tobacco will be PRIME bartering currency if times get bad and people feel more comfortable bartering than using cash. when i was in the army i always packed cigarettes on long ETS's or on overseas deployments even though i dont smoke. after two weeks all the smokers ran out of smokes and i was holding gold! i could trade them for virtually anything, which usually meant some cookies or goodies mom sent.

anyway yeah i know tobacco is evil, bad wrong etc. But this is still a helpful hint.

same will likely be true for hard liquor.

also beer making kits would be a great idea. you can make yourself some beer and then drink some and trade the rest. it would come is VERY handy.