Thinking outside the box to get what you need. Barter 101

When there is an item or commodity that you want but either is not available at the store or you can afford it then there is barter or trading.  If and/or when the SHTF regular money will be useless but there will still be the power of barter.  So it would be a good idea to brush up or learn your negotiating skills now.

I have traded many things but I guess the best one I am doing right now.  I have a gentleman who has a bunch of 223 shells that he does not need.  I need them.  I have eggs that I do not need need but he does need them so we are trading.  He brings me a box of 223 brass cased with a FMJ and I give him 5 dozen farm fresh eggs.

I have traded the use of my billy goat for a rick of hickory wood.  My billy goat had already bred my girls and I darn sure needed the hickory to smoke meat.  Worked out great for both of us.

I also traded an extra canner I had for a rick of wood one time a few months ago.

The thing with barter is that you have something of value and the other person has something of value.  Maybe it is not valuable like gold or silver but something that is needed.  Like the hickory wood.  That would not be valuable to many people but to me it was because I needed it to smoke meat.  And sending my billy goat down the road didn't cost me a thing.  So essentially I got the wood for free.  The eggs I have calculated cost me about .37 cents to produce a dozen eggs so in reality I am paying $1.85 for each box of those 223 rounds which are $12.27 a box at Wal-mart.  When I traded the canner I had gotten it in a bunch of stuff.  It was a small 16 qt Presto and I already have huge canners.  I bought the stuff to get an all American canner and a Victorio strainer that was in it.  There was also a bunch of canning jars 2 Presto canners one of which I gave to my daughter and a bunch of funnels, strainers etc.  I paid $100 for the whole mess which the strainer and the all American was worth that.  So the canner I traded had no actual cost and the wood only cost him the gas to cut it.  So he got a canner for pennies that would have cost him $70 at Wal-Mart.  I got a rick of firewood which would have cost me $45 to buy it. 

Sometimes maybe the person has something to trade that you might not need.  Like for example a bottle of whiskey and you do not drink.  So you trade a couple dozen eggs or a pound of butter for said bottle of whiskey then later a couple months later you get hurt and need to be sewed up, you have a neighbor who is a medical provider.  he already has cows so he doesn't need butter and he has chickens so he doesn't need eggs then what?  Well maybe just maybe he would like that bottle of whiskey (it can be used as an antiseptic as well as drinking) that you had no use for but got in a trade and then you get your wound fixed for it.  So also when you are trading try to think if the thing offered in trade may be something you could turn around to use in trade down the road even if you yourself don't need it at the time but it could be then traded for services or items.

I hope this helps get everyone thinking.....