A well is not a good idea. Our municipal water supplies are being paid for in taxes so you may as well use them. The EPA regulates the hell out of them as opposed to your well which you have to pay someone to check every year and pay to pump it out.

Thanks to the commenters for the nwt suggestion on eBay, though I doubt they can beat Wal*Mart for their $15 Wranglers. After losing 30+ lbs my jeans are all huge on me and falling down so I need to get a new wardrobe ASAP.

It seems to me that fertilizing your garden with municipal compost would be a good way to get contaminated food (metals, pcbs, etc)…Is there any sort of testing, etc that goes on in these programs?

I have been meaning to try this out but have been really busy at work lately.

I’m not affiliated with that site, by the way, although I had the exact same idea about 13 months ago.

But seriously, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen this list regurgitated, I could retire and not have to worry about hedging against inflation.

How about a more in-depth post about one or two of these topics – like the food from basic ingredients – since that’s something everyone can use?

When I made my raised beds, I used three pine fencing panels for each. One panel was cut in half to make the short sides of the bed, and the remaining two were used for the long sides. The beds have held up for two years so far, and they’re still in pretty good shape. So if you if you decide to go with wood, you can use whatever’s cheapest. Just make sure it isn’t treated wood, as some of the chemicals used to treat the wood could leach into the garden bed.

If you have access to inexpensive cinderblock or stone, you could use this for the beds as well, and the beds would probably outlast you. ;-)

One final thought … if you’re looking to build deep beds, it’s easier to do this by removing the clay soil beneath your beds than it is to build your beds twice as high.

For example:
My favorite store wine is a dry, oaky merlot from S. Africa
Cost: $12.30 / 750mL
Making a “kit” and customize it with extra oak
Cost: $3.30 / 750mL

When I go to big bashes I always bring the stuff, we make big batches of sangria and every one gets smashed for ~$4.50 a person rather than ~$16 a person, across 30 people that’s a savings of $345.

This difference is only going to increase with rising shipping costs.

If you have a window, a fire escape, a small patio, a back porch … you can have a garden. And if your yard’s soil is bad, that’s easily fixed.

I like the main idea here, though…it’s sort of my philosophy as well. I can’t really do a lot about inflation, but I can work hard at controlling my spending.

But in either case, these are good suggestions.

Thank you for all your wonderful postings.
Am a young mom of 8month old Florian.
Very happy but unhappily unemployed.

You are an inspiration both on a practical level: householdmanagement/frugality/food, and on a lifehacking level: how can I combine my newfound mommy happiness with a way to generate a healthy income, without either infringing on the other.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Tess
Amsterdam, NL

Some ideas that I’ve been putting into action:

I’ve been making my own tortillas instead of buying them (takes about 10 minutes and saves me about $2.00 per pack, plus I never run out!)

I buy the gallon size of milk, keep half of it for milk, and make my own yogurt from a half gallon. (again, saves $2-3 per large tub of yogurt, or $6 for the whole 1/2 gallon batch)

Bake a dessert or cookies once every week or two to take as a snack for work to go with my brown bag lunch.

Have been working at building the habit of eating ALL the food in the fridge & all the leftovers.

Learned to make better stock with leftover chicken bones. After LONG simmering even the cartilage turns into stock. Also, it’s supposed to be good for your joints.

These habits go right to my bottom line and actually they are pretty easy and convenient in their own way.

Here’s one recent article about inflation: http://mises.org/story/2989