What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[BarnyardChaos]

Sometimes I feel like I can feed the chickens by shoveling up all the corn waste left on the side of the road when they harvest the field corn

I've done that!!! There's a bulk feed mill not far away. I can often find a pile of corn on the side of the road where somebody's feeder leaked while bouncing over the potholes, or the stray bag of feed that fell off the trailer

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Plastic Easter grass? I didn't get that - it is part of my parents' estate that none of us can think of a use for - there is several dozen bags - maybe a cubic yard.

Wow!!! You are really good at finding odd stuff...

Ok, the Easter grass you mean the little square mats about 8"square with fake plants coming up? I once used those as the bottom of a budgie cage, it 'grips/hides' the shell of their food they throw and traps it from being batted around when they beat their wings (also stops them having access to walking on/in their poo.)

If you mean the thin threads of plastic or paper that are used at the bottom of bags/baskets to decorate...
1. If paper: they could be used in a chicken nest box and then composted
2. If plastic: can be used in nest box but won't compost and I worry they might try to eat them (they love the things they can't digest!) So I would hesitate, depending on what your girls do to them. You could put them in a bucket to clean them or just throw them once fowled.
3. Plastic: ones could be put in a bag (like a bread bag) and used as insulation in a coop/or shed wall. Mice won't eat it, the trapped air is what makes insulation and the bag is a wind barrier.
4. If plastic: you can use it to fill up something like a pillow you want to be able to put in a washing machine. If you were making something like a dog bed you would want to machine wash and have something that won't pick up smell, this material would be awesome for that.
5. You can see if you have a local church that does a bake sale at Easter, they might need it for their decorations (they will likely toss it afterwards though, so it ends up in landfill)

 

[alwaystj9]

When it comes to food, I try to plant the beans in stages so that not all the plants come ready to harvest at the same time. Also, we eat as much fresh food as possible in season and do without in the off season. We have a nice new freezer out in the garage, but frozen food is not as good as fresh, although it's still very good. We just had some frozen squash last night for supper that we picked last August. And we still have a few bags of frozen beans in the freezer.

I am currently staggering partial rows of carrots, radishes and beets. My greens (several varieties) sort of survived the last big freeze and I am starting a few replacements in the house. I confess that I get tired of greens...but have started finding new ways to cook them and use them. (Mixed greens & eggs skillet, anyone?)
Sometimes I just want bad for me, bad for the world fast food.
I have to conquer the cravings

 

[gtaus]

Next they are liners for garden boxes because you should not plant into wood containers if you use recycled wood, or cedar, or treated wood (etc etc) as they leach into the soil.

I like that idea for using up those old feed bags. Although I don't consider modern day treated wood as toxic to plants we eat, I think using a feed bas as a liner in the garden bed or planter will probably add a few years of life for the wood.

Everything chicken poo is the best compost EVER, if you have issues w smell or flies or volume, put the poo in a bucket, cover w water, in a few days it will ferment and you can use it to water on a plant without burning the roots. I don't know about pathogens, so I use it on plants not currently being eaten (fruit trees when they are not making fruit, flowers, or garden beds not currently growing anything, or far from time of consumption)

I turned my entire run into a chicken run composting system. My coop deep bedding gets dumped into the chicken run when I clean out the coop twice a year. All the bedding and everything else I put into the run turns into compost which I harvest for use in my garden beds. I think the best time to harvest chicken run compost is late in the fall and let the compost age directly in the garden beds over the winter. I will harvest chicken run compost in the spring and use that mixed with top soil 1:1 to build new raised bed gardens. But I never use fresh chicken poo that has not been aged. I don't have any concerns about pathogens with my aged chicken run compost. It's the best.

thought well water was contaminated,

Yeah, fresh well water can be as good or better than bottled water from "a spring." More than likely someone's tap water just bottled up and sold.

Fyi, Evian (leading bottled water brand) is just "naive" spelled backwards. From what I read; it was an intentional joke because the guy thought anyone buying "free" bottled water had to be pretty naive.

We are saving for a generator, I’ve heard about rolling blackouts too many times in other areas recently and people are moving here to the desert in droves.

I recently watched a YouTube video posted by a guy who invested over $90,000.00 in a total house solar system. He lived off grid, obviously, but his video posting was on trying to convince most people would be much better off with a "grid-down" battery backup system with an emergency generator for long term use. He recommended a battery backup system that was constantly rechargeable on grid power, and if the grid went down, you would have stored energy for a day or two. If you need to prepare for longer periods of down time, then he suggested getting a generator to recharge the batteries. He calculated he could run his generator to recharge his batteries at a cost of about $15.00 per week. The battery backup system and emergency generator would be much less an investment than his total house solar system. Payback period would be next to nothing. And you would still be protected for most emergencies without grid power.

His concern is that most people living on grid power don't need to buy into a total house solar system with a 25 year payback period. I think that sounds about right.

 

[LizzzyJo]

I read about a guy who saved and then compacted/melted his plastic waste into blocks then made his goat house out of it. Fumes from burning the plastic notwithstanding, that sounded awesome.

 

[gtaus]

Sometimes I just want bad for me, bad for the world fast food.

One advantage to living outside of town is that I am not tempted to buy "fast food" because it takes me longer to drive into town and back then if I cooked real food for myself at home.

We really don't buy much microwave food that could be consider fast food, either. I guess that's good.

 

[LizzzyJo]

I like that idea for using up those old feed bags. Although I don't consider modern day treated wood as toxic to plants we eat, I think using a feed bas as a liner in the garden bed or planter will probably add a few years of life for the wood.



I turned my entire run into a chicken run composting system. My coop deep bedding gets dumped into the chicken run when I clean out the coop twice a year. All the bedding and everything else I put into the run turns into compost which I harvest for use in my garden beds. I think the best time to harvest chicken run compost is late in the fall and let the compost age directly in the garden beds over the winter. I will harvest chicken run compost in the spring and use that mixed with top soil 1:1 to build new raised bed gardens. But I never use fresh chicken poo that has not been aged. I don't have any concerns about pathogens with my aged chicken run compost. It's the best.



Yeah, fresh well water can be as good or better than bottled water from "a spring." More than likely someone's tap water just bottled up and sold.

Fyi, Evian (leading bottled water brand) is just "naive" spelled backwards. From what I read; it was an intentional joke because the guy thought anyone buying "free" bottled water had to be pretty naive.



I recently watched a YouTube video posted by a guy who invested over $90,000.00 in a total house solar system. He lived off grid, obviously, but his video posting was on trying to convince most people would be much better off with a "grid-down" battery backup system with an emergency generator for long term use. He recommended a battery backup system that was constantly rechargeable on grid power, and if the grid went down, you would have stored energy for a day or two. If you need to prepare for longer periods of down time, then he suggested getting a generator to recharge the batteries. He calculated he could run his generator to recharge his batteries at a cost of about $15.00 per week. The battery backup system and emergency generator would be much less an investment than his total house solar system. Payback period would be next to nothing. And you would still be protected for most emergencies without grid power.

His concern is that most people living on grid power don't need to buy into a total house solar system with a 25 year payback period. I think that sounds about right.

I’m still pretty Evian about sustainability even after working at it for 5 years!

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Rubber bands like the grocery store has around broccoli bunches? Also part of the estate - maybe 20 pounds of them.

20 lbs?!! That means they ate a lot of broccoli !

Ok... Elastics...

My first instinct is that since you have so mlany there might be a business that needs them so I might put them on Facebook marketplace asking if anyone needs them.

They age badly but while 'young' they can be used for things like tying up wires in the house (cleaning up that box of wires everyone has) making cords shorter (things like lamp cords by folding up the extra length and tying with an electric. They are fine to fill a bag of shed wall insulation (like prior tip).

I use elastics as a tie-wrap type of fastener. You use them by folding like in picture (that is my pinkie finger, I am not giving you "the" finger)

You can do that to tie up things in the garden such as blackberry canes or even tomato plants up to climb (or vines)

They will not last very long, but for seasonal things they are useful.

Your local post office would likely have use of them.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Jewel cases for CDs? I did get those - it was one of those get a small package for almost the same price as a large case and we needed just over the number in the package. I thought we would use more later. opps.

You can put little recipe cards (hand written or on a lazer printer) of your family recipes and give them out at a holiday. Like Granny's recipes for Thanksgiving dinner Givenchy to your kids or nieces/nephews or even neighbors, add a little picture of Granny if you have it.

They are useful to keep recipes clean and sorted too, if you have a few of apple pies or such.

They are useful for keeping pictures or calendars clean on a desk or counter.

You could pop a little picture in one and hang it in the garage or work shop.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I like that idea for using up those old feed bags. Although I don't consider modern day treated wood as toxic to plants we eat, I think using a feed bas as a liner in the garden bed or planter will probably add a few years of life for the wood.

People using pallet wood really should line them, they are absolutely treated with non-food grade chemicals. Generally, since I often use recycled woods, I prefer not to trust the chemicals they add to prevent rot and keep them straight... But even on flower bed woods, I prefer to line them because they just last longer and it stops soil/water from getting through the cracks and aging the wood. It slows down the rot and keeps the surface clean, reduces the fast drying of the soil in summer as the water stays in the container. It helps me direct the run-off of water, I can send it where I want it to drain.