Consider a future where you are out of work, your neighbors are out of work, and most of your town or city is out of work. How do you survive? How do you support your family? How do you eat or stay warm in the winter?

We do not live in an age of self sufficiency. We do not make or create all of the things we need to survive. We are specialists.

As a global depression sweeps the land, it will not be easy to un-specialize. But we may have to. We will need to raise part of our own food. We will need to collect wood for fire and warmth. We will need to make modifications to our homes to switch from a heavy energy consumption household to one that can keep us safe and warm without electricity or gas arriving with dependable regularity.

Now, if you raise food, a garden you may find yourself in a position of having extra food to barter with at the end of the growing season. In the early years, you will not be expert at understanding how much food you can truly can, store or keep through the winter. Apples and Potatoes can keep for a long time if stored in a cool relatively dark location free of vermin. Other vegetables will need to be canned.

Canning vegetables does take as much work as growing and harvesting vegetables so prepare yourself for a lot of work. It also takes some skill, so while you still have some credit left on your credit card invest in some books that can help you learn how to can those vegetables that you may need to survive and possibly even barter with.

Alcohol also is a commodity that has a high value in a barter economy. It can be used both for medicinal purposes (cleaning wounds and preventing infection) as well as for the type of consumption we are more familiar with today. Once you distill alcohol or brew beer, it becomes relatively portable. It can also be stored for a significant period of time. While it can be relatively easy to make alcoholic beverages, it is not always as easy to make ‘safe’ alcohol, which is why many people suffered brain damage from alcohol in previous centuries. So again, if you are going to consider making alcohol for a bartering commodity make sure you learn how to do it right, and buy a couple of the many guides available today that explain the how to of distilling alcohol or brewing beer.