Has anyone ever calculated about how much they save per year by...

[big brown horse]

lol
I could (need a license) also harvest oysters and clams too. I love where I live. It is a bit rough, blue collar little town, no frills...but perfect for me. 8 miles away from the sound, 45 minutes away from the mountains and 3 hours away from the desert or the rain forest, your pick.

We "vacation" every weekend for the cost of a little gas money (old honda civic) and a picnic lunch sometimes a bottle of wine. Used to save up and take expensive (to us) week long vacation in the past. Now we don't have to. Big money saver there as well.

 

[lorihadams]

I convinced my BF (who is a 7th grade math teacher) to install and use a clothesline by breaking it down in hours versus dollars. I told her that if she does 4 loads of laundry per week and dries every load for 1 hour then that's 16 hours (960 minutes) running the dryer per month. If she line dries everything and still puts every load in the dryer for 5 minutes each to soften things up a bit that cuts it down to 1 hour 20 minutes (80 minutes) total for the month. When she saw those figures then it clicked bigtime. She had hubby put up a clothesline the next week and she hasn't looked back.

She is not the most enthusiastic gardener but she has an acre of land that they weren't really using so they went in with 2 friends who don't really have the space/sun and put in a huge garden in that space. They come over once a week to garden and bring a dish for dinner so she gets help with the garden, produce from the garden, and help with dinner once a week. They all divide up the produce between the 3 families. It also cuts down on how much gas she uses with the lawnmower cause she was having to mow that space every week too.

I have tried to get my hubby on board with a lot of stuff. We make our own laundry detergent and I switched from fabric softener to white vinegar in the rinse. I don't know what that saves us but I know I do about 4-7 loads of laundry per week and was going through detergent like crazy. We probably spent close to $20 per month just on detergent/stain treater/fabric softener and now it's more like $8-10. I'm hoping to make my own soap soon.

I stopped buying toothbrushes and just boil the ones we get from the dentist every 3 months. I also started using baking soda instead of toothpaste and now I only spend like $1 per month on toothpaste for hubby and the kids.

I have turned the thermostat up and that is helping to keep our bill down but we live in the middle of a field so during the summer the bill is higher, there just isn't any shade on the house. We've planted some trees so in 10 years we'll have shade This month my bill was $200. That is at peak though and we are here all day long so that makes a difference too. When there isn't anyone home to use any energy all day then the bill is gonna be lower. I keep trying to tell my husband that he can't compare our family to our BF's because they are only home from 4pm to 7am every day so their bills are going to be lower.

Our garden didn't do squat but we are fortunate to live next to generous family members that will trade for eggs. We have saved a ridiculous amount on meat in the last couple of years. We have stopped buying beef altogether and only eat deer meat that we harvest and process ourselves. We bought a grinder and a vacuum sealer so we don't pay for processing meat at all except the cost of the bags. We raised and sold meat chickens last year and ended up at about 30cents/pound for our grass fed chickens. That's huge savings. Joel Salatin is close enough that we could drive there and buy chicken from him but he charges $4.30/pound for broilers--bone in, cut in pieces. So if we bought it from him we saved $400 this year on chicken. We have similar prices on chicken at the farmer's markets here so that is huge.

We'll have honey next year and local honey is anywhere from $7-$9 a quart so we'll save on that too.

We have our goats now and we were buying organic cow's milk at $7/gallon. We are getting 7-8 gallons per month from our goat so that's around $50 per month for milk. If we bought local raw goats milk it would probably be twice that. I haven't worked out the feed cost for the goats but our hope is that when we breed the goats this fall we will make enough on kid sales to pay for the year's feed/hay/straw. Next year we'll have two goats in milk so we'll have even more to make cheeses.

We have cut our expenses enough that we have been able to convert our mortgage to a 10 yr loan from a 30 yr loan and that is HUGE. We homeschool so we don't have the expenses with the kids going to school that others have too. We are also very fortunate to have a source of hand me downs for my DS and DD and that has saved us countless dollars over the years.

So I guess the bottom line is that we have saved money but how much, it's hard to determine a final cost. We moved closer to town and into a slightly bigger home (from 1100sq ft to 1500sq ft) so it cut our gas bill but raised our electric bill and tax bill some. We are looking into getting an outdoor wood stove for hot water and winter heat to cut the electric bill. We've also looked into solar panels but need to replace the duct work/air handler to get the air flow capacity needed for a solar powered heat/air unit.

I wish I could calculate a monthly savings but it's really hard to do. We hope to have more produce next year cause this years garden was a bust. I hope to redeem myself with a fall garden. I would say our biggest savings is on meat. Raising our own meat has made a huge difference in our grocery bill.

I wish we could harvest seafood close by....we used to fish a lot but got rid of the boat cause it was just too small to be safe for all 4 of us to fish in. I am trying to find more foraging opportunities close by too.