Hi just wondering how the barter system with PM's would work in a SHTF situation. 1-6 months Cash would still rule. 6-12 months Barter for food/goods 12-24 months Maybe silver/gold used as currency to purchase.
I think most people have come to the conclusion that it wouldn't work very well. There are not many producers around, it is not like I can go to a local farmer and barter with him. Most people will be in the same boat as you, nothing to spare let alone sell to other people If food is available it will be through the usual places such as supermarkets, if they can't get hold of food then you will also struggle. We have local markets, if they can still travel to us with their goods then bartering with silver might be ok but not reliable. However if you are stacking silver for SHTF then you should also be stacking power, food, water and other things that you will need. In this situation you would be in a position to buy other things that desperate people are selling, they might have to sell their car or house or work for you. Then gold and silver will come in handy.
Fantastic insight Jislizard, I have 1 year old kid and I have about 4 jerry cans of fuel that I rotate every 6 months and a couple of MRE boxes enough for 30 days for 3 people and freeze dried enough for 6 months and 50 ltrs of water but (we live by a fresh water lake) we keep old medicine as a just in case & in the process of saving up for a 9mm a ar15 and a shotgun this set up set me back 4k inc weapons. I have a about 2 kilos of coins and saving for bars now & about 10 oz in 22k gold jewellery I also keep $2000 in cash. For barter I keep coffee and sugar and baby formula. Power generation will attract too much attention and would get my house looted. My wife thinks im an 38 year old idiot ! Please do add anything im missing or wasting my time on.
Toothpaste and tampons along with toilet paper are apparently luxury items that people miss and would be willing to barter with, you are already stacking coffee! I don't know how drinkable your lakewater is but some purification tablets might be easier than boiling the water every time you want a drink. They also reckon you should stack what you eat and eat what you stack, so if you already inlude MRE and freeze dried food in your normal diet it won't be such a shock to your digestion if you have to suddenly switch to them full time. We have a lot of rice and pasta stored up but we have that twice a week anyway so we are used to it. I only have a couple of camping stoves with a weeks worth of spare cans but I also have a wood fired oven and plenty of firewood stacked up, of course you can smell a wood fire from a long way off and a plume of smoke is a bit of a giveaway as well. Time to start shopping around for that bugout location / holiday home. My wife also has reservations about me but is warming to the idea of a nice house in a secluded location, slowly slowly.
My advice is having enough of what you and your immediate family will need to survive for at least 6 months. That way you will not be forced to encounter random people, and risk interaction with the crazies until things settle down. By that time the unprepared masses will have starved, or killed each other. Better to endure a period of isolation, and not have to trade with anyone. I have heard many say that ammo would be a valuable trading commodity, but why would anyone want to arm someone who could use it against you? I have also allowed some of my acreage to grow wild, and have a rather large wild rabbit population. Good back up protein source in case my henhouse develops a "wolf" problem.
I ran out of work for quite some time and found it hugely helpful to have food available, removing that stress from the scenario. I've bounced between things only earning enough to cover my basic needs and have since depleted all but my freeze dried food. I even had to sell from my stack to cover certain costs which made me very down, since I'm not only missing buying opportunities but having to sell in a bit of a slump. Anyway, I was glad to have the preparations and I will be back into the market of PMs and basic preps once I stabilise myself financially. The idea that metals will help in a true SHTF seems fairly unlikely to me. The fact that so few people own metals or have ever even seen a silver coin, much less a gold coin, makes me feel they would be both skeptical of its value and would have no way to test its legitimacy. I have metals because I believe they will go to the moon and some basics preps in case of storms or other short-mid term concerns. I'd really like to set myself up on property for many reasons but my Mrs is a Sydney girl and thinks 5 acres is a farm... we're working on that front. Haha.
In a shtf situation: 1-3 months, cash and precious metals are useless. Food and any other useful items will be valuable. After 3 months, people will start coping with resources, cash is useless but precious metals will be traded.
In my opinion PMs will be almost worthless in a shtf situation because most people do not know the value of them now and when a shtf situation occurs most people will not accept them as payment because value would shift, what is valuable in a shtf situation? Food is king, hygiene, clothing, shelter and of course guns, better to prepare a food storage and hideaway shelter than worry about PMs, if a shtf situation looks near, i will be selling all PMs immediately before im stuck with something that will in fact be worthless to me...
