My favourite bartering item I am storing!

Matches, lighters and sewing kits.

For my own use I have better quality batteries - eneloop, duracell, etc.

BUT for bartering the IKEA batteries are good enough. They don't last nearly as long as Duracell (etc) but for the price I think they're useful.

Nah coffee is third. Red wine or Good bourbon is first water is clearly second. Then ground coffee instant coffee and coffee bags are next and a multi purpose enamel mug for all three drinks

The ability to control conception will be priceless - hence condoms will be a popular barter item. As will the pill and diaphragms.

Very little to do with rape.

BCE

I hope no one interpreted my post this way, but just for the avoidance of doubt, I'm not going to be raping either.

On another post several weeks ago I suggested that building materials would be one the best items to have on hand for bartering after a SHTF event and I was cried down.

A true SHTF event means that services such as power, water, sewage etc. would become non existent as well as food sources such as supermarkets in all urban areas, and that means in any area serviced albeit the larger cities to many if not all of the smaller country towns.

The reality is that if a true SHTF event were to occur many people now living in urban areas would be forced to move to places where they were able to grow their own food and have a water supply and many of them would be moving to where there are no suitable buildings to supply even the basic requirements of shelter and means of having even a basic subsistent lifestyle.

This brings me back once again to what I seem to be unable to impress upon many members of sites such as this. If you are not already living where you believe that you have a good chance of survival after a SHTF event you are going to find it very hard going. This means having a lifestyle whereby you have a comfortable and suitable home/accommodation that has the means of heating you and your family in the colder months, contains a wood fired stove for your cooking needs and will also heat the water for washing eating and cook ware and your shower etc. It will also have suitable water catchment and storage for household and garden requirements. It will have an area suitable for firewood collection and suitable soils for the growing of your food. In other words it will contain all that you need for day to day life.

I know that some of you have bolt holes that are some distances from where you presently live but please remember this, if your bolt hole, fully stocked or other wise is, and lets just say it is three hours by motor vehicle from where you will be when the SHTF event occurs, the nearest neighbours to your bolt hole may just live ten minutes down the road therefore they will have a two hour and fifty minute start on you to get to that bolt hole, raid it and be back home by the time you get there or even worse they could take possession of it and deny you access to it.

I am sorry but all this talk about tea bags, alcohol etc. is total BS if a true SHTF event were to occur.

We live in a rural area. We know what it is like to live here. We know that just to supply all of our nutritional needs would be far more important after a SHTF event that worrying about the trivial items that many of you believe is important.

Preserving jars and lids, having a good supply of and saving our own vegetable seeds, having good water catchment and storage's, a supply of firewood and tools for harvesting of same, gardening tools, wheelbarrows, irrigation pipes - fittings - drippers, supplies of dishwashing liquid, toilet paper are just some of the things that are important to us.

I also mentioned in a past post that in the hotter months while our gardens and orchards are in full production that we can use between 20,00 to 25,000 litres of irrigation water per week. A lot of water just for our use but how many of you have any idea just how much water is required to produce the foods that you currently consume? I would say very few of you!

Yes I know that some of you real toughies will be able to live out of just what you can carry in your BOB’s for weeks, months and even years but I also know that once that dream is over you will be fighting to survive like many others who presently live in the mainly urban areas who have no idea about the reality of how it would be to grow even a modicum amount of your nutritional supplies.

Remember, if you have six months of an item in your store/cache you have six months to grow it, make it or learn to go without that particular item.

If I had the budget I would prepare for every possible scenario.

Since I have a limited budget and the usual resource requirements of day-to-day life, I need to start by preparing for the most likely risks first.

And also getting some preps in place that have universal value such as a stockpile of food and water etc. These will help even in the case of a loss of employment.

Yeah Joey, those work camps can be a great source of stuff!