SHTF Cash On Hand Should I Change $50 and $100 Bills to 20s?

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by ED GEiN, Oct 23, 2019.


  1. ED GEiN

    ED GEiN Monkey+++

    I 100% Agree This would be for the first 48 hours till cash has no value
     
    Gator 45/70 likes this.
  2. Tempstar

    Tempstar Monkey+++

    Nick, a reporter covering Venezuela talked with a few of us on this subject. Even though it is devalued and prices for everything are inflated, cash is still king. 3 months ago when he was there, a Coke was $10, a pack of non-American cigarettes was $50, and gasoline if you could find it was $10 a liter. No one accepted foreign currency, credit cards, (except the Marriott he was staying in) or any form of payment other than cash. Staple foods like milk and bread were mostly sold by street vendors as the supply chains to the stores were disrupted. One could still get what they needed to live but it would cost ten to one hundred times what it did in 2017. Prostitution and drug dealing are rampant, and larceny is the number one crime. He added that he feared for his life more during his month there than his 11 months as a Marine in Afghanistan.
    Point of this tale is this: I have worked with people who have been in everything from Rhodesia in the '80s, Ecuador, Somalia, Venezuela, the Soviet Union and East Germany before the wall came down. All of them needed massive amounts of cash to trade, and none ever mentioned silver or gold being used for trade. I will speculate that the average person with a street cart wouldn't accept it because of their unfamiliarity with it, and no guidelines as to how much it would be worth compared to the local currency. I personally wouldn't accept a sack of gold coins for a chicken if I knew no one would accept the gold from me for something else. It would take years for a trade system based on precious metals to become established because a new value would need to be determined. Should we have a collapse here in the states, what would the ounce of silver be worth? A chicken? A goat? 2 cows? No one knows or will know until it happens. Until a value becomes widely accepted, it's likely that silver and gold will have less value than cash or even a few eggs. A final point: We all know gold is around $1400 and ounce, yet you won't find a car dealer who would accept 20 ounces for a $28000 car. Silver is worth around $20 an once, but the grocery store won't take it for your purchase. The fantasy that when disaster strikes suddenly gold and silver will become the currency for trade is just that, a fantasy. I'd much rather have cigarettes and liquor to trade than gold or silver to spend.
    Keep building that stash of cash, Ed.
     
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  3. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    Need some cash, at least a few hundred, for the run of mill power outage, etc. Most people now use credit cards, checks, etc, and carry no cash. See people paying for $3 coffee in morning with ATM cards and half of my customers don't have $10 cash to pay for a pair of brushes. Common to see places closed because computer is down, everything fell apart a few years ago when an ice storm took out power here for 10 days, hurricanes and Puerto Rico and collapse of cell phone service have had similar effects. While silver is good for long term, the sheeple are not used to it and for short run or early stages of collapse, paper money would still work. Most people at Walmart, Seven Eleven, etc, do not have either the authority or the brains to do anything but follow company policy and once that collapses, we will all live in a different world and the rules of that lifestyle are open to a lot of debate.

    Problem is not money or silver, etc, problem is that stores, gas stations, etc, are all dependent on just in time delivery situation. Last week while grocery shopping, I went looking for long term supplies, rice, beans, flour, cooking oils, butter, shortening, yeast, sugar, etc. The local supermarket, one of three in an area serving about 20,000 people, had about 200 pounds of white and brown rice, about 150 in bulk and 50 in 1 lb containers. Price varied from about a buck a lb for bulk 20 pounders, all 3 of them, to $5 a lb for fancy stuff, and another 150 lbs or so in boxed rice mixes. For about $1,000 I could have bought all their bulk rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc, and for another $1,000, I could of bought their bulk oils, butter, shortening, etc. Picked up a 3 month supply of heart medicine, common prescription, got 5 pills, rest came in 2 days later, not enough stock in Walmart Pharmacy to fill the order. Having the forethought and cash to buy that last 100 lbs of rice and potatoes at the store might be close to hoarding, but basically the first one to have the money is going to walk off with the food and the rest can fight over the chips and sodas.
     
  4. T. Riley

    T. Riley Monkey+++

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    Paper money when the promises are gone. It will not come back.
     
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  5. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Best bet for now is to turn that 650 into 6500. After that, do a site search for pms. (Precious metals.)
     
    Gator 45/70 likes this.
  6. Big Ron

    Big Ron Monkey+++

    Get all ones and have more toilet paper!
     
  7. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    The precious metals I store are steel, copper, brass, aluminum, ect..
    I can use my skills to barter for the things I need.
    I already have a year's worth of food and water, and my garden should take up the slack.
    Welding rod, coal, welding gas, and fuel for my gas engine driven welder and diesel for the generator and propane for things in between.
    I do not need or take pharmaceuticals, most of my injuries are dealt with using colloidal silver. I do however store over the counter remedies for barter and friends that rely on them.
    What do you do when your last bottle of aspirin is gone?
    The cost of going to town after medicines is more than the price of the medicine.
     
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  8. ED GEiN

    ED GEiN Monkey+++

    Some things to say pm both
    I'm looking at it from a standpoint that I have to vacate my home immediately for whatever the Situation is and so whatever I have is on my person. If I am staying shut in my home then I agree with keeping a combination of metals and cash
     
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  9. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow

    YUP

    into 5's and 10's
    will work for a while
    then AU/AG in small bits
    MAJOR BANK IN AG/AU in sizes ,,F-EM back
    Sloth
    Grow your own
     
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  10. oil pan 4

    oil pan 4 Monkey+++

    This is California we are talking about.
    Unfortunately paper fiat is king.

    In Alaska yeah I'm sure silver and gold trade as well as cash because people in Alaska aren't stupid and know what PM is worth.

    Remember people in California think they know how best to care for the environment but they have unchecked wild fires burn thousands of homes ever year.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2019
  11. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    Yep,A new little trick around here is tacking on 4% in addition to lets say 10% tax on items bought with a C.Card.
    I whip out a croak-er (100.00 bill) to avoid the added 4%
    Some are like Whhaatt I don't know if i can make change?
    I'm like you better start since some people like me are not paying basically 14%
    Cash is king ED baby!!!
     
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  12. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    When the dollar fails, and it will, not even what is in the banks will pass for money.
    The only good reason for keeping PMs is to exchange for what ever passes for money in the new system.
    It will be a while till the infrastructure is in place to do so because like there was in the old days, people were fraudulent with gold and silver, mixing it with other metals . it is done to day for that matter.
    How do you prove/know what you have is genuine?
     
    Gator 45/70 likes this.
  13. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    I'm a big fan of 10's and 5's and maybe a few 20's for emergencies.
    Think about needing to get a tank of gas on your way to your BOL during the middle of say a major storm/fire and the internet is down due to cable break or big outage at the ISP. No Internet .. no CC payments. You need 25 bucks worth of gas and the last 3 people at the station ran them out of change. You gonna hand them a 100 and say keep the change?
     
    ED GEiN and Gator 45/70 like this.
  14. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    This depends on the enormity of said SHTF event. In a localized environmental event, $20's would be best IMO. In a state wide or nation wide event, clothing, footwear, canned food, dry beans, ammunition, toilet paper, tobacco and alcohol will get you pretty much anything you want. Some folks will trade in jewels and precious metals but you can't eat, wear, or survive on your own with those items alone.
     
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  15. Andy the Aussie

    Andy the Aussie Monkey+++ Founding Member

    SHTF has man forms, some are as simple as a power outage or ATM/Electronic Banking failure that persists for a week. None are necessarily apocalyptic or TEOTWAWKT. For this reason I too keep cash on hand so as those places that have the small life essentials I need (fuel/milk etc etc) can be paid easily. For all the reasons cited and others I keep the $s in reasonably small denominations so as not to be "that guy" trying to get someone to break a $100 for a $2 purchase. I also keep a few K in $US as foreigners are always happy to accept this at "convenience stores" and the like. Aussie cash (over $5 note) is plastic and stores well without risk of mould or water damage.

    Yes for Zombie Apocalypse cash is useless but being prepared is about all kinds of events.
     
  16. oil pan 4

    oil pan 4 Monkey+++

    Cash is only going good to be useless after everyone realizes we are totally screwed, no one's coming to save you and theirs no bouncing back.
    I doubt any one would have any trouble off loading their cash before everyone else realizes it's useless.
     
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  17. ED GEiN

    ED GEiN Monkey+++

    Unfortunately a totally true statement PS The air quality in LA is horrible
     
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  18. ED GEiN

    ED GEiN Monkey+++

    I've never understood that as far as the general public knowing if the metal is genuine.
     
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  19. hot diggity

    hot diggity Monkey+++ Site Supporter+++

    Variety... lots of variety. Since I anticipate a slow burn collapse I'd say as much as you're comfortable with in cash, silver, rolled coins, bars and rounds. Add barter items like .22 ammo, feminine products, medical supplies, pint and mini liquor bottles, cheap working knives and .22 rifles, zippo lighters, cheap "cigar" cigarettes, toilet paper and tools.

    But while you're defending or dragging all that stuff around you might find yourself regretting not attending that shooting school, planting more guerrilla gardens, adding more caches, spending more time visiting friends, hitting the gym, or investing in learning skills you can trade for stuff.

    Knowledge weighs nothing, is completely concealable, and nobody can take it from you.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2019
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  20. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow

    I use a thickness meter with a micrometer to measure and then a electron spec gauge .

    Sloth
    just bought more PM's with dying FIAT
     
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