Avoiding Waste Archives - Page 2 of 3

Self-Sufficient Saturdays: How to Make Banana Muffins without an Electric Mixer

Welcome to the latest Self-Sufficient Saturdays feature, where we try out projects that can easily be done in an apartment. Breakfast muffins are a staple at our house for busy weekday breakfasts. I used to buy them at the store until I found out how easy it is to make muffins yourself. There are no special ingredients, and you can rescue overripe, black bananas from getting thrown out. Just one problem: my cheap hand mixer that I’ve had for six […]

Bartering For Preppers

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Bartering for Preppers is a Guest Post by Robert Creech As everyone who engages in some form of prepping knows, it’s expensive. Most of us will never have all of the gear and resources we want, instead we prioritize and get by with what we can. However I’ve found that many people are leaving money on the table, so to speak, because they have skills (and maybe resources) that they aren’t fully utilizing. Yes, I’m talking about bartering. You have […]

Do this One Tip and Avoid Wasting Money

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Last week I was paying bills when I noticed the electric bill was $25 higher than last month’s. I didn’t think our usage changed that much so I called the power company to find out what changed. I was right, our usage didn’t change that much. But one thing did change: the discount electric plan I had subscribed to had expired. I’m usually pretty good about keeping track of such things so I asked why wasn’t I notified? Well, it […]

Don’t Throw it Out: Growing Vegetables from Trash

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A couple of months ago, I posted about an Herb that was Grown from Trash that generated a lot of interest. The experiment worked so well I still have fresh green onions I can use anytime. One of the comments (thanks Alison!) mentioned it is possible to try this with celery. So I decided to try it the next time I had celery. I used up the celery and only the stump was left. Usually I throw this out in […]

The Herb that was Grown from Trash

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This post is by Bernie Carr, apartmentprepper.com This year I am going to make an effort to avoid wasting food. I made a salad and had used up a bundle of scallions, except for the root which I had left in the refrigerator for a couple of days. I was about to toss these soggy roots into the trash when I decided to see if they would grow back: If you have never used scallions, they have a mild onion […]

A Food Storage Mishap that may Require a Haz Mat Suit

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Several months ago, my friend Em (name has been changed to protect the not so innocent) and I recently got to talking about stocking up on food and she told me she was pretty confident she had enough food stored up. Em has one of those large walk-in pantries that can be filled from floor to ceiling, something alien to us apartment preppers. She is quite preparedness-minded herself; she’d been carrying around a full suitcase of backup clothes for the […]

The Fine Line between Redundancy and Clutter

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“Two is one and one is none” is a survival maxim that we picked up early on when we started finding out about preparedness. The saying applies to keeping a backup for a tool or item at all times. For example, what if you only have one can opener, and a disaster happens. You need to open some canned food to feed your family, but your one and only can opener breaks. How are you going to open the canned […]

Supply Check

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After you have been accumulating supplies for a few months, it is a good idea to do a supply check: take a few minutes to look over your supplies and check your equipment to make sure they are in working order. We went through a large Rubbermaid container of miscellaneous emergency supplies and found some items no longer worked or were improperly stored. We had a Coleman lantern that I liked, since it gave off a pretty good light when […]

Avoid Holiday Food Waste

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During the holidays food all around us. Generally, food is plentiful, but there may come a time when it may not be so. Since I started preparing, I have become more conscientious about avoiding waste. Let’s face if you stop throwing out rotten produce, stretch your leftovers, you will need to buy less, eat out less, leaving with more cash for your emergency fund, buy storage foods or build up for your supplies. Here are some of the habits I […]

Can a Bank Glitch Ruin Your Weekend?

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A few days ago, millions of people in Australia could not get access to their own money for a whole weekend. According to news reports, a computer glitch at National Australia Bank, one of Australia’s largest banks, caused ATMs to freeze. See article What does this have to do with us here in the US? This can happen anywhere. Many people rely on using debit or credit cards for daily transactions. I used to rely on them as well. Think […]