What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Sally PB]

@saysfaa, what a struggle. I'm sorry you both had to go through this.

 

[saysfaa]

Does anyone have a Berkey?

Our tap water is safe to drink but doesn't taste very good. We've been refilling gallon jugs at the drinking water station at the grocery store. It is about fifty cents a gallon plus buying new jugs occasionally. That is much less than bottled water but I think it would take less than a year for a Berkey to pay for itself. There is the added benefit of cutting another source of plastic.

Is there are downside I am missing?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a Berkey I don’t use it for my flock we have a spring I get their water from.

 

[TooCheep]

I've had a Berkey for 5-6 years. It is expensive up front, but in the long-term is much, much cheaper than bottled water. Assuming you are using a Big Berkey (2 filters), it costs about 5.8 cents/gallon over the first 6,000 gallons when the original filters are shot and 2.8 cents/gallon for additional filters over time. In other words, it is actually very frugal.

From my experience, my tap water is considerably better tasting due to the contaminants removed.

 

[fuzzi]

It took doctors two years to figure out what the problem was during which they all said to use more lotion - which also often has formaldehyde (in many dozens of names) and when it didn't it had other preservatives she was also allergic to (parabens, a couple of others). The allergy dr wasn't much help with sources clothing - said to just do the best you can and the itching might be as much as half as bad after six months.

Anyway, the itching had been so bad for so long that we went scorched earth about it. We used homemade soap and laundry soap ("allergy free" on the label of laundry products means it is scent and dye free not preservative free).

We mostly used the oldest 100% cotton clothing we could find in resale shops. The wrinklier it looked the better. We tried wool for warmth (scarves, mittens, coats, sweaters, socks) but later testing showed she was allergic to wool also.

I knitted her slippers from cotton yarn because we couldn't find any slippers we were sure were safe. I found one company that didn't use formaldehyde in tanning the leather for shoes - Softstar shoes in Oregon (we were willing to use man made materials but couldn't find any safe ones). We think the Buster Brown cotton socks were safe whether they said anything about it or not.

I found one company in Europe that makes winter coats without formaldehyde, we ended up not buying one because it was nearly spring by the time I found that company; she didn't need a coat the next winter. I found one medium weight cotton coat in a resale shop that was made in Japan at least several decades ago - clothing made in Japan is much less likely to be treated.

I found two or three companies that make sheets without the treatments - I think we bought from American Blossom. We just risked the blankets since she normally kept the sheets in place as she slept.

Look for GOTS certification. OEKO-TEX 100 certification is better than nothing but doesn't cover the entire product; sometimes some of the components are safe but others aren't which makes the whole thing unsafe.

To be fair, we were going for things we could be sure were safe. Once the itching calmed down, she tried riskier clothing (ones with catalog descriptions didn't say anything to tip off that it wasn't safe). Sometimes, the packages the items came in said something, sometimes they didn't but were not safe. Sometimes they were safe.

You have to watch out for marketing - those that say the most about it are usually super expensive and only sometimes safer, maybe. They tend to paint with broad brushes when they don't use some chemical that most do; it doesn't mean they don't use other chemicals - a clothing version of the allergy-free laundry detergents.

Edit to add: remember changes are usually without warning. Whatever category or buzzword indicated a safer option then may not now.

My mom had a lot of allergies, triggered probably by restoring an old house (mold, dust, solvents, etc) and then moving into a newly-built house that gassed out formaldehyde from the wallpaper and kitchen cupboards for the two years we lived there. I also developed allergies, as did my sisters. My mom was told by everyone including doctors that her issues were "in her head", but now that both my sisters have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia we're fairly certain that's what Mom suffered from.

 

[fuzzi]

Does anyone have a Berkey?

Our tap water is safe to drink but doesn't taste very good. We've been refilling gallon jugs at the drinking water station at the grocery store. It is about fifty cents a gallon plus buying new jugs occasionally. That is much less than bottled water but I think it would take less than a year for a Berkey to pay for itself. There is the added benefit of cutting another source of plastic.

Is there are downside I am missing?

I have a gravity-fed water purifier though not a Berkey. The taste of the water is unbelievable, delicious, like well water from my childhood (300' deep). I used the filtered water for my chicks until they graduated to the 5 gallon waterer.

 

[alwaystj9]

"Bob" Countertop filter
I've had an ecosoft filter for years. My daughter learned to love her sitter's filtered water and I ended up getting one for us. It's actually sold as "Bob"on their website and we still refer to it by that name.
I looked at Berkeys & a few terracotta filters but I didn't want to have to fill& refill.

 

[gtaus]

Does anyone have a Berkey?

Our tap water is safe to drink but doesn't taste very good. We've been refilling gallon jugs at the drinking water station at the grocery store. It is about fifty cents a gallon plus buying new jugs occasionally. That is much less than bottled water but I think it would take less than a year for a Berkey to pay for itself. There is the added benefit of cutting another source of plastic.

Is there are downside I am missing?

What is the source of your water? Are you on town supply or a home well?

I have well water, and think it tastes just fine. But Dear Wife insists on using a filter pitcher for her drinking water. Something like this....

I would try something inexpensive like a filter pitcher before investing $$$$ in a Berkey system or any other high-cost alternative.

FWIW, I don't normally drink plain water. But I go through lots of those powdered mix drinks from WalMart. Iced Tea with Peach is my favorite. But they also have lots of other flavors to choose from. It comes out to about 38 cents for a 2-liter bottle of mixed drink. I like WalMart's Great Value mixes, but they also have name brands to choose from.

On hot summer days when I'm outside working in the yard, I can go through an entire 2-liter bottle of iced tea to keep myself hydrated.

Anyways, if your water is safe to drink but you just don't care for the taste, then maybe try some of these mixes. You might not need any special filter systems.

 

[ChicksnMore]

My mom had a lot of allergies, triggered probably by restoring an old house (mold, dust, solvents, etc) and then moving into a newly-built house that gassed out formaldehyde from the wallpaper and kitchen cupboards for the two years we lived there. I also developed allergies, as did my sisters. My mom was told by everyone including doctors that her issues were "in her head", but now that both my sisters have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia we're fairly certain that's what Mom suffered from.

That's really sad. There's a hand condition often called "housewife hands" that's basically an allergic reaction in the skin of your hands to constant water and chemical exposure. Once it starts it never goes away completely. Women are also more prone to lung cancer regardless of smoking status because they're exposed to more inhaled chemicals. You'd think a good doctor would never say it's "in your head", but instead say "I don't know but let's keep trying to figure out"

 

[saysfaa]

What is the source of your water? Are you on town supply or a home well?
...
Anyways, if your water is safe to drink but you just don't care for the taste, then maybe try some of these mixes. You might not need any special filter systems.

Well water. We use it for cooking, tea, and such, and everything outside including water for the chickens. I just want to drink quite a bit of plain water too.