Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed.

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Re: Solar Generators

[slclaire]

Our backup plan for our chest freezer is to know who carries dry ice for sale nearby and to have enough gas in the car to get there. I understand that many grocery stores carry dry ice for sale. Where our freezer is, in a partially underground exit space from the basement (think the storm cellar in The Wizard of Oz), it doesn't get more than 80F in the summer and is in the 30s or 40s most of the winter. For the first 24 hours in a closed freezer, melting would be minimal, and most of the time the electricity is back on within then. If not, then I'd get dry ice to lay in the freezer to keep items cold. Or the items can be moved to a cooler with regular ice, if partial melting isn't a problem.

Our backup plan for the refrigerator involves our motley collection of coolers and bagged ice. Again, we keep it shut once the electricity goes off. If it's still off after 24 hours, we buy ice and put the contents of the refrigerator into however many coolers we need along with the ice.

We also have a collection of canned meat, canned vegetables, rice, flour, and snacks like crackers and pretzels to eat when we are keeping the refrigerator closed, along with anything that is ripe in the garden.

For us, the electricity goes off rarely enough that it is cheaper and easier to rely on purchased ice or dry ice rather than get an appliance or suite of them that need to be stored, maintained, and eventually disposed of.