@Marcel-R6 An ex-husband would collect knifes and watches. It actually made it easy to buy him gifts.
@shadecat Only collect the hard stuff. Spend the paper. To prepare for what might come, take a little of your cash to the bank and exchange it for.... change. Always save your change. I like books too! Oh but decorative tins can take up lots of room. I use to keep my large popcorn tins I would get from walmart at Christmas. I'd fill them with ornaments or other Christmas stuff. I have some smaller cookie tins. I always buy the famous Denmark butter cookies at walmart every Christmas. Well, most every Christmas. The tins are beautiful and I have bought many of the small ones for gifts to the mailman, etc.
@hlrive My best friend I grew up with, up north by Chicago, she is Polish and her parents long since passed were very Polish that lived through the depression. Her father worked at one of the major soap factories, Proctor Gamble or one of those. He brought home lots of products that was made in the factory. I guess they got a big discount and/or some that may have been mislabeled or some what damaged. They always washed their dishes with bar soap. I remember her mother telling her to go to the basement and get some soap. In their basement was lots of long shelves and on the shelves was lots of products. Several containers of lard, shortening (didn't use cooking oils back then), can foods, laundry detergents, bar soap, etc. Not a little. A LOT. I was only 8, 9, 10, 11 years old but I always enjoyed going in their basement to see all the goodies on the shelves. I have not seen my old friend in many years but she never did that. Guess who does? She told me that her parents went through such hard times that they stayed prepared. Fortunately, they never had to live through hard times again but they were certainly prepared for it. Something about that, had a large impact on me. So I do the same. I don't have a basement and I don't have a huge stockpile but if something were to happen and I could not buy food, I probably always have enough on hand to last me 1 to 2 years.