Stocking up for Doomsday: As economists predict meltdown, meet the families ready for the worst

Daily Mail ^ | 12/17/11 | Tom Rawstorne

[Kartographer]

Picture the scene: It’s the end of January 2012 and already it is clear the year to come will make that which has just passed seem something of a picnic. The last strains of Auld Lang Syne had barely faded before Greece defaulted on its debts. Over the next few weeks, Italy and Spain will follow. Across Britain and the Continent, bank after bank goes down, a domino effect exacerbated by panicking customers desperately withdrawing their savings. Where three years ago the giants of High Street banking were seen as too big too fail, now they are too big and too many for any Government to save. Panic ensues. Within hours, the cashpoints are empty of money and the supermarket shelves stripped bare.

[TheRightGuy]

Easier to obtain than pre-1965 silver coins.

readily available in bags of $1000 face, currently going for about 21.5x face

[GeronL]

bump

[elcid1970]

“I am thinking packs of Bugle Boy in mason jars and then vaccum packed.”

Good idea! One of the earliest `preppers’ was Pat Frank, author of the atomic novel “Alas Babylon” (BTW it was set in the Florida Panhandle, far away from the target cities of Orlando, Tampa, and Miami). He later wrote a post-nuclear survival manual in which he asserted that,

“The day may come when a pound of tobacco will be worth more than a pound of gold.”

This was written in 1960, IIRC.

[Kartographer]

Don’t let the gold bugs catch you saying that!

[elcid1970]

Heh, heh, I still can’t figure out how one is supposed to pay for bread and milk using Krugerrands.

;^)

[KosmicKitty]

I like the wine bottles.

They need some vodka too. Good for barter & other things

[Travis McGee]

When I met my co-captain back in 1980, I told her I had salt water in my veins, and there was no picket fence in my future, only a life on the water. Now we do have a land-dwelling, but we still have the escape pod (which I built myself).

I'm older now, so most of my thrills are vicarious, and I put them into my novels. My latest is Castigo Cay, which takes place aboard a 60 foot schooner.

[Gator113]

I can completely relate to the “salt water” passion, although I was never driven to build a boat. That is amazing.

Cheers......

[unkus]

Awesome! Best to you and your co-captain.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

readily available in bags of $1000 face, currently going for about 21.5x face

Oh yeah. But who has an extra 21k available? Not I. Only if I cash out my 401k and take the tax and penalty hit. But I ain't there yet.

[Cold Heart]

:)

[Ellendra]

Good tip! and thanks for the reminder, I need to stock up on both hand- and machine-sewing needles.

[Ellendra]

The difference being, I can grow tobacco. I even have the seeds already :)

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Make sure they are tobacco seeds. ;) Don’t go Libertarian on us.

[elcid1970]

Just thought of something, we’ve been talking about a barter trade in tobacco like post-1945 Germany, but if the S really HTF, currency collapse & all that, there’s going to be an explosion of marijuana cultivation like we’ve never seen, complete with narcoterrorism and law & order breakdown like say, the Mexican interior the way it is right now.

Roving bands of looters & narcoguerillas, pretty scary JMHO.

“It can only be worse in Philadelphia.”

[FreedomPoster]

oh, nice! Hadn’t seen that before. Good stuff.

[Red in Blue PA]

They fail Rule #1-#10 of prepping.....OPSEC.

[Professional Engineer]

Acquire the knowledge and ability to make same and you never run out, just saying. :~>

I had a taste of that in Georgia when I was in the Army. We bought some home in Mason jars. :)

With or without the tax stamp?

[GOPJ]

Of course, we hope it never happens, but if there is a major catastrophe, then money is not going to be worth much after a couple of days. It will be food that becomes the most needed thing.’ Dave Hannah and his company B-Prep sell similar products. He says a number of his customers are bankers. Their average spend is £3,000.

Bankers? Why am I NOT surprised.

[unkus]

No tax stamp. LOL