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In general I remember living through the shortages and inflation during the Nixon & Carter years. However, if the dollar collapses like Argentina(that's where we will be if this spending keeps up or if Obama care is implemented), then you are going to need a wheelbarrow of dollars to buy food stuff.

Also when you have various local governments suggesting that things like salt, sugar, and potatoes should be banned or forbidden in schools and restaurants, don't count on anything. I buy sugar, salt, and coffee every time it goes on sale, and when one bag is empty, I replace it with 2.

I can grow wheat, and potatoes(unless they ban that too), but sugar, salt and coffee not so much. If things really get bad, I can stretch the coffee with chicory which grows wild all over here, and I could even grow beets and make sugar. But salt? I buy lots of salt, I might have to use it for old time preservative methods and it lasts forever.

Don’t bet so much on a literal wheelbarrow full of money. The US has only two printing offices, and they work around the clock, mostly printing $1 bills, and can barely keep enough paper currency in circulation to support 5% of US daily retail.

To make matters worse, it prints proportionately less higher denomination bills, and most $100 bills go overseas. This means they are physically unable to print more money, or higher denomination money, for the simple reason that nobody can make change for it.

Critically, only paper money and coins are legal tender. This means that nobody has to accept any form of electronic currency or paper like checks. If there was a “paper run”, banks would be emptied of their paper within an hour, nationwide, and there is far too little in reserve to matter.

This could result in what could be called a “currency split”, in which paper money and coins are instantly deflated 95% (worth 20 times their face value), and virtual money hyperinflates. Just on this possibility, it would be a very good idea to have some mattress money in a safe place at home.

I started keeping bees as a part of our self-sufficient lifestyle plan. Honey is a great sweetener and has value as a cough & cold remedy and wound dressing.

Greatest part is that the bees do the vast majority of the work, leaving me to do other things.

The bees have even provided a certain security role, as some boys that used to trespass on the backside of a hill behind my home are now reluctant to do so because they are unsure whether or not the bees will attack. :)