Monday, July 11, 2022

Planning ahead

Last October, I took a fast trip to the city with one express purpose: To purchase six rolls of field fence. (It was significantly cheaper to take this long trip than it was to purchase the fencing locally. We looked.)

We already had four 330-foot rolls we had purchased in December of 2020; but in the ten months between one purchase and the next, the price of each roll doubled. Read that again: the price doubled. Understand that at the time we purchased this fencing, we knew we were at least a year out from getting cows. But we also knew (a) we would need this fencing when the time came; and (b) it sure as heck wasn't getting any cheaper.

Over and over and OVER again, we find ourselves doing this: Purchasing materials needed for future homesteading projects in an effort to beat inflation and supply-chain disruptions. Lumber. Fasteners (nuts, bolts, screws, etc.). Deer netting. Gravel. Cattle panels (sometimes called hog panels). Bulk diesel.

Last week Don made another such purchase: Drip irrigation supplies. We used drip irrigation in the garden in our last home with great success. Not only does it save water, it also saves labor. We knew we wanted to duplicate this system in our own future garden.

Before ordering, Don confirmed with the company that the supplies were available and could be shipped immediately. Then he sat down, mapped out our proposed garden areas, and calculated what drip irrigation components we needed. Then he ordered.

The order came in this week, and I can't tell you how happy I am to see it!

(Side note: Some women get all gushy over clothes or jewelry. I get all gushy over lumber and drip irrigation supplies.)

It strikes me that a lot of people are engaged in similar behaviors – planning for future projects and purchasing needed supplies now, before prices go up further.

What are you purchasing ahead?

23 comments:

  1. Toilet replacement parts

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  2. Our goal has always been to position ourselves where we are the least affected by the lunacy of current policies. Get out of debt, live an a rural community with common mindsets and Christian values, stock up on anything you use regularly and try to anticipate future needs. Just as you and Don are doing, Patrice. I encourage friends and family to do the same. Especially, food and other items that may become difficult to find and buy, as you've stated, before the prices increase again. I'm snapping green beans that I just picked from our garden for canning. So proud to have a productive garden of vegetables,fruits and eggs from the chickens. We have seen the writing on the wall and have acted accordingly. So, anticipating future needs, acting on them and implementing them is and continues to be a priority. Thanks for the reminders and I hope folks take note and do the same. Best wishes for everyone!

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  3. We have done this as well. It has saved us a great deal of money. We try not to do it with machines or mechanical things that we can’t test right away though because if they are defective they will be well past the return window when we discover they’re not working properly.

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  4. I just replaced all 4 car tires and the main battery. I did not know if they would be available when needed and they were not going to get cheaper!

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  5. Like you, I get all gushy over building supplies. I wished we had an irrigation system in place. Several years ago our corral fence was starting to decay, that is the ends of the rough cut 2"x6" boards that were anywhere from 10' to 20' long. My husband wanted to cut them up for firewood. After witnessing my fits he complied and stacked it and tarped it. Fast forward a couple of years and a few board used for raised beds, we decided to attach the Taj Mahal of a chicken run to a shed we purchased and build a green house with the windows we had from a remodel of our house. (I saved these also with a lot of complaint for the storage involved). According to the guy that built most of it, we had saved approximately $8,000.00 on lumber alone. Now when my husband goes to the transfer station, once and a while there will be a couple of pieces of lumber that he will bring home (free). I thinks he likes to see how I get excited when he does this One last shed to go and then a remodel (addition) to the barn. BTW, we replaced the wood fence with a vinyl one, believe it or not, at the time it was the cheapest way to go, incredible. Now we look like fancy folk.

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  6. I’m also purchasing fencing supplies, barbed wire and 6 foot t-posts. Building cattle fence around old crop fields.

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  7. Well... food for sure. Today our church was able to make a bulk purchase of red seedless grapes. At .25 cents a pound I couldn't pass it up. So I bought 54 lbs.

    Now, why so cheep?? They came from Chili but the ships they came on were not unloaded in a timely fashion, so the stores are refusing delivery of them. These are Dole grapes and they taste great and have very few spoiled ones.

    I will be canning them today. Just as they are, no sugar (diabetic hubby). Yummy stuff.

    So buying ahead on food.

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  8. I know that you don't care for coffee but I adore it and bought several canisters of my favorite brand a few months ago. I'm glad I did because the can are now half the size and 4 dollars more.

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  9. Any recommendations on quality drip irrigation manufacturers? Looking to add some to our garden.

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    1. I can't speak for all companies, but we've had a positive experience with the two we've used: dripdepot.com and dripworks.com

      - Patrice

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    2. Thanks for the information

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    3. I can also vouch for dripworks, it is what we have used for the past 10 years. One year of watering by hand with a hose was all hubby wanted to deal with. The drippers and driptape work so much better and the battery run timer helps also We can always tell when it is 1PM since it starts then.

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  10. I would rather shop in Lowe's than Macy's! Food and home supplies are about all I buy ahead. Long ago, my guy friend and I both needed single-edge razor blades. I was going to buy 100 and asked him if he wanted to take half for half the cost. He was aghast and implied I was taking advantage of him. He said he only needed 10. He was scraping paint off windows newly painted. Several weeks later, he was moaning that he ran out of razors and wishes he had taken me up on going halves. Well, I did not offer again to have him purchase half of the razors I had stashed away. He kept mentioning it, but finally kept purchasing 10 packs until his project was done.

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  11. We purchase ahead as much as we can for what we call "capital projects. . Getting cross-fencing supplies sounds like a good idea. We were just discussing getting another couple rolls of white electric netting plus another electrifier. Also just discussing moving away from soaker hoses and transitioning to drip hoses.

    Other stuff? Socks. Work denims. Good work gloves.

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  12. I'm looking at wood stoves since the pellet stove in our new to us house didn't cut it last year.
    I'm also looking at a small solar system for backup use.

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    1. Outback inverters are a good one. They are made in Washington and ours has not given us any problems in the 9 years we have had solar. We have 16 batteries and 15 panels. It is almost time to replace the batteries but they are still going strong because we never let them drain below 75%.

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  13. Spare plugs, filters, parts that wear out for the mowers, trimmers, chainsaw, vehicles and anything with an engine. Oil, petrochem products like StaBil, hoses, belts. Pest traps. Ammo. Spare pins, springs, etc for firearm repair. I could go on. Basically anything that wears out or gets used up.

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  14. Have an hoa that tends maintence and sells whatever, whenever, they want to make a profit.....

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  15. We keep a good supply of food basics, along with PLENTY of crafting supplies for Erin and shop supplies for myself. She questions why I keep odd pieces of scrap wood around, and I wordlessly point to the wall of yarn..

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  16. Just replaced my tires. Dping other car repairs/maintenance. Gathering gardening supplies to expand my backyard garden. Adding to my food stores...came across $1.33/dz medium yard eggs today! A friend has a freeze dryer, so she is going to fd the 30dz I bought. Finally got my inlaws on board to start storing food! Now to keep working on sharing the Gospel with then...

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  17. Every August our local grocery has a sale on canned soup. I make a lot of soup from scratch and dehydrated vegetables. However I also buy canned soup for a quick meal. I bought our favorites with Campbell Chunky at 4/$5 and Progresso at $.99 a can. For an unknown reason (probably absent- mindedness) I got more of all than usual. Then I got great bargains on dehydrated mix (I make a big batch and freeze in one meal sizes.). Again I bought much more than usual. We still have about a years’ supply stored away. Now all of the canned soups are well over 2 dollars a can. Smaller servings could extend the supply. I look on it as a great investment, along with the supply of garden seed that I store in tight containers in the refrigerator.

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  18. I've found a great source of free lumber. Pallets. Hear me out. I'm a pallet snob. I (mostly) only pick up large ones with good lumber. Eight to twenty feet long. I've found free pallets built with 2x6 and 2x8 lumber, along with lots of 2x4's. Quite a bit of decent hardwoods for cross pieces. I did buy two indispensable tools for this. A pallet busting tool and a pneumatic nail remover. My wife and I can break down a 20' trailer load of pallets in 2 or 3 mornings worth of time. Afternoons are too hot. We live in the country near Boise, so we do have quite a bit to choose from, to our advantage. I've been able to sell quite a bit of it, and been able to build several projects around the house for only the cost of hardware. The sold lumber compensates for that and fuel. Most companies are begging people to come get these. Never buy them. There's always someone desperate to get rid of them.

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    1. We use to get pallets at our local North40 (then BigR) but when I asked about 5 years ago they said they had someone they sold them to now. So there went that resource. Same thing with buckets at Walmart, they now charge for the empties from the bakery dept.

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