[Prep] On the Cheap

Pops · Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:14 am Post subject: [Prep] On the Cheap

Prep on the Cheap

Many folks want to make preparations for emergencies or possible energy price spikes / interruptions but have a hard time justifying the cost to their spouse or maybe even themselves.

So this thread is for cheap alternatives, here's 2:

Food grade plastic barrels for water storage cost around $1/gal new + shipping. Soft drink bottlers usually recycle but sometimes sell their old 30 and 55 gal drums cheap.

Someone mentioned soda cans with the bottom cut off for seed pots, I've used plastic drink cups, about a penny apiece - just burn weep holes in the bottoms with a hot nail.

So, how cheap are you?
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born2respawn · Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2005 5:34 pm Post subject:

If your local supermarket has a "reduced" area, look there often. I've seen perfectly good stuff marked down for no readily apparent reason, and marked down plenty myself. There are stupid deals out there, admittedly getting a 23 pack of lager for half the price of a 24 pack isn't going to interest most people here, but getting a lot of water proof plasters at half price probably will.

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1373

Yavicleus · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 16, 2004 Posts: 364

Fermenters work great too.

I'm an avid homebrewer, but right now I like to keep at least one of my 6 gallon fermenters empty incase I need to fill it with water.

I usually top off the fermenter with an airtrap, so as to prevent spores or anything else from getting into the water and start growing.

Over a year ago we had a hurricane roll through this party of the country. It knocked out power to our water processing plant, so nobody could drink the tapwater. There was a rush at the supermarket for bottled water. It sure was nice having two full fermenters (12 gallons total) full of drinkable water.

Granted, the fermenters can cost you around $20 each, but...they're dual purpose: the rest of your fermenters will have booze in them. Very Happy

Possum · Coal Joined: Jan 23, 2005 Posts: 12

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1373

Pops suggested I add this link to the thread - and bump it up a little. Surely there's more cheap preps out there?

Check out www.freecycle.org to see if there's a chapter in your area. Freecycle's mission is to "spurn the landfill and spawn goodwill." Trying to keep as many useful items out of the landfills as possible, and passing on those still-usable items to people who can use them.

Recently, I was able to acquire 136 quart canning jars from a local freecycle. There may be items offered in your area that will help with your preparations, or, you may find someone who needs something you have.

Anymore cheap preps ideas?
Kathy

lagomorpheous · Coal Joined: Nov 10, 2004 Posts: 7

Freecycle is an interesting idea. In one of the towns I used to live in, that had a town dump (well, transfer station) they had a shed called the "swap shop" People could put anything useable that they didn't want in the shed, and other people coming to the dump could go in and see if they wanted anything. It worked really well, and it seems an easy enough thing for most towns to do.

Jenn

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1373

WOW! Lookie what was posted on my local freecycle...

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1373

I got the trees!!!
qgreenjumpers

Now I just gotta figure out how to get them out of the ground and home Shocked

...
K

madison · Heavy Crude Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 255

I have a toddler in diapers, and I made really nice wool diaper covers by buying some 100% wool sweaters from Goodwill. I had one just plain soft one and two lambswool sweaters.... very nice. I washed them in hot water, dried and felted them in a hot dryer. I then cut out shorts and sewed them together on my sewing machine and lanolized (waterproofed) them by soaking them in water with lanolin melted into it. Presto! Really cute "shorties" that cost $75 online (believe it or not) and a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. And my kid looks really cute, lol. The shorties wear just like shorts, nothing over them. The wool is waterproof/extremely water resistant and naturally does not keep odors. A wonderful system.

I save at least a pack of diapers each month by using cloth at home in the evening and weekends, and save the 'sposies for daycare (they won't take cloth). I don't find cloth diapers difficult or gross at all.

Oh, and I made my own diaper liners by cutting rectangular strips of polar fleece, which I lay in the diaper.... then poop gets on the liner instead of the diaper, and it just shakes off of fleece into the toilet. Easy, easy, easy! Saves me $25/month for very little effort. And everyone comments on how cute the shorties are! Wish I could post a picture!

And I make my own diaper wipes for home from flannel squares and a spray bottle containing distilled water, Burts Bees apricot oil, and a dash of liquid Castille soap. Spray the butt, wipe off mess, toss in diaper pail. Much easier on my kid's butt, actually, than commercial wipes which usually contain alcohol, which is really drying. Plus cloth "grabs" more than paper wipes.

Cloth diapers, homemade wool covers and homemade diaper wipes are cheap, but also so much better for my kid's skin, the checkbook and a feeling of self-sufficiency.

Ebyss · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 9:36 am Post subject:

I plan to re-home the surplus chickens from factory farms. They usually get rid of chickens after a year or so, because their laying drops off a little (it's marginal.. I don't fully understand why they get rid of them). You can pick these up from animal shelters for a little as a one Euro. They take a while to adapt to outdoor living, but they very quickly learn to love it.

Check out the greenhouse made from plastic bottles : http://www.sci-scotland.org.uk/images/greenhouse.jpg

Now that's recycling.
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Pops · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 11:47 am Post subject:

OK, so this thread didn’t get much response so let me change the premise somewhat…

What can you do now (in a relatively cheap energy world) that may be prohibitively expensive and valuable down the road?

I was spouting off earlier regarding the use of mechanical power in the initial stages of preparing a garden. My point was that the effort to loosen tight soils and break hardpan is very high when done manually. Typically using a tractor, a single 18” – 24” implement (this could be up to 4 feet long for big time Ag) called a subsoiler is used to both break and hardpan and provide a channel for excess water to drain. If the ground is then not packed down again it will stay loose with the addition of organic matter and deep rooting plants.

The benefits to the soil in additional humus, quicker warming in the spring and deeper root penetration is worthwhile even if done manually. I doubt this is really something that cane be done with a horse - just too much resistance.

The manual option is to dig a trench 12” deep then go back and turn over the subsoil – VERY hard work!

Today one could hire the work done – maybe $25 and hour, then simply plant flowers or whatever on the beds. If the time should come when additional garden space is needed the cost or availability of fuel would probably make hiring the work done prohibitively expensive.

Standing in the sun busting that hardpan would certainly make one wish it had been done back in the good old days!

OK, that’s just a gardening example, any other ideas?
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strider3700 · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 1:08 pm Post subject:

Along the same lines I'm prepairing to have a machine come in to move about 5 dump trucks worth of material out of a hill behind my house to another location 20 feet away. The hole is so that I can move one 2500 gallon water tank into it and add a second beside it. The extra material goes into a ramp to give me access into the back half of my property. Doing this by hand would take me all summer at least. Doing it right now with a properly sized machine will cost me about a weeks worth of wages.

Other things I'm doing this summer while I can still do it include

- increasing the insulation in my roof to R40. Not sure what it is at right now but it's not enough. Hell I think I even qualify for free delivery. (you try moving that many bags of fiberglass insulation around without a truck)

- Taking a workshop area with a gravel floor, putting a real foundation under it and concrete down. Then I'll finish it add a woodburner and punch a hole into my living room to let the heat into the rest of the house. I much prefer wood heat to electric baseboards when things get bad. Power outage last year left me pretty cold 18 hours later.

- My power pole needs replaced. I'll handle that this summer as well while a machine can come in and dig a hole with an auger. Hand digging it would really suck.

Thats about it for this summer I think.

Next summer or the year after (if things are still possible)

- Extend the foundation of my house out effectively doubling the floor space to 1400 sqft. Frame up the addition and add new trusses and a new metal roof. THis puts my house at a size that I can easily fit kids and so on in and deals with my issue of needing a new roof sometime in the next 5 or so years.

I know that all of these things are possible in a post peak world but they will be much much harder. I'm not sure where metal roofing even comes from so If I really want it( I do) I might as well do it while it can still be shipped here.
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Pops · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 4:00 pm Post subject:

There you go!
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Laurasia · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 10, 2004 Posts: 533

On a much less technical note (and on a much smaller scale than the posts above, I might add!), I'm ordering lots of heirloom seeds from far & wide while there are still petroleum products available to get them to my front door. I'll have a mini-seed bank for when things are no longer global. Also I am saving glass jars & lids, dark plastic bowls(like frozen food containers) and mylar emergency blankets. I'm not sure I know what I'll need them for but I want to have them there when the need arises. At some point, plastics especially, will be hard to find.

Regards,

L.