Life Without a Refrigerator?

Hey.

Go to thriftsales and auctions...a working fridge can be had for $25-$50. You have to learn to scrounge when you have so many mouths to feed...it's a basic survival skill.

RF

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It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

Back in the 80s, when we first moved here, it wasn't uncommon for us to lose electric service for sometimes days on end, especially if a storm had come through. We just had to prepare for the likely event. We've always had 2 fridges, one in house and one in the shop along with a full freezer. Part of our freezer space remains dedicated to plastic jugs of frozen water. We also have a bunch of cheap styrofoam coolers. These are for when the electric is out and we have to ice down the frozen food. If it's summer, and you have an outdoor grill, then get ready to have a big barbeque if you go a few days without electric. We also keep a huge supply of emergency candles and lanterns. Also, keep a supply of drinking water in the pantry - I use those big glass tea jars and change out the water ever so often.

A year ago on Memorial Day, we had an electric surge frying event that took out our kitchen fridge, phone and answering machine, and computer. We bought our fridge new from a local business and got the cheapest one we could find. It was $398 total and delivered and set up free. It's not everything I like to have in a fridge, but does what it needs to do.

Another idea if you do decide to buy new is to look for "scratch and dent" items. Sometimes the damage is really minute, but they knock off quite a bit on price.

Also, get a manager and tell him what a large family you have and what you have to spend and ask him what he can do for you. You can almost always get it for less than the posted price. I had a manager knock off over $200 on a $600 refrigerator one time because I just told him honestly that I was in financial straits at the time and only had $400 to spend, including tax and delivery.

You can also get good deals on display models that might be missing a small piece. I just bought a garden cart at Big Lots that sells for $80. It was the last one and was missing two cotter pins. I just asked the manager if he'd "knock something off the price"...and he gave it to me for $40. Went to Lowe's and bought cotter pins for $2.19! And the good part was that it was already assembled, so I didn't have to do it, lol.

I hardly ever pay "sticker price" for anything. It never hurts to ask for a better deal, I've hardly ever been told a flat no and a lot of times got a great deal just for asking!

P.S. You said you have a freezer...you know you can freeze milk right?? I hear people saying you have to open it and pour some out to keep it from bursting, but I never do, just bring it home from the store and pop it right in there. It takes most of a day to thaw it out, so I usually get it out the day before I know I'm going to need it. Just let it thaw, give it a good shake (sometimes it settles during freezing), and you're good to go!

We had a well out in front of the house. Grandma bought this appratus that had shelves in it and you dropped it into the well. It had to be a dug well around at least 4ft wide. It was on a windless with a rope attached from it to the windless. It had shelves in it, and when she wanted something, she would wind it up, take off or put on a shelf what she wanted and lower it down to near the water. This worked alright as far as coolness was concerned, but I heard that too many times it would hit on a outcropping of rock in the wall and tip and spill milk or whatever down into the well. They finally filled in the well when I was VERY little, or before. You could get a 55 gal barrel, and cut it open say a third of the way on its side, Cut round (shelves outa metal and weld them in place. Cut a hole offset a bit towards the rear, since the back would still be there, and that part would weigh more, rig up a windless, high enough so as to be able to raise it nearly out of the well, and your in business. Id put everything I could in ziplock, or sealed plastic bowls ect to keep the spill rate down

might check out this blog entry by a guy who's been living without a fridge for 30 yrs:
http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogs...r-30-years.htm

as someone above stated, many things get put in the fridge that don't actually need it.

also, you might find this blog entry interesting:
http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/20...servation.html

finally, there's another thread in alternative energy about fridges, with various info about doing without a fridge, to having a more efficient one, etc:
http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=228293

--sgl

my grandparents lived without a fridge until the very late 50s. they had an ice box. a block of ice was delivered right to their home. the had a smoke house to preserve ham/pork. they raised their own eggs, meat, milk and milk products. had a deep freeze from the 60s on.

I just can't imagine living without a fridge (though I have TRIED imagining totally roughing it in the past). you could can/preserve everything including milk and meat but then you gotta be able to eat it all that day when you open a can or feed it to the animals.

family of 10, there probably aren't that many left overs though?

If you have your own land a root celler might just work. I was in a well built one when it was nice and warm outside. It was at refridgerator temperature.

the way i see it you either do without one or go buy a new one not to hard to decide what to do. take a vote with the family and see what they think maybe cut back on something until a new fridge is paid for. you said you used 9 gallons of milk a week cut that back to just what you need for cooking, drink water and take that extra money and put towards the fridge.

My folks never, ever had a fridge. We had a pantry on the north side of the house. It was tiled and the food to be kept cold was on a shelf made from a big slab of marble. Since non of us ever got sick, I guess it was o.k. You couldn't keep things for the long haul but it kept the milk fine for a couple of days. We never had anything frozen, my parents never ate anything but fresh stuff. They would put meat in a bowl with apple cider vinegar. They did shop often though and we ate fruits and veg in season. I wouldn't want to do it myself and we lived in a colder climate. But, as someone said, we do keep a lot of stuff in our fridge that really doesn't need to be there.

I've lived for a while without a refrigerator. I'd like to claim I didn't miss it or that it wasn't inconvenient. The fact of the matter is that it was a glorious pain and made life exceeding complicated and made daily life a chore.

I'd do everything in my power to get a good refrigerator and with a big family, a deep freezer if I could swing it. Could you do without? Yes. Will it be a pain and a terrible annoyance and something that really lessens the quality of life for your family? Yes.

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Respect The Cactus!

Don't the Amish make a non-electric refrigerator ? Or you could do what the pioneers did, harvest ice blocks from frozen lakes and rivers in the winter, store the blocks in strawbale ice houses for ice al year long, until it's winter and start all over again.

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Marriage is like a hot bath, after you've been in it awhile, It's not so Hot.

Ditto on some of the ideas already given, especially freecycle or craigslist. You may also want to check Home Depot, they soemtimes have scratch and dent fridges at a good buy. I just saw one locally, it was a 17 Cubic foot GE Fridge for $267 with an ice maker.

I just bought a new fridge and purposely downsized. I have a small kitchen and the 15 Cubic foot fridge (which was on it's last leg) took up too much space so I bought a 10 CF and I am now saving for a small deep freezer to put in my garage.

I have found what others have already said, and that is you don't need to refridgerate half the stuff people do. I also use canned and dry milk for cooking so that cuts down on how much fresh milk I need to store, I just mix up what I need at the time.

What about coolers? Can you freeze water in plastic jugs, and every day put a new jug of ice into the cooler?

Store-bought eggs must be refridgerated because they have been washed, but home-produced eggs do not. Though, I refridgerate mine for the sake of safety! (I can just see one of the kids thinking "is this egg 2 days old, or longer? ")

Yes, I pay to power my small freezer which I would wheather or not I had an electric refrigerator. Despite my best canning & dehydrating efforts some items are best preserved long term in the freezer. The freezer sits in my 100+ y.o. cellar which even on 95 degree days will top out @ 50 degrees. Currently it is running on the #1 setting which isn't so bad since it's an 1994 energy effcient version. Adding two dishbasins of cold water to freeze isn't a big draw of power.


Besides the freezer there are the following; PC, television (limited viewing), and lights (c.f.) and the occassional CD/Radio. Microwave is only plugged in for occassional use (phatom current). Oh & the blasted fan on our forced air furnace durning the Winter. Electric on average runs $40 ish per month.
I do have a 1949 Hotpoint stove but cooking is mostly done in crockpots (Fall/Winter) & the grill (Spring/Summer).

Here's the link to my blog about the ice box which is still in use -
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.c...rn-millie.html

~~ pelenaka ~~

I do commend you on your efferts. It's just they the other poster put it made it sound like .... well you get the idea, nothing meant towards you. I had already visited your blog and saw the frig. I really like the Icy ball from another entry. I have a couple of old ice boxes myself but don't use any of them. Thinking about turning one of them into a battery box for a solar system.

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If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

I'd love to read this blog, but that url isn't working. :-(

Sorry...must have been an internet hiccup...working now!

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Amy ~ Wife to Mike, Momma to one grown and 2 school age little ones, a Poodle, a Maltese mix and a Chihuahua.
What's going on with our family?
www.crazyforthecountry.com

here you go

http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/

__________________
If the grass looks greener it is probably over the septic tank. - troy n sarah tx

Our existance here is soley for the expoitation of CMG

why not just freeze your milk and use it as the ice in the ice box?

Milk freezes just fine.

You say you have a freezer.You can freeze gallon jugs of water and keep your perishibles in coolers with the ice.Trade out every night for new jugs.
You can freeze eggs, milk, lunch meat etc
You should be able to find a used fridge soon though. Craigslist, ask at a church , or put an add up....trade labor or something!

My mother grew up in the 1920's, before refrigerators. Her family lived in the city, and her mother went shopping every day for that day's groceries. They DID have an icebox though, that was used for perishables like milk and soft cheeses. The icebox kept cool for several days on one block of ice.