Keep Our Service Free-Donate

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Disaster-Don't Rely on Gov't; 20 Cash Saving Sites


Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources


For Independent Minded People!

ISSN 2161-5543

In This Issue:

1.       Heating with a woodstove

2.       20 sites that will save you money during the holidays

3.       Secrets of a grocery store clerk

4.       10 ways to use a food dehydrator

5.       In times of disaster, don’t rely on the state

 

 

Few things come to him who wishes; all things come to him who works.
- unknown

 

 

 

Winter has already hit some parts of this country and others are not far behind. With that brings cold weather and the need to heat our homes. Flipping the switch from off to heat, however, is a daunting choice for some folks because of the expense. But with a little investment and a lot of hard work, you can cut your heating bill from 50-100% and have a reliable heat source during power outages. Let me show you how.

 

1. Heating with a Wood Stove

We purchased our wood stove for $700 ten years ago. Today, the same stove sells for around $1,600. That might be a big investment for some folks, but take into account that it could pay for itself in one season. Also, you can still purchase a used stove for under $1,000. Before installing a woodstove, however, you will want to check with your homeowner’s insurance agent. They will want specific information about the stove for your policy. Our agent came to the house to take pictures for our file to show that it was installed properly.

 

Wood stoves have many advantages. With a glass front door, you have the beauty of a fire in your living room. You also have a warm spot to go to when you get chilled. But the best part is the cost over the long haul. In ten years of heating with wood, we’ve only bought firewood once. Otherwise, we have been allowed to cut downed trees from other’s property.

 

Even if you have to purchase your firewood, a cord only costs around $100. All in all, I estimate we’ve saved around $12,000 over a ten-year period by not using our electric radiant heat.

 

2. Heating with a Pellet Stove

Pellet stoves burn wood pellets. According to Home Depot’s Buying Guide for Wood and Wood Pellet Stoves, “wood pellets typically come from either mills as scrap wood, furniture manufacturers, recycling centers, roadside scraps, nuts, sawdust logging residue or paper packaging plants.” They are dried and pressed into shapes that resemble rabbit food.

 

A pellet stove looks and costs much the same as a wood-burning stove. A 40-pound bag of pellets runs about $4 in my area and lasts about a day. One source from western New York says they spend about $1,300 per year for wood pellets. Even though it costs a little more than burning wood, some folks prefer the pellet stove because it is cleaner than wood. If this interests you, check with the stove manufacturer.

 

Some pellet stoves will burn other things like corn, making it advantageous in case of a pellet shortage and cheaper for those who live in a farming community and can buy corn from their neighbor for cheap. However, since a pellet stove requires electricity to run the auger that feeds the pellets and the fan that blows the warm air, you cannot rely on them during a power outage.

 

3. Heating with a Coal Stove

Not as popular as the wood or wood pellet stoves, the coal stove is still a viable option for those wanting an alternative to the typical electric or fuel heat. You can purchase a coal-burning stove for around $1,000 that will also burn wood. And since the cost of coal is comparable to that of the wood pellets, it is not any more costly. Like the woodstove, you can purchase a coal stove with a cooking surface on top that makes it a life saver in times of power outages.

 

Final Thoughts

Some areas of the country have outlawed burning wood and coal due to the emissions. You will want to check with the municipality in which you live before purchasing a stove. Also, you will want to make sure that your stove is properly installed according to the manufacturer’s directions with the proper clearances. If you purchase a used stove without an owner’s manual, check with an authorized woodstove installer or your local fire marshal.

 

With a little research, you can find all kinds of alternative ways to save money

Learn more at:


 

Many, many idea-starters and resources including a downloadable special report on Firms Known to Hire At-Home Workers


 

 

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

 

Secrets of a Grocery Clerk
I have worked in the retail grocery environment for two years in two different grocery stores in different areas of the country. I am a cross-trained meat, deli, and produce clerk who also serves as a meat cutter and night closing clerk. I am also a notorious tightwad. Here are five juicy secrets of grocery shopping that I have never shared before…


 

 

 

20 Websites to Help Save Money During the Holidays

The Internet provides great tools to help you save money when shopping. And now, at peak holiday shopping time, they are more handy than ever.  Also…


 

 


When you get tired of eating Thanksgiving leftovers, use these recipes to transform your leftover turkey into something new and exciting.


 

Become a Free-Range Human Being

Take some advice from my British friend, Marianne Cantwell on choosing to make your rules in the work world by visiting this short video clip regarding her new book.  She’s also featured on my site under our BootStrapBiz tab…she’s a real delight!


 



What if you could take greenhouse gas and convert it to fuel for an energy-hungry world? Scientists, using modern genetics, accomplished exactly this; the researchers’ findings are just a first step toward converting carbon dioxide, one of the most abundant emissions from fossil fuel use, into usable hydrocarbons.  Read more

 

·         Here are 10 ways to use a dehydrator to make long-term storable food for preparedness:
http://www.naturalnews.com/038080_dehydrator_food_storage_recipes.html

 

 

Fruits & vegetables at the front of a supermarket display contain the most healthful benefits.  USDA research shows, apples, broccoli, carrots and the like in the front get the most exposure to light and even fluorescent light helps maintain their stores of immunity-boosting nutrients.

 

 

The Nanny State Updates…

 

Manipulation of Social Media

Software is being developed for the US Military, to let it manipulate social media sites. The plan is to use fake personas to influence conversations and to spread propaganda favorable to the United States. As reported in a Guardian article;

"A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world."

Simply "adding" information under false pretenses may not sound too nefarious, but Centcom will also be able to...


US: we initiate terrorism to create terrorists to overthrow governments

Wesley Clark, Supreme Allied Commander NATO, testifies in this 2-minute video that the US planned to overthrow seven countries after 9/11: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. Therefore, the US caused the “war on terror” as a policy choice; 9/11 was pretense and not the cause.  More at:  http://www.examiner.com/article/us-we-initiate-terrorism-to-create-terrorists-to-overthrow-governments?CID=examiner_alerts_article

 

The Parting Thought- Watch where you plant your garden!

 

 

America’s Continuing War on its own Citizens…Bureaucratic Stupidity runs amok!

 

Folks who went through that whole Sandy Storm fiasco got the message. Don't depend on the state. You have to provide for yourself in times of crisis.

 

A Nov. 5 headline on NBC Connecticut announced "N.Y. Man Charged in Gas Hoarding Case" and addressed an incident from the flood zone. "According to investigators, Yunus Latif... collected money from his neighbors, bought gas at a Valero station almost 80 miles away... and planned to bring it back to his neighborhood, where they had no power and gas." In short, people were taking care of their own needs with their own money and effort -- something a free society applauds. Instead, both Latif and the owner of the gas station were arrested for violating regulations concerning flammable liquids. The real reason was an authoritarian "horror" at the very whiff of hoarding. Meanwhile, the gas was reportedly returned to underground tanks.

A Nov. 7 headline on Click Orlando (Florida) stated, "College Park Man Fights to Keep Vegetable Garden in Front Yard." Why? Property owner Jason Helvingston is in violation of a city code requiring gardens to be planted in a "finished" manner that keeps up property values.
The city ordered him to dig out the garden in a week.

In both stories, government refuses to allow people to use their own property to provide for their own needs. The situational dynamics differ
.

 

1.      Government regulates the minutia of people's lives and property.

2. People who use their lives and property as they see fit are denying authority to government. In some cases, they may be denying the need for government itself.

 

Historically, government has frowned upon hoarding. In an economic collapse or disaster, that frown turns into a scowl in a flash. Anti-hoarding laws are passed or miscreants are arrested under frivolous laws like transporting gasoline in unapproved containers. Again, government criminalizes hoarders not merely in order to assert its control, but also to deflect blame from the policies and inefficiencies actually responsible for empty shelves.

 

Government is watching the minutia of people's behavior down to the type and arrangement of vegetables grown in their gardens. In a time of crisis, private stockpiles of food known to exist will be confiscated for "the general good."

 

There is ample historical precedent. Consider the Food and Fuel Control Act, which became law in 1917. Its official name was An Act to Provide Further for the National Security and Defense by Encouraging the Production, Conserving the Supply, and Controlling the Distribution of Food Products and Fuel. Anyone possessing more than a 30-day supply of food could have been arrested.

The May 30, 1918, New York Times carried the headline, "Navy Man Indicted for Food Hoarding." The man had invested his wife's inheritance in a year's worth of food that was stored in the family home. He was arrested on $3,000 bail, which was an extraordinary sum at the time. The food was confiscated.

 

Hoard quickly, which means starting right now. The full force of inflation and the prospect of shortages are still in the future. Hoard quietly, which means not buying too much of anything at one place. It means being discreet.

 

Excerpted from Should You Be Hoarding? by Wendy McElroy

 

 “Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man

 

Follow us on Facebook


 

 Twitter


 

Keep our services free, visit our sites…

Check our Resources

 

New self sufficiency books added weekly


 

A Shallow Planet Production

1 comment:

escapeartist said...

You ALWAYS come up with some good stuff...far superior to other blogs I read!