The Prepper Broadcasting Network - TT: Beans, Bullets, and Barter on Reality Check

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Michael Kline returns from the archives on this Thrifty Thursday to discuss bartering!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/prepper-broadcasting-network--3295097/support.BECOME A SUPPORTER FOR AD FREE PODCASTS, EARLY ACCESS & TONS OF MEMBERS ONLY CONTENT!Get Prepared with Our Incredible Sponsors! Survival Bags, kits, gear www.limatangosurvival.comThe Prepper's Medical Handbook Build Your Medical Cache – Welcome PBN FamilyThe All In One Disaster Relief Device! www.hydronamis.comJoin the Prepper Broadcasting Network for expert insights on #Survival, #Prepping, #SelfReliance, #OffGridLiving, #Homesteading, #Homestead building, #SelfSufficiency, #Permaculture, #OffGrid solutions, and #SHTF preparedness. With diverse hosts and shows, get practical tips to thrive independently – subscribe now!

Self-reliance is an independentist. The Pepper Broadcasting Network. We have to hit the reset button and create a true culture of preparedness, starting at a very young age and filtering all the way up. Welcome back, everyone, to another fabulously famous, fine, and funky episode of Reality Check here on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. Self-Reliance and Independence delivered to you 24 hours a day. My name is Michael Klein, and I am your host. Broadcasting from Reality Check Studios in an undisclosed location in Famously. hot South Carolina. We have our satellite in Singapore up and running, and we are ready to rock.

I would like to welcome all of our regular listeners, as well as our new listeners to the podcast, both here and abroad. We thank you all for tuning in and checking out our sponsors. First off, big shout out to Win P. He contacted me after listening to the podcast and reminded me of something I had not thought of, but is absolutely true. He writes, Hey man, was just listening to the water and gas episode. One thing you missed on the gas stuff is thermocouplers. Once the pilot light goes out and the thermal coupler's cool, no more gas can come out. There may be some old stuff out there that doesn't, but not too likely. And he is absolutely right. Now, for some of you out there that don't know what a thermal couple is, let me explain. On most gas

appliances that use a pilot light, there is a device called a thermal couple. It's basically a temperature sensor. According to Wikipedia, thermocouples are widely used in the science and gas industry. Appliances include a temperature measurement for kilms, gas turbines, diesel engines, other processes. Thermal couples are used in homes and offices as temperature sensors in thermostats and as flame sensors in safety devices for gas-powered appliances, which is what we're talking about here. Many gas-fed heating appliances such as ovens and water heaters make use of a pilot flame to ignite the main burner when required. You know, you have your pilot light. you turn your thing the gas comes on the pilot light lights the gas and everything goes if the pilot light goes out such as in a you know when the gas company turns off the gas

unburn gas may be released when they turn it back on if you remember from that episode i say that you know their procedure is to go out to all the homes turn off all the gas fix the problem turn on the gas relight pilot lights so if unburned gas is being released that's bad mojo To prevent this in modern appliances, they use a thermal couple, which is a fail-safe circuit to sense when the pilot light is burning or not. The tip of the thermal couple is placed in the pilot flame, generating a voltage which operates the supply valve to feed gas to the pilot light. So as long as the pilot flame remains lit, the thermal couple remains hot, and the gas valve

is held open. If the pilot light goes out, thermal couple comes out, thermal couple comes. cools, voltage across thermocopal drops, main valve closes, no mad pixies are released. Some systems also use a thermopile, but that's basically the same thing. So what Wynn was saying is that one of the things you need to think about is when the gas goes out, the pilot light goes out, the thermal cup is going to shut, and that can be a good fail-safe device for when the gas comes back on, because once the gas comes back on, newer appliances will have a fail-safe in them, but older appliances probably won't.

and so that's what you have to be careful of. So thanks again to Wend for pointing out another problem you need to think about when the gas supplies interrupted. And like I say at the end of my broadcast, if I misspeak or forget to mention something, give me a shout, and I'll add it to my next show, just like I did right here. All right, moving on. In this episode, we are covering a common topic, but with my warped sense of reality. This is a common topic and one that has been covered many, many times through many, many clickbait web, sites. I'm talking about bartering and the best items that you might want to stock up on.

Many people think of gold and silver coins to be used as barter and that's fine because most humans value these items as a solid commodity currency as opposed to a fiat currency. But if you have that, I'm not trading with you. I don't have any gold coins and I have very few pre-19 whatever it is silver coins. Before we begin making people mad and upset, let me give a short history of bartering, just so we know some of the semantics. Bartering in its truest sense is just the neighbors being neighbors, helping each other out. It is morphed into a commodity-for-commodity mercantile-type business. Now, bartering has been around for centuries and way, way before money as we knew it was

invented, like think 6,000 BC. People exchanged good and services for other services and goods in return. In its truest sense, it does not involve money. You know, you all remember from your school's history class about the salt, gold trades, Silk Road, remember that kind of thing? The one people needed salt and the other people had gold and they traded gold for salt. Remember that? Well, everything can be bartered or traded, be it gold, salt, silver, tea, spices, weapons, ammo, wampom, deer, beaver skins, you know, all that kind of good stuff. due to lack of money, bartering became popular again during the Great Depression.

It was used to obtain food and various other services. It was done through groups or between people who acted similar to banks. If any items were sold, the owner would receive a credit and the buyer's account would be debited. Or, like I said earlier, neighbors helping neighbors to survive. Now, as with everything in life, bartering has some disadvantages, namely being the trustworthiness of the customers, you, or both persons' integrity. There are no warranties or protections and you might be traded a defective or bad item. Think reloaded ammo where a person skipped on the powder. You know, he makes a profit by not using as much of a powder charge, but you have defective

or underpowered ammo. However, if you are a dishonest person and trying to swindle people out of their goods, you might make a few trades. You might make a little money. But eventually, someone is to trade your inventory for copper-de-jacketed halapoint lead. This is the other problem with bartering in trade. You never know if the person is going to try to take your inventory by force. It's like a drug deal, but in SHTF. Unless the trade happens in a crowded place where everyone is on the same page, you could end up on the wrong side of the deal,

and that could be deadly for you, especially if that's how the other person operates. You know, there's a lot of people out in the world that they go, they trade, but then they end up killing you in order to get their stuff and your money. So, they go into the trade knowing that they're going to shoot you. You go into the trade wanting to make an honest trade and not get shot. This is also why it might be a good idea to leave guns and ammo off your list to begin with, as you don't want to get shot with the gun or ammo you just sold or traded somebody. Another problem is the idea of worth.

You may place too much value on your items and demand too high of a price. A modern day example is a yard sale. Someone is selling shirts and jeans for $15 a piece. No one is going to pay that price unless they also have a no concept of worth. This is why you see $1 and $5 pieces of junk at yard sales, or $1, $5 pieces on, you know, prices on stuff at yard sales. Or the reverse is true in that you don't ask enough for your stuff. Let's take a case of 22 long rifle.

you know a box of 22 long rifle is worth a whole lot during SHTF and you can kind of almost name your asking price on that. On the positive side, bartering does not need to have an actual currency, fiat, or commodity based. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mr. Cunningham, the father of Walter Scott's Klausmate, is a client of Atticus and pays Atticus for his services in goods rather than money because that's all he can afford. If you remember for the book, Atticus has given him legal service, and he doesn't have money, so he's paying him in pecans or ham and whatever else. If you don't remember that, go read the book to kill a mockingbird. The point is that you can trade commodities for services. You barter your skills. It doesn't have to be a physical item.

You can trade your mental skills for physical items. If you're a doctor, you trade your skills for food or supplies. If you're a carpenter, you build things for people in exchange for food or low. lodging or supplies, etc. If you're a daycare worker right now, you can offer daycare-like services after ShtF. You have the skills to be able to handle and entertain children, and that's a hard thing to do. Think of the price you could ask for it to offer babysitting and child cost services in a disaster or grid-down event. You know, for the most part of it, it doesn't matter what you do now.

You can offer some kind of service or skills after an event. Now, you can learn how to be a blacksmith, a leather smith, a tanner, cobbler, even apothecary, that all the better. The biggest thing you will need to learn in SHTF are practical skills and common sense. In other words, it is better to know how to clean, skin, and tan a deer hide than have been top of your class in gender studies, just saying. Okay, so next when you talk about how to barter. I know this is common sense for most of us, but there might be some of you listening to. that are new to prepping and trying to, you know, new to being prepared, and bartering might be a weird thing for you. Well, I have some steps that might get your thoughts in order.

Step one. Figure out what you want to get and what you have to give out. Take an inventory of your supplies and skills and figure out what you have in surplus. Let's say you go down into your bunker and that you find you have 200 million rounds of 22 long rife and ammo. 47,298 cans of tuna fish, 300,544 gallons of freshwater, but only 10 pounds of rice. Well, you need more rice. Okay, so now we know we need to obtain rice.

We have enough tuna and ammo that we can trade. Or we need rice and we're a blacksmith and we have our own forge. You could trade rice for nails or horseshoes. or you could trade rice for, you know, ammo or tuna, or you could teach somebody your trade or hobby for supplies. I don't know how to fly fish, but I can run a trout line. I could teach someone how to bait and run a trout line while they teach me to tie and cast flies.

See how it works? I happen to know that one of our hosts is pretty deadly, I mean really good with a pair of knitting needles. That person could trade hand-knitted heinie cloths, for services or supplies. All right. Step two is to identify a trading parter and meet at a public place.

Easiest to do is make a list of like-minded friends and neighbors, but if you're coming up blank on the people you know, try one of these more organized ways to find a match. And you want to do this deer and grid up times. Believe it or not, there are bartering clubs, and you can join a local bartering club. If you look on meetup.com

and look and see if there's any clubs or groups near you that bring people together to swap goods and services. Some groups are conducted online, others are in person, many are spread by the word of mouth. So check on like the notice boards of like schools, cafes, community centers, you know, the poster board where people post stuff. This is something you want to do right now in good up times, you know, when the times are good and the grid's up, to go ahead and establish a rapport with people and learn it. You want to take the time to learn who has good stuff and who's going to flake out.

A really good website you can check out is moneycrashers.com slash best bartering swapping websites. Again, moneycrashers.com forward slash best dash bartering dash swapping dash websites. Best bartering swapping websites. This is mainly for online trading, but there are some sites that offer local meetup trades and you could use one of these as a springboard to learn more. The other one is join a time bank. Now, this was kind of new to me, but it works like this.

You register for free at your local Time Banks website and the list of services you have to offer. You work hour for hours, and for each hour you work, you provide to another member, or excuse me. For each hour of work you provide to another member, you earn a time dollar, redeemable for any service someone else has listed. Their website is Timebanks.org, and it's a good one. way to learn about people in your area. It's not a way to trade physical goods per se, but is a good way to trade skills, talent, and services. For those living in western North Carolina slash North Georgia, there are actually several time banks in that area. Anyway, so time bank, you know, it's kind of like if I know cybersecurity and somebody else doesn't, I can teach them cybersecurity.

In exchange for teaching them how to do cybersecurity, I'm earning. time dollars. I can then exchange those time dollars for learning how to flyfish or learning how to blacksmith, that kind of thing. So I exchange my skills of cybersecurity to one person. They give me a commodity in the form of time dollars. I then exchange my time dollars for a skill doing something else. So anyway, time bank. Number three is to just pop the question. Just plainly ask, hey, I'm looking for item X. Do you or anyone you know have it? Or if you notice someone needs something, just ask them, hey, I notice you don't have any of XYZ, or is that your thing over there that needs fixing? I can do that. What about a trade? You know, if you see someone that's got a problem or if you

see someone that needs something fixed, just walk up to them and go, hey, look, just trying to be neighborly. I noticed you had XYZ that needs to be done. I can help you. And then you work out a deal. you know, once you have a rough idea of the personality you're dealing with, you just come out and say it, hey, I'm low on rice. Do you have any I can trade for? But the point is, is you get, you establish this kind of stuff right now. You start learning people that you can trade and barter with. And then once, you know, it hits the fan or once the balloon goes up, then you can go, by the way, I'm getting kind of low on rice. You know, can we trade some stuff? And then you've already got a rapport with that person. Number four, step four is hammer out the details. Whether you're a real one, whether you're

bartering one-on-one through a group or whatever, set the terms of the deal up front. And what that is, is assess the dollar slash trade value of your goods and services. If you're trading something tangible like ammo or food, research the value or the perceived value of it. Toilip paper is not going to be a good trade starting out, but after a few weeks or months, it's going to be worth a whole lot more. You know, you think about that. You could trade right after the grid goes down, you might could trade toilet paper for 25 cents a roll. But after about three weeks, you can probably trade it for like $5 or $10 a roll. So just saying, you know, just learn, also learn that, you know, the value of things are going to change depending on the need.

You know, it's the whole, it's basic economics, man, supply and demand. There's a lot of people that need to go back and learn how basic economics work. But anyway. So try, if possible, to swap dollar for dollar. if you can, you know, dollar value for dollar value. As an example, you could exchange a birthday cake. Let's say you have a $60 birthday cake and, you know, haircuts, $3.20 haircuts.

You could exchange a $60 birthday cake for $3.20 haircuts or eight hours of piano lessons for eight hours of math tutoring. You know, same thing if the grid goes down, but with the added perceived value, you would not trade a $10 box of ammo for a $2 bag of rice. unless you were starving. You know, you would trade a $10 box of ammo for a $10 bag of rice kind of thing. All right.

Next is set the time frame. Decide how long you and your bartering partner will need to fulfill your part of the deal and then set a deadline. If it's ongoing to take you, excuse me, if it's going to take you one month to build a pie safe or one week to forge a new set of horseshoes, make sure you both understand this. And afterwards, make sure you. you're both still happy with the trade. You don't want to burn the bridge. Number three,

your next is put it in writing if possible. Now, barring that you take a blood oath with a marker with your thumbprint on it, you're going to want to have a written contract or receipt if possible. This is especially true if you don't know the person that well. Now, if you're at a flea market and you've got a handful of coins and you trade those coins for a new pair of shoes and there's probably not going to be anything in writing just a handshake and trust. And this goes back to an earlier point. People who are set up at flea markets that make a bunch of bad trades are probably going to wind up with lead poisoning, but that's an extreme case. So, you know, put it in writing, but you want to be honest with it. Anywho. If you're trading for goods, if you're trading services

for goods, then write a note saying something like, this is what I will do and you will do this in this period of time. All right. Anyway, okay, time to shift gears a little bit. When a good majority of people prepare for SHTF, they think of stocking up on precious metals like gold and silver coins. Well, I'm not buying gold and silver or any other kind of precious metals. And here's a newsflash. I'm probably not going to trade with you. If you are trying to trade with me using coins, that instantly tells me about your personality, what kind of prepper you are and what your expectations are. Again, I'm not against trading metals, but it's not a priority for me. I would buy gold and silver, but as a fiat currency storage where I'm waiting for the price of gold drops to like $500 an ounce,

and then I would wait and sell it once it goes up to like $1,200 an ounce. This is the only reason I would buy precious metals just to make more money in normal times so that I can buy more toilet paper. For me, I have two sets of people that I would plan on bartering with, newbies slash non-preppers, and then seasoned preppers. For the newbies, I would have items like 22 long rifle ammo, cans of beans, cans of corn, bags of rice, diapers, batteries, basic first aid supplies, and I would have like cheap gauze and alcohol wipes. I'd have water purification like iodine tablets, life straws, sawyer filters, etc. You know, with the life straws, you can buy these things for about $20, and then in an emergency, you can trade them for a whole lot more. Anyway, the idea is to have some things that someone who is new to prepping or someone that did not prepare would want.

So the way you need to think is like, you have nothing and your family is starving. If you had not prepared, what are your basic necessities for daily needs? You know, your food, your water, security, a sense of comfort. These are the things you can stockpile to be able to trade for those that are not prepared. So you have people that are not prepared or that, are just new to prepping and they don't really know how everything works yet, then you can have some items to trade with them. And don't be surprised if you were offered fiat currency for your items, meaning dollar bills.

Non-preparedness-minded people are still going to have the idea that fiat currency is worth something, and it might be for a few weeks. If the disaster or event is localized or regionalized, then you could trade with paper fiat money because the problems are going to get better, the money's going to retain its value, yada, yada, yada. However, if the event is nationwide or really, really bad and supplies are limited, then people will quickly drop a paper fiat currency in favor of tangible commodities as they realize the true value of paper money. This applies to any country's money, not just the U.S. I mean, think of 1920s Germany. If you are new and have no clue what I'm talking about as far as paper money

being worthless, if you're new to prepping, and have no clue what I'm talking about as far as like paper money being worthless, then you need to go study some stuff. Go on the internet and look up the Weimar Republic, W-E-I-M-E-R-Wimer Republic, or Weimermer, I guess you'd have to pronounce it, the Weimar Republic. Look up the Weimar Republic, German currency, and the hyperinflation of the 1920s. So, you know, go check that out. Anyway, that's what I would think about for the the non-preppers out there is the items that, as I mentioned, you know, cans of corn, cans of beans,

a little small, cheap first aid kits, things that someone who's never prepared, you can give to them, and they're like, oh, man, this is awesome, you've saved my life, and then, of course, they're going to have to give you something in exchange. The other group that I would prepare for is the seasoned preppers, those of us with enough ammo, toilet paper, food, and water that they don't need anything.

For these people, I would stock up on other items like alcohol, tobacco, coffee, monthly items for the ladies. And I'm not talking about tampons and menstrual pads. I would have things like mydol, heating pads, goodies, BC headache powder, migraine medicine, you know, that kind of thing. Everybody says, you know, oh, the feminine hygiene products, and everybody instantly thinks of, oh, you just stock up on pads. Well, pads are one part of it. But I can guarantee you, if you've got mydol and those little hand warmers, You know, you take them out of the package, you expose them to auction and they get warm. Those things are a godsend to a woman in a grid-down scenario.

But anyway, quick work on tobacco and alcohol, though. And this is kind of interesting. This is a little aside here story. So I write these shows and then produce them, you know, write them and then record them. And it's probably like a three to four week time lapse. And so when I wrote this show, the vaping ban in e-cigarette stuff hadn't made the news. It was like three weeks after I finished writing the show that all the vaping ban hit the news. And then it was like, huh, that's kind of interesting.

You remember last year, it was the, or when I was used to do the shows before my break, that I would do a show and then, you know, a week or two later, it'd be in the news. That's finally, that's why I did Winning the Lottery for one of the shows. Actually, some people contacted me on that winning the lottery show that had listened to my show and then went out and bought a ticket and won some money. It is actually kind of cool. I was like, wow. All right, so, quick word on alcohol and tobacco.

For tobacco, I don't smoke, so I cannot attest to this. But I know that cigars have to be cared for, and cigarettes have a finite shelf life. I have read that cigars kept in a plastic, in a humidore, still will smoke well even after four years. So if you have a cigar and you keep it in the plastic that it comes with, and it's kept in a humidor at temperature, at humidity, four years, and it's still okay. I don't know if that's for everything, but it's probably like wine.

Red wines, you know, there are some red wines that store well. There are a lot of red wines that do not store well. Just because it's a red wine does not mean you can store it. I have read that cigarettes will generally last one to two years, but the pack is not airtight. So oxygen is your enemy here. if I did smoke, then I would buy an extra carton here and there and vacuum seal them with my food saver. And that may end up being an option if you do smoke cigarettes. It's to buy, you know, when you buy a carton, buy two if you can and vacuum seal one of them.

Because again, oxygen is your enemy here. So take a food, take a, I guess even an oxygen absorber and toss it in with the food saver thing. Anyway. The next and best option for both of those is pipe tobacco. Now, I have read during my research that sealed tins of pipe tobacco have a nearly infinite shelf life. The unflavored varieties make decent cigarettes, as I'm told. I have seen claims that pipe tobacco can last anywhere from two to ten years. But the big thing is to store pipe tobacco in an airtight container.

Everything I read says to store it in Mason jars, stored in some kind of glass jars, because you don't want the metal to flavor the tobacco. The plastic can flavor the tobacco. If you store it in a glass jar, airtight glass jar, pipe tobacco can last a very, very long time. Some people say the tens, but again, I think the metal would give it an all flavor. I've even read that pouch tobacco. Now, so you can buy pipe tobacco in bulk, or you can buy it in pouches.

I read that the pouch tobacco is treated with propylene glycol, and that's abbreviated as PG. This is to increase its shelf life in stores. But if you've got pipe tobacco or next time you're in a tobacco shop or somewhere, pick up a pouch of pipe tobacco and look and see if propylene glycol or PG is one of the ingredients. As an FYI, and this is where the FDA ban, the ban on e-cigarettes came in, I thought was kind of interesting. Propylene glycol is recognized as safe by the FDA. You can take that for what it's worth.

It is used as an antifreeze. Now, there's a difference here. There's ephylene glycol. That's the green stuff you put in your vehicle. Then there's propylene glycol. That is a food safe antifreeze. It's an antifreeze used in situations where a coolant link might come into contact with food. It is also used in fog machines and e-cigarettes.

When you see someone vape and they exhale and it looks like a fog machine, that's because it is. And that was kind of interesting doing the research for the show and then seeing the ban on e-cigarettes and people are getting sick, you know, from vaping and whatnot. And now the jury is out on if it's just the THC ones that people were getting sick off, because I know a lot of people that vape and have been vaping for years and have no problems. So I don't know. Maybe it's just, maybe it's another distraction in the news. You'll notice it's not in the news anymore either.

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting that propylene glycol, is used as a medium for the nicotine and whatnot in e-cigarettes, and that's also the same thing that's in fog machines. Anywho, propylene glycol is used in pouch tobacco, pipe tobacco, to absorb water. So actually water vapor. If I was going to store tobacco for bartering purposes, what I would use is I would use quart or pint-sized jars. I would get fresh, bulk, pipe tobacco from a real tobacco list,

I would use mason jars and I would use the mason jar attachment on my food saver to put a vacuum on the jars. So I get a glass jar, I go to an honest to goodness tobaccoist, not just a convenience store. I would buy, yeah, I don't know how many pounds of tobacco. I would use probably quart or pint-sized jars so that's, you know, smaller amount. And then I would use my food saver to suck all the air out of said mason jar and then screw the lid down. I have read articles about tobacco lasting 40 to 50 years in, you know, in one case. But as I said earlier, I don't smoke, so I'm definitely not an expert here, and I've only been going on what I've read. You know what?

Let's take a break right here for just a second. Let's pay some bills, listen to some of our fine sponsors. I've got to get a refill of my water, and we will be right back. Medical readiness is an area that preppers often overlook. It's James Walton host of the I.M. Liberty Show. If you're looking for a trauma kit or to build one of your own, visit Archangel Dynamics.com. They have a large selection of pre-made medical kits,

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Scroll down and you'll see an introductory video to PEG Solar right there. Okay? And don't forget to leave a comment. Let Joe and his team know that you heard about them here on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. Hey y'all, Jordan here. You're a host of a family affair. Catch us every Saturday evening at 9 p.m. Eastern as we discuss prepping on every level. And remember, everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody got low play. Well, welcome back, everybody. Thank you for listening. All right, leaving off, picking up where we left off. One thing that I do know about is alcohol. And it is something that I plan on bartering with. I have several bottles of cheap, vodka, whiskey, and tequila.

For my own personal use, personal stash, for my own personal use, I have bought several 1.75 liter bottles of Everclear. Here's the reason why. You're like, oh my goodness, Mike, you know, to Everclear, that's, that's high-octained stuff. Yes, it is. I buy 1.75 liter bottles of Everclear when I can, because. I can use this as a fuel, I can use this as an antiseptic, I can use it as a sterilizer, and for the obvious mental support that it provides. One word to note, though, an open bottle of booze is going to oxidize just like wine.

Believe it or not, an open bottle of hooch will eventually go bad. You know, I've got a 20-year-old bottle of whiskey. Well, that's great as long as you have not opened the bottle and exposed it to air. even you know whiskey vodka whatever it is if you open the bottle and it's exposed to air it will eventually go bad it takes a very very long time but it will go bad but you know i don't have that problem because usually that kind of stuff doesn't last wrong around me FYI about vodka really does not last more than a year once opened you know so you can open uh whiskies and stuff and they're they're okay for you know a couple of years but vodka uh i've read that vodka

doesn't last really, really well once past a year, if you open it. As an FYI to what I plan on keeping, for whiskeys, this is to barter with, this is not me drinking. For bartering, for whiskeys, I would store Evan Williams, early times, Canadian club, Old Crow, Royal Emblem, you know, those kind of things. Those are good whiskeys. I would drink those. I do drink those, but I'm going to store them to trade because, again, someone that's a

seasoned prepper is going to go, oh man, a bottle of Evan Williams. I mean, there are people I know that that's all they drink is Evan Williams or early times. And, you know, that's cool. For vodkas, I would look at sobieski, pinnacle, skull, svedga, pop-off. Pop-off's actually a good one. Smearnoff blue labels and tachah. Again, those are, you know, some people would say those are cheap vodkas, but actually some of those vodkas are actually really, really good. When I say vodka is really, really good, that means it does not have a smell and it does not have a taste. A vodka, excuse me, A vodka is a neutral spirit, meaning it should not have a taste. It should not have a harsh smell.

It should just be straight, nothing alcohol there. That's the sign of a good vodka. If it smells like acetone, if it smells like paint thinner, if it tastes like paint thinner, then that's a bad vodka. You don't want to drink it. If you want to barter it off to someone that doesn't know any better, then that's you, man. But anyway, I did look up, and so be aske. Pinnacle, Skol, Svedka, Popoff, and Smyranoff, and Takai, T-A-A-A-A-A-K-A-K-A-K-A-K-A, are, you know, decent vodkas to store.

They're cheap vodas, and they actually taste pretty decently. For tequila's, I would include Agava-L-E-A-L-E-S and Cuervo. The Agava-L-E-A-V-A-S, Agava-L-E-S, and then just Quervo. You know, just plain all Jose Quirovo. Everybody loves Cuervo. Everybody knows Quervo. You pull out a bottle of Cuervo, and they're like, hey, man, I'll trade with you. Quervo is good and cheap.

Why so many names? Well, because some people might know these names and they might put off by brand name. You know, you have a party and you pull out a bottle of pop-off. Some people are going to go, oh, my God, that is rock-gut vodka. No, I'm not going to trade with you. But if you pull out a bottle of Svedka or a bottle of Pinnacle, they're like, oh, Pinnacle, I know that one, man. Yeah, sure, let's go with that. So you want to have a couple of different names.

Again, like Evan Williams. I know people that will drink Evan Williams and they will not drink Evan Williams, and they will not drink early times. I know people that will drink old crow, but they won't drink Canadian club. So, you know, you have both. You know, if you know and hate Evan Williams, then you probably won't trade with me. But then if I offer a bottle of old crow, I might get a sell. Same thing with vodka, you know, as I said earlier. If I mentioned Skoll or Takah, you might have flashbacks from college and begin dry heaving. But if I mentioned Sobieski or Svedka, you might trade with me. Now, anyway, continuing on. I would also think that.

think about for this is for the seasoned prepper so we have tobacco we have alcohol i would think about israeli dressings backtrum vitamins duct tape garbage bags deodorant disposable razors gold bond medicated powder baby powder fresh underwear and socks that are still in the package you know those kind of things with the socks and underwear you know you can buy a few packs of them and store them away and they don't even have to be the size that they fit you. I mean, you can buy your size, but, you know, just buy a few packs here and there and store them away. You can use them for yourself or you can use them for trading. And, you know, I mean, can you imagine that?

You've been, you know, it's been three or four weeks or a month after the balloon went up and the grid's gone down and you haven't washed closed and you're looking for some things and you have a pack of socks, clean, fresh socks or clean, fresh underwear that you can trade somebody. man, that's going to be like a TP. You've got gold in your hand. You know, white gold. Anyway. Next thing. Now, some of you may think wrong of me for this, but I would stock up on drugs.

Hydrocodone, oxycodone, oxycodone, oxycotton, Darboset, percocet, Vicodin. If you have those drugs, don't chuck them if you don't have kids around. And if you've got kids around, then you either lock them up or you turn them into the police, department because you don't want your kids getting a hold of that stuff but something to think about is

that you know you could stock up on these these are very bad drugs and when they're abused they are absolutely contributing to america's opium epidemic but they are invaluable if they are used properly and in the proper situation you also may think about ore gel or anbosol for tooth problems and other things for pain you know they don't have to be used just for tooth problems you can you can numb up other with orgyl and ambassol. Okay, okay, I know. Too long didn't read, TLDR. Here's our summary.

When thinking about what to stock up for, think about the two groups. The newbies, they have their needs. You know, water, food, light, that kind of thing. For the seasoned preppers, think more about creature comforts. These people have all their necessities met. And think more about what they might want.

What can you barter with a seasoned prepper that would make their life more comfortable. You know, Maslow's hierarchy in each kind of thing. Hang in there, people. I know. We're almost at the end. And you know what? I'll tell you what.

As a reward for listening to me drone-owned about all the stuff you already know, here's the prize. If you've been listening to me, if you're listening to the sound of my voice right now, if you will email me or contact me on Facebook, I will send you two PDFs that I found while doing research for the show. This is a reward. for listening to me.

One is a barter card game for kids. There are cards that you can cut out of paper, and it's designed for like four to eight players. The other is called bartering through the seasons, and it's an activity for students, ages K through 5, to teach them the differences between wants and needs. So anybody that's listening to my show,

if you'd like a copy, just email me or message me on Facebook. I'll get them to you. I'll give that out at the end of the show. So that's my reward for listening to me thus far. home stretch people i promise the last part of the show if you're completely lost and have no idea where to start if you're a brand new to prepping you're a beginner and you like i need to do the the bartering thing but i have no idea what to do well i have a list now this list is not mine i got this from backdoor survival dot com backdoor survival dot com i'm going to just read through these really kind

of quick if you miss one just replay this part because you know you've downloaded the podcast just hit the rewind button i'm not not saying you have to have all of these things to barter with, but these items are going to be more focused on the seasoned preppers that I was talking about earlier, and probably some of the newbie stuff anyway, but here we go. So first off, we have water for water purification supplies. This can include water purification tablets and filters. Hand tools, including hatchet, saws, machetes, and general fix it tools, fire making supplies, including lighters, matches, flints, and fire steel. It could also be steel wool. Sanity.

supplies including toilet paper, Phenomen products, and diapers, disposable razors and razor blades, fuel, and that's any kind of fuel that can be gas, diesel, propane, caracine, lamp oil. Prescription drugs, painkillers, and antibiotics. First aid

remedies such as cough syrup, cortisone cream, boil ease, calamine lotion, and topical pain relievers. Spirits such as bourbon, rum, gin, and vodka. Coffee and tea, you know, instant coffee is okay. Solar stuff, solar battery chargers, rechargeable batteries, standard alkaline batteries,

reading glasses of different prescriptions, paracord, bags, and that can be garbage bags as well as zip-clothes bags, plastic sheeting like visqueen or drop cloths. Duck tape, tie wraps, heavy-duty plastic sheets or tarps, toiletries, and that's like toothplace, dental floss, shampoo, soap, you know, hotel soaps and shampoos are nice. Those would be excellent to barter with. Condoms are some kind of other prophylactic kind of thing, maybe not morning after pills and whatnot because you don't want to rely on that, but some kind of contraceptive type thing. Latex or nitrile gloves and variety of sizes. Fishing supplies, knives, including fixed blades, kitchen knives, box cutters, condiments and spices, pepper, salt, that kind of thing.

Paperback books on a variety of subjects. You know, you get the book of files, you get people that are really, really, you know, into books and the introverts kind of thing. You give them a new book. That may be what they want. As I said earlier, tobacco, cigarettes, rolling supplies. Pepper spray, you know, OC spray. Garden seeds, different kind of seeds for the garden, flashlights, vinegar, baking soda, DIY. cleaning supplies empty spray bottles squirt bottles hand pumps for both air and liquid milar blankets

tents ham warmers remember i mentioned the ham warmers for the women earlier sewing kits mending kits threads needles knitting crochet needles yarn those are some of the items of the seasoned preppers now here's another list the next up of the list is called the poor man's barter items so if your resources are limited here are a few poor man's barter items to stay with any of budget or poor woman, you know, don't want to discriminate. So candles, fly swatters, insect spray, rat and mouse poison, rodent traps, scissors, needles, straight pins, safety pins, buttons, thread, elastic material, dry beans, like black-eyed peas, pinto beans, rice, noodles, like ramen noodles or just, you know, spaghetti kind of thing,

flour spices such as cinnamon cloves allspice sage parsley coffee cooking oil coffee filters pepper sugar salt hand crank or manual can openers now there's one right there get you a supply of can openers because invariably one you know two is one one is none someone's going to break a can opener and they're not going to have another one so you know get you a supply of manual can openers and barter those, man. Canned food of any type, wouldn't strike anywhere matches, old newspapers, wax for fire starting, large cotton balls that have been soaked with petroleum jelly, bleach. You can either use the liquid bleach or better yet, the pool shock now. I don't know if you know this, but bleach like chlorox that you buy in a gallon liquid, that will go bad. Bleach does

have an expiration. The better thing is probably to get powdered pool shock. I think it's calcium chloride or calcium hypochlorate. But anyway, it's pool shock in a powder, and then you just mix that with water and you can make bleach. Baby wipes. Now, this is a big one because these can be used to clean your face, clean your hands, your armpits, your groin. You know, just everything good to freshen up in case there's no water. If they dry out, just put them in a cup of water and they'll kind of resoak and rehydrate. But anyway, baby wipes.

Coco for making hot cocoa, bacon soda, coloring books, and crayons. scrap paper pencils ballpoint pens copy paper lined notebook paper that's for you know like college rule notebook paper tooth brace toothbrushes dental floss combs hard candy you know rock candy hairbrushes disposable razors nail clippers and files feminine products again bars of soap toilet paper hair pens cigarette lighters tobacco seeds now that's one that i actually happen to have are tobacco seeds i actually got some Cherokee ceremonial tobacco seeds one time and grew the plant. And it actually turned out really good. It's nicotina rustica is the variety I have.

And I just tried it one time to see if it would grow. And it grew a little bit. It made a few leaves, but the leaves were like three inches long. So it was a fun experiment, but that was it. Aluminum foil, plastic sheeting again. Socks and underwear, all sizes and colors, like I said earlier. Shoelaces. Again, reading glasses, garbage bags, brooms, dust pans.

clothes pins, clothes line for drying clothes outside, garbage cans, dryer, lint, rope of any kind, honey, popcorn, Kool-Aid. That's a good one. You know, if everybody's just saying the heck with it, we just, you know, we're done with it. You know, Kool-Aid is a very popular item for when you were just completely done with society. I'm joking, don't take me serious on that. Kool-Aid's good for a lot of different things. You can keep kids happy. You can flavor water because, believe it or not, you're going to get tired of drinking plain water.

so Kool-Aid is a good thing for drinking water. Ibuprofen, Tylenol, aspirin, aspirin, essential oils, cough syrup, eyedrops, band-aids, laxatives, lip-bomb, chapstick, nails, nuts, bolt screws, heirloom garden seeds again. Herb seeds or herb plants. Hand garden tools.

Two-cycle engine oil is a good one to keep on hand. You know, two-cycle engine parts. Automotive oil filters, paperback books again for our introverts. Fells Napa bar soap. Now, if y'all don't know what that is, Fels naphtha is washing soap, like washing clothes. You could also have washing and laundry soda, borax, oxyclean,

your own homemade laundry detergent that you could use to trade. Garden compost, garden fertilizer, I don't know how you would trade that, plastic tubs and finally petroleum jelly. That is a list, not, again, not my list, but that is a list of some items that you probably want to have on hand to barter or just have on hand to use for yourself.

I mean, those are really good items to stock up on. But anyway, well, that's all I have, folks, as I always say, if anyone has any questions or wants to correct me on something, shoot me an email, hit me up on Facebook. You can search for Reality Check Studios and join my group if you are so inclined. The group number is 864-938-58-38-38-1103. So if you just go to Reality Check and you search for reality, or if you go to Facebook and search for Reality Check Studios, you will know that you will have the correct group. Because in the address bar, it'll have 864-938-58-58-8-8-9-1-103. I think I got that right.

864-938-58-88-88-8-891-103. Jeez, that'll let you know you've got the right group. If you're so inclined to type that in, you could do that too. If you have a correction or a suggestion, let me know, and I will talk about it on my next show, as I did at the front of the show. I do welcome constructive criticism. My email address is Michael Klein at Hotmail.com. Remember the E and the A are reversed, so that is M-I-C-H-E-A-L-K-L-K-I-N-E at Hotmail.com, or you can hit me up on Facebook.

Thanks, everyone. Have a great evening. Thank you for listening to the Prepper Broadcasting Network, where we promote self-reliance and independence. Tune in tomorrow for another great show and visit us at Prepper Broadcasting.com.