Scenario - War between USA and Russia

Ok if petrol prices are insanely inflated my job goes out the window.... so growing food on my 3/4 acre that I can sell is my priority so i can trade with locals for meat and fish... i would stock my gold fish pond (20,000L) very quickly with silver perch and buy some food for them

I general, I'm fairly well prepared in terms of food, water and energy and in such a situation, I would hold off as long as I could before going to such stores.

As I live in a growing region, there's a good chance that the prices wouldn't be as elevated for fresh foods grown here, that is without the difficult and costs of supply, particularly if I went directly to the source on a bike or what have you. Yes it would still be in demand but without the transport system and with elevated prices at the stores, the demand may not be as elevated, particularly if something like Strawberries compared to simplier foods like rice. I would also pay extra assuming I could keep an income stream going for as long as possible to keep the reserves intact mostly because this doesn't currently have an end point in sight. I would imagine that people would probably panic buy a bit which would drive up the prices further.

I'm not particularly concerned about ammunition, though I would probably reduce my own usage to a minimum and only for a few rounds of practice, focusing on people in my friends network getting some practice, even if it's 1 or 2 shots a week and tons of dry firing. Obviously if it could be found, I'd take up the opportunity.

In terms of income streams, I have no requirements for transport for work as I'm internet based, though that also requires a working network and assumption that my clients are gainfully employed still, which might all fall apart. Of course we will have new potential markets and locally for people wracked by fear and exacerbation of anxiety issues and possibly effects in supply of anti-despression medicines etc, to which might indeed give me tons of work as a therapist who doesn't need [nor like] the use of drugs such as myself, though that's not guaranteed. Taking a pay cut isn't a big issue for me, I can live pretty cheap. I might have to enact other plans for income of running 'growing' workshops where I teach people how to grow, how to reuses their grey water, how to compost their own waste for fertilizer [takes a year], plant and sell veggies, or perhaps grow my own seedlings and sell them. Much like Cuba's special time, I imagine that people will be growing veggies more than ever to offset their costs. I would imagine markets springing up where people sell their goods and local growers could off load their food at a higher margin [yet cheaper to the consumer] without harsh transport prices.

In terms of storage and gathering resources, that would depend on what's available. LPG would be my first purchase, there's 3 locations with a short distance and I have enough food to last a very long time for myself and I'd still work on more if that was possible, most likely going early for things such as animal feed in wheat/corn because people might not be thinking that way initially, and probably fertilizer, seed etc for growing if available. Another possible angle could be small bags for seedlings and having thought of it now, I might very well see if I can find some cheap proper ones now to put aside. Any dramas on food cost/availability will get people growing food again.

I would absolutely increase security, taking extra measures that might not be particularly aesthetically pleasing. Depending on the situations and the level of crime, I might be tempted to have something for self protection.

Gray I think you underestimate yourself
IMHO the ability to escalate food production( both hunting and farming) is what a lot of us have
When working fulltime I find it hard to be self sufficient even though I have a wife interested in farm animals and food production
However we have the breeding stock( pigs sheep chickens) and contacts ( surrounding farms) and infrastructure( vegie beds cropping paddocks and water) to ramp up if shtf and I am not working fulltime and extr help arrives
Local communities will trade skill sets and we will do things out of necessity we thought we weren't capable of
Mate you would probably grow things!!!!!!

Gray: if you can pick up and keep some spare panels in a faraday cage, you're all set

If fuel is severely rationed, then food would be too; the supermarkets, dairies, farms etc could possibly even be under a form of temporary nationalisation, or at least strict control of deliveries, until things are back to normal. I'd say many retail businesses would be forced to close down (no stock from overseas, no deliveries within Aus), while a fair proportion of the male under-40 population would have been drafted into the services / info essential jobs -- the potential for world war being every high under the scenario given.
In this case, a fair proportion of people would either be "otherwise engaged" and depending on the government for sustenance, or at home, trying to grow their own food.
This sounds like WW2 in the UK, however, I'm wondering how likely it is that modern Australians would accept the situtaion and pull together for the greater good?

Ok, so in this scenario I still have clean running water, toilets that flush and electricity? Happy days!!!

I walk 15 minutes to work every day, my wife is a stay at home mom and we donated our car to charity last year, so gas isn't much of an issue for us.

Even if the economy were to really tank in this scenario, I estimate that I would have 6-12 months before I would lose my job during which time we will simplify our lives and significantly reduce our expenses to build up our savings. We could live comfortably on 1/3 of my income, so even if the price of food skyrocketed we should be ok for a while. I suspect that a lot of people would lose their jobs before me and even then I could probably stretch another 6-12 months by offering to take a significant paycut once or even twice.

In the early days of the scenario I would have my wife till, fertilise and plant the entire backyard with potatoes, corn and pumpkins (sod potatoes and corn won't produce huge yields in the first growing season, but it should help to prepare the ground for a more productive crop the following season). We'll continue to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and radishes in the flower beds, herbs in the herb garden and plant additional veggies like lettuce, carrots, etc. where space permits.

At the first sign of trouble I'll try to add another 6-12 months of food to my stockpile. If electricity doesn't seem to be an issue I would look to pick up a used chest freezer and stock it with ground beef, chicken, etc. With 18-24 months of stockpiled food and the income to purchase even a limited quantity of food I'm guessing we'd be ok for several years.

Once the housing market crashes (and it will come tumbling down in this scenario) I will put the screws to my landlord and should be able to reduce my rent significantly while I've got them over a barrel. To further cut costs I would pull my daughter out of kindergarten, cancel FOXTEL, cancel broadband internet (my work provides we with an iPhone with plenty of gigabytes for use as a hotspot/dongle at home), cut out date night, restaurants, my wife's coffees (I've got several years worth downstairs), my Diet Cokes, babysitting, overseas travel and even if food prices skyrocket I'm sure we could feed the three of us and two dogs for well under the $300-400/week we currently spend (not including coffees and dining out).

We would live a fairly austere lifestyle, spend more time outside and read even more books. In reality, we'd probably be ok until we lose water, toilets and electricity, but even then we should be able to make do for 1-2 years without much issue.

Plugging this thread to see what some of the new members might have to say.

I hope so. Better than the other way around though eh?

I'd be concerned about cyber attacks before EMP, unless ISIS or similar gets hold of a nuke. Even still, I think they'd go after somewhere other than Perth first (unless that's the extent of its range).