Practical self-sufficiency: how to put food on the table when you don't have a job

[Nitro]

I run the yard sale circuit,outdoor flea markets,rummage sales and thrift shops for items that allow me to have some really nice things at very reduced prices. I was taught the value of that by my Grandfather. My Mother taught me how to be thrifty when buying food.


During the course of the summer I ran across a lot of very nice brass articles that were originally part of a quest for my scrap drive. I always examine anything that looks like brass to ensure it is not plated steel or paper thin. The condition never matters if they were being scrapped,only how much they weighed to keep the return on investment in line at the scale.Often,I find some pieces that are too good to junk and began a collection of finer pieces that I display in my home. I monitor the price of scrap daily and play it like the stock market where I speculate on the prices and follow the trends.

My Father taught me how all of that worked when he gave me my first huge electric motor to dismantle. After stripping away all of the trash from it,this 12 year old got to see $75 for the copper that was harvested from inside it. $75 was a weeks take home pay at minimum wage when this happened. It only took about four hours to strip that dirty old motor and I was hooked for life.

 

[AsheSkyler]

A couple of years ago a hawk tried to fly off with one of our chooks (do people call them chooks outside Australia??? It's a colloquial form of chicken) but she flapped around so much it dropped her before it gained much height. She was fine but we all had a shock!

As for thrift stores/second hand shops/charity shops, almost all the clothes I own are second hand, as is much of our furniture and crockery. It's cheaper and it's recycling. I buy my underwear new, though....don't want to recycle that.

Thrift shops are good places to pick up unused fabric for sewing... I've done that a lot. It's much cheaper than buying new. You can also use second hand sheets, bedcovers, tablecloths and curtains as sewing fabric.

I've never heard of chooks outside of Australia, so I think that one is unique to y'all.

My underwear must all be new as well. Unless I steal them from my husband.

I usually nab fabric off of the clearance aisle at Walmart, but sometimes I do buy one of the cheap bedsheets when I start thinking I can actually make little crochet purses that would sell on Etsy. (Bedsheets for lining.) Ah, keep dreaming... My "get rich eventually and maybe never" scheme.

 

[Cerulean]

If you are going to garden, don't waste money on fertilizer- you can use yard and food scraps (no meat or dairy) to make your own compost. And if you're in a small space, you could use something like a 5 gallon bucket with some holes drilled in for ventilation, just keep on the porch/balcony (I don't recommend keeping decomposing food in your home) and you can use it for plants in the ground or in pots. I made my own from a big rubbermaid tub with a bunch of holes drilled in it, every once in a while I mix it up and add in some water and it is making some beautiful compost. This is especially good if you're an organic eater, it doesn't get much more organic then this!

 

[Cosmophylla]

You can also make "weed tea" (liquid fertiliser) by taking weeds - any weeds, but nettles (if they are weeds where you are; they are here) are great - and leaves from plants such as comfrey if you have it in your garden and putting them in a bucket, covering with rainwater (tap water is still fine but rainwater better) and using a stone or something to hold the weeds below the surface.

In a couple of weeks the weeds will have rotted down and can be taken out and put on your compost heap, in a worm farm, or just left on the ground to rot down further.

The good thing about doing this is that you can put weeds that are seeding into your compost without worrying about them spreading simply by letting them break down a little first.

The weed tea can then be diluted 1:10 with water and used to water your plants. Much better than buying anything in plastic bottles and with who-knows-what inside.

 

[DC1346]

I miss my home in Arizona. One of my hobbies is water gardening and in Arizona, I had a 5,000 gallon fresh water pond that I excavated and installed in my backyard. The main pond had a bog garden as well as a deep section that was four feet deep. On hot summer days, I could sit on a plant ledge in the deep section where I was immersed in crystal clear water up to my neck. I could close my eyes and listen to a cascading waterfall as water tumbled over stones that I had laboriously gathered from the desert.

I had a partially raised pond that was connected to the main pond by a "creek." I bought some watercress seeds at Home Depot and planted them in the creek. I also had water mint and water chestnuts planted in my bog garden.

The water mint was very prolific as was the watercress.

I enjoyed watercress with my salads as well as watercress soup. The mint leaves made a wonderful tea. I could have enjoyed water chestnuts as well but was reluctant to dig up these tall plants because I loved their greenery.

Here is a picture of one of my cats, Princess Tabitha Panda Kitty Toe Biter (who usually goes by Tabitha). Tabitha is my adventure kitty and in this picture, she was bravely using boulders as stepping stones across the pond. The tall reed like plants behind her are water chestnuts. The plants to the left of the boulder she is on are water mint.

 

[wanderer03]

I admire those that are able to be self sufficient. This is overwhelming to me. Sadly, if society crumbles today, I would be one of the early casualties.

 

[Nitro]

Part of the hoarder in me allows me to re-purpose many items that are collected along the path.I often find unique ways to make something serve another function.

I used bed risers under a computer desk that serves as a prep station in my kitchen.Being made of glass,it is easy to clean and sanitize. It has a raised glass monitor shelf that holds ingredients and utensils up out of the mess that my sloppy cooking skills produce. The sliding keyboard tray holds my trivets and an oven glove below the table. I bought the risers for a dollar at a yardsale,was given the desk and made something useful out of them that didn't break the bank.

 

[tree]

You can also make "weed tea" (liquid fertiliser)....

Every time I see the words "weed tea" in the Recent Activity,
I think....not about liquid fertilizer.

Can't help it, really. Guy across the road is a licensed
marijuana grower/distributor.

Liquid fertilizer is useful.
I learned to make "manure tea" from directions
in an old Organic Gardening magazine.

 

[Nitro]

Every time I see the words "weed tea" in the Recent Activity,
I think....not about liquid fertilizer.

Can't help it, really. Guy across the road is a licensed
marijuana grower/distributor.

Liquid fertilizer is useful.
I learned to make "manure tea" from directions
in an old Organic Gardening magazine.

These relics are a treasure trove of off the grid knowledge I got for a mere $5 USD at an outdoor flea market.

https://www.aspiescentral.com/media/the-whole-earth-catalogs.4653/

 

[Mia]

These relics are a treasure trove of off the grid knowledge I got for a mere $5 USD at an outdoor flea market.

Steve Jobs compared The Whole Earth Catalog to Internet search engine Google in his June 2005 Stanford University commencement speech. "When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.... It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions." During the commencement speech, Jobs also quoted the farewell message placed on the back cover of the 1974 edition of the Catalog: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

I remember these Nitro, still have them somewhere.

 

[Cosmophylla]

I admire those that are able to be self sufficient. This is overwhelming to me. Sadly, if society crumbles today, I would be one of the early casualties.

You'd be surprised, wanderer03... You could just start with growing herbs you like the flavour of. Things like parsley are pretty hard to kill. And if you let the flowers go to seed (i.e. grow long enough to form seed which dries and falls off the plant) you'll get more parsley plants next year.

Once you've had some success with one thing you'll feel emboldened and more willing to try something new. I urge you to give it a try.

This is the thread for asking questions, too... It's not a bragging thread, "look how self-sufficient I am! Aren't I great???" You can ask questions and you never know who but someone will have the answer.

You can also search online for things you want to DIY. There are loads of tutorials on blogs showing how to do all manner of things for yourself.

 

[flynn_gabriel]

I am the oldest of 7. (yes seven). Because of that, we didn't have much. We didn't have the money to pay someone to fix our broken stuff, we fixed it ourselves. Nothing went to waste. We salvaged what we could and scrapped the rest. My brothers and I would go whoop cars off of the side of the highway/roads all the time.* disclaimer( we lived in a rural area, the cars would sit there for weeks.)*A few hours before Highway patrol or the local yokels scheduled to have a tow truck pick it up, we would go get it, part it out and then scrap what's left.
To this day I make my living off of other peoples trash. I haul household trash to the dump for 3 motels, I scrap, and buy, sell, trade anything I can get my hands on. Best thing you can do for yourself is know lots of different skills. I can weld*, build, fix anything. I can can, dehydrate, hunt, skin,grow a garden. Sew, knit, crochet, etc. I can and will survive.
Get yourselfs a copy of Readers Digest Back to Basics. Its VERY helpful. I'll add more later. But I have to work in a few hours. So I must sleep.

* On a side note, all you need to weld is a battery, jumper cables, and a welding rod.

 

[wanderer03]

I am the oldest of 7. (yes seven). Because of that, we didn't have much. We didn't have the money to pay someone to fix our broken stuff, we fixed it ourselves. Nothing went to waste. We salvaged what we could and scrapped the rest. My brothers and I would go whoop cars off of the side of the highway/roads all the time.* disclaimer( we lived in a rural area, the cars would sit there for weeks.)*A few hours before Highway patrol or the local yokels scheduled to have a tow truck pick it up, we would go get it, part it out and then scrap what's left.
To this day I make my living off of other peoples trash. I haul household trash to the dump for 3 motels, I scrap, and buy, sell, trade anything I can get my hands on. Best thing you can do for yourself is know lots of different skills. I can weld*, build, fix anything. I can can, dehydrate, hunt, skin,grow a garden. Sew, knit, crochet, etc. I can and will survive.
Get yourselfs a copy of Readers Digest Back to Basics. Its VERY helpful. I'll add more later. But I have to work in a few hours. So I must sleep.

* On a side note, all you need to weld is a battery, jumper cables, and a welding rod.

That book looks pretty cool. Are these skills learnable for someone with significant executive functioning deficits?

 

[wanderer03]

I'm not even all that sure that I would want to live in a post apocalyptic world. The intellectual exercise is interesting but the actual existence would be frightening.

 

[Cosmophylla]

I'm not even all that sure that I would want to live in a post apocalyptic world. The intellectual exercise is interesting but the actual existence would be frightening.

Don't think about the post apocalyptic stuff... Concentrate on the intellectual bit.

 

[flynn_gabriel]

Wander, most of the stuff in the book is laid out plain and simple. look at second hand stores for the book. They can be had cheap, they fly under the radar of book people. I myself have like 6 copys. id be willing part with a few if anyone wants. I'd like $20 shipped anywhere in the continental U.S. just PM me. (admins if this isn't ok please let me know ill delete it.)

 

[JoeK]

I like this thread because I like to save money and do know that the best way to save is not spend.

I have the option to get the "use or freeze today" meat products at my local grocery and put in major freezer stock from time to time. I recently bought beef filet and cut it into steak portions for one serving.I eat very good steaks for $5.95 a pound or less and pass by the ground beef that

I also do this. Often a holiday weekend will be followed by a sale on grill cuts that were over stocked. The excess turkey blow out after Thanksgiving will sometimes get birds down near half a dollar a pound. Even a small chest type freezer is one of the best investments you can make.

It helps if you have a local store with an "in house" butcher or meat cutter. You'll get the best selection early in the day. They usually "clear the case" early while they're making up their work list. Another help is to learn some of the basics of cutting meat. Whole pork loin here is on sale at $1.99/lb. Boneless sirloin chops are $2.99 and butterfly chops are $4.55. All are exactly the same piece of meat sliced differently. Often the difference between a roast and a couple of steaks is several dollars and one knife cut. Precise cutting is easier if you throw it in the freezer until it's not quite frozen, just forming some ice crystals.

Pork shoulder roast is one of the cheapest cuts because of the odd shaped bone. You can either learn to use a boning knife and end with a pile of chunks for stew and a meat covered bone to throw in a pot of beans, or slow cook the whole thing and tear it up for pulled pork. Whole chickens are much cheaper than pieces and come apart without any special tools. Cutting up a turkey greatly reduces cooking time. I've never tried to refreeze a turkey after cutting only but always freeze more manageable cooked portions for later heat-n-eat. Youtube has a lot of examples of this sort of thing.

 

[flynn_gabriel]

I gave up looking for work. So I do my own thing. As ive said before other peoples trash is how I make money. I repair broken stuff, (most of the time its something simple) then resell it. If I can't fix it ill look on YouTube for info. If all else fails it gets scrapped. I have lots of stuff laying around for parts to repair stuff. My wife thinks its hoarding. We fight about that all the time. (She's an NT and oldest if 2).

 

[Beverly]

I even cook Poke Sallet, Poke weed grows wild here but, it is also known as American Nightshade and, raw, it is toxic (a good amount of belladonna in it) so, you have to boil and rinse it 3 times, for 20 minutes at a full boil each time, before it's safe to eat. Tastes like asparagus, which I love. Wouldn't recommend doing it unless you are 100% confident you can get all of the toxins extracted properly. (I learned form my grandmother how to cook it.)

I have wild mint here, Guadalupe cucumbers, wild passion fruit, kudzu (roots are starchy tubers, like potatoes) wild muscadines (like grapes), wild roses for rose hips (vitamin C without having to buy citrus.) I like nurturing the native edible plants, they are the best adapted to growing here and, survive even in bad years when a lot of cultivated plants won't make it.

I could go 100% off grid if I needed to but, some things are just easier on grid and, there are a few things form the grocery store I like to have. I don't NEED any of it, I could cut my internet and Directv and, be done with society entirely but, I like my little luxuries. It is a good feeling to know, that if society goes to hades, I can survive it, and still live well and, yes, defend what I have if need be.

Being self sufficient isn't just about food and shelter, you've got to think about how to preserve and protect yourself and what you have too.

 

[dragonwolf]

A make a lot of my own cleaning and first aid stuff.

Laundry detergent is cheap and easy. Borax, washing soda, and grated soap make a good detergent (and as an added bonus, it's truly unscented).

The Borax/washing soda mix is a good base for most cleaning, really (which adds the bonus of getting both in bulk). Mix a little with warm water and you have a good all-purpose cleaner. Use it as a powder for scrubbing. In a pinch, baking soda works for this, too.

I've got a black salve, which is neosporin-like (a blend of oil, herbs, activated charcoal, and bentonite clay). It was a bit of an investment, because I didn't have the herbs needed for it, but if you're already growing your own herbs, comfrey, plantain (herb, not fruit), and calendula should be fairly easy to get and greatly reduce the investment price, and even buying everything up front, it's still cheaper per ounce for the final product. I've got a pint jar of it now, and it lasts a really long time and works well.

I also make my own soap, which can be done cheaply if needed, or sold for a decent profit to bring in some cash, though can take some start up investment. Whatever form of fat you can get your hands on (it's a good use for bacon grease, actually, the soaping process destroys most of the bacony smell) and some lye is really all you need, the rest of the stuff is optional.

I make my own shampoo, too. Castille soap, plus canned coconut milk make the shampoo base. It's not as cheap as the really cheap shampoos, but it's also better for the hair and scalp and more on par with the high-quality shampoos, and you control what's in it, so you can avoid any ingredients you don't tolerate. (It's also saved my husband's hair/scalp from the never-ending cycle of using those harsh medicated, anti-dandruff shampoos. It's been a non-issue since we switched.) Both items also have multiple uses throughout the home, making them decent investments on their own.

You can stretch the bones from a chicken or turkey a little farther by making stock with them. Simmer the bones in water with a splash of vinegar for a day or so. Strain out and save the liquid and toss the scraps. The stock is filled with good nutrients and can be used to make soups and whatnot.

Seek out farms in your area and see if you can buy directly from them. Many farms, if you buy directly from them, will be cheaper in price than buying the same items from the store.

Learn what plants are edible in your area. For example, in my area, plantain (herb) and wild raspberry are very common (the former is considered a common lawn weed), and things like ginseng are around, as well. Any of these can be useful to use personally or even to sell.

If you're in a wooded area (especially if hiking is a common passtime in the area), consider making walking sticks (or other stuff) from found wood. Tourists, especially, will pay a good amount of money for hand made walking sticks. It won't cost you much more than time, and you can make a few dollars in the process.