If we have an event similar to the nationwide power outage portrayed in American Blackout, there is little doubt that we will eventually have widespread panic, looting and rioting by people who either don’t care or are driven to criminal behavior because of fear or need. The duration of the hypothetical scenario in American Blackout was only 10 days, but for events lasting longer as in a societal breakdown caused by an economic collapse, we could be looking at years of chaos. With no formal way to purchase anything using what would at that time be worthless paper, people would need to revert to bartering.
I have discussed potential risks with bartering in the past that I still feel would be valid, but assuming that barter was the only form of commerce you could use I wanted to write down my thoughts on what I felt would be the best bartering items to have on hand. If you could stock up on prepping items now with an eye toward a future without money, what would be the best items to have on hand for barter with someone else?
Before I get into that, let me quickly explain what bartering is to those who don’t know. Bartering is simply exchanging goods or services for other goods or services. It is trading without using money. An example of this is I have a neighbor who has a large and productive garden and he has tons of beautiful vegetables that he grows like nobody’s business. I on the other hand have chickens that lay a good number of eggs each day. He has vegetables and my garden is lagging this year. I have eggs and he doesn’t have any source of protein. In a barter situation, I could negotiate with him some of my eggs for some of his vegetables. We would both work out an equitable amount of each (vegetables and eggs) and trade. The terms would be up to us and I would be free to set my prices as low or high as I wanted. My neighbor would be able to do the same.
This concept isn’t new and bartering was actually the way people purchased things for a very long time. Bartering continues to this day, but you can’t go into a Wal-Mart and say, “How about I cut your grass for all these groceries?”. Bartering would work best in small communities with people who know each other I think. Of course outsiders would be able to barter too, but then we get into that risky part of bartering I spoke about in my other post.
Bartering isn’t limited to goods. Services in the form of work or skilled trades can be bartered too. If we had the same grid-down economic collapse scenario I was talking about and my neighbor needed his roof repaired on his house. I could barter my carpentry skills for those vegetables too. One issue I can see coming up quickly in a long term catastrophe would be services of a more personal and physical nature. When you have nothing to trade but your body, I can see very bad things happening and this isn’t a plot from a movie either.
What am I trading for?
Now, we know what bartering is and how it’s done, but before you start stocking up on items you intend to use for barter, you have to ask yourself what you want to barter for? If you have barter items, the implication is that you would trade these for something you don’t have. If you are already planning to trade for something you don’t have, wouldn’t it make more sense to get that item you want instead of purchasing bartering supplies? Maybe that doesn’t work for all things and you would rather be safe than sorry. OK, I understand that, but the supplies listed below aren’t probably going to get you big ticket items. If you plan to barter for guns or ammo, you better have something very valuable to the people you expect to trade with.
-
- Food – This one along with some of the others is a tough one. There will be people without food and I know that decent people will part with something of theirs that you want for food. Maybe if someone is desperate enough, they will barter a weapon for a big chunk of food to feed their family.
- Water filters – Clean water is so simple, but immensely important. Disease is one of the quickest killers in any type of natural disaster. People in Haiti quickly succumbed to disease in the quake of 2010 because they had no clean drinking water and sanitation was a major problem. Having some simple water filters like LifeStraw or gravity fed systems like the PointONE could be highly valuable.
- Ammo – This probably goes without saying, but ammo will be more valuable than even Gold I think if we really live to see TEOTWAWKI. The supply and pricing is still not back to the levels we enjoyed a couple of years ago. I don’t know if they ever would, but I can always use a little more.
- First aid – Antibiotics – Medicine is hard to stock up on unless you have a very understanding doctor. Fortunately, there are sources for antibiotics you can take advantage of now and stock up before the hospitals are overflowing with people.
- Toilet Paper – Feminine napkins – One of the first small wins in my quest to convince my wife that stocking up on some things wasn’t crazy. All she had to picture was not having some of life’s necessities on hand and that changed her mind about stocking up.
- Candles – Candles are cheap and you can store them just about anywhere and forget about them. I have a box in my supplies and these provide light and potentially warmth to someone who has nothing.
-
- Batteries – Another no-brainer. If you have devices like radios, flashlights, walkies-talkies you will want to have batteries on hand. Bonus if these are rechargeable like Sanyo Eneloop.
Propane – Small propane canisters like the kind for camping grills or lanterns are relatively cheap and could make an excellent barter item.- Alcohol – Cigarettes – I don’t know how long cigarettes would store. If you kept them in a freezer they might last longer, but I wouldn’t devote a lot of space to something I can’t use, although I have said that if zombies take over the world I will probably take up smoking again. Alcohol on the other hand has a few uses. Buy small pint bottles and these may enable you to barter for something really needed if all other sources are gone.
- Books – Resource books and even fiction books. Without our modern distractions, a good book will be welcome to someone who has the time to chill out or who needs to learn something.
What about toiletry items for hygiene and cleaning up? I have heard others talk about that and I am sure someone would want those if the situation were ever so dire that people valued getting clean more than eating or protection but I think that is of limited value.
What other ideas do you have? What if anything are you stocking up on to use as barter?
This article first appeared on ThePrepperJournal
This Is under you food but I don’t think people think about I myself have added veggie seeds to my bug out bag they are light and take up almost no space and will produce you the food you need I added tomoatoes ,carrots , peppers and cucumber and also your basic herbs rosemary , dill , and Basil with those you can make almost any meal fit for a king and honestly you can barter good meals another seed I am adding is going to be the tobacco plant
Beans and legumes are a good item to add also. Good protein.
No, cigarettes won’t store well, but, the better way is to buy tobacco loose in a tin. I make my own now with a little rolling machine. I buy rolling papers and filters online. This way I can afford my habit and can use the * good stuff* ( American Spirit organic tobacco) at a fraction of the cost of packs. for bartering I would divide the tobacco into small baggies with some rolling papers.
The Dollar Store is a wealth of potential barber items: small sewing kits, led keychain flashlights, travel sized OCT medicines ( think: Tylenol, Motrin, Pepto Bismal…), Hydrogen peroxide, wasp spray ( for personal defense), dental care items, powdered milk and other food items.
Yes it is! Dollar tree also has some out of the way products to fill a secure tub with odds and ends you can use.
Got two of ycanisters with 5000 seeds each. Then start saving from fruits and veggies. Gotta think bout soil, sun and water when you garden
Some problems with growing your own food –
1) most people do not own land and would have to ‘squat’ to grow anything OR give up a good portion of their food to the landowner
2) Unless you know how to do proper crop rotation, the soil can be quickly depleted and augmentation would be required – fertilizer would be hard to get after a couple of years.
3) One would have to post a 24 hr guard on even young plants – animals (including zombies) will try to take whatever they can get. And of course you must babysit for insect damage and such. Plus watering issues if you do not get enough rain.
3) Once you harvest, how do you store the bounty? Most have no idea how to do it.
If you are a nomad (due to no land ownership), it is hard to grow crops.
Sure a couple of grow bags might work, but those can get heavy after a while.
About the biggest worry is that someone, some thing, or the government will take your stuff.
FYI: Ancient Egyptians used to use blood as a fertilizer along with animal dung.
…So your logic is to just not even try growing food at all because hey someone might take it away??? Lol WoW. And its actually not that hard to compost. Ever heard of it?
i got 2 different water filters, i plan to barter clean water. they bring water from a nearby lake, i clean it, and keep a percent of it.
Wow! Great idea, I have a second too, and thought to help someone by giving it to them! This is a much better deal, and it helps many more people!! Thank you!!
Question??? Has anyone figured out a way to make your dentures work, when their is no Polygrip??
Be really hard to get enough extra!!
my dentures have been worn day n night for upto two full weeks, were only removed for cleaning then immediately put back in. the gums by nature formed themselves to the shape of the inner denture. Hence, I no longer needed poli-grip or any other gooie substance
beeswax…and Karaya gum, tracagamth gum powder, and peppermint oil..man you could do good helping people with their dentures..lol
beeswax…and Karaya gum, tracagamth gum powder, and peppermint oil..man you could do good helping people with their dentures..lol
I believe that salt should be considered a high priority item to stock.people have to have a certain amount of it, it has many uses such as preserving food, and until the SHTF it is dirt cheap, so you can stock extra to use as barter. In addition to Hains iodized sea salt ( to get the Iodine I need) I like Real Salt for all the extra trace minerals.
I don’t use much salty, so have to take Kelp tablets, to be sure to get enough Iodine. A friend told to quit eating salt, I asked him what the doc told him to take to get the iodine? ZERO!! Nothing!! I told him about Kelp!!
I think you should NEVER barter ammo. The person may come back with his gun and barter for your life and take everything. Nope, my ammo is mine.
And why can’t they come back and barter for your life and take everything even if you aren’t bartering ammo? The product you are bartering makes no difference if someone gets the drop on you and wants to take your things.
You are 100% on about that!! That goes even for the danger of helping others with your food…Hard, but about necessary to do that!!!
I prefer my 10
Alcohol
Basic medical supplies
Herb books
Potatoes
Cigarettes/cigars
Tools
Experience
Water
Bread
Spices (including salt and pepper)
Just saying, off the top of my head, if “It” hits the fan and people are stressed and want to get away from the real World for a bit, then I was thinking about cannibus.
U will want it yourself. remember what the fabulous furry freak Brothers always said dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope
You are the first person I have ever heard reference the “FFFB”. I haven’t heard of them since the ’70’s.
I kind of miss those guys n
Hadnt thought of the freak bros. in 50 years…
Yeah I was thinking the same thing, even seeds. I try to keep a good supply of both on hand and more out back.
I have a bit of a different list.
1 Salt- for preservation
2 Toilet Paper-
3. Medical supplies (especially bandaid and neosporine, and aspirin)
4. Drinking alcohol – for medical as well as pleasure
5.Candles
6.clothing- also sewing notions
7.Books-good knowledge and entertainment
8.Soap-for hygiene, laundry, and dishes
9.Honey- never spoils and great health and cooking benefits
10. Experience -having knowledge of gardening, tool repair, beekeeping, animal care, etc might be invaluable.
The climate will turn immediately colder. No new co2 will translate to longer, harsher winters. 10 most important trading items.
1. coats
2. sweaters
3. blankets
4. fuel
5. lanterns
6. preserving salt
7. canning supplies
8. chickens
9. rabbits
10.seeds, seeds, and more seeds.
Packing 100 coats in your big out bag is hard.
All these are good ideas but my job requires cross country travel. I’m not able to stock very much I my home as every 3 months I’m on the road again.My van is packed with clothing, uniforms,pots pans.,(more pots than pans as I can cook on the bottom of them and inside them) sewing machine dehydrator and other necessary stuff. Ive got some #10 cans of food. But need easy and small to pack. Any ideas? I’ve made several different pull bottle survival kits, hoping to learn decent fishing skills this year… Thanks
You have a dehydrator so dry some of your food and store with a seal-O- meal and then you’ll have plenty of dried food to eat. You can dry potatoes, veg’s anything and you can do it on the road just buy what ever is on sale. Remember not to over dry.
How about noodles? Like ramen, very cheap. And rice, not just white rice (which you should have) but also packs of knorr and such. Only .50-$1, take up very little space, only require water, nutritious and better tasting than plain white rice!
White rice is a good breakfast food, don’t cook it until it is dry but leave it creamy and add sugar/
Maybe its time to quit that considering the circumstances…protect your family ya know?
Seeds should be heirloom seeds.You can save seeds from heirloom seeds where you cant from other seeds.Condoms are a good thing to stock up to. Will hold about 1 gallon of water if put in a sock of other cloth. Keep guns an other items dry. Tampons to put in gun shot wounds to stop bleeding,help start fires .
Forget the idea of tampons to put in gun shot wounds. that old idea has been proven false and dangerous since tampons swell and are excellent sources of infection and can come apart when trying to remove them or work their way inside teh body and becoming the foci for life threatening infections. You won’t find any up to date medical source advocating that today.
Our bodies do need salt. Not a lot. Without it our bodies can become dehydrated. Many other body functions require sodium.
Do NOT put a tampon into any wound! Sounds like a good idea but when you try to remove it, the bleeding will start again and threads left inside could cause infection.
Stock cayenne pepper to stop bleeding fast and keep simple respiratory infections at bay.
Never ever insert a tampon into a gunshot wound ! Case in point –
Johnny Yates, PMC Small Arms/ First Aid Instructor (2015-present)
Answered Dec 15
Don’t stick tampons into gunshot wounds please.
It just soaks up blood it doesn’t apply direct pressure to the wound your goal is to not soak up the blood that is already spilled outside the cardiovascular system (What’re you gonna do put it back in?) but to stop the bleeding altogether (Blood goes round and round air goes in and out and any deviation from that is a bad thing). Second if you put a tampon into the gunshot wound and then don’t tell the physician about it (In a combat environment you won’t see the physician who takes your casualty) and they go to X-Ray then they won’t see it and pieces of it very well may get left inside someone’s body causing sepsis which is why Combat Gauze/ QuickClot has a blue line down the middle of it making it visible on X-Rays it’s also why hemostatic agents now are a long 3m long ribbon rather than a powder like they used to be so that surgeons can get it all out in one foul swoop rather than having to continuously irrigate and manipulate the wound causing further nerve damage. Quick Clot or Combat Gauze whatever brand you get is already issued in your IFAKs there’s no need for a tampon, it doesn’t do shit that something else in your kit already doesn’t do. It’s unnecessary and an unsafe improvisation by some tactical timmy who fuooed the good idea fairy.
Tampons are not a hemostatic agent that promotes clotting, it’s just a bunch of cotton that just soaks up blood (That it does very well) and manipulates the wound unnecessarily. You can use ’em for nose bleeds or to start fires, or use them for what their intended use is really for.
Cayenne pepper as previously mentioned is excellent for stopping bleeding as is Shepherd’s purse. Another valuable herb. Herbal tinctures last a looong time and are easy to use. Many herbs are antiviral, antibiotic, antiseptic, etc, ect. My suggestion is to learn about herbs. Learn to recognize and use the herbs that grow where you are. Also learn about how to make and use herbal poultices for wound healing.
A “nuke” as us baby boomers know is old history. I’m trying to get up to date on a “Feriday” cage. Heard about EMP’s?. Get some “Heritage Seeds” and a shovel.
John , not trying to be a pain – but it might be easier if you look for “faraday cages” .
What people forget is when your medications run out then so dose your life if you are dependent on such things. So the strong survive. Food and water count but so dose those meds.
I believe you should add Bic Lighters, fire proof matches, fire starter products, etc.
I live in a high rise, and there is thrown out tons of lint from our 10 dryers!! I filled a couple of ziplock bags of it! I’ve heard of adding Vaseline, but haven’t done it…I tried a fire starter tool, and ignition first try!
Yeah lint and a little Vaseline or cottonballs and Vaseline or any petroleum based products will work for fire starters. I keep a med bottle of cottonballs and Vaseline on all my go bags, crates. I try to keep enough food, blankets(wool), medical supplies, seeds, ect. I’m every tote backpack, get home bags. Along with at least one type of water purifier (life straw) ect. In every container, along with a pack of bic lighters and a back up ferrous rod. Make sure to practice with firestarting, if you don’t know how to use it, the time to learn isn’t when you have to have it. Practice makes perfect.
Dryer lint is a good fire starter
You don’t want people to know how much you really have. Presenting them with pre-measured, small quantities is wiser than rolling out your bucket of dried milk or taking them into your storage or even letting see you enter & exit your storage. 1) Baggies. Freezer quality are sturdiest. If you’re bartering for a small quantity of anything (rice, sugar, etc) also good to help you measure. Pre-load several baggies of various items. Keep these handy. Not in primary storage.
2) small “to go” sized packets of salt, pepper, sugar, sweet/lo… Usually find them in bags of 100 or more for just a few dollars.
Excellent advice!
More Americans have a sugar addiction than tobacco addiction. Leading up to hurricane Irma water and candy aisles at Target pretty much emptied simultaneously. Many Americans will experience sugar withdrawal. And it will be especially hard on children. Bartering a bag of M&M’s or chocolate chips might be something to think about.
Those #10 cans of food have a shelf life. Get a water purifier and dehydrated meals. Those will last 10-12 years, they are not as bulky and don’t weigh near as much for your van to carry around. “Mountain House” meals are the ones I prefer. I have carried those on many hiking trips and they are pretty palatable.
Pantyhose have numerous uses besides keeping legs warm [like the NFL do]. Straining liquids, stretchy rope, etc. Clear plastic wrap too, for covering large wounds from infection, like burns or sucking chest wounds. Lots and lots of baggies, all sizes. Lightweight carry and storage. Aspirin. Lipstick and condoms. For emotions, depression and stress in us humans.
Yes I keep hose in the glove box in case I need to knock off a liquor store.
Ah you all forgot about all the people with opiate addictions. An excellent barter item!
Yeah I have a feeling that they will be harder to deal with than the people who don’t have an addiction. Heck some addicts will be harder to handle than your average Joe. Or that’s my opinion. I’ve heard several people say that’s the first thing that they will loot is pharmacies. I have been trying to grow my own wild lettuce for pain , velarian for nerves, I’ve been foraging passion flowers lately, I haven’t ever seen it grow here in western Ky, but it is this year. I don’t know if it is climate change or what? But I do know that it is now growing here. We make a cocktail of velarian, passion flower, lemon balm/ pepper mint/spearmint, red clover with a spoon of honey every night. Great for stress, relaxation, nerves, sleep. And almost all is foraged, velarian being the only exception, we grow that from seed. We but wild lettuce seed, velarian seed online really cheap too. It’s not gonna give the effects of prescription nerve meds, but they work alot better than nothing. Hope this helps some of y’all.
White rice is a good breakfast food, don’t cook it until it is dry but leave it creamy and add sugar/
Thinking of trade items, consider clothe diapers and plastic panties for babies and zinc ointments for rash. Disposables will quickly run out of stock. Also in Wisconsin there is a store called Dollar Tree which sells small wood matches in ten packs for one dollar. There are 32 matches in strike on the box for a total of 320 matches. Easily traded one box at a time. With ten dollars that is 3200 matches.
I Have read all the former post and some are great for the short term survival but what about when all the store shelves are empty and jobs are useless because money is worthless. That’s when people are going to get desperate and yes even dangerous especially the city folks who are spoiled to being able to buy everything they need or want that suddenly find themselves without anything. They will be leaving those cities in search of food. This is when things will get worse for those who know how to live off the land and have what is necessary for survival like ammo small gardens other survival skills they don’t have. Granted most of us will be willing to share but when you are faced with hundreds and you don’t have enough to feed them all you yourself are in danger. How far are you willing to go to protect what is yours from those who intend to take it for their own short term survival?
Reconsider what you say about barter items. Two items I would never trade or give someone else, ammo and alcohol.
Ammo, the first thing the person will do is load their gun and use it to kill you and take what you have stored. Plus you must think about your families safety. With you dead whats to stop this murderer from making your sweet wife and kids into slaves or worse.
Alcohol: What is to prevent the person from getting drunk and killing other people (including you and your family) ?
A little common sense goes a long way. Learn everything you can, knowledge will not weigh you down.
All the dry tinder you could ever want. The dollar stores have those little inch and a quarter hand twist pencil sharpeners in 12 packs. Break off a dry pencil sized twig from a tree and use the sharpener on it and you can make all the tinder you will ever need from the shavings.
For those of you who believe, A small bible can be packed in many locations.
AMEN.
I purchased 100 new testaments in English and Spanish to have for whoever will take one.
Preparedness is essential but Knowing the God for our Eternity is uncompromisingly Vital!
Harv, your idea of the little pencil sharpeners for endless tinder is genius.
These are a few things I thought of:
Sugar, hard candies cough drops
Anti-itch cream
honey (medicinal qualities too),
Vinegar, cooking oil
Coffee
Salt, pepper, cayenne, herbs, spices
Manual can openers/ P-38s
String, cord
Chocolate (be sure to keep up with your rotation 😉
Tampons, pads, condoms
Hand cloths, dish towels – for potholders and hygiene
Things to entertain the kids:
Playing cards
Sets of five dice for Yahtzee
Dolls, cheap action figures (or as we used to call them, aren’t guys) stuffed animals
Matchbox cars
I found at Walmart, one day, a very large box of small throw blankets for $.75 each, usually $4.00. I bought all i had money to get, plus been saving all my grandson’s small stuffed animals, and match box cars, etc. and also have a lot of baby formula stashed away to provide for babies and toddlers who show up at my door. I have been saving soda & water bottles, disinfecting them to use to provide rice & beans to share, plus small empty glass jars with small candles to share, and empty cans made into small stoves, and a pact of matches, and extra bottles of tap water, as i have available. And those single sticks of coffee packs.
Besides those lists for barter items you need to figure out how to secure your house and properly from looters, burglar break-ins, or any intruder. Alarm systems that don’t need electricity, some that will make a noise to warn you someone has come onto your property , some that would warn you that someome is trying to break in
personal alarms to carry on your person in case someone tries to mug you or grabs your purse or attacks you in any way(pull the top off and a high pitched sound alerts others you need help and scares the attacker to run away from you),.
Of course re-enforcing windows and doors to prevent someone from breaking and entering your home whether you’re there or not.
Keeping food stores and other stocked items hidden from sight when looking through windows or when you have a welcome visitor (including guns, ammo and any other weapons or even tools) I think is a WISE IDEA!!
And DON’T TRUST ANYBODY!! Don’t talk about what you have stored up or where you keep it. Not even to friends or relatives. People talk and sometimes say too much without even realizing that they’re letting the cat out of the bag. The wrong ears might be listening and ce to rob you blind!
Not trying to be a “negative nelly” but if the SHTF and all chaos breaks loose around use, we have to be prepared for anything!! And may God protect and provide for us all ??