No cost or low cost preps

How are you preparing
jansman
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Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by jansman »

Zero cost prep.Compost heap.If you have a garden or outside area,get four pallets and stand em in a square and tie them together. Instant compost heap!

My daughter has done this.She rents and has a lovely big garden.All lawn.It has to be looked after and the grass has to go somewhere.She sited this in a border and painted it with some Fencelife and it hides well! It feeds the pots that she grows veg in,( not allowed to dig the garden)and helps keep the rubbish down.Apparently 25% of domestic waste is compostable.Given that we MAY go from two to four week collection,this could be a boon.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
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sethorly
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Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by sethorly »

Great post idea.

Well I started writing a list but it got too long. So many skills and so much knowledge to be gotten from the internet. Except fitness - and that's free too.

The only prep I think is really necessary to horde is food. Other than that, I reckon with an axe and a knife and a ferro rod I'd be good to go for most things.

By the way, my water preps are 2 litre Sainsburys basic bottles at 20p each; not expensive, better hygeine and storage life and less faff than reusing old bottles.
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jansman
Posts: 13623
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by jansman »

Yorkshire Andy wrote:
jansman wrote:Britcit touched on wood for the fire.Having stoves,I would certainly seek free wood.I do now.Even if you have no solid fuel heating,its still not a bad idea to keep some wood cut and dry to make a fire outside to cook on or boil water if you have to,for whatever reason.
Not "cheap" but not expensive

A wood gasifier stove

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01LYK ... ref=plSrch

We keep about 100 kg of wood "on stock" for this stove and the Kelly kettle which I've got handy now the little one has arrived

Can't value the ability to boil good quantities of water using minimum amount of fuel

And if shtf the fencing/ shed / tree/ skirting boards can all be utilised
In

But this is the low cost thread... So skip / bin raid paint cans.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Woodgas-Can-Stove/

And make your own
How about a backyard brick volcano stove? Can be made with two dozen bricks,easy to find for nowt.Look up 'brick volcano stove' on YouTube.I am gonna build one ( stack one together!) next to the barbecue.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
Yorkshire Andy
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Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm

Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Need care with bricks as most will crack or worst case EXPLODE if heated. Worst are concrete brick sets
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
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Deeps
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Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Deeps »

Alloneword wrote:If funds are that tight, and i know they are some folks then maybe look at bin raiding at the back of your local supermarkets, I live in London and sad to say pavements are not paved with gold normally homeless folk, and i don't like to give cash but went and bought the guy a ham/salad sandwich only £1.50 but felt better for doing it came out of supermarket and handed it to him and he laughed and too be honest i was well p1ssed off, so i said what thinking thinking i'd get some smart ar*e comment and he said he picked up about 20 of these from the back of the supermarket a few nights ago and he explained about bin raiding, rolls etc tend to get slung out on the last day but good for 2 more days he said and sometimes packs of bottled water gets lobbed out, say a 6 pack if one of them is broken and laked so 5 are perfect, yes agreed the thought of bin raiding makes me think twice but what is wrong with it if it's for free and most supermarkets don't say anything as it cuts there waste bill.

Freecycle is a good bet, also check out an app called "Shpock" you can order this by location and ask for freebies and they will be local to you, as for "Ladies" items well i'm seeing an old bird so no worries on that score ;)

Also check out mysupermarket and price compare sometimes you get to pick out the BOGOF items and if local enough you can build a stock of food that way

All1
One step further than I was going to suggest, if you've got the time go to the supermarkets late for the V cheap deals that are going out of date that evening. There are some absolute bargains.

The other thing that occurred to me was trade. Even with neighbours, if you do something good for them they'll more than likely reciprocate. Oldies who might not be able to dig a garden might be happy to give you something in return. A bit airy fairy that one I admit.
Yorkshire Andy
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Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Deeps wrote: The other thing that occurred to me was trade. Even with neighbours, if you do something good for them they'll more than likely reciprocate. Oldies who might not be able to dig a garden might be happy to give you something in return. A bit airy fairy that one I admit.

Nowt wrong with that I'd rather deal with a bunch of pensioners in a shtf situation than a bunch of 18-30 year olds

And most lady OAP's like baking ;-). I'll cut the grass for some home made Victoria sponge and a cup of tea ;)

Buy joking aside those over 50 have been there done it

3 day weeks,

Miners strike,

Few left from WW2 sadly but many still remember the overhang of post war rationing

The cold war threats

And with baby Andy arriving I've become an old lady magnet :lol:


The older generation are far less likely to melt in a powecut when their mobile phone hits 10% power either :)
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
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Brambles
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Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Brambles »

Yorkshire Andy wrote:
Deeps wrote: The other thing that occurred to me was trade. Even with neighbours, if you do something good for them they'll more than likely reciprocate. Oldies who might not be able to dig a garden might be happy to give you something in return. A bit airy fairy that one I admit.

Nowt wrong with that I'd rather deal with a bunch of pensioners in a shtf situation than a bunch of 18-30 year olds

And most lady OAP's like baking ;-). I'll cut the grass for some home made Victoria sponge and a cup of tea ;)

Buy joking aside those over 50 have been there done it

3 day weeks,

Miners strike,

Few left from WW2 sadly but many still remember the overhang of post war rationing

The cold war threats

And with baby Andy arriving I've become an old lady magnet :lol:


The older generation are far less likely to melt in a powecut when their mobile phone hits 10% power either :)

Thanks, no really, thanks a lot. After reading this I realised I'm an old lady. :shock: :lol:
duckandcover_bert_the_turtle_0.jpg
duckandcover_bert_the_turtle_0.jpg (20.29 KiB) Viewed 4126 times
I'm in trouble now..

Time to find a free online tact and diplomacy manual ;)



oops hit edit by mistake not quote :oops:
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain~anon
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Deeps
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Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Deeps »

Brambles wrote:
Yorkshire Andy wrote:
Deeps wrote: The other thing that occurred to me was trade. Even with neighbours, if you do something good for them they'll more than likely reciprocate. Oldies who might not be able to dig a garden might be happy to give you something in return. A bit airy fairy that one I admit.

Nowt wrong with that I'd rather deal with a bunch of pensioners in a shtf situation than a bunch of 18-30 year olds

And most lady OAP's like baking ;-). I'll cut the grass for some home made Victoria sponge and a cup of tea ;)

Buy joking aside those over 50 have been there done it

3 day weeks,

Miners strike,

Few left from WW2 sadly but many still remember the overhang of post war rationing

The cold war threats

And with baby Andy arriving I've become an old lady magnet :lol:


The older generation are far less likely to melt in a powecut when their mobile phone hits 10% power either :)

Thanks, no really, thanks a lot. After reading this I realised I'm an old lady. :shock: :lol:
The word on the street is 'lady' is a bit of a stretch too. :lol:
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Jamesey1981
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Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Jamesey1981 »

pseudonym wrote:It's a cliché, but knowledge..... get yourself to a library, on line, or work courses. Improve your lot, improve your chances.
Go to your local library anyway, even if you don't need any books, if no one uses it, it'll get taken away, and I would be a very different person today if I hadn't been able to access knowledge at my local library when I was growing up.
That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.
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Jamesey1981
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Re: No cost or low cost preps

Post by Jamesey1981 »

Alloneword wrote:If funds are that tight, and i know they are some folks then maybe look at bin raiding at the back of your local supermarkets, I live in London and sad to say pavements are not paved with gold normally homeless folk, and i don't like to give cash but went and bought the guy a ham/salad sandwich only £1.50 but felt better for doing it came out of supermarket and handed it to him and he laughed and too be honest i was well p1ssed off, so i said what thinking thinking i'd get some smart ar*e comment and he said he picked up about 20 of these from the back of the supermarket a few nights ago and he explained about bin raiding, rolls etc tend to get slung out on the last day but good for 2 more days he said and sometimes packs of bottled water gets lobbed out, say a 6 pack if one of them is broken and laked so 5 are perfect, yes agreed the thought of bin raiding makes me think twice but what is wrong with it if it's for free and most supermarkets don't say anything as it cuts there waste bill.

Freecycle is a good bet, also check out an app called "Shpock" you can order this by location and ask for freebies and they will be local to you, as for "Ladies" items well i'm seeing an old bird so no worries on that score ;)


Also check out mysupermarket and price compare sometimes you get to pick out the BOGOF items and if local enough you can build a stock of food that way

All1
Be careful bin raiding, you'd think that supermarkets wouldn't care, and they wouldn't, but someone successfully sued a supermarket for giving them food poisoning from food they got from their bin, so now there's big padlocks and security, it happened while I worked at a somerfield, the supermarkets don't care about the food, they've thrown it away, but they will always seek to prosecute as theft if they catch you, it helps protect them from litigation, most of the time they drop it once the statement and effort has been made, but sometimes they don't!

Mad I know, really not something I agree with but I can't blame supermarkets for trying to protect themselves, just crazy that they've had to. Around my way there's a charity that collects it all up before it goes in the bin to feed homeless people, but those same homeless people would be in trouble if they got caught cutting out the middleman.

Back on topic though, first thing I would suggest is to save up a couple of weeks of your £2.50s then get down to your local Asian supermarket and buy a huge sack of rice, not the most exciting diet in the world and lacking in all sorts of stuff, but there's a lot of people in the world that live on rice and not much else, so it will keep you going, and if you spend a little of your next week's £2.50 on a secondhand copy of "Food For Free" in Collins gem format then you would be off to a good start.
That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.