No cost or low cost preps

[jansman]

Agree with the rice.Personally,I think its the ultimate storage food,and as Alloneword said,a lot of people live on rice in the world.If you can forage or better still have a garden,or have an allotment,then you are as well off as many millions on this planet.

If I was hard up,I would be buying rice as part of my food budget anyway ( as now),so from my £2.50 I would get an extra kilo per time.At 40p ( at the moment) it leaves £2.10.Those extra kilos soon add up to an emergency stash.

[sethorly]

your local Asian supermarket and buy a huge sack of rice

My family are big rice fans. In fact I'm just about to cook up some egg fried rice with a tonne of veg in it including pak choi - yum! We've got several 10kg bags (there's 6 of us) of our favourite rice as rotated rice preps - better than anything you can get in a non-East Asian supermarket:

Thai Hom Mali Fragrant Rice - Green Dragon (10kg). Smells great, slightly sticky, no good for risottos but perfect for everything else. Just my recommendation!

[izzy_mack]

Learn to .. whatever. When I first started prepping I laid in as much food as I could afford and then started on the "stuff", torches, candles, knifes, camping gear etc. As time has gone on, while a stock of food, water and power/light, is still needed, I now believe that knowledge is far more important.

Learn to forage, as suggested go to the library and get books to help learn the skill, not only will you have a skill for the future, it can save you money right now thereby saving you money which can be added to the prepping pot. Learn to sew if you can't already, making repairs to existing clothes and making patchwork cover or cushions out of old ones can save you in the long term. Learn to cook, I can do it anyone can and it is possible to make good meals for a fraction of the cost of ready made, soup and pizza are good to start with,nutrious, cheap and easy.

If you have a garden and live somewhere your vegs won't get nicked, great, if not pots of herbs on the windowsills can help jazz up meals, seeds 5 pkts for £1 in lidls, use yoguhrt pots if you can't find flowerpots.

First of all I would keep a careful note of EVERY penny I spend over the course of a month to see if there is anywhere I could save a penny on something or something we could have lived without. It can also help to see if any of the things you are doing is helping with your budget overall at a later date. I have done this and was amazed at the difference it makes when you see everything there in black and white as a month is a long time and it's easy to forget that little treat 3 weeks ago but when seen in the big picture it shows the difference it can make.

[jansman]

Some good feedback.It just shows that you preppers realise how cheaply you can prep!That was my point really; no matter how poor you are,it is possible to lay stuff by for emergencies. When you are hard up,that emergency can be eating because there is no cash this week.Those of us who have more ,perhaps worry about things that MAY happen.We have that luxury.

I came home from work this afternoon and Severn Trent had the road up again.There was a 'Boil Water' notice through the door.The water is running brown right now.Yuck! No matter,I got the stored water out and let my eldest have a 5 gallon barrel too.And the lady next door with a baby.Good job we have it,and its tap water,not bottled.That was my first ' No Cost Prep'.Britcit wrote:
If I were on such a budget, and assuming I was prepping more for financial bumps in the road, I would probably skip water preps. If wages\benefits are late, the taps are still on, but the cupboard may be bare.

That poor person would be in my situation now.Clean water in spite of supply problems. Human needs are relatively simple.Shelter,water,food,fuel.
I agree that skills are probably more important ( and I am speaking as a man with many practical and professional skills), and they can be learnt.In the presence of an immediate problem though you need supplies.

[Britcit]

^^^ A good point there jansman. I'll change my answer in light of that and agree, water in pop bottles as a start.

[jansman]

^^^ A good point there jansman. I'll change my answer in light of that and agree, water in pop bottles as a start.

Pleased to say the neighbours have all run the water through now and its nice and clear! Will still boil though I think for today.

[shocker]

Oats, porridge oats. Can be cooked loads of ways, hot wet food, cold long keeping food, bulk out broth or stock for soups and stews. With a very few extras, some foraged, they are a very versatile food. Can even be rubbed between your hands to make flour. 75p a kilo or less from supermarkets. Lovely oats.

[Stasher]

Rice is an excellent, cheap store cupboard item. If you're not used to eating a LOT of rice there are other, cheap alternatives such as cous cous. I am particularly keen on cous cous as a store cupboard staple not least because all the water you use to cook it is absorbed into the grains and consumed, there is no water wastage

Shopping when the stores reduce prices is a fantastic way to 'free up' extra cash by buying cheap frv and chilled goods. You just have to be prepared to eat everything you buy

I regularly scan tinternet for 'freebies'. Over the years I have had an amazing assortment of non food products including full size shampoo. conditioner, shower gel and cleaning products. Companies will also send you samples from hi end perfume to feminine hygiene products. Everything is added to the stash and again, frees up extra cash.

There are also survey companies that will send you products to trial and report back on, there are on line surveys companies that will give you credit for completing surveys. My friends son does this regularly and can then order his uni text books for 'free' from amazon

First of all I would keep a careful note of EVERY penny I spend over the course of a month to see if there is anywhere I could save a penny on something or something we could have lived without. It can also help to see if any of the things you are doing is helping with your budget overall at a later date. I have done this and was amazed at the difference it makes when you see everything there in black and white as a month is a long time and it's easy to forget that little treat 3 weeks ago but when seen in the big picture it shows the difference it can make.

How true, how true. This is a boring exercise but reaps rewards. Seeing where you spend your finite cash resource gives you the ability to make it stretch further by analyzing what you do eg if you drive anywhere, know how many miles per litre you get from the car. No more 'I'll just pop out to......' It makes you organize your time and use it more effectively giving you more 'time' which is probably the best free resource available to you

I'm going to go away now!

[ClericalError]

On the subject of ladies sanitary products and the exhorbitant cost of them and don't even get me started on the VAT!!! I found an article some years back about making your own re-usable items. This would fit in well with your frugal store cupboard.

http://tipnut.com/free-pattern-for-wash ... rual-pads/

For a young lady who prefers a more internalised solution, there are natural sea sponges. The initial cost is going to be a bit more than the £2.50 limit but a few pounds in a chemist/cosmetics counter will get someone a sponge that can be cut into several chunks. These can be rinsed and reused for ages. Perhaps a little more manual dexterity needed than a tampon with a string on it, but maybe we shouldn't go into that as some of the pixels might be starting to blush.

[Plymtom]

Cutting down on waste is something I wish we could do more, one if the issues of health problems within our family unit is a big hindrance to that, they have to have options food wise, some days something can be untouchable, the vac sealer has helped, but what would be terrific would be a small holder with a few animals close by (never going to happen we're far too urban) most of our food waste could be bunged toward livestock if the option were available.
Water, Rice, Oats, some great tips coming out here, I saved and cleaned a whole load of 2 litre bottles myself but have not filled and rotated them yet in part because storage is a really big issue.
At this point in time if you have storage space and spare money I'd say put it into tinned or non perishable household goods, it's as good as money in the bank, nothing is going to stay the same price, we've said it before in the right product you can save more than you'd make in interest that's for sure. there's a low cost activity have a tidy up, a sort out and make space for future preps.