I wrote bits of this in another post, but I think it needs to be common knowledge if things get turbulent.
I popped a couple grand out of the bank the other day and scrapped my old debit card for a new one, to get me out of any subscription that still have the info logged in.
I don't think the money is gonna matter though. If the banks all go down, then the value of the dollar won't mean anything anyway. Cash will be as valuable as your ability to sucker someone into believing it still has value.
Gold and silver, unless you have it in your possession, is also as useless as money in the bank.
Even if you do have gold and silver on hand, don't expect to barter with it. People have no clue what it is actually worth anymore.
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Instead, buy food and stuff that makes stuff. Don't buy more than 2 weeks of food, though. A minor shortage will turn into a major shortage in the panic, which we learned from the Toilet Paper Shortage before the China Virus started up.
When I say "stuff that makes stuff" I mean buy firewood (or better yet, source your own) and hand tools that don't need electricity. If the power goes out, and people need to build stuff, all the electric hand drills in the world won't be worth anything but their weight in copper coils. Instead, buy braces, old wrenches at thrift stores (can be gotten for pennies), nails, screws, bolts, ANYTHING elastic, yarn, cordage(paracord/rope), matches and candles(to melt the ends of paracord), saws, tarps, knives, hatchets; you get the deal.
Barter is the oldest and honest form of commerce -- and one they can't tax or monitor!
Buy some craft books. Put your "manliness" or "girliness" aside and get things like cookbooks, knitting/crochet/sewing books, wood working books, mechanic books, and the like. If the internet goes down, you'll be glad you can still crochet a blanket or pair of socks. It's really not as hard as it seems.
Next, the holy grail of crafts... PVC Piping.
PVC pipe in all sizes is more valuable than gold in an extended blackout. It can be used to make tents, collect water, or heated up and shaped to form armor plates. You can duct tape a kitchen knife to the end to make a spear, or even lash it with some cordage and make a bow. The interlocking cylinder's are the most versatile crafting base for any project to date. Expect a single Tee adapter to be worth a sack of flour on its own.
Don't glue unless you're working with water. You can always tear down what you make and use it for something else. Don't cut pipe unless you have to. Measure twice, cut once. Learn to make wood dowels to connect two small pipes together, in case you screw up.
Once you realize you don't have to buy something-ready made and that everything is only a sum of its parts (that you can scrap and reuse) you really get a rush of independence that only a Creator knows.
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In summary...
Use these things to make things. Then trade the things you make. Make boxes, bags, knives(from old wrenches) and anything else needed for a more "rustic" lifestyle. You and others in your community will be glad you had the foresight.
So many goobers get all these mail-order "bugout bags" and prepper supplies, but they neglect getting the things that actually matter -- tools.
Make yourself so invaluable to your community, with your knowledge and intuition, that you'd be the last person they'd eat. It's a silly conclusion, but absolutely true in its merits.
Edit:
Feel free to add your own advice in the comments. Knots are something else to keep in mind.
Bartering is already in my plan.
I make mead and it's generally pretty tasty and strong. It holds on the shelf for a very very very long time.
So, I'm keeping my "brewery" (have a large closet in the kitchen which holds all of my fermenters and brews) full as well as supplies on hand (again, honey is great because it holds on the shelf for a long time) to keep brewing.
When life gets shitty, alcohol helps.
I'm also debating raising some chickens in my basement. It's not a huge basement but it's not useful for anything.... so building a pen on 1/4 of it gives enough room for I believe 6 hens.
Not only are eggs a super food (especially when you're feeding your chickens right) but they are used in a lot of food, giving them a lot of value. 6 hens could give me up to 3 dozen a week. People are already selling their eggs for $5/dozen. I can get by on 1 dozen a week. The extra eggs could probably get me some decent stuff.
Being able to PRODUCE food is going to be key.
PEOPLE IN THE PRIOR COMMUNIST REVOLUTIONS DIDN'T FORGET HOW TO HUNT AND FISH, THEY WIPED OUT THE GAME AND ENDED UP STARVING.
So, be able to produce food and if you hunt don't fucking over hunt and fuck yourself and everyone else.
Being able to get clean water, also important. Berkey filters are expensive but can pretty much filter piss into pure drinking water (they also have fluoride filters, great for your tap water if they poison it) so you couple that with some cheap buckets to collect rain and you're set there.
Power is nice. My camper is equipped with 120aH in batteries and a 160W mounted panel with an expansion port for an additional panel. I have more than enough electricity with that to cover my basics. Can't run a fridge that's bigger than a cooler, but some extra batteries and panels will make that a possibility.
Think about EVERYTHING you use each day, for meals, for cleaning, for entertainment, EVERYTHING, and find a way to reproduce it or provide some it from scratch. A little money goes a long way, If you cut out fast food, junk food, and soda, you could probably afford a solar panel and battery set-up within a month. Another month, you could have the berkey filter. Another month, enough jars to can 6 months wroth of food.
Trust me, you do not want chickens in a confined space.
Their crap is very toxic if not collected diligently and/or ventilated. You will get eye and sinus infections worse than you have ever had.
Chicken pens need plenty of open air to sweep the fumes and bacteria away.
Every spring our drunkard farmer neighbors sneak out in the middle of the night and spread untreated chicken crap on their fields. The entire neighborhood always gets incredibly sick around that time, solely because the state health officials don't care enough to do something about it despite us calling every year. That, or they are being bribed...
What about quail in a small cage array--some people keep them in apartments don't they?