Stocking items for barter

[Zil]

There is an old movie called "A boy and his dog". That will put you in the mood for prepping. I am building a map based list of preppers just in case.

Having the means to clean and disinfect water would be the best prep.
Ice cream will be in very short supply.

 

[compassrose]

Take care when storing some of the items listed. They do get old, stale, and in the case of candy, melt. I prefer to "prep" for winter storms, hurricanes (we WILL be moving to the SE TX coast), tornadoes and fires. That means keeping our residential vehicle stocked with cash, food, medicine (hubby is on prescription meds) and fuels (diesel with Stabil added & lp). Our fresh tank automatically refills as water is drawn from it. The bus is kept in running order. Our goal is to be able to get ready to be underway in the time it takes for the brakes to air up and release. We also need to be able to run for 100 miles, stay in a parking lot with no hookups, check the weather websites to see what direction we would need to head to miss the situation we are running from. A couple winters back, most of northern NM was without power and heating fuel for a week, some places longer. I do not want to be in that situation either. I believe in "prepping" for natural disasters rather than a societal breakdown.

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Add household unscented bleach to your list. It can be used to disinfect water.

 

[wagoneer]

I believe they called nickels nickels because they were made out of nickel never silver. oops larger than a dime in silver I don't think so

 

[psytechguy]

WW2 era nickels from mid 1942 through 1945 are composed of 35% silver. Nickel was a necessary material for the war effort, and therefore wasn't used.

 

[wagoneer]

did not know that thank you

 

[HWJ]

Unless you plan to have a hidden cache somewhere, this could be difficult to do. Your vehicle probably has all spare room used up. And the whole point is to travel light.

I'd make a list of your commonly used items. Think stuff like stick matches, toilet paper, etc.. See what you need. Likely other people will as well.

 

[Lifemagician]

Maybe not so much for barter, although in a way, I do.

I carry a box full of small souvenirs from home. Useful ones, mostly, to give to folk I meet along the way, for favours performed, suggestions offered, or who in any other way have been helpful. (That is most folk I meet!)

Pens, Key Rings, Tote Bags, etc. are always appreciated. I also carry a collection of pins and magnets to give away on the road.

And for those who want (and are familiar with it)....... Vegemite!

Lifey

 

[corky52]

I always carry a couple of pounds of pool shock and several hundred coffee filters, basic stuff to make clean water.

Corky

 

[hippiechk]

I always carry extra food and I have never had to waste it...someone is always hungry. I carry small bottles of water...I give them to panhandlers and thirsty kids and pregnant women walking home with bags of food and not a drop to drink. I carry cat food...no cat or dog but both will eat it if they are starving...so would I.

Emergency prep...fire and head north, sure its cold but snow melts into water and a snow fort will keep you sheltered from the storm. A knife and string...snare food and prep it. And my crutches because when the gas runs out we are all going to have to walk!

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Joni, as much as I hate cold and snow, I would have to agree with heading north. In the desert there is very little game for food, as well as the lack of water. Food plants can be more easily grown in other places as well.

 

[bvanevery]

I think many of you guys are fantasizing about trade commodities that have no basis in reality. Like listening to amateurs attempting to play the stock market. If you want to get some grounding in commodities or trade practices that actually have value in times of natural disaster or war, go study the history of countries where black markets have existed or currently do exist.

Preppers and survivalists have a different emphasis. Preppers tend to think in terms of stockpiling and preparing resources in advance of need. Survivalists tend to think about how to gain resources on demand. Both skills can be useful and shouldn't be regarded as mutually exclusive. Not all preppers are going to bug out. Some are going to stand their ground and defend their homesteads. The whole notion that you can or should bug out presumes an awful lot of things. What if you can't, like your vehicle is destroyed by a mob and you're in the middle of winter? You'd better have some cold weather survival skills, enough with the prepping.

Yeah, everyone's gonna run to the woods and live off the land. Just like every other redneck with a rifle within 500 miles. Consider cannibalism.

 

[HWJ]

Actually I find people who 'prep' by beefing up a vehicle with guns and armor a little ridiculous. Unless your stock piling fuel, your going to be screwed. Its one of the first things that would disappear when SHTF.

 

[jeanontheroad]

Travel, do you have any handy skills? I know women who barter sewing skills or do dog grooming or make jewelry and a man who makes impressive handmade knives with antler or horn handles and custom leather sheaths. Sometimes, it is want you can do instead of what you have.

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I just reread your post. You are talking about something a little beyond what I thought at first. To Scott's shtf fan list, I would add some antibiotics if you can get your hands on them. Looking back in history b4 they were available, more people died of disease and infection than anything else. Double up on the honey. It is nature's antibiotic for open wounds.

 

[James AKA Lynx]

ammo, rice and beans

 

[Kathleen]

Travel- Instead of storage unit that might be in an area that's not convenient or close, why not geo-chache some small amount of supplies in more remote areas, that way no matter where you traveling you can fall back on those locations and on the upside save yourself a ton of money on storage.&nbsp; Then again, who wants to dig a big hole in the desert or woods <img class="emoticon bbc_img" src="/images/boards/smilies/wink.gif">

It's an ancient skill. If you know how/where to select the right kind of site it is not difficult. Thanks for bringing this up in this thread. 5 gallon food grade bucket, gamma seal lid. Stash cache within certain length walking distance til you get to the next one, if world events require heading out to the woods/wilderness areas. Lots of important gear to put in the string line of buckets.

 

[Kathleen]

Our fearless leader Bob has stated that he carries a 3-6 month food supply with him as he travels. Mtn house is chock full of preservatives, originally designed as military supply food. 25 yr shelf life, very compact. Problem with buffalo pemmican, dried salmon, beef and turkey jerky, easily available now at Trader Joes and other stores, is that it has such a short shelf life. Ditto for the pricey organic meals from REI or online. Without those nasty chems in them they deteriorate within a year in most cases. Still not a bad idea to carry with you, as it is protein and fits in a small space. Eat and replace as you go.

Canned food has a decent shelf life, find food with the longest life stamped on it. But it is bulky. A combo may be the way to go. Too bad chocolate melts becuz we all know the world is made of chocoholics and sugar junkies who will need their fix. And yes, booze and nicotine will certainly be highly sought after goods.

Trader Joes told me that the city I live in has only a two day supply at any given time for the entire population of my town. Think about that.

All emergency sites recommend a minimum of 1 gal per day per person and more if you have pets for any weather phenomenon or dire situation. Home and van, a wise thing to do. Store as much as you can, if you resonate with this suggestion.

 

[Kathleen]

A couple winters back, most of northern NM was without power and heating fuel for a week, some places longer. I do not want to be in that situation either. I believe in "prepping" for natural disasters rather than a societal breakdown.

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And what havoc that 20 below zero weather wreaked here in northern NM. It was said that for political reasons Santa Fe and Albuquerque, the state capital and the biggest city in the state, got the available fuel while outlying NO NM got nothing for several weeks.

 

[swankiewheels]

it could still be worth driving back, as long as it's within one gas tank's range, so probably 400 or 450 miles away, at most. Or have a couple of storage units like this. But then that kind of goes against simplifying things - not to mention the cost! Even at $50 a month to rent a small storage unit, that's $600 per year. And if I had two such storage units... $1200 a year. That could buy a lot of food and gas. And I run the risk that it could get broken into and cleaned out, or if there was a natural disaster, the building could damaged, ...

I spend lots of money storing stuff over the years, stuff I thought my kids might want.  Turns out they didn't want my junk.  And eventually I learned the only sensible thing was to have all I own with me.  The last storage unit I had got damaged by a tree falling on the roof... I had to go from CA to WA to move my stuff (what was good enough to save) to another unit.  Only to have the second unit get flooded after two months, requiring me to make another trip from CA to WA.  At that point I bought a trailer and began hauling all my stuff with me.  I can leave the trailer places, or pay to store it (cheaper than renting a unit) and have it near me.  As I get a little older, I am thinking of buying a little land someplace and putting a cargo shipping container on it... and use this as my base.  It will be way out of the way, hard for others to find and get too, and hard to break into.  It will be central to the states I travel in and be my HOME.  You might like to begin thinking along those lines.

 

[Putts]

High value barter items that pack tight and may also come in handy to gift to people ordinarily:

little Neosporin tubes
JB weld
Alcohol and H2O2 swabs
tiny LED flashlights
rice and beans (less long lasting: flour, noodles, and bread yeast)
Ibuprophen
ball point pens
playing cards
cooking oil
little packets of salt, sugar, cayanne pepper, honey, and mustard
a stack of deflated grapefruit sized red rubber playground balls (I'm going to do this to give away to groups of poor kids in Central America)
Cheap magnifying glasses (easy to make fire)

 

[Ballenxj]

1 thing that I didn't see posted is ammo for use or barter.

As discussed on another forum, small aspirin or other pill bottles with 10 to 20 rounds of high quality .22 ammunition. Almost everybody has a .22 of some sort, and in a pinch may be willing to barter for small amounts of ammo to put meat on the table.