Prepping for barter

[Amber_Leith]

I agree with ForgeCorvus 100%.

Gold is just another Pyramid scheme, beyond being used as little mobile phone connectors or whatever it has no tangable worth.

When Gold horders get giddy at the price going up, they seem to forget that its only going up in relation to a totally worthless fiat currency that can be created on a computer screen. You might aswell make a loaf of bread worth 100 million, it doesn't change its true value, which is a days food for a person.

Gold only has value during times of plenty, when civilization is doing well its a status symbol, that itself should signal its no protection in an emergency. Wealth is transfered between generations in real assets, tangable assets such as land or mines are immune to economic downturns.

I'd trade you every ounce of gold on planet Earth for a single productive farm. If the time comes, people would be willing to trade a suitcase full of gold for a loaf of bread.

Infact the suitcase may be more.valuable than the metal its lugging around lol.

What's worth more in real terms? A truck full of gold or an AK47? Nevermind even the little trinkets people waste £1000 or so on, an entire truck is worth buger all.

[ForgeCorvus]

As for the recommendation for what to get I would suggest the buckets of bait based on cracked wheat that are already in plastic sachets, this will serve two purposes, much longer shelf life being double packaged and secondly easier to handle and swap.
However in a non prep situation I am not a fan of this type of bait, but that's not relevant here.
V.

Could you explain why ?

[nickdutch]

I think that gold and or silver is for when things are bad in the normal economy and things could get nasty considering the mass money printing that goes on.

I think it depends on the scenarios that you can envisage and when you think they will happen. I recon that gold and silver may well go up in value or price (the two things being different) and jobs will get more scarce, but are you "preparing" for a mad max scenario which is what will happen if EVERYTHING is destroyed, or just things getting tricky?

If its all mad max, then spear heads, arrow tips, snares... go for it. But that wont necessarily be something that everyone will need or can use and wont necessarily be something that you will see the need for in your life. Ideally in the here and now if you live on the edge of land you have permission to hunt on and go after rabbits in hunting season go for it, but not for the majority.

People will need alcohol because alcoholism goes up when things get bad in the world. Tobacco too, unless every one has given up smoking and taking snuff by the time that things get "dark" which might still be a long time in the future and whats more important, you might not see it in your life time. So tobacco would have to be a mid term preparation, alcohol long, mid term and short term.

Seeds: all the time unless you are in a very urban area and no-one can get any growing space together or do some guerrilla gardening for veg

Tins of food? Brilliant for 2 or more years down the line.

First Aid supplies? Keep em safe and dry for best results.

Fire making? Great.

I think you need to think about how likely it is that you will need to use this stuff as well as what you think is gonna happen.
After all, how much spending money do you have and what would that be best spent on?

I have basic fire making equipment as I can foresee a need to light alcohol stoves, burn stuff in the kelley kettle, cook food outside and the like.

The kelley kettle can be used for water purification, I have a basic first aid kit.

My food stores are ok for the short term, but wont keep me alive in the long term. I'm fine with that for the moment, but it may change.

I use my canner for short-ish term meat storage (like two months)

You can do your "prepping" in a shotgun way, namely going in all directions at once, or you can keep it more focused to more pressing needs in the coming few months first and then expand on that bit by bit.

I'm all in favour of everyone learning new skills and keeping information alive, but when we broadcast it, it says something about us and what we think will happen and when we think it will happen too.

[teatowls]

I agree with what people are saying in regards to the worth of gold in a SHTF situation. The majority of people won't find gold to be any use so using it to barter may not be possible so focusing on items that would make good trade should be priority.

With items for barter I think in terms of what I would need and get extras then in terms of what people would need locally e.g. I live in an area with alot of dogs and cats so stocking on flea medication and shampoo is essential for me and would also make good trade items in my area.

[unsure]

i think the best prep item i can think of is ,,, well ME .,, no good having a tonne of seeds if you can`t plant them or field full of food if you can`t protect it or get it out of the ground to storage . things would still to be fixed or made .

[jansman]

I agree with what people are saying in regards to the worth of gold in a SHTF situation. The majority of people won't find gold to be any use so using it to barter may not be possible so focusing on items that would make good trade should be priority.

With items for barter I think in terms of what I would need and get extras then in terms of what people would need locally e.g. I live in an area with alot of dogs and cats so stocking on flea medication and shampoo is essential for me and would also make good trade items in my area.

Don't know about flea shampoo for them cats 'n' dogs. SHTF you may need a butcher! That is where Jansman comes in!

[teatowls]

Don't know about flea shampoo for them cats 'n' dogs. SHTF you may need a butcher! That is where Jansman comes in!

Haha! Let's face it... not much meat on a terrier or a cat! That and we don't eat family Unless of course they pee on your pillow... in which case SHTF they'll be free game xD


A useful item to stock might be plastic drinks bottle, glass & plastic jars as well. You can just wash out empty jam jars & soft drink bottle and reuse them SHTF or trade them to other people to store collected water or harvested foods later down the line. We have a cupboard full of old glass jars and we store dried herbs in them, well the ones we don't yet grow or can't grow in this country at least! That and you can use them as small make shift pots for growing some smaller plants in until you can sort something better out.

[Amber_Leith]

Any food related skill would be useful for barter.

[grenfell]

I've been having a think about this , not that it's become any clearer to me
Anyway what to use for barter would depend on the extent , the length , time of year, and specific details of the event.
For example wooly jumpers will have a greater barter value in the winter compared to the summer although the wise amongst us will snap up the jumpers in blazing July heat.
Our society is now largely consumer based and as such there is a large portion of the population that lack any real useful tradable skills. Post SHTF will human resources managers and poodle beauticians be in great call? Most likely not but metal working , spinning, weaving , farming and a host of other skills will be in demand although exactly what a former Human resources manager will have to trade is debatable.
( This reminds me of a conversation a few years ago. I'm a re-enactor and our group is largely craft based and medieval , I'm a carpenter and we also have a blacksmith. a MOP asked was the blacksmith the most important person of the time. The response was " without the blacksmith the carpenter has no tools, without the carpenter the farmer has no plough , without the farmer the baker has no flour, without the baker the blacksmith has no bread" I.e we are all vital cogs in the machine and there were very few " useless " mouths).
Obviously practical material goods will have a value be they seeds, tools, clothes, toilet rolls , booze , fags or whatever.
I think the subject of precious metals is a little more tricky. On a local basis then gold will be valueless for say trying to buy a loaf of bread but again it's value will be dependant on the nature of the event. Gold has been used as a currency for thousands of years and I really don't think the human race will drop its love affair with shiny yellow metal overnight. Ultimately someone will try to introduce a system of money again and I believe that it will most likely be based or backed by gold. I think gold's lack of any practical use makes it ideal to back money. I always remember the old survivors series where Greg tried to introduce a money backed by petrol, you know "I promise to pay 100 gallons of petrol" and always thought such an idea would be flawed. Do you redeem your money and burn the petrol and thus reducing overall wealth or do you simply keep the petrol in a vault and thus negate it's real worth as a fuel? Then again in the Hitchhikers Guide they used leaves and ended up burning down the forests to prevent hype inflation.
So I think in the long term , and it may be very long term , gold will be an investment of some value. I also think it will have some value in the long slow crash scenario which I tend to believe we have started on since 2008 , up until there is a complete financial collapse on a global scale.How long this slow crash will take is any bodies guess, there will probably be several slight " recoveries" followed by another deeper recession each time but with the general trend being downward.

[nickdutch]

With items for barter I think in terms of what I would need and get extras then in terms of what people would need locally e.g. I live in an area with alot of dogs and cats so stocking on flea medication and shampoo is essential for me and would also make good trade items in my area.

Don't know about flea shampoo for them cats 'n' dogs. SHTF you may need a butcher! That is where Jansman comes in!

Find out about food grade diatomateous earth. Its a fine white powder that kills bugs mechanically. Sprinkle that into the dogs fur and it will slow kill the bugs. I guess if you were to do it weekly it would keep them bug free.