SS challenge! - 100+ steps to self-sufficiency

[Denim Deb]

39. Build your own solar panels
40. Change your vehicle to burn either wood or manure instead of gas
41. Learn how to spin wool
42. Crochet or knit what clothes you can
43. Grow your own cotton and/or flax for making into cloth.

 

[CJ1]

44. Build a gassifier

 

[sumi]

45. Switch to a solar water heater for household use
46. Save paper for reuse at home as scrap paper, homemade paper, packaging materials, pet bedding, and more.
47. Use reusable shopping bags, instead of disposable ones, and reuse store bags as trash bags.

 

[Denim Deb]

48. Shred junk mail, etc. to use as mulch around your vegetables.

 

[baymule]

49. Haunt the "cull" rack at Lowes, Home Depot or other lumber type stores and buy the reject lumber at half price or less.
50. Build what you want with curvy lumber.
51. Salvage used tin for building projects.
52. Collect pallets and use for building everything from fence, gates, coops, etc. You can sometimes take them apart and use the wood for other building projects.
53. Watch for sales on cow panels-they have SO many uses!
54. Build a movable chicken coop so they can have fresh pasture, eat bugs and ticks. I bought a boat trailer for $75 and am planning to build a coop on it.
55. For temporary storage, bow cow panels over, drive rebar stakes in the ground, secure with used baling wire, cover with a tarp.
56. Collect bagged leaves in the fall, other people have done all the work, just stop and ask if you can have them before the garbage man gets there. Pile deep in chicken coop and run, they will make compost in 3-6 months. Black Gold.
57. Stop at construction sites and ask permission to scrounge through the large roll off dumpsters, you can find all sorts of things you can use.
58. Have a metal scrap pile.
59. Have a lumber scrap pile--stored under your tarp/cow panel shelter!
60. Save your change all year, cash it in and splurge on something you want.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

61. Clean out your closets and have a garage sale
62. Change air filters on your AC units regularly
63. Have a good relationship with your neighbors - you can help each other. (during hurricane Ike, we loaned our generator to the neighbors to keep their freezer cold - they helped us cut up trees that had fallen)
64. Don't waste food! Use leftovers or feed 'em to chicken/hogs/dogs.
65. Take snacks and drinks on a road trip instead of buying snacks on the road. You can pick healthy choices and not be lured into impulse buys.

 

[CJ1]

Along with #60

66. Penny challenge. Saving money can be tough if you don't have an excess of it. So try doing it this way. Now this challenge does get tough toward the end of the year. But it's so worth it. Scale up or down depending on your financial situation.

Progressively save your change. First day of the year out a penny in the jar. Second day out two pennies. So on so forth. By the end of the year you've saved $667.95

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We're getting close to hurricane season so this will apply to those of us living on the coasts...

67. Fill those gas cans
68. Fill those propane bottles
69. Get charcoal/starter...easy way to cook when the power is out
70. Solar landscape lights are great when you have no power
71. A French press coffee maker makes great coffee and doesn't need power - only hot water
72. If you have a generator and a freezer - make ice, lots of ice. You will use tons of it and can share it with those who can't get any.
73. Buy extra tarps.
74. Stock up on animal feed before any weather issues
75. Have extra lumber/plywood/roofing supplies on hand. (raid the reject bins at HD and Lowes like @baymule suggested)
76. Store as much water as possible. You will need it for sanitary purposes, drinking, and animals

 

[baymule]

@frustratedearthmother to add to your list,
#73 Buy a roll of heavy plastic, it will store for years. If needed, lay it over the roof, then lay the tarp over it. Nail or screw 1x4's vertically, not horizontally. A horizontal board will catch water, it will collect and probably leak into the house.

#76 Buy several brand new plastic trash cans and fill with water, duct tape the lids on. Bathtubs usually leak out the water, place buckets in the tub and fill them up, place one by the toilet with a coffee can for dipping it up.

 

[CJ1]

Tarps. But tarps. You can reuse them and use them for the nonstormy season.

77. Just prior to any anticipated storm or in another area freeze fire or anything else that might disrupt utilities. Fill your bath tubs. You can not only drink the water but can bucket it into your toilets so you can flush.

Your typical bathtub is what? 35 gallons? That's enough water to cook with to keep a four person hydrated and keep the toilets flushing for a week. Maybe more.