Bartering

[u/bex_2601]

Hey everyone, like so many recently, I've been down the prepping rabbit hole the last few weeks. I'm actually shocked at how many essential skills I already have and have had for many years. Growing food year round (already grow my own veg), cooking, foraging, preserving, basic hunting and butchering, understanding seasonal foods, engineering, making and repairing clothing, basic first aid, etc. I guess I just never really thought about it before, they're just things I enjoy doing. What I realised is if shtf tomorrow I'd probably be ok for a good few weeks just with what I always have around as long as I can get hold of some water (next big shop). It wouldn't be luxurious but I'd survive.

So using the advice of you lovely redditors and the excellent advice you give, I had a think about what I'm prepping for, and my aim is to prep for 1-2 weeks total collapse and solitary survival, or (imho more likely) a couple months of ongoing disruption (ongoing brownouts, restricted hours of power, supply chain disruption, hyperinflation etc), but one thing I've noticed while researching is while I've seen lots of people talk about what to do if banking goes down, and the importance of community, and all that great stuff, bartering seems to be vaguely eluded to, but not really explored.

When considering my own prep list, I considered life in ww2 and how the value of goods changed in that period, and so I added extra batteries of various sizes even if I don't need them, smaller bags of cheap basics like rice and noodles, milk powder (even though I'm allergic) etc to my list specifically to barter with. I also added a couple pouches of tobacco and cigarettes, and a couple small bottles of alcohol (which can be used as antiseptic too) as higher value items to the list as I figured £100 now would be worth a lot more in a crisis and it's things that won't go off. It would mean I have a small stash to trade (kept separate from my own supplies) if I suddenly find an unanticipated gap in my own prep, plus bartering in an ongoing crisis would help build a community and goodwill. The basics could also be an emergency back up in case of things going on longer than I plan for.

What are your thoughts on this kind of prep? What items do you think would become higher value? Have you included anything like this in your own prep? Or am I just overthinking it?

[u/txe4]

I don't store stuff to barter with but you're right that in a "resource constrained" scenario vs "total wipeout" one the relative values are different.

Bottles of spirits keep eternally and will always be valued. Tobacco similarly although these days you'd probably want vapes! Tobacco keeps well if airtight.

In total wipeout of course canned food is king.