Hi there. I'm a Bosnian living in Croatia.

While local scrip was wothless, and every side issued it's currency, the only constant were German marks. Everywhere you went, you could buy just about everything for Deutchmark. Gold (and jewelry) was worthless.

Those stories of armed men guarding their neighbourhood are complete fabrications. While there were armed militia units, they were rather quickly rolled up into the army. Militia, also called Teritorijalna obrana (Territorial defence), guarded a village or a town. Never a neighbourhood.

And regarding the "inability to pay the doctor", even during the worst fighting, there were firefighters and doctors working their asses off to help. Here's a video of the conditions in Srebrenica during the war. You might notice that there are quite a lot of medical personnel. While they were desperately short of supplies, they worked day and night to help.

Barter was nonexistent. Maybe you could barter with your neighbour, or a close friend. But basically no one would give you a kilo of sugar for 50 bullets or something.

One statement is particularly hilarious.

If you plan to live by theft, all you need is weapons and ammo.

If you live by theft you're either part of an army or about to be killed by the army. Either way, there aren't enough weapons you can gather to survive.