Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Good point FRUGALSOD frugality and frugal ways save much money, save waste and remove from our foods many unwanted additives, keep old skills alive BUT they are time consuming and time is a thing that lots of people lack. It isn't that they don't have time I think it's that thier time is taken up completely with the needs of modern living, the facebook/twitter/mobile phone generation have time, but use it unproductively and then don't make the time to do things for themselves or have the available time to learn new skills it's a catch 22 situation. Better life when you understand that time is useful for many other things than keeping in touch with your circle 24 hours a day!

GreyQueen

Frugalsod, I would be interested to know the peanut-butter-making trick, as I am sure a few others would also be interested, if you'd care to share.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

Frugalsod, I would be interested to know the peanut-butter-making trick, as I am sure a few others would also be interested, if you'd care to share.

This was the source of the inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm_D0ieb8Jk

Get some ready salted peanuts, even the basics range will do.

I use a Kenwood Multi mill to actually make it in.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-AT320B-Chopper-Attachment-Additional/dp/B000C3MOCM/



So first measure out the whole multi mill jar as to quantity of peanuts, then empty into a food processor first to chop them as small as possible. Next put the chopped nuts back into the multi mill jar with a small quantity of peanut or ground nut oil possibly a half a teaspoons worth.

Then blend. Every now and then shake the jar to get all the peanuts towards the blade and continue to blend. You can add them in small quantities and keep adding chopped nuts or do it in one go if you prefer. It does not take long and reduces in volume considerably. What was a jar of peanuts becomes around a quarter of a jar of peanut butter. If you want smooth peanut butter prepare to blend for a long time. I do it enough till there is a basic paste.

Since the multi mill is designed to store what it blends in I just put a lid on it and put in the cupboard.

The reason I do it in a multi mill rather than the blender that is used in the video is that it is very sticky and by not using a blender I avoid losses from transferring and just need to add a lid. I doubt whether my blender is suitable to get it that fine. I think the blender in the video is £500 Vitamix blender.

Total time 10 minutes or less.

moneyistooshorttomention

I don't think its a Vitamix - t'aint like my (£300 - err...yep....really) one. It's something I'd been promising myself for quite some years before I eventually got one.

Still on the list to use it for making nut butters with I have to admit:o. It is a very powerful blender and I'm sure it will cope no problem with it. The one thing I wont use it for is making and heating soup in - despite what the manufacturers say. No chance of that - that motor is so powerful that it is downright earblastingly noisy.

But right now....must now head into the kitchen and make myself up a couple of "cartons" worth of my homemade bread spread with it.

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Good point FRUGALSOD frugality and frugal ways save much money, save waste and remove from our foods many unwanted additives, keep old skills alive BUT they are time consuming and time is a thing that lots of people lack. It isn't that they don't have time I think it's that thier time is taken up completely with the needs of modern living, the facebook/twitter/mobile phone generation have time, but use it unproductively and then don't make the time to do things for themselves or have the available time to learn new skills it's a catch 22 situation. Better life when you understand that time is useful for many other things than keeping in touch with your circle 24 hours a day!

Well there are cheats that can be used to make cooking from scratch easier. Batch cooking. I make enough for 8 or more meals in one go and have plenty of freezer containers. I keep in the fridge what I might need for a few days and freeze the rest. Just bring it out the night before to defrost in the fridge and microwave the next day.

Using a machine to make bread also takes the effort out. Since bread takes some time for the yeast to be activated and the dough to rise you can do other things while waiting during each of these stages. So even using a food mixer and bread tins has plenty of time gaps to do other things. So while the total time might be 5 hours it will not occupy all that time possibly less than 10 minutes.

GreyQueen

Thanks for that. I haven't got a food mixer or a blender and have nowhere to put one, unfortunately, but it may not always be so, and then I shall have the knowing of it.

Have just finished Jim Crace's The Pesthouse, which could be described as a considerably post Apocalyptic novel. This was the first of his that I have ever read and I was blown away, both by the quality of the writing and the intelligence of the storyline. I would heartily recommend it. I shall read more by this author, and not wait too long about it, either.

I was cogitating the other day about what prepping means to me. I'm not into firearms, although am becoming handy with the longbow. I don't have a nuclear bunker or a doomstead in the woods. I'm not young or particularly strong and won't be reclocating internationally or hoarding gold in secure facilities in Switzerland or Singapore.

For me, prepping means being prepared to accept the fact the this entity which we refer to as They or Them is no more real than Santa Claus. That you cannot truly be an adult and also be passive in the face of entirely predictable risks, in the expectation that when things go wrong, They will save you.

That is childish thinking. They might do nothing, because they can do nothing, or They are overwhelmed with demands and are out of resources. They (as the manifestations of the state) might be in one of their dark phases and inclined to harm rather than help.

Yet we preppers still get mocked, in some circles, for moving towards self-reliance, and thinking the unthinkable; that we might just have to stand on our own two feet and sort stuff out for ourselves. Amazing, innit?:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

More likely 'They' will be saving themselves and thier families and not have any other thought than that and in honesty who could blame them? Let them mock us, let them pour scorn and derision on the things we do, let them call us loosers and sad and wierdos.....at least until we need to use our careful preps and maybe have a less difficult time than some in a desparate situation eh? Perhaps we'll even have enough to help some of 'them' out, we'd soon see who was foolish then!!!

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

Thanks for that. I haven't got a food mixer or a blender and have nowhere to put one, unfortunately, but it may not always be so, and then I shall have the knowing of it.

Its possible to do in a mortar and pestle, its hard work but it is possible.

...
Yet we preppers still get mocked, in some circles, for moving towards self-reliance, and thinking the unthinkable; that we might just have to stand on our own two feet and sort stuff out for ourselves. Amazing, innit?:rotfl:

The big problem with people aiming for self reliance is that they also think. Thinking is dangerous, not following the pack and behaving predictably makes us hard to control, TPTB (whoever They are; Bankers, Advertising Industry, Illuminati, whatever) want docile, predictable consumers, anything else is a threat to Their dream of a New World Order. (This in no way presumes there is an actual Them - They could be just as deluded in following The Way Things Are as everybody else).

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

More likely 'They' will be saving themselves and thier families and not have any other thought than that and in honesty who could blame them? Let them mock us, let them pour scorn and derision on the things we do, let them call us loosers and sad and wierdos.....at least until we need to use our careful preps and maybe have a less difficult time than some in a desparate situation eh? Perhaps we'll even have enough to help some of 'them' out, we'd soon see who was foolish then!!!

Its just as likely that one of the early reactions is to identify those who have stocks and confiscate them for the public good. Meanwhile I shall continue as I do, it reassures me. It may not do me much good the next time the brown stuff gets airborne but its kept me alive and (in)sane and in reasonable comfort through more episodes of flying brown than I really want to count.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

Thanks for that. I haven't got a food mixer or a blender and have nowhere to put one, unfortunately, but it may not always be so, and then I shall have the knowing of it.

I bought an expensive one costing £500 or so, then add in all the accessories probably the same again. What I did to justify the expense was to work out a cost benefit analysis of getting everything. So wrote down what I would make and how much it would save to make rather than buy. I did that for each accessory as well. So the glass blender is used for making Baileys and I reckon I save about £5 to £8 every time I make it. Only ten uses and it would have paid for itself.

Though what it has meant is that I can make bread for 45p rather than £1.60 so saving more than £2 a week as I would have two or three loaves a week. Soups are dirt cheap as well. So I can use up leftovers and that works out really cheap if I make it with bargain bin veg. Lets say 40p a cup of soup. In the end I reckoned it would save me £10 a week. So it would have taken 100 weeks to have paid for itself.

Though in the end I think because I was able to do so much more like pizza for £1 and it was as good as the £5 varieties it added up even faster. I make cakes, biscuits, trifle bases crumbles pies pasties the savings are much better, buy meat in bulk and mince it myself so I know what is in it. My shopping bill went from as much as £60 a week to £15 or less. So it probably paid for itself in 23 weeks, and each week since I have continued to make the same savings and so those savings are being used elsewhere in my home. The economics will be different for everyone but it can add up. Some things like home made pasta are the same as the dried variety but a fraction of the cost of the fresh stuff. So if you made it yourself you could save £2.50 a time. Even living on my own I was able to justify the cost, a family would save a fortune doing things the same way. Though you could get an older model for £30 off ebay, then add additional accessories as you discover a need for them.

GreyQueen wrote: »

Yet we preppers still get mocked, in some circles, for moving towards self-reliance, and thinking the unthinkable; that we might just have to stand on our own two feet and sort stuff out for ourselves. Amazing, innit?:rotfl:

I get mocked for my solar kettle but I still use it as much as possible to keep my electricity use down but by limiting myself to the two cups a day I can get out of it I also cut my coffee intake down.

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

More likely 'They' will be saving themselves and thier families and not have any other thought than that and in honesty who could blame them? Let them mock us, let them pour scorn and derision on the things we do, let them call us loosers and sad and wierdos.....at least until we need to use our careful preps and maybe have a less difficult time than some in a desparate situation eh? Perhaps we'll even have enough to help some of 'them' out, we'd soon see who was foolish then!!!

Yes but that is why you need to get your pitchfork now! When SHTF happens you will not be able to get one from Amazon and the price on eBay will rocket up. :beer: