Margin squeeze: Here it comes guys..

Well I know PPL(power company) is raising rates for all their customers(residential and business) over 10%, gas is going up, food too, and on Facebook Yahoo News had a thing a few days ago about clothing prices going up. Thank goodness yard sale season is coming up.

 

Meat prices up 30-50% as of last night from 1 week ago.

 

Yep, and that was from the major hikes in grain going back about 3 months. They've only gotten worse since.. so expect it to be a lot worse next month.

 

And VHestin enters the thread changing the topic yet again.... Our utility rates are up too. I don't see them coming down either. Gas is way up.... I've been watching food prices go up for a while now... most noticeable in sugar. Food prices won't be coming down anytime soon if ever. Isn't it interesting how the PPI doesn't include gas or food.... gee.... I wonder why that is.... BTW.... Brokor taught me how to make the new little face so now I know how to do two of them. I haven't noticed clothing prices going up but then.... I don't buy much more than underwear lately. I've been given a lot of hand me downs including a really nice down jacket so there's been no need to buy clothes. I'll probably break down and look for a new pair of snow pants when the spring clothes start coming in. I'll make do with the pair I've got now unless I see some on sale. Yard sale season is nice..... sometimes I stop in if I see more than kids toys and clothes. I'm more into who's putting out what on garbage day. Don't any of you guys ever drive around on garbage day looking for freebies? I can't believe what people pitch. I picked up a decent shelving unit recently that was a little rusted but it cleaned up pretty good. I've been using it to store canned goods. I know which houses recycle what so when I need more scoopable cat litter buckets.... I go cruise by that house. Those scoopable cat litter buckets are square and stack nice. I use them to store all kinds of things and you can use them to grow tomato plants too if you want. Old box fans are another good one for the wire or plastic screens but I've also picked up mini blinds that I cut down to use for plant stakes. A big deal for me is cruising the neighborhoods that require homeowners to bag leaves in fall. I know which families have mulching lawnmowers that don't use chemicals so I grab the bags from those houses. A few of them set the bags aside for me so I can take them for my composters. One guy flagged me down once to ask what I was doing with all the leaves year after year that I was picking up. I told him I was using some for mulch but mostly for my composter. He asked if I was into gardening and I told him I was. He told me to hold on a second and came out and handed me a really nice rake then his wife yelled out the door to give her (me) the other one too. He said he was cleaning out his garage and didn't need them anymore since he'd picked up a leaf blower. That was nice.... he didn't know me from Adam and one rake he gave me was better than the one I had. When I came home with the rakes.... my husband was aghast but.... oh well. If you guys aren't keeping an eye out for what folk are hauling to the curb.... you're missing out on a chance to pick up freebies.

 

I've done a bit of 'dumpster diving' type stuff in my day. Most of my clothes are hand-me-downs too. I'm wondering if I should get rid of some of them, I've got 2 dressers and my closet full, and still a bit short on space. But if things are going up price-wise, might be wiser to keep them. Socks/underwear are my main purchase. I always look for freebies, got a bunch of books relating to health from library for free(also have book sales Wednesday and Saturday at the main branch in Klamath Falls, great prices and it helps the library), and some sneakers(they were all half-worn, but so are the ones I bought, and can switch between them so none get too worn out). Got a...a wooden antique-looking cart thing from next door neighbors too. They had put it out with their trash cans and I grabbed it. I miss having a local dump where you could buy stuff REALLY cheap as well, if not for free. But the one here quit doing that when someone misused a propane tank they got there. BOOM! is what I heard happened. Thrift stores are also a favorite of mine. Salvation Army's closed(at least I got a book called Stocking Up on food preservation during their closeout sale, and a free trash bag full of clothes hangers), but there's still Goodwill. We shop more in the 'as-is' part, sometimes when we're feeling 'rich' we'll go to the regular part.

 

Wanna know what a great source is to pick up nice pots for plants>>>? Try funeral home garbage cans. They dump whole pots.... plants and cut flowers and all.... into the dumpster they go if the families don't want them and most take home one or two and call it a day so the rest get pitched. If you tell them you want them.... they'll set them on the outside of the garbage can for you. Funeral home employees are good people.
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ghrit>

That's nice but.... you should participate in the "team" sport by coming clean and telling whether or not you've ever picked through a recycling bin or a garbage can or.... is that not possible when one rides around on a crotch rocket.
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VHestin> The down jacket I got was really nice. It was by Columbia. My girlfriend's daughter grew like 3-4" in one year and the arms were too short so I got it. I also got a boatload of jeans because they ended up being floods on her.... too bad they were all hip huggers. I'm wearing them out in the yard.... they're heavy jeans and good for moving through brush. There was this chain of nurseries called Frank's Nursery and Crafts that went out of business maybe 8 years ago or so. I picked up two shopping carts. I use one in the basement to put under the laundry chute and one outside for moving odds and ends around. Those are really handy. I'd do dumpster diving if I wasn't afraid of getting caught in one again.... who needs their name in the local police blotter for rooting around in a dumpster... not me. They're not like garbage cans where you can go to the door and ask if you can have what they're pitching.... businesses don't want us in their dumpsters... imagine that.

 

I'll have to remember that. Neighbor I do lots of odd jobs for, they (almost) always buy lots of flower plants in spring, and last year they gave me a couple trash bags full of the empty pots cause I asked for them, and it means they don't have to throw them away. Just clean them out good(don't want the 'bad' soil bacteria hanging around) before I use them to start seeds in. Also at a friend's yard sale, I got a baseball bat and compound bow(needs to be restrung though) free. Baseball bat is of course not for sports. One of the 2 feed stores in town offers wooden pallets free behind the store, advertises them to be used as firewood. If you really look, you can find alot of stuff cheap if not outright free. Just don't need to be too picky. Though I was 'naughty' and did buy some brand new PJ bottoms last month. Wasn't gonna, was at Walmart(got a ride into town with the above mentioned flower pot neighbors) and was waiting for them, just walking around, Walmart had all their winter clothes on sell, and I turn to go down an aisle and BAM! I get stared in the face by a pair of (organic) cotton PJ bottoms for only $2.50.

And the one time I went 'officially' dumpster diving, I was with my mother and one of her friends, so no worries about it closing on me, I had 'backup' ;-)
Was in a dumpster another time in Seattle, but that's cause we had accidentally gotten the keys in the trash bag I just threw in the apartment dumpster, and didn't realize until I got back to our apartment so I had to go digging through it to find the keys. Best part was after found them and I got out, I noticed a small little bloody cut on my leg. Luckily it didn't get infected.

 

Just be sure to clean the pots well then soak them in a 10% bleach solution for a minimum of 10 minutes before using them. The time I went dumpster diving.... I went alone... late in the evening.... on a warm summer's eve.
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(tapping toe) Still waiting for ghrit to tell whether he ever picked through a recycling bin or a garbage can or.... snatched something from the curb on garbage day.

 

We're allergic to chlorine, so I use vinegar instead, and prefer at least half an hour soak.

 

VHestin> bleach would be superior to vinegar for disinfecting pots. For sure vinegar has antimicrobial properties but.... no matter how long you soak.... vinegar will only reduce the growth of say.... E coli but.... then again.... a dry E. coli is a dead E. coli. Is there anyway you could ask a friend to lend a hand... there's some pretty bad spore forming nasties out there that don't exactly die when dessicated that vinegar would be ineffective against eliminating.
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ghrit> Thanks for my midday snickers and grins.

 

For ghrit…. ‘The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving’…. just in case…
[FONT=&quot]http://www.hardcorepreppers.com/files/The%20Art%20of%20Dumpster%20Diving.pdf
Psst.... if you've got a wife or significant other.... don't tell her or him whose trying to corrupt you.
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