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

[Farmfresh]

I think Free has a great point. If you compare like items for like items the savings is amazing!

I make 100% olive oil Castile for example.

The oil is 3 liters for $16.00 at Sam's Club
The lye costs $3.00 for enough to make soap from all of that oil

That makes two big batches of soap = 73 ounces total at a cost of $0.26 an oz or $1.56 a 6 oz bar for great mild soap.

OR I can buy the same thing here Castile soap for $9.50 a bar.

Like she said somethings are not even available commercially - like a ripe heritage tomato!

 

[Wifezilla]

WZ--doesn't your electric company have you online? I just go into my account and can track all my electric etc. I have to say my elec. co. offers a great website.

Our electric provider is owned by the city of Fountain. They barely have an informational website let alone and interactive one where you can track account information. I think they just progressed past rubbing balloons on kids' heads to generate electricity when I first moved here.

 

[abifae]

Our electric provider is owned by the city of Fountain. They barely have an informational website let alone and interactive one where you can track account information. I think they just barely progressed past rubbing balloons on kids' heads to generate electricity when I first moved here.

 

[Britesea]

I remember being told once that for every hour you spend in your garden, it will generate about $100 worth of food....

 

[Marianne]

I tried to figure it out last year. Hanging clothes saved me $20 a month (there are two of us).

Making things from scratch (laundry, cleaners and convenience foods) varied from month to month, but the average was about $197 a month saved (for us).

It's hard to calculate as each month is different. You buy supplies, etc when you can get a good deal on them or need them ($ spent), but then use out of your pantry instead of going to the store or eating out ($ saved).

 

[freemotion]

So, BBH......did you win?

 

[big brown horse]

Absolutely! Especially when I explained the quality of the foods I get. Heirloom veggies, true pastured grass fed pork, poultry and eggs. You can't even find that in 98% of the grocery stores in my county. Maybe if I hopped on the ferry and headed over to Pikes Market in Seattle. (Raw milk and grass fed beef (and pork) is easier to find than pastured poultry/eggs for some reason.)

The chickens, ducks and geese free range most of the year. I supplement in the winter or when they look at me hungry. Back in TX I had no other option but to coop the birds and feed them all year long. (Lived in downtown Houston.)

Our electric bill dropped from an average of $300-400 per month (we also had a gas bill) to $80-100 (all electric now) just by moving out of TX. The temps here are very mild year round. When I can hang dry my laundry (during the dry season) the electric bills are around $80 per month. Most of the bills are smaller since we moved over here. Taxes, mortgage, horse board (spent $300 monthly boarding horses back in TX, now it is zero), food and water (we have a well now) bills.

In Houston we lived on a postage stamp of property now we have 5 acres, for so much cheaper. As far as free food, I can forage for huckleberries, salal berries and chanterelle mushrooms in my own back yard. Today I'm taking my daughter blackberry picking at the state park.

Next year I'm getting into beekeeping. AND I'm going to add "fisherman" to my title, simply by buying crab traps. Dungeness ("dungies") crabs are big here. All you have to do is drop the trap in go have a sandwich and come back to haul in dinner.

I think a big chunk of change was spent on laundry, dishwasher detergent, soaps, lotions etc. I wish I had kept better track of how much I spent on those types of incidentals before, so I could compare.

Soon I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in pears and apples by the looks of the tiny fruits on the trees. I can most of it and give some of it out as gifts for Christmas. Another huge money saver. At least $100 IMO, I used to bring a boring bottle of wine to all of the Christmas/holiday parties etc.

On a side note:
Oh, and I love the benefits of living in an area where people like to share and trade... My neighbor dropped off 3 HUGE zucchinis, 2 HUGE summer squashes and a bag of green beans. I gave her a carton of eggs. DrakeMaiden came over and brought a 5# bag of cocoa that she got at a restaurant supply store. (Good think I had a little ducky watering can to give her sweet baby.) Last week when I was at the post office (very small town post office on a one lane street) the lady who lives across from the p.o. walked over and gave me a patty pan squash and a couple of handfulls of green beans from her bag, right in the parking lot. I just put them on my floor board, thanked her and drove home. I'm bringing her fresh eggs today.

 

[Holachicka]

I haven't calculated the garden, or the chickens, but DH told me that with my milk goat he thinkgs we're saving about 100 a month. (we drink a lot of milk here!) course he hasn't taken the feed bill out of that...

I'd guess we're getting about a dozen eggs a day, and if I were to buy the same eggs at the store it would be about 3.50 a day. Another 100 a month. plus I sell our excess to the feed store at 2 a dozen in exchange for feed so that helps...

We haven't had to but fresh veggies since my garden started producing, that's probably at least another 100 a month, and that has cost us VERY little...

So probably close to 275 a month in savings, WOW makes me happy! $3300 a year! Woot!! That meansI better get started planting my fall garden!

 

[big brown horse]

I haven't calculated the garden, or the chickens, but DH told me that with my milk goat he thinkgs we're saving about 100 a month. (we drink a lot of milk here!) course he hasn't taken the feed bill out of that...

I'd guess we're getting about a dozen eggs a day, and if I were to buy the same eggs at the store it would be about 3.50 a day. Another 100 a month. plus I sell our excess to the feed store at 2 a dozen in exchange for feed so that helps...

We haven't had to but fresh veggies since my garden started producing, that's probably at least another 100 a month, and that has cost us VERY little...

So probably close to 275 a month in savings, WOW makes me happy! $3300 a year! Woot!! That meansI better get started planting my fall garden!

 

[ORChick]

Sorry, this is a little off topic

BBH wrote

Dungeness ("dungies") crabs are big here.

BBH - Dungeness crab are big everywhere, especially compared to the little ones they have back east
(and delicious too! I envy you living where you can just throw in a trap; we would have to make the 1 1/2 hour drive to the coast)