answer was “no,” but Gayle’s ode to her husband has served as quite a powerful litmus test to use for a relationship check-in. I find the notion of “loving with integrity” especially moving, as it is also a challenge for me in terms of how I show up in the lives of those I love (and not just in the romantic sense). So I not only want to find someone who fits this ideal, I want to grow toward it myself.
Since I first read this obituary, I have been married and divorced, with several relationships before and after, none of which passed the “Jack Test.” But I believe there’s a wrench for every nut in this world, even this one, so we’ll see what the future holds!
Anyway, this is why the obituary lives in my fireproof safe now. It represents a dream and a challenge for continued growth. And it’s just so freaking BEAUTIFUL!
I can relate to the law degree one so hard!
My bf convinced me to finally get mine framed though, so I’ve got it out on display. I’ll be taking the bar exam next summer, after having graduated a casual 6 years ago lol.
Haha!
Yup, I realized it was a mistake in my second year, but was already in. I took the bar two years after graduating, assuming I would fail it and put an end to the “But why didn’t you just take a big corporate law job?” questions.
Unfortunately, I passed the d***n thing.
An additional “safe” tip. Use a “Cooler Pocket” (assuming that your “fire proof” safe actually is fire proof – many (most?) are not what they say) to protect heat sensitive items. Here is what Liberty Safes says:
“Liberty Safe’s COOL POCKET is another great way to protect your valuables and documents from the devastating effects of fire, heat and smoke. This convenient “ready to go” fire resistant document bag keeps important valuables 50 degrees cooler (during a fire) when kept inside a fire rated safe.”
Read about it here (again I am not employed or get any dough from Liberty):
https://www.libertysafe.com/accessory-cool-pocket-ps-15-pg-62.html
And here’s a link to a real safe fire test:
https://www.libertysafe.com/fire-testing-thats-real-lm-videos-c-1-p-3410.html
Oh cool, thx man…
Double protection is even better :)
My sister kept her mother-in-law’s ashes in her safe for about 7 years until her father-in-law passed away before having them interred together.
Awwww, well it’s awesome they’re now both together!!
I would have prob done the same thing… well, not in my *safe*, but on the mantle or something :) Woudln’t think I’d have to worry about someone stealing it?! (and of course fires wouldn’t matter much!)
I love the suggestion of the home inventory; we’ve definitely talked about doing that before! Although we’re pretty anti-gun, we inherited a number of them when my husband’s dad passed. away. Locked up safe & sound until he figures out what he wants to do with them in the long run!
I say have a selling party and then use all the money to max out some IRAs :)
Thanks to J$ and Stack-On! YAY! When I get the safe delivered I’ll send you a note and an inventory of what I put in it, so we can keep this convo going. I’ve been really inspired by this to get my files and important paperwork together, and also inspired by so many of these ideas. (Like, we have survival cards but my husband carries them in his wallet — except for when we get on airplanes, so then they get taken out and left in a drawer somewhere. Whomp whomp. I’ll find them and put them in the safe!). Woot!
Rock on – it’s a plan!!
We love the excitement! Congratulations Sarah and thank you for your support.