101 simple tips to be selfsufficientish

[flower]

90. pass on all the above wisdom to your children.

[Stonehead]

91. Annpan suggested considering if you need a car. Don't consider, do it. Cut back to one car or no cars. (We're in the country with no bus service and limited rail service, but we've cut back to one car.)

92. Use hand tools instead of power tools, whether in the garden, the workshop, the kitchen or anywhere else.

93. Use a laptop instead of a desktop computer. At the very least, change that old CRT display for a low-energy LCD one.

94. Use broody hens instead of incubators.

95. Tackle jobs that you'd normally pay someone else to do - bearing in mind safety! Learn plumbing, carpentry, car maintenance, bricklaying, etc.

96. When you've developed those skills to a reasonable level, lend yourself out to friends and neighbours.

97. When you've made your jam, preserves, chutneys and homebrews etc or grown vegetables, give some away to your friends and neighbours. Even if it doesn't encourage them to do the same, you've still spread goodwill and show there is another way.

98. Set up your own 12v charging station using solar or wind power. It doesn't need to be big - a 12v leisure battery, a renewable energy source, a regulator and a variety of 12v adapters areall you need to recharge all matter of 12v appliances.

99. Get a treadle sewing machine and repair/make your own clothes - reverse those collars and cuffs, sew up those rips and patch those holes.

100. Learn how to darn a sock instead of buying new ones.

101. For the risk takers and adventurers: ignore all the advice about taking small steps. Instead, take one huge leap off the precipice. Even if it takes a while to fly, as Buzz Lightyear says, you'll still be falling with style!!! (And yes, we've been falling for quite a while now... )

[Annpan]

Woopieee we made it... see what we can achive together

91. Annpan suggested considering if you need a car. Don't consider, do it. Cut back to one car or no cars. (We're in the country with no bus service and limited rail service, but we've cut back to one car.)

I don't have a car (OH does - and needs it for work), I have no bus service, no train service and I feel I have to humour people who tell me I need a car - I am so busy in the house I don't even notice most of the time...
I had a conversation with another young mum in the village who said that this was a horrid place to live if you don't have a car - such people treating villages like a housing estate... drive in , drive out, don't meet the neigbours, don't go for walks, don't use the garden... I feel sorry for those who think that you need a crutch like a car (or a TV, etc) to live... sigh

[Peggy Sue]

You're right. I can't afford to live in a village round here they are so expensive, so I have to live on a housig estate and hence can't keep chickens. I'd just love that. The villages are packed with commuters here, all driving 4x4s to the office & another to the school. Perhaps we schould have congestion charges for villages....there's a thought.

My husband is trying to get a new job so he can cycle to work, I already can- so if that works we can have one 'emergency' car for the impossible jobs like collecting horsefeed and then we will be free! Fingers crossed for that job

[MrsD'ville]

Ahem...

73. Use reusable menstrual prods (no, not you blokes!)

Ouch, menstrual prods sound quite medieval!

On the basis that you do need a car as like us you live in the arse end of nowhere with a bus there twice a month and back once a year, combine and plan journeys. If you have children organise runs where feasible and take advantage of free school transport where available. Sadly, we now have to pay for ours which has made it a daft financial proposition, such a shame as it makes so much sense ecologically. The same council has ensured public buses stop running just before school chucks out, thereby forcing us to use our gas-guzzling car and take up even more of my time And yes, we do live too far for any of us to cycle these journeys, and shopping in the town within walking/cycling distance is ridiculously expensive. We've managed on one car for quite a long time now as Mr D'ville works from home and we usually wangle something when we need to be in two places at once, which everyone knows is an essential skill for a parent

[Merry]

Peggy Sue - know what you mean about having to live on a housing estate. We moved to the suburbs so that we could get to work on foot intending to go back to our roots on retirement. Now the property in our home village and surroundings is totally gentrified and unaffordable. We aren`t gentry looking for a posh retirement cootage - just ordinary folk wanting the `good life` back where we belong.

[QuakerBear]

102. Embrace simplicity as something which will make your life a lot easier rather then creating hardship.

103. Did anyone say throw away your T.V.? Well throw away your T.V., it just brainwashes you into thinking you're unhappy and stuff will make you happy.

[getting there]

102. Embrace simplicity as something which will make your life a lot easier rather then creating hardship.

103. Did anyone say throw away your T.V.? Well throw away your T.V., it just brainwashes you into thinking you're unhappy and stuff will make you happy.

Good point and similarly it brainwashes your kids into wanting junk food and junk possessions which makes them nag and whine and plead and beg and moan and whinge until parents buy in hopes of some peace.

(I put my tv away in a trunk so that I'm not as tempted to just blob out and turn my brain to mush on the rubbish they call programmes. The reason I haven't thrown it away is because I love nature documentaries and to watch a movie with my daughter once a week. )

[getting there]

Try to structure your awake time to be within the hours of light as far as possible.

[getting there]

Instead of an electric blanket use a hottie... preferably of the opposite sex .

[marshlander]

Make your own hot wheat bottle; 1kg wheat sewn into a bag - add some dried lavender if liked. microwave for 3 mins. keeps hot for ages and no scalds or spills.

[marshlander]

30. share the load - get together with like minded friends and swap excess seedlings etc[/quote]
garden clubs and societies are great for this!