whitetrashmama
freedom-is-sacred
I have been experimenting with becoming as self-sufficient as possible on a very low income and living in a semi-urban setting (apt with small front & back yard, Gulf Coast of USA)
I suppose there must be a number of threads on this topic, but I did not see any in a quick glance so please link me to one if you are already talking about it.
I have found some interesting positive side-effects of my experiment. One thing is that I was obese when I started and I found that my focus on the outer world relations of my food issues allowed me to diet without the obsessiveness that broke all my weight-loss efforts in the past. I also saw ALL my nuisance health issues evaporate as I went from obese to slightly fat. These included acid reflux, poor circulation, etc. I seem to have leveled off in weight and now am doing well.
I got rid of my refridgerator and use a chest-freezer and an insulated cooler in order to reduce my utility bill and also to move toward less dependence on rerfidgeration. In a crisis in which power supplies are limited, a chest freezer will hold the food for a few days longer than a fridge (which is almost an immediate loss) and so there is time to quickly cook up and distribute food that is in danger of spoilage. If a person has a generator, the freezer can be a good thing, too.
Did you know you can freeze eggs? Scramble a dozen eggs with about a half-cup of milk and then pour the raw-egg mixture into a dozen muffin cups , (thus getting each egg back.) Once they are hard-frozen, pop them out like ice cubes into plastic bags and keep in the freezer. (In any ongoing civic or natural crisis, eggs are one of the first foods to disappear or become expensive, therefore a good supply in the freezer should be set up while eggs are still available.)
I suppose there must be a number of threads on this topic, but I did not see any in a quick glance so please link me to one if you are already talking about it.
I have found some interesting positive side-effects of my experiment. One thing is that I was obese when I started and I found that my focus on the outer world relations of my food issues allowed me to diet without the obsessiveness that broke all my weight-loss efforts in the past. I also saw ALL my nuisance health issues evaporate as I went from obese to slightly fat. These included acid reflux, poor circulation, etc. I seem to have leveled off in weight and now am doing well.
I got rid of my refridgerator and use a chest-freezer and an insulated cooler in order to reduce my utility bill and also to move toward less dependence on rerfidgeration. In a crisis in which power supplies are limited, a chest freezer will hold the food for a few days longer than a fridge (which is almost an immediate loss) and so there is time to quickly cook up and distribute food that is in danger of spoilage. If a person has a generator, the freezer can be a good thing, too.
Did you know you can freeze eggs? Scramble a dozen eggs with about a half-cup of milk and then pour the raw-egg mixture into a dozen muffin cups , (thus getting each egg back.) Once they are hard-frozen, pop them out like ice cubes into plastic bags and keep in the freezer. (In any ongoing civic or natural crisis, eggs are one of the first foods to disappear or become expensive, therefore a good supply in the freezer should be set up while eggs are still available.)