No cost or low cost preps

[GillyBee]

A basic sewing and basic household repairs kit and the basic sewing and diy skills to use them. The library and YouTube can teach a lot of this for free.

It is shocking what some people throw out that just needs minor repair. If the SHTF it will be repair or do without.

[MancLife]

he explained about bin raiding....most supermarkets don't say anything

All1

Please don't do this. Regardless of the morality of of it (I've no issue with it) it is theft and you could be prosecuted for it.

[grenfell]

he explained about bin raiding....most supermarkets don't say anything

All1

Please don't do this. Regardless of the morality of of it (I've no issue with it) it is theft and you could be prosecuted for it.

On a similar note my father worked for the council in the refuse department and barely a day went by without him bringing something home. At one point ( either late 70's early 80's) the council wanted to prosecute anyone taking things from the skips but the police weren't interested in arresting people for stealing rubbish. It's all changed now with cameras in place on sites and lorries and the police will prosecute. Not long ago i went to the tip and chatted to one of the workers there. He was chucking brand new unworn shoes into a bin and saying that they would fit him but with the cameras he'd lose his job.

[The Green Man]

In a time when the emphasis is on reusing and recycling it’s unbelievable that rubbish dumps have stopped people from taking items.

A friend of mine made a good living for a few years repairing & reselling Dyson vacuums with parts salvaged from our local tip.
We used to be able to collect empty gas cylinders from there when we needed a refill to avoid paying the rental charge, this was handy when we needed extra bottles for scout camps, not anymore.

[jansman]

he explained about bin raiding....most supermarkets don't say anything

All1

Please don't do this. Regardless of the morality of of it (I've no issue with it) it is theft and you could be prosecuted for it.

On a similar note my father worked for the council in the refuse department and barely a day went by without him bringing something home. At one point ( either late 70's early 80's) the council wanted to prosecute anyone taking things from the skips but the police weren't interested in arresting people for stealing rubbish. It's all changed now with cameras in place on sites and lorries and the police will prosecute. Not long ago i went to the tip and chatted to one of the workers there. He was chucking brand new unworn shoes into a bin and saying that they would fit him but with the cameras he'd lose his job.

My dad worked 30 years as a binman. It was hard work,but he loved it.We looked forward to seeing what he brought home as kids,always a surprise.He was fortunate that he worked in the posh rural areas,and the housewives would purposely leave all sorts in boxes next to their bins,purposely for them.One house was owned by a couple with an international businesses of some sort,and the gentleman used to fly all over the world.He wore tailor made silk shirts,and would only wear them once! The lady of the house would have them professionally laundered,and leave them out for the lads! The first time she did,she collared my dad,and asked if they would be offended.I seem to recall they got a £50 tip there at Christmas too.That house never struggled to get rid of rubbish!

Dad was able to accumulate so much stuff,that he would do four car boot sales a year,and average £250+ each time.His stock cost nothing! They were the good days.Now,as grenfell said that's all gone.I was at the tip,andI commented on some boxed,new,Laura Ashley curtains.The chap said, " theres someone out there would be really grateful for those,but the rule is to bin everything,regardless. "

Remembering my late dad's antics has brought a bit of a tear to my eye.

[GillyBee]

Our local tip now has a re-use shop where all usable items like this are sold back to the public. Gas bottles, unused tiles and some other bits are also explicitly left in areas that allow others to help themselves. Everything sold or taken is one less thing to pay landfill tax on. Maybe your council needs to talk to ours...

[jansman]

Our local tip now has a re-use shop where all usable items like this are sold back to the public. Gas bottles, unused tiles and some other bits are also explicitly left in areas that allow others to help themselves. Everything sold or taken is one less thing to pay landfill tax on. Maybe your council needs to talk to ours...

You are right.

[ForgeCorvus]

Our local tip now has a re-use shop where all usable items like this are sold back to the public. Gas bottles, unused tiles and some other bits are also explicitly left in areas that allow others to help themselves. Everything sold or taken is one less thing to pay landfill tax on. Maybe your council needs to talk to ours...

Pretty much the same here..... Although some of the items 'saved' baffle me, imagine a large plastic barrel so full of golf clubs they were stacking up beside it

The prices are nuts too, a working 1917 hand-crank Singer £5 or ten large (badly tea stained) Vango vacuum flasks a quid each (bulk)

[grenfell]

Our local tip now has a re-use shop where all usable items like this are sold back to the public. Gas bottles, unused tiles and some other bits are also explicitly left in areas that allow others to help themselves. Everything sold or taken is one less thing to pay landfill tax on. Maybe your council needs to talk to ours...

I live on the border between councils. In terms of recycling the one covering where i live is evidently one of the better ones but five miles down the road is a tip run by the other council that has a shop like the one you have. On another forum i use a poster who lives in spain explained a system that is used there. Only a small village/town but the poster was saying that an area was set aside for skips for people to use and also take stuff out if they wished. The council would empty the skips at the end of each week. It probably wouldn't work in a larger situation , certainly not emptying just once a week , but it sounded such an easy solution.
Jansman , reading your post i almost wondered if you were described your dad or mine. Now i don't think my father had a second family but.....

[Arzosah]

I'm slightly obsessed by shoring up the local ecology - wildflowers, bug hotels etc. As preppers, conserving the environment on behalf of the insects that pollinate our crops, and purify the soil/ water, is a good idea even on practical terms. Did anybody else see Jimmy's Big Bee Rescue on Channel 4, or whatever it was called? He had a really good point about "corridors" to create sustainable bee habitats, where they can fly to and return to their hives, rather than expend so much energy trying to get to a far off group of flowers that they die on the return journey.

My town is quite little, only about 35,000, and it's also still quite green, a lot of rec. spaces, a lot of grass verges, even a little flood plain about 100m across that hasn't ever been built on, as well as at least 3 allotment sites that I'm aware of. Jimmy Doherty's year long experiment, based on just a few inputs, almost tripled the bee count in those areas - it's the kind of initiative that could be helpful in so many ways, including to those of us wanting to grow our own crops.

As a start, I'm going to draw a plan of the town including green spots where flowering plants could be very easily inserted, plus verges, plus areas where gardens seem to be already well tended.... it will probably take me about a thousand years, but I love the sound of it.