I want commodity money. What is the best way to accumulate and store salt, tobacco, and whatever else we are going to use. Your thoughts please
Yes, you can do, but foodstuffs also perish; so, you’ll eventually have to use it and then buy some more.
Salt perishes? I guess if I left it out in the rain. I was specifically referring to commodity money, which I meant to have characteristics of money, such as durability. I can buy loose tobacco in vacuum sealed pouches, do you think that would be a good idea? A few hundred of those could get me some food and some labor for months in a grey economy.
Maybe in a post-nuclear holocaust economy, but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to own years-old loose tobacco, even if it was vacuum sealed.
Well what about salt?
@Malachi: What’s your goal here? If you want to be prepared to survive a worst-case scenario economic collapse, then you should probably be more targeted in what you hoard. Junk silver is good because not only is it silver (retains its value by weight) but it is also recognizable to average people as money. A few hundred dollars will buy you a big ol’ bag of junk silver… enough to barter your way around in the event of a worst-case economic collapse.
The next things you might consider accumulating are bottled water and cartons of cigarettes, not loose-leaf tobacco. In a worst-case scenario where authorities have an iron grip on the economy (Soviet-style situation), cigarettes are probably the best thing you can have. At $60-$70 a carton, cigarettes have pretty high value density and super-high liquidity, particularly if everything’s going to shit. You might be able to trade a couple cartons of cigarettes for the last bus ride out of town with the authorities rolling in, for example. The trouble is that cigarettes do have a shelf life so you’d need to maintain a rotating inventory (I’m sure you could sell your unwanted cartons on Craigslist or wherever, though be careful, the ATF won’t hesitate to smack you down).
Salt would be a poor choice of commodity as salt is too abundant to have much value density, even in a disaster. If you want to go even further down the survivalist route, look into water purification tablets, garbage bags and non-perishable foodstuffs.
Clayton -
My goal is a crowd-sourced list of fungible, durable, divisible commodities with inherent use-value in a catastrophe economy. You have been quite helpful, thank you.
Malachi,
Have you never checked out this website? Survivalblog is the most read website on survival and preparedness topics. Towards the bottom of this page is a barter and charity list. They also have a search bar for anything else you might have a question about.
Alcohol. No really.
Thank you Heather and Michaelangelo.
Why would tobacco be any better than gold? What if the border guard already has a bunch of tobacco and instead wants some gold jewelry to give to his girlfriend (or boyfriend)?
Yes, to a certain extent because you run then into problem I mentioned above. For the same reasons, you shouldn’t be all in on precious metals.
I think it would a good idea to double or triple what you have in your home. That is, buy extra pillows, blankets, shoes, socks, clothing, umbrellas, hats, gloves, etc. They would come in handy during a shortage.
+1 Michelangelo… I forgot that one. It’s not quite as liquid as cigarettes but hard alcohol has the advantage that it has a ridiculously long shelf life. Same with wine, actually wine gets better with age. A person could stock up on some well-known $10/bottle wine label and, in the event of catastrophe, you could barter them for other necessities.
Clayton -
I’ve been thinking about the very same thing. One commodity that is relatively non-perishable, somewhat weatherproof, easy to store and carry, and will see very high demand in such a post dollar world: Bullets.
You can get huge amounts of say 9mm parabellum from surplus websites.
Diesel fuel also has a longer shelf life that gasoline, and is less volitile.
Somewhat off-topic, but I would also recommends planting potatoes all over the place (maybe geurilla style in parks, abandoned lots, etc.)
Perennial until you pick them, Cold hardy, you can literally live off of them, and since the food part grows underground, you would have to know what potato plants look like in order to find them.
I think in post-apocalyptic world tobacco, alcohol (and other drugs, but especially alcohol) and other fastly usable stuff would be much more valuable than gold or silver. You can’t smoke or eat it or drink it.
actually wine gets better with age
Many people believe this, while the truth is that common wines should be drunk within 3 years. Only special wines hold out maybe8 years. After that, they too deteriorate in quality.
All of your ideas here are pretty nice, guys. Fallout 3 has many of the same things 
Heirloom seeds.
Oil seems like decent, not yet mentioned, idea. In inflationary scenario govt could try price controls which will cause shortages.
Wheylous you’re right about Fallout 3
Start collecting bottle caps 
@boniek: +1… a friend of mine actually purchased a 200-gal. gasoline tank and keeps a reserve on hand. Gasoline would be more valuable than gold in a collapse scenario… make sure no one knows you have it!
Clayton -