A Wise Prepper’s Guide to Bartering Skills and Supplies

Bartering is a way to exchange goods or services without using money. It has successfully helped communities thrive for thousands of years and may prove highly valuable during a crisis.

Living in a “currency based” economy we may have lost this valuable skill.

How do I prepare to successfully barter in a disaster scenario? To successfully barter during a crisis you must develop a set of basic skills, build physical resources, and develop good working relationships today. The safest and most successful bartering occurs between friends and neighbors.

In this video, we will help you understand the basics of bartering so you can learn to barter for the services and supplies that you may want or need. These are handy skills to use every day, not just when the world falls apart around you.

To learn more details about bartering visit the post that this video is based on:

A Wise Prepper’s Guide to Bartering Skills and Supplies

You may also be interested in these posts:

Skills and Knowledge That Make Preppers Resilient and Self-Reliant

Raising Confident Self-Reliant Kid Preppers: 14 Essential Skills

You can find a wealth of information to help you and your family prepare at:

Thanks for being part of the solution!

[carolynsteele]

Years ago I went through a super hard financial disaster and couldn't afford a lawnmower. Being a very good seamstress, I offered to make plaid Bermuda shorts (which were in style at the time and very expensive) for teenagers to mow and trim my large yard. The shorts became so popular that I'd hear a motor outside and look out the window to see random neighborhood youth out there working for their Bermudas.

[qpatriot]

Great video! Thanks for sharing such wise insight!

[michaelkaer]

i plan on bartering so I can help others. What will be needed is jobs that need doing. People need to work to feel worthy of the food they get.

[GeezerWheels]

Just found your website. We are in our 70s but still very active. We live in a very rural place, have a few neighbors, but we all live in near wilderness, but only 15 miles from town. We don't have the physical strength to haul hay, etc. but we do plan on preparing to be fairly self-sufficient. Great ideas in your vid, thanks loads. (New subscriber.)

[joshuasaunders]

I'm very impressed with this video. And I'm very hard to impress. You thought of some things I didn't. Thank you so much

[GoodThingsEtc]

I finally taught myself to make beeswax candles from an 18th century mold. This will help subsidise my income. I understand that llighting is just as important!

[carolynsteele]

I have a fantastic idea for a neighborhood/ward project to teach bartering skills. Netflix has this fantastic documentary called The Trader about countryside peasants who have no money. Instead they bring potatoes to use as currency when "the trader" visits with his wares. Every item is bartered for a certain amount of kilos of potatoes. I think it would be so fun to encourage everyone to learn to grow as many spuds as they can, and then at harvest time have a huge neighborhood yard/bake sale where everything is traded for potatoes!

[lightning]

You guys are the best prepper so the internet. Thanks!

[kimruff]

When we ran out of canned cat food I decided to try cheap brown gravy mix and only added 1 can of cat food while took them a minute to get used to it But 1 pkg gravy, 1 can cat food Feeds all 3 cats for 6 days!

[tarabooartarmy]

I’m not even comfortable talking to people face-to-face NOW. I don’t know how I’d ever manage to talk to them when it became critical.

[kenredington]

The one thing I never seem mentioned as a barter Item or even something you need to stockpile....Books.
Having a library of books on food prep, medical practices, growing, building, military books on field craft or weapon repairs, farming, livestock, or butchering. You did touch on it but many hooked on the internet or cell phones just do not understand, that resource will be GONE. If you do not have it in print, you will not have access to it.. period. Now think how desirable said information will be in a bad situation either as a library you can barter for access to your books, or have backups to barter off later.

[OhavYisrail]

Instead of bartering cooking supplies, how about bartering a cooked meal? Given how prevalent eating out and convenience meals are in our society, I think a lot of people will trade for that. And it's not really that much more work to do large batch cooking it you already have the equipment in place.

Qotd: when I was in college I traded tutoring/kid sitting services for home cooked meals and use of a washer/dryer. Traded moving assistance for Dr pepper. I once traded some rarer coins for an engine repair I wasn't able to do myself. When I lived in a smaller community that couldn't afford a full time rabbi (while not an intentional barter)I helped out with leading services, preparing young folks for their bar/bas mitzvah, etc and was frequently gifted meals or baked goods or bottles of kosher wine as a result.

[auntgertrude]

my favorite barter story is from my neice/nephew family. they bartered 2 dozen eggs for help with electrical on their well system. the electictician was elated for fresh rich eggs and my greatful for the confirmation things were correct and no mishaps should occur. you just never know!

[russsherwood]

jist found yer channel and subbed, , thank ya fer the video

[gonefishing]

My elderly, widowed mother still lives on a large property in a low income rural community instead of choosing to move to a retirement community (or relocating across country to live with me) and is friendly with the neighbors along her mail route. Over time, she has given neighbors all sorts of men's clothing, power tools, hunting gear and building supplies that my late father had accumulated. Any time she needs a heavy piece of furniture moved or a fence repaired or some other kind of strenuous task done, there are younger neighbors who are glad to help. Those neighbors who are no longer all that physically fit often stop buy to drop off surplus garden produce or game meat or freshly caught fish because that is the neighborly thing to do. This is not so much short-term bartering as it is a longer term investment in forming a network of helpful friends.

[derkadeher]

you don't need to feed your cats if they are hungry. You just need to let them outside, cats are one of the most efficient hunters.

[jackson]

The take home lesson is don't eat unhealthy foods like subway sandwiches and pizza.

[mt]

I just want to say that it is HIGHLY unlikely that fast food restaurants will ever shut down and people will have to cook for themselves and even more unlikely that toilet paper will EVER be in short supply. I mean, seriously, what kind of scenario would that be? *cough* VID-19. Ahh, satire.

[sue]

I always enjoy your videos. I learn so much. I'd like to know where I can purchase the Armageddon Medicine book. I tried Amazon and eBay, but it is unavailable.

[natedampier]

I use a very service for portable communications where you can follow activity in your area. This is a way to find out what is on line to see what is happening in the area and to about 50 miles away. I''m glad you are using this idea now.