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- 20 Ways to Live On Almost Nothing
- 15 Real Ways to Conserve (and save money!)
- Putting Old Clothes To New Use
- Ways to Live On Almost Nothing - 2
- Ways to Live On Almost Nothing - 3
- It's Better Than Cheap... It's Free!
- Ways to Live On Almost Nothing - 4
- Craig's List: Great Resource or Scary Place?
- Vacationing on a Shoestring Budget
3 Easy Ways to Eat Cheap
November 10th, 2008
The election is now over, the Neocons and their operatives at Treasury and the Fed are doing their best to loot the nation completely before power changes hands, and the citizens are collectively holding their breath, wondering just how bad it will get, thousands of jobs disappearing every week. The Grinch may well have succeeded in stealing Christmas this year - looks like we won’t have Circuit City to kick around anymore.
As the economy falls (for everyone but the oil companies, who are enjoying record profits as usual), the prices of just about everything keep going up. The most primal of our needs is food, and how we will survive the depression without sacrificing our health, our weight or our taste buds is a question many families are beginning to struggle with.
Filed under Alternatives, Conscious Living, Economic Depression, Garden, Grow Your Own, Nutrition, Recipes, Staple Foods, Surviving | Comment (1)Survive the ‘08 Meltdown: Part 2
October 7th, 2008
Food: Eating What You Can Get
World markets continue to take dramatic hits and the Dow has fallen below 10,000 for the first time in four years. Seems a lot of banks and other players are unhappy with the trillion dollar bailout package passed last Friday because it limits their personal golden parachutes and stock option scams. Awwww. Should we call the waaaaambulance for these whiners? Nope. If they didn’t need our money they shouldn’t have begged for a handout in the first place. In the meantime, regular people are having a much harder time putting food on the table as prices rise dramatically and more and more find themselves out of work. This post is a beginner’s primer on how to get food if you can’t afford it.
Before I get to the list of good links readers may find helpful depending on their particular situations, readers should know that many states, such as the one where I live (NC) have budgetary caps on how much relief in the form of food stamps they are able to provide. This can mean that even as increasing numbers of people find themselves going hungry, fewer people will have access to the standard governmental relief. Thus more people must turn to other providers. A good overview of those providers supported by the USDA commodity program is provided at Amber Waves. If your family is in danger of ‘food insecurity’ be sure to familiarize yourself with emergency providers in your area. Cities generally have soup kitchens, places where you can go for a hot meal. Most smaller cities and many towns or counties also have food banks, check into what you will need to provide to qualify.
Filed under Alternative economics, Alternatives, Barter, Economic Depression, Family Projects, Foraging, Grow Your Own, Inflation, Staple Foods, Surviving, Wild Harvest | Comment (0)What’s For Dinner? …Anything?
May 1st, 2008
The market news reports that consumer spending is up again this month. The problem is that this is not as a sign of possible economic recovery from the deepening recession we find ourselves in. It’s a reflection of the fact that people must spend more on basics like fuel and food - prices for both rising much faster than regular people can keep up with - thus must spend less on all that consumer junk our capitalistic system expects us to buy with our overrated “disposable income.”
If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re like me - I have no “disposable income” because all the income we have must go to simply pay for the necessities of life, and there’s hardly enough even cutting corners. Food, clothing, shelter, transportation, utilities. I have previously posted about the clothing thing, as I haven’t actually purchased new clothing for at least a decade. Used clothing is good enough - even suits and formal clothing - though I don’t dress up much. But the mortgage is what it is. Gas prices are what they are, they cannot be bargained down. And as the price of fuel rises, so does the cost of food and electricity. Thus more of our money must be spent on necessities, even if we never had any left over for junk in the first place!
Filed under Bulk Buying, Economic Recession, Farmer's Markets, Fuel, Garden, Grow Your Own, Nutrition, Staple Foods, Surviving | Comments (7)
