Unique Bartering Ideas for Family Subsistence

Using our talents creatively may help us all survive the predicted food shortages. Because our families are worth providing for, we should focus on valuable necessities, like food and water. Do not worry if you were unable to purchase gold or silver investments when the prices were affordable, they are inedible and therefore worthless for your family's ultimate survival.

Think Food - In All Its Forms

Food will feed your family and other families too. So starting here is the most logically place. Use your talents and learn some new skills now, before your survival depends on it.

Saving, Drying & Categorizing Seeds

You should be saving seeds from everything you eat from hot peppers to oranges, raspberries to tomatoes, and melons to apples. Spread the seeds out to dry, then package and label for future crops, and possible bartering. Seeds may become the next currency in a world that is running out of real food sources.

Home-Baked Breads & Milled Flours

With a few well-chosen small appliances, it is possible to grind your own healthy flour from seeds, beans, wheat, or barley, and make heavenly loaves of homemade bread in an inexpensive breadmaker. For a fool-proof healthy, bread-machine recipe for loaves to barter, sell, or feed your family, see my recipe for "Saving Money Making Nutritious High-Protein Breadmaker Bread and Butter".

Raw, Barbecued & Dehydrated Meats

If barbecuing is your specialty, and you have an abundance of meat from hunting, fishing, or the family cow, turn it into a city-wide barbecue to promote the sale of dehydrated, barbecued, or raw cuts of meat. Have everyone bring their special dishes to a pot-luck style barbecue, and take orders for selling, or swapping your meat. See my article "Could Livestock Bartering Be in Your Future?"

Fresh & Nutritious Garden Produce

Citrus fruits, apples, and bananas are easy to grow from bare-root trees, planted in wintertime, as instructed in "How to Grow an EMERGENCY Garden" (Badgett & Majors, 2010) . Berries and melons grow quickly from seed to harvest, and vegetables such as zucchini, broccoli, and tomatoes are mainstays in many healthy household diets.

Put your green thumb to work, bartering your nutritious produce for neighboring dairy, meats, or grains. Offer to teach others to plant, or help them design, and then plant their fields (or containers) in trade for other items your family may need. This may be the most important place to start, because planting does not require much money, but does take some patience waiting for your family's food to pop-up from the dirt!