Recession/Depression Tips

[staceyy]

I thought it would be good to start a thread full of tips that would be useful for those struggling through a recession or depression. Tips that the average well off person would not think to do, but could mean the world to someone who is really struggling or those who do not intend to really struggle. I'll start first:

It is of course advisable to put away a year's worth of food, toiletries, paper products, over the counter meds etc. This can be done gradually over time such as buying a little extra each time you go shopping. Loss leaders such as the 10 for $10 sales are ideal for starting and continuing a stockpile. You can also order in bulk from places such as Costco and Sam's Club or online at places such as Honeyville and Emergency Essentials. You'll need to make a list of everything you normally buy in a year first to assist you first. The LDS Church website even has an online calculator to tell you how much food you need to put away for a year per person for long term storage. I started my stockpile several years ago by buying a pound of beans each time I went shopping. A pound of beans costs about $1.00. Overtime, I gradually increased the quantity each time I shopped and began adding additional items. I now have close to a one year supply of everything. Small things done consistently over time add up to large impressive amounts.

You'll want to store several versions of an item. Such as you can buy fresh eggs, you can freeze eggs (not in the shell), you can coat fresh eggs with shortening and store them in a cool place for up to 6 months, and you can buy powdered eggs. You can Google directions for storing eggs in each of these manners. The Easter season when eggs go on sale would be an ideal time to buy dozens of eggs for storage.

You can store fresh milk in the fridge. You can buy whole milk and mix it with half water to get an approximate 2% milk for about half the cost. You can freeze milk (again Google for directions), you can store dry milk and canned milk.

You can Google for recipes to make eggless, butterless, milkless cakes. This website and others such as Weight Watchers, has lots of recipes for making cakes, muffins and cookies from cake mixes with only one other ingredient such as sodas like Pepsi or Coke. You can usually buy cake mixes on sale for $1.00.

Learn to cook from scratch especially if you are buying dry food storage items such as flour, beans, rice, pasta, dried milk and eggs. A good book to buy used from Amazon or Half Price Books is, "Stories And Recipes Of The Great Depression Of The 1930's, by Rita Van Amber. Amish websites also have lots of good from scratch recipes.

Start saving all of your change. In a year's time we save about $500 this way. This money can be used for emergencies.

Learn to become a coupon queen. www.refundcents.com will show you how and they have a monthly magazine subscription filled with photos of coupon queens surrounded by all of their free foods along with stories of their strategies. Also learn to conquer the world of drugstore rebates. The first time I tried this, I got 5 free full sized tubes of Colgate toothpaste. www.refundcents can also teach you to do this as well.

I'm about to learn to garden. We have a decent sized lawn but I prefer to start with container gardening. I bought an Earth Box online from I think QVC. It is pretty small but people swear one box will hold 50 lbs of tomatoes. This Earth Box is so small, it would fit in any sized apartment. Be sure to stock up on lots of seeds. You can grow many types of vegetables in one Earth Box.

If you have a fireplace, buy a newspaper log maker and carefully follow the directions. You don't want to burn down your house, but you want a cheap source of fuel.

If you're an avid reader like me, use the library, trade books online at www.paperbackswap.com or www.frugalreader.com, buy from used bookstores or from www.halfpricedbooks.com or www.amazon. You can also get lots of free leading magazines from places such as www.startsampling.com.

If you have extra bedrooms, you can always rent them out. There are lots of people looking for housing now.

Send for lots of internet freebies for your own use or to use as stocking stuffers at Christmas. My favorites are www.startsampling.com, www.freebiefriends.com, www.walmart.com, www.todaysfreebies.com and www.freegrabber.com.

Utilize thrift stores and www.freecycle.com for lots of low cost and free items.

Save all of your old soap scraps. When you have an adequate amount, grate them by hand or in your blender. Pour into a bowl and add a little warm water. Let sit for about 15 minutes and then shape into attractive soap balls. Let them dry for several days before using.

I cut out coupons and use points for everything I can. Dh is a smoker, he saves his cigarette points and uses them to get coupons for $15 off a carton of cigarettes. I'd rather he just quit smoking, but he won't. We save hotel and airline points and trade them in for trips and merchandise. Over the holidays, we traded our points for close to $400 in Macy's gift cards. Many credit and debit cards now issue points. Make sure you're signed up for these programs.

In Russia, people effectively use chopped garlic in place of antibiotics for colds, pneumonia and viruses. Google for testimonials and directions.

When you go into drugstores and health food stores such as GNC, first locate the sale bins for cheap items. Also, invest in a good home remedy book for illnesses before you need it. I get tons of OTC meds from sending for internet freebies. I save them in a shoebox. I have Airborne, Emergen-C, Advil, Pepcid Complete, Aleve etc.

Hope these tips help someone.

[larabelle]

VERY GOOD TIPS!! Thanks for sharing.

[kaykwilts]

I am doing most of all of what you posted. I have always had a stockpile due to the influence of my mother. I just started couponing. I'm always sending off for free stuff. I get my clothes from the thrift store. I utilize the library and used bookstores. Always trying to find the cheapest way to do things. Neither of us smokes. I'm happy about that.

[staceyy]

Here is a link to the Earthbox on Amazon. Be sure to read the reviews. The earthbox uses water to grow plants like the Aero-Garden uses water to grow herbs. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...hbox&x=12&y=15

[staceyy]

I'm adding more things as I think of them, and I hope others will chime in and add their tips too. A lot of people are hurting out there and need all the tips they can get.

I never buy plastic wrap and hardly ever buy aluminum foil. I wash and reuse baggies and aluminum foil and I save and reuse the wax paper in cereal boxes. I also wash and save the heavy plastic produce bags I store my fruits and vegetables in at the grocery store. I never take extras though.

I buy plastic cups, plates and utensils and wash them in my dishwasher for reuse. The Hefty interlocking plates are sturdy and washable. I've been using the same ones for several years.

I use paper towels twice and use cloth napkins.

I cut my toilet paper useage in half by using the following tip of folding instead of wadding the toilet paper. Also if you have children, you might want to squash the roll before putting it on the holder to make it harder to unroll and waste the paper. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...iletPaper.aspx

I recommend buying and using a crockpot to make inexpensive meals and to tenderize cheaper, tougher cuts of meats.

We lower our heat to 58 degrees at night and raise it to 68 degrees during the day. Our beds have flannel sheets, quilts and down comforters. If we get cold during the day, we supplement the heat with a small electric space heater. We also have afghans draped over the sofa and chair and we have a wood burning fireplace. Dont't let family members ask you to raise the heat if they aren't wearing sweaters and socks.

One day I noticed my hallway lights contained 4 lightbulbs and was left on for a good period of time each evening. I now instead rarely turn on the hallway light preferring to use lamps throughout the house that only utilize one lightbulb at a time.

I recently joined a coupon train so I could receive lots of coupons for each item I buy at the grocery store. This enables me to stock up on items for much less when they go on sale.

Unplug energy vampires in your house. Anything thats plugged into an electrical socket that has an electronic clock or small light is draining energy 24/7. This is money that you are paying for. Its not uncommon to find 15 things in your house like this that are costing you money.

I use half the recommended amount of detergent, I cut dryer sheets in half and I use half the amount of recommended toothpaste.

[powerfm1]

I already do a lot of what you recommend but the milk thing is genius and gave me one of those "duh" moments. 1/2 whole milk, 1/2 water = 2% milk.

Thanks.

[Susanscraps]

Thanks for all the tips. There are a few things I also do, since I have not been working as much. I am washing in cold water for everything, except my whites. I have also cut down on detergent for both the washer and the dishwasher. Last year i did not buy any paper napkins, and rarely paper towels. We used cloth napkins, and I put the paper towels on top of the fridge, definitely, not within reach I do not run the water while brushing my teeth, and am taking shorter showers.
I joined a CSA for 20 weeks in the spring/summer. We did this last year, and enjoyed a lot of organic produce. I have already paid for 2008, and got a 15% reduction for paying in advance. This year i plan to volunteer, because I think I will enjoy it (will be taking 1 of my teens with me), plus we get extra produce! Then in 2009, I will be eligible for another reduction because I had volunteered.
I really want to save as much as we can this year. i love Frugal Village, have learned quite a bit!

[sunshine]

Buy heirloom garden seeds and save the seeds from year to year-- you can plant a small garden/container of seeds -- it may mean the difference between eating or going hungry.

Learn basic skills NOW -- simple sewing, mending, cooking, fishing, foraging. Make and learn how to use a solar oven, fire pit cooking, etc.

[freyadog]

Buy heirloom garden seeds and save the seeds from year to year-- you can plant a small garden/container of seeds -- it may mean the difference between eating or going hungry.

Learn basic skills NOW -- simple sewing, mending, cooking, fishing, foraging. Make and learn how to use a solar oven, fire pit cooking, etc.

Sunshine
you are so right. last year with no where to put my tomatoes I put them in an old bathtub out back. We had tomatoes until November. My leeks I planted in plastic flower pots. I planted 3 rows of beans to see how they would grow here. The rows weren't but about 5 feet long. I cooked beans in something or by themselves every other day until Nov. also. Another words it doesnt take much room to have a nice garden of vegetables.

This year we are going to grow a large garden. My main produce will be the 3 sisters. Corn/beans/squash. all grown together. irish potatoes and sweet potatoes in another spot. And probably put my tomatoes back in the bathtub.

we have an above ground garden spot that has nothing but horseradish in it. we will probably put in another one just for onions.

[sunshine]

This year we are going to grow a large garden. My main produce will be the 3 sisters. Corn/beans/squash. all grown together. irish potatoes and sweet potatoes in another spot. And probably put my tomatoes back in the bathtub.

Someone else who knows about the 3 sisters! I posted about planting the 3 sisters once, and got a bunch of questions, etc. Not many have heard of planting like that.

[staceyy]

Sunshine, I'm intrigued by the solar oven idea as I'm a professionally trained baker. I understand a solar oven can be made from a pizza box. What has your experience been with this?

I'm also including links to an interesting blog. Not sure I'd try some of these ideas but someone else might:

http://frugal.families.com/blog/5-wa...n-toilet-paper

http://frugal.families.com/blog/woul...sawdust-toilet

[faw42077]

Great tips

[sunshine]

I built a simple solar box cooker -- it works similar to a crock pot. I've also cooked with a metallic car sun shade, folded into a cone shape - with my pot in an oven cooking bag, placed in the bottom of the cone, on a small grate.

I've had good success with these on very sunny days -- however, IL weather is not the best for this mode of cooking (it does great when the sun shines , but we get lots of clouds, rain, etc.)

[EmilyD]

An interesting article about stockpiling specific foods for vitamin content.

http://lds.about.com/gi/dynamic/offs...s/hagan59.html

[EmilyD]

What would be the best way to prepare for emergency cash? Some talk cash, some talk gold, ... etc. What do you think? How about gift cards/ pre-paid Visa/MC?