What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Grannys Backyard Chicks]

My chickens love the little bugs in grass clippings. They also find bugs in the leaves when we rake. Not sure if it cuts down much on feed usage but it is fun to watch them.

My Dad taught me how to dress rabbits and chickens. Don't use those skills but I know how to if I would need to raise meat animals.

It's nice to read about neighbors helping neighbors.

 

[fuzzi]

Recycling old 12v battery options

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Over the years, I have a collection of 13 old, dead or dying batteries sitting out in one of my sheds. This week I am cleaning house and checking out all those batteries and turning them in for recycling.

Our local county recycling plant pays 10 cents per pound for old batteries. But we also have a Battery Wholesale Inc. (BWI outlet) in our town, and they pay 15 cents per pound. That's 50% more than the county recycling! It pays to ask each place what the current price for recycling is before you turn them in.

A couple days ago, I dropped off my first dead battery at BWI and got $9.30 for the core. That's not too bad. On the other hand, if you need to buy a new battery and you don't have a core return where I live, you get charged something like $11.00. In my case, I have many more old batteries than working batteries that will eventually need to be replaced.

I think it's great that today we can get money for our old, dead 12v batteries. I am old enough to remember the bad old days when you just tossed them at the dump. Unfortunately, some people are stealing car batteries to turn in for money. So, where I live at least, we have to give our driver's license info to the recycling center when we turn in old batteries. That info is shared with local law enforcement if they have an investigation. And yes, according to the guys at the recycling centers, people are indeed stealing batteries just to turn them in for money.

Aha. I took about 12 bags of cans to the salvage/recycling yard and they requested my DL. Must be a requirement for all customers now, as I don't think I looked like a can thief...

 

[fuzzi]

Raccoons, rabbits, and deer are the main ones, but last year it was all deer. I suggested using wire strung between fence posts at 6"-12" intervals. Cheap fence, as they have the posts, and probably the wire too, somewhere in the pole barn. The response was, "Well, then we'd have to have a gate. And put in the fence posts, and then they'd be a pain to mow around, and I'm not looking at weeds around the fence posts."

I am done making suggestions to her.

Some people prefer to complain and wallow in their problems than find a solution.

 

[Sally PB]

Some people prefer to complain and wallow in their problems than find a solution.

I think she enjoys her misery.

 

[fuzzi]

I think she enjoys her misery.

Yep.

"Waah waah, look at me"

 

[gtaus]

Aha. I took about 12 bags of cans to the salvage/recycling yard and they requested my DL. Must be a requirement for all customers now, as I don't think I looked like a can thief...

I don't understand that. I have never heard of a pop can thief. And if you were picking them up along the road as garbage, for example, maybe you should get twice the rate!

I can remember the bad old days in the 1960's when we got something 2 or 3 cents per each glass bottle of pop or beer that we turned into the grocery store. As little kids, we would go out to the roads and pickup up bottles in the ditches. I say it was bad old days because back then lots of people would just toss their garbage out the windows of the car. There were glass bottles everywhere tossed along the road - mostly beer bottles - but some pop bottles. Of course, you could buy a candy bar for only 5 or 10 cents, so we thought we were rich if we could bring in a box of bottles for return.

The past few days I was able to find 13 old car and lawn mower batteries in my garage and shed. Over the past 3 days, I finished testing them all last night. Only one battery was able to be charged and test out as useable. I looked at their manufacture dates, and the newest one was 6 years old. I loaded up 12 battery cores in my old Ford Explorer and plan on taking them to the Battery Warehouse Outlet today and get some money for them. Of course, it's also just nice to get rid of them and clean up the space they were wasting.

There are some YouTube videos on how to bring old dead batteries back to life. I tried that out on some of those batteries, but nothing worked for me. It would have been nice to save some of those more expensive batteries, but I suspect that after sitting outside in the shed and freezing over the winter, that probably killed them for good. It was worth a try to recondition the dead batteries, but I did not have any luck.

 

[gtaus]

 Well, I am back from town. I turned in 342 lbs. of old, dead batteries and got $51.30 for them at 15 cents per pound. The money is nice, but even better is just having got rid of them. Bought some groceries, chicken feed, a little bit of gas and still had some money left over.

When I was getting some gas at the station, I noticed a Tesla charging up at an EV station. We don't have many EV's where I live here in northern Minnesota. I wonder how well the batteries do in our winters when the temps can get down to -40F? I suspect lots of that energy will be going to heat both the inside of the car and to keep the batteries warm so they don't freeze.

I am not opposed to electric cars, in principle. But I don't think that the battery technology is up to the task to our cold temps - as compared to California, for example. If you want an EV here, you basically have to order one because our car lots don't sell them.

I'm not sure how long the batteries last in an EV, but my 1993 Ford Explorer is still running fine on gas! It doesn't get very good mileage, but the cost per mile to drive it is almost nothing because the insurance on it is only about $15.00 per month. A good running older car, even if it has bad gas mileage, still saves me a lot of money.

We don't have much solar panels around here either. Too much cloudy weather for a large part of the year. Every once in a while, I check into the economics of converting my house to solar. But last time I checked the payback period was almost 30 years.

I don't expect I have another 30 years ahead of me. So, solar options like that don't appeal to me.

But speaking of batteries, I have converted almost all my power tools to batteries. The new Lithium-Ion batteries last so much longer than the Ni-Cad batteries of years ago. I remember having to replace my Ni-Cad power tool batteries about every 2 years. I have some Lithium-Ion batteries that are over 10 years old and still working great.

From a frugal investment aspect, my electric trimmers, lawn mowers, chainsaws, roto tillers, etc... are lasting many years longer than my older gas tools. It's so nice just to pop in a freshly charged battery and have a tool that works. With the older gas engines, it was always a challenge to get them started and running properly. I have literally saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars by switching my lawn and yard tools to batteries instead of gas. I'll never go back to gas on that yard equipment.

 

[ChicNmom]

I really think they are rushing the whole electric vehicle thing. The technology just isn't there yet. The weight of them burns through tires and there is no way to recycle the batteries. Plus the fire issue. One caught fire in a parking lot a few weeks ago and they just had to let it burn itself out..

I also love the battery operated tools. I'm small so using a tool that weighs less is great for me

 

[Sally PB]

I really think they are rushing the whole electric vehicle thing. The technology just isn't there yet. The weight of them burns through tires and there is no way to recycle the batteries. Plus the fire issue. One caught fire in a parking lot a few weeks ago and they just had to let it burn itself out..

I bet electric vehicles will be the norm in the future. But. And it's a biiiiig but! The infrastructure isn't there yet. The manufacturing base isn't there yet. The technology isn't all there yet, either.

Does this mean we shouldn't head in that direction? In my mind, a resounding NO! It means we need to build the infrastructure and the manufacturing base, and improve the technology.

How long did it take the automobile to surpass the horse as a means of transportation? Anyone ride their horse into town recently?

 

[gtaus]

I really think they are rushing the whole electric vehicle thing. The technology just isn't there yet.

EV's seem to get better every year. I just don't see many EV's where I live, probably because of our cold winter climate. From what I understand, the freezing cold can reduce the battery range by over 30%.

there is no way to recycle the batteries.

I have watched lots of YouTube videos on people building solar battery systems using old EV car batteries. That seems to make sense. Those batteries can last many years if maintained. Sounds like a great second life for those used EV batteries.

I don't know the exact age those batteries are useful, but I have heard some people say about 10 years in an EV, and another 10 years in a solar battery bank.

I also love the battery operated tools. I'm small so using a tool that weighs less is great for me

And they are usually so much quieter. Yesterday I was outside with my electric chainsaw, and I could not hear it over the vacuum cleaner of my neighbor who was cleaning out a shed!

I know what you mean about wanting smaller, lighter tools. Dear Wife, a Filipina, is not a big woman, either. She would never touch my gas grass trimmers, for example. But she will pick up and use one of my smaller electric grass trimmers and use it to clean up around her flower garden beds. I also have an electric cultivator which she uses to fluff up the soil in her gardens before planting. She would never go near my gas rototiller.

There are a lot of advantages with the battery operated tools. I used to have to replace my gas trimmers about every 2-3 years. I have 3 acres of wooded property and we just use our trimmers all the time. But once we start having carburetor problems, after the warranty expired, it does not make any sense to have the shop repair them due to the high labor costs. So, I would have to buy a new trimmer.

I bought new gas grass trimmers for many years. Then I bought my first battery trimmer. It did not have all the power of my gas trimmer, but it got the job done. My oldest battery trimmer is now 15+ years old and still works fine with a fresh battery! Since then, I have purchased other battery trimmers that are now just as powerful as my gas trimmers were. But I like them because they weigh a lot less and are much quieter.

It's the batteries up front cost that is expensive. But I bought into the Ryobi line of tools so all my tools can use the same batteries. The other day we had a terrible windstorm and part of one of my bigger trees fell down. The base of the trunk was about 20 inches. I used my electric chainsaws to cut it up. It took about 8 fully charged batteries to complete the job. At an average of maybe 3 cents per charge, it cost me less than 25 cents to cut up that tree.

And yes, I have a lot more than 8 batteries. I have been in Ryobi line for about 20 years and have over 40 batteries in use at last count. The new Lithium-Ion batteries last many years. I always seem to pick up 2 or 3 new batteries each year when I buy a tool or kit. I have never paid full retail a tool battery!

I know that in the Ryobi line, a full retail price of a battery might be around $100.00. But when you buy a tool with battery, or a kit with multiple batteries, the effective price per that same battery drops to around $20.00. I don't need more new batteries, but if they come with a tool or in a kit, that's just a bonus for me at those low prices. And some of my oldest Li-Ion batteries on that shelf are getting to be almost 15 years old and still working.

Frugal Tip - Register your tools and batteries

Of all the Ryobi batteries that I have owned for over 20 years, I only had one battery fail within the 3-year warranty period. Because I had registered my tools and batteries, and kept my receipts, I got a free exchange on my battery. I really encourage everyone to register their tools and keep their receipts because there is a lot of theft in that market and if you don't have proof of purchase, you will not get a warranty replacement.

Frugal Tip - Using Labels For Warranty Expiration Dates

I also use a label maker to make labels with the warranty expiration date that I stick on my tools and batteries. If a tool or battery should fail on me, I can quickly look at the label to see if it is still under warranty. If so, I keep all my receipts and documentation in a "Warranty Folder" in my office. I only once had a Ryobi tool fail on me within the warranty period, but I got good service because I registered the product and kept my receipts.

I also label all my HDD's in my computer media center server. The HDD's I purchase have 5-year warranties from Amazon resellers. I have had many HDD's fail within their warranty period. So far, every seller has honored their warranty and replaced the failed drives because I have kept my receipts. Again, the label on the HDD just lets me know quickly if the HDD is still under warranty, or not, and I go from there.