M O R E T H A N A M A G A Z I N E . . . A W AY O F L I F E
News From Mother 3 What Does It Mean to Live on Less? Mother Earth News Online 4 Click on in to learn about beekeeping, planning your garden, raising geese and more.
14 PAT & CHUCK BLACKLEY; COVER: LAUREL BARKLEY
Green Gazette 6 Save Gas With Hypermiling; Fiskars’ Reel Lawn Mower; Build Better Soil With Free Organic Fertilizer
Country Lore: Readers’ Tips to Live By 10 A Passion for Recycling; Eggs-for-Sale Sign; How to Make Fishing Lures; Make Your Own Storm Windows
Live on Less 14 Our best tips for simple living and saving money.
28 LEE REICH
20 ISTOCKPHOTO/VIKRAM RAGHUVANSH
Cut Your Food Bills in Half 20 It’s true! You can enjoy better and healthier food while spending much less to feed your family.
Easy Garden Anyone Can Make 28 Don’t wait for fresh veggies — start an instant, no-till garden today!
36 STEVE MAXWELL; BELOW: CLAUDIE WIZNER
48
Save Money on Groceries 32 Buying in bulk and freezing or canning fruits and veggies
are great ways to enjoy better food and cut your costs by up to 85 percent!
A Handmade, Debt-Free Home 36 Blend vision, patience and perseverance, and you can build your dream home.
Best Home Energy Improvements 42 Find out which energy upgrades offer the most value for your home — especially if you’re working with a tight budget.
Backyard Chicken Basics 48 They’re less work than pets and more fun than an Xbox. Plus, they provide delicious, nutritious eggs.
www.MotherEarthNews.com
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M O R E T H A N A M A G A Z I N E . . . A W AY O F L I F E
52 BONNIE LONG
Grow Your Own Poultry Feed 52 Save money and have a healthier flock by giving your birds homegrown, all-natural feeds.
Build Your Own Passive Solar Water Heater 56 Follow these guidelines to heat your water with free solar energy.
Home Petite Home 62 This sweet, neat and petite home in Maine shows that
choosing a compact, well-built house is the best way to slash your energy bills.
62 FRANCES IDLEBROOK
Adding Insulation Can Save You Money! 66 Figure out whether you should add insulation to your home, and which pieces of the job you can do yourself.
Keep a Family Cow and Enjoy Delicious Milk, 70 Cream, Cheese and More
Have a cow! Here’s what you need to know to buy and care for a dairy cow. You’ll have a blast, plus save money on dairy products (and even meat).
Homegrown Medicine 76 Discover the benefits of planting medicinal herbs. Brew Your Own Beer 82 Homebrewing is kettles of fun, and it’s the perfect way to craft
70 JASON HOUSTON
76
your own uniquely flavored, affordable drinks.
The Convenient, Sturdy Clothesline 88 Save money — build this simple project and let the sun dry your laundry!
92 Start Your Own Tool-Sharing Program
Pooling your resources with neighbors or forming a community tool co-op leads to more tools for everyone.
95 Additional Resources RICK WETHERBEE; BELOW: ISTOCKPHOTO/MIKE FLIPPO PHOTOGRAPHY
88
Mother Earth News (ISSN 0027-1535) is published bimonthly, six issues per year, by Ogden Publications, Inc.; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Periodical postage paid at Topeka, KS 66609, and at additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: $19.95 for one year in the United States and its provinces; $27.95 per year in Canada and $31.95 per year foreign, prepaid in U.S. funds. (CANADA GST NBR. 89745 1720 RT0001). Postmaster: Send changes of address to Mother Earth News; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609-1265. Subscribers: Write to Mother Earth News; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609-1265 or call 785-274-4300 or 800-234-3368. Outside the U.S., call 785-274-4300. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within two years. To purchase back issues from January 1995 to present, send $7.50 per issue to Mother Earth News Back Issues; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Copyright 2011 by Ogden Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Mother Earth News is a registered trademark. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without written permission. Permission requests must be in writing and should be directed to Bryan Welch; Mother Earth News Permissions; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Send story ideas to Cheryl Long at Mother Earth News; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609. Ogden Publications, Inc., cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. Printed and manufactured in the United States of America. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40754547. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Mother Earth News, PO Box 875, STN A, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9A 6P2. Mother Earth News does not recommend, approve or endorse the products and/or services offered by companies advertising in the magazine or website. Nor does Mother Earth News evaluate the advertisers’ claims in any way. You should use your own judgment and evaluate products and services carefully before deciding to purchase.
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COUNTRY LORE
COUNTRY LORE
Readers’ Tips to Live By
A Passion for Recycling
W
hen we moved to Tennessee five years ago, my husband, Max, noticed all of the old barns in the area. Where I saw old buildings falling down, he saw 100-year-old timber going to waste. Over time, we were granted permission to dismantle a number of barns, and we sorted and stored the siding, timbers and tin roofing material. Shortly after building a large shop at our new place, I asked Max whether he was going to put a porch on it. He said a porch would be nice and began making plans to build it. The only materials he purchased for the porch project were the screws to hold it together. The roofing tin and timbers came from the old barns. The windows were salvaged from the local landfill. The light shades were hubcaps from a vintage GMC truck restoration project. The chains and light fixtures were also from the landfill. The three rocking chairs (not pictured) on the porch came from a neighbor who was going to throw them away, but decided to donate them to our “recycled” porch project. Max carried the same theme inside part of the shop when he created our “party room.” Everything in the room has been recycled: Barn-wood siding covers the walls, and the towel racks in the bathroom are authentic 1950s side-view mirrors. He is currently working on a new “recycled” sink for the bathroom. Being an ultimate recycler is a habit worth developing.
Waste materials at construction sites typically fill several large dumpsters that are eventually emptied into landfills. We put a 1,500-square-foot addition on our home that involved the removal of the old garage roof and a treated-wood patio deck. During all phases of this deconstruction and construction project, I made a concerted effort to recycle nearly all of the construction waste. In the end, the accumulated waste amounted to one half-filled dumpster. This was far less than the three dumpster loads our contractor expected. In fact, at the completion of this construction project, our contractor said our recycling efforts resulted
The porch (above), plus the sink and light fixture, are the result of judicious recycling efforts.
used lumber by pulling the nails and stacking the boards for later use around the farm. The treated lumber from the old deck went into the dumpster. We cut up scrap wood that was untreated but not worth saving as used lumber and used it as firewood in our woodstove. We spread the ashes as a soil amendment. We swept up sawdust from cutting untreated lumber and composted it. Metal Scraps. We collected gutters, dull saw blades, bent rusty nails, pieces from duct work and so on, and took them to a recycling center. We saved nails that were reasonably straight for later reuse. Cardboard. During construction, this easy-to-recycle material is This drywall could have ended up in a landfill, but instead, it was used as a lawn soil amendment. typically commingled with dumpster
10 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO LIVING ON LESS
10-12 Lore.indd 10-11
We’ve created a useful way to market eggs from our farm driveway. We first started with an ice chest during cool winter months. Then we upgraded to a refrigerator that’s plugged in outside of our barn. We painted the word “eggs” on the front to keep anyone who needs a beer fridge from driving away with it. Out at the end of our driveway, we have an egg-shaped sign we can flip up or down, letting potential customers know whether or not we have eggs. If we are out of eggs that day, they don’t even have to get out of the car. Laurie Carlson Dallas, Oregon
Margaret Davis Possum Holler Garage, Sawdust, Tennessee
Cut Down on Construction Waste
Eggs-for-Sale Sign
in significant savings and deducted $1,000 from our final project invoice. Here is how we utilized the various waste materials: Old Lumber and Wood Scraps. We saved about 80 percent of the previously
waste, but we kept it separate. Altogether, we collected a pickup-truck load of cardboard and took it to a recycling center. Insulation. We collected fiberglass insulation scraps and will use them to augment the layer of insulation in our attic. Sheetrock. This amounted to a huge pile, as you can see in the picture. Gypsum board consists mostly of calcium sulfate and some paper. Gypsum is widely sold in garden centers for use as a calcium and sulfur soil amendment, and for improving soil structure and soil drainage. Some drywall gypsum board from bathrooms had been treated to resist mildew, so it went into the dumpster. We distributed the bulk of the untreated gypsum
This sign lets our customers know if we have eggs available for sale.
board scraps over the area intended for a lawn. After this material becomes moist and crumbly, it can be tilled into the soil. Joseph Heckman Monroe, New Jersey
A Cheaper, Easier Face Mask
For a super-easy, super-cheap face mask, mix 2 parts baking soda with 1 part water. Help open your pores with a hot, wet washcloth before applying the paste all over your face, just as you would a regular face mask. Leave it on about 10 minutes. Rinse with warm water, rubbing in circular motions. This ridiculously easy mask costs less than a penny! Plus, it exfoliates
and clarifies as well as my favorite purifying mask, Origins’ natural charcoal mask: $21 for 31⁄2 ounces. Tabitha Alterman Harlem, New York
Cruisin’ the Dump Because we recycle and put our vegetable waste in a compost pile, we don’t generate enough trash to hire a weekly garbage service. Every four to six weeks, we load up our modest collection of refuse and haul it to the county landfill. After unloading and paying, we circle back through the junk piles, scouting for useful items. I’ve learned that a keen eye and an attitude of resourcefulness
How to Make Fishing Lures
To make your own fishing lures, start with an old tablespoon fishing lures are sold. At the tip end of the spoon and the or teaspoon. I stress old because if you filch a good spoon from narrow part of the handle, slide a swivel through the ring. the family silver set, someone’s going to be in trouble — alAt the other end of both, slide your choice of hooks through though a silver-plated spoon would work well. the ring. Attach the hooks using needle-nose pliers to avoid Next, use a hacksaw to cut off the handle close to the hooking your fingers. spoon bowl, and file the cut end smooth. Then make a long, If you paint one side of the lure with high-quality gloss narrow lure from the handle by cutting it to a suitable length. paint, it will produce contrasting colors when the lure rotates Drill a one-sixteenth-inch in the water. Paint the lure hole near both ends of the long before you plan to use it spoon and the handle. After so there will be no paint odor. drilling the handle lure, add When you catch a really a slight twist so it will woblarge fish, be sure to casually ble, imitating a minnow. mention to anyone nearby that you caught that monster For each lure, slip a split ring through all four holes. with a spoon! Split rings, swivels and hooks Winston Foster can be bought anywhere These spoons are sure to lure some tasty fish to your line. Regina, Saskatchewan WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Where Does the Money Go? Average annual expenditures and percent of total:
ENTERTAINMENT
14-19 Live on Less.indd 16-17
FOOD
$2,698
CASH CONTRIBUTIONS
$6,133
$1,821
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
READING
5.4%
$118
0.2%
$457
12.4%
3.7%
TRANSPORTATION
Food at home $3,465 7%
$8,758
0.9%
Food away from home
Vehicle purchases (net outlay)
INSURANCE, PENSIONS
$2,668 5.4%
$3,244 6.5%
$5,336
17.6% $2,384 4.8%
Expenses, other transportation
Age: 48.8
Number of persons in consumer unit: 2.5 Number of earners: 1.3
Number of vehicles owned: 1.9 Percent homeowner: 67
$3,130 6.3%
0.7%
EDUCATION
$309 0.6%
$945
1.9%
APPAREL and SERVICES
3.8%
Household furnishings, equipment
$1,881
1.2%
$1,797 3.6%
Shelter
Household operations
1.6%
Getting There Greener According to the Department of Labor chart above, the average American family spends more than $2,000 on gas each year. Wouldn’t it be nice to save some of that money? Using less gas is also a great green choice because you’re reducing your contribution to global warming, smog and other forms of air pollution. When shopping for a new car, be sure to seek out the most fuel-efficient vehicle that meets your needs. Even minor mpg differences between mod-
HEALTHCARE
$984 2%
$2,853
34.1%
MISCELLANEOUS $808
$16,920
Groceries,” Page 32.) Learn to cook some new foods from scratch to enjoy both terrific flavor and money savings. We’ve found that if you bake your own bread, you’ll only spend about 50 cents per loaf, and homemade cheeses cost about a third of what you’d pay in the grocery store. If you drink alcohol, you can save money by brewing your own wine, beer or cider, and the taste is fabulous, too. Yep, “housework” can pay off nicely!
$588 *products and services
5.7%
$639 1.3%
Utilities, fuels, public services $3,477 7%
HOUSING
PERSONAL CARE*
Housekeeping supplies
$10,023 20.2%
SOURCE: Consumer Expenditures (U.S. Dept. of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2009)
Life, other personal insurance
$63,091
$49,638
$323 *incl. supplies
$5,027 10.1%
Income before taxes
AVERAGE ANNUAL EXPENDITURES
TOBACCO*
10.8%
Pensions, Social Security
Gasoline, motor oil
MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER
ISTOCKPHOTO/DAMIAN PALUSZYNSKI
16 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO LIVING ON LESS
This Department of Labor survey provides a detailed look into how the average U.S. “consumer unit” spends its annual paycheck.
U.S. CONSUMER UNIT EXPENDITURES
els can amount to serious savings over time. For example, if you really need a truck, choosing the 16-mpg model over the 14-mpg model can save as much as $400 in gas annually. When driving, certain habits can greatly reduce your fuel consumption — the big ones are maintaining proper tire pressure, braking less and
NOTE: Some breakdowns may not equal their totals due to rounding.
slowing down. For example, depending on your specific car, lower speeds can save you 20 to 66 cents per gallon of gas. When you can, drive less! Not only will you save gas, but you’ll also save on tolls, vehicle upkeep and parking costs. One option is to carpool to work — the more the merrier and the greater the savings. For shorter distances, bike and walk whenever possible, which will also keep you healthier and can reduce stress. And if you’re in the position to do it, consider ditching one of your family cars, or even going completely car-free. You’ll be saying goodbye to car payments, repair bills and car insurance, too. VOLKSWAGEN; TOP: VISUAL ECONOMICS
grown options such as grass clippings, shredded leaves or compost. It pays to start from seeds whenever possible instead of buying transplants, and you can stretch those dollars further by organizing a seed swap with other gardeners. You can even learn how to save your own seeds from plants you grow Cut Your Food Bills yourself. Tomatoes are one simple crop to start saving seeds Let’s look at some specific from and beans are another. areas of household budgets. You can raise your own The chart on Page 17 breaks meat, eggs and dairy products, down the typical American too. Even in urban and subbudget by category. While food urban areas, local ordinances isn’t the largest item on this list often allow you to keep a few of expenses, it’s a good place backyard chickens. If you live to start thinking about cutting You can’t beat great-tasting homemade bread at 50 cents a loaf! in a rural area and have more costs, because you can actually land, you might also consider cattle, goats, can’t get more local than food from your save money while improving the quality of sheep, pigs or ducks — whichever animals own backyard. There are other benefits, your food. How is this possible? Because best fit your available space and resources. too — homegrown produce can be picked eating healthy, homemade and homeThe value of the meat and dairy products at the peak of ripeness, for maximum flagrown foods is cheaper than eating out or you produce will usually add up to far vor and nutrition. And then there are the purchasing processed foods. more than you’re spending. Homesteader money savings. We were amazed when Starting a garden is a good first step. It’s Gwen Roland tracked her expenses for garden writer Rosalind Creasy reported amazing how much you can grow in even a raising a flock of meat chickens and calthat her 10-by-10-foot garden produced small gardening space. When the Dervaes culated she spent just $1 per pound for more than $700 worth of organic food family measured the output of their onedelicious, free-range meat. in one season! tenth of an acre in Pasadena, Calif., they Another way to save on your food bills is If you already garden, you know some discovered they had raised more than to change your cooking and grocery shopgarden supplies can be pricey, but you 6,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables ping habits. Contributing editor Barbara don’t have to spend a fortune to grow your in a single year! Planting a kitchen garden Pleasant suggests that many families can own food. One way to save is to forgo is a great strategy for greener living because cut their food bills by half or more by takcommercial fertilizers and use free, homeit’s an efficient use of resources. You simply ing these simple steps: • Cook at home, from scratch when possible. Make big batches and use leftovers. • Take your own lunches and snacks to work or school. • Eat produce that is in season and locally plentiful. • Buy cooperatively, in bulk or directly from producers. • At grocery stores, shop the sales and use coupons. • Build your diet primarily around plants and whole grains, eating meat more sparingly and choosing less expensive cuts when you do. It’s also a good idea to hone your cooking skills and learn more about brewing and home food preservation. Consider How much could you save by keeping a family milk cow? By breeding the cow each year and drying, freezing, canning and fermenting raising the calf for beef, you could net between $4,000 and $6,000 worth of milk and meat! your garden harvest. (See “Save Money on brary to borrow books, movies and music. The library is also a good place to get free Internet access, as are coffeehouses and other businesses that offer free Wi-Fi. And, finally, when you do decide to buy something new, keep an eye open for sales, coupons and rebates.
Affordable Shelter Housing is an item that looms large in most people’s budgets. If you’re looking for a new place, a simple strategy is By using fuel-efficient driving techniques, John and Helen Taylor set a Guinness world record for mileage. On their 9,000 mile trip they averaged 58.82 mpg. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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EASY GARDEN Anyone Can Make Don’t wait for fresh veggies — start an instant no-till garden today!
M
y brother Andrew and his family have a true passion for fresh vegetables, so when they moved to their new suburban home in Barrington, R.I., about a decade ago, Andrew’s first question was, “Where do I put a vegetable garden?” Enter me, the garden expert of the family. With 30 years of gardening and agriculture research, as well as a few gardening books under my belt, I’m the one who gets called when there’s a question about which tomato variety is good to grow (‘Belgian Giant’ is my all-time favorite), or how to prevent weed problems (read my book, Weedless Gardening). So it was natural that 28 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO LIVING ON LESS
28-31 Easy Garden.indd 28-29
by LEE REICH I would sit down with Andrew to help create his new garden. The sunniest area of Andrew’s mostly shaded yard was right outside his front door — not the usual place for a vegetable garden in the ’burbs. His blacktop driveway wound around a 25-foot wide circle of lawn before heading straight back out to the street through a grove of shade trees. I suggested that this patch of lawn was the perfect location for his small garden. I also proposed beginning the garden in an unconventional way . It’s a strategy I’ve used with great success in my own garden. The crux of the system is to emulate Mother Nature, with light mulching and
minimal soil disturbance. This preserves the good soil structure generally found beneath lawns and meadows, doesn’t expose buried weed seeds to the light and air they need to sprout, and snuffs out seedlings from blown-in weed seeds. And here’s the best news: This system can be used just about anywhere.
Voilà! Instant Garden After laying out the boundaries of the 16-by-16-foot garden area, the first step was to kill the grass. The easiest way to do this is to cover the ground with a few layers of overlapped wet newspaper so no weed shoots can poke through. The newspaper
For an instant garden, kill grass with wet newspaper, make permanent paths and beds, add compost to the beds, then build a fence and arbor if you like, and plant transplants in the compost.
smothers the grass, which dies and rots in place along with the newspaper itself. The first season, roots from vegetable plants will grow down through the wetted newspaper. After the newspaper was in place, we laid out permanent paths and planting beds. Most gardens need to be tilled annually to loosen the soil and offset compaction from walking and rolling wheelbarrows or tractors over the ground. Establishing permanent paths and planting beds avoids compaction and makes tilling unnecessary. Another advantage of permanent beds is that seeds or transplants can be planted much closer together than in conventional gardens, which need enough space between each row to allow you to till, walk or hoe. Next, Andrew shoveled a 2-inchdeep layer of wood chips — free from a local arborist — into the paths, which I suggested making 18 inches wide. One path runs down the middle of the garden perpendicular to the other
11 Tips for Starting a New Garden
soil disturbance; always try to preserve 1 Minimize the natural layering of the soil. your vegetable garden as close to your 2 Place kitchen door as possible. your vegetable garden where it will be 3 Site bathed each day in at least six hours of direct
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
summer sunlight. Use transplants for quicker harvests of slowergrowing plants, such as tomatoes, peppers and broccoli. Do not use transplants for crops that transplant poorly, such as carrots and okra, or those that are easy to grow from seed, such as beans and peas. Even if you have drip irrigation, hand water newly planted seeds and transplants until their roots grow into moist soil. Use only weed-free mulches, such as wood chips, sawdust and grass clippings. A vegetable garden can be more than functional. Put a pretty fence, low shrubs and flowers around it. To spend the least time weeding, do it frequently for short periods. Keep an eye on the edges — that’s one place weeds try to sneak in. Get to any weeds while they are still young because “one year’s seed is five years’ weeds.”
LEE REICH (5)
paths and is wider to accommodate a garden cart. In the 36-inch-wide planting beds, he slathered on a 2-inch layer of weed-free compost (see “How to Buy the Best Compost,” Page 30). Compost provides the nutrient- and humus-rich medium needed by intensively grown vegetables. To eke out maximum production from this little plot of land, I also suggested installing drip irrigation. The drip system brings water directly to the vegetables, which conserves water and discourages weed growth along paths. A timer at a nearby hose spigot turns the water on six times a day at a slow drip, but for only five minutes each time. After running through the timer, the water runs through a pressure reducer, a filter, and then out to the garden via inexpensive, half-inch black plastic tubing. At each bed, Andrew plugged in a valve followed by a quarter-inch dripperline that runs the length of the bed and periodically replaces what the plants slowly use. The beauty of this system is that your vegetable transplants and seeds can go into the ground just as soon as you’ve covered the newspaper with compost and wood chips. Where one WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Where to Shop
How much money you save depends on how much time you invest in bulk-buying. There are easy options that save pennies on the pound and more complicated options that bring higher savings. Start small. Even supermarkets may have some bulk bins. Natural food stores and co-ops almost Pickling and fermenting are easy ways to preserve foods and enhance their flavors. always offer bulk goods aisles, where you can buy anything from flour to spices to beans. satisfying. To find a local farmers market, community supported Buying in bulk from a store is a cheaper option than buying agriculture program, or farms near you that sell direct to customprepackaged foods, but you’re still going to pay for labor. Stores ers, visit www.localharvest.org. get bulk goods in giant bags and pay workers to break things down, and that labor shows up in the price of the food. Buying Staples in Bulk Most natural food stores and co-ops also offer case discounts Americans spend their paychecks on cleverly packaged food for 10 or more packaged products. You usually can save between products that cost way more than necessary. When you buy in 10 and 20 percent off the retail price by buying a case of organic bulk, you buy food without the extra costs for packaging and marmacaroni and cheese, for example, instead of buying it a box at a
Invest in a Pressure Cooker Another way to reduce your food costs is to use a pressure cooker. Using a pressure cooker lets you cook all kinds of foods in much less time, saving you up to 70 percent on gas or electricity costs. Brown rice, for example, often takes about 40 minutes with conventional cooking, but using a pressure cooker cuts that to 15 minutes. Beets, winter squash and most other veggies can be prepared quickly in a pressure cooker. Your savings won’t stop with just costs for cooking fuel. You can buy budget cuts of beef and quickly make them tender and juicy in the cooker. Or, instead of buying beef, eat more beans. They’re an excellent, low-fat source of protein. Most types of beans typically take up to an hour to cook, but with a pressure cooker, you can cut that to 6 to 8 minutes (and pre-soaking is optional). This makes dried beans almost as easy to prepare as canned, and they cost only about a third as much — plus, they taste much better! A pound of dry beans (about 2 cups) will give you about 3 pounds (6 cups) of cooked beans. Buy your beef or beans at bulk prices and your savings can be even greater. — Cheryl Long
time. A 25-pound bag of beans costs 50 percent less per pound compared to smaller bags. Another option is to join or start a buying club. Buying clubs buy directly from the same regional food distributors that service grocery stores, so they cut out the price of the middleman. If you
Dry Goods and Staples: Costs for Packaged vs. Case vs. Bulk To give you an example of the savings that are possible by buying in bulk, this chart details author Craig Idlebrook’s buying experience in Maine. The best option — buying in large quantities through a food club — provides an average savings of 54 percent for 14 staple products over the supermarket price for the packaged versions. All prices are per pound.
Supermarket Package Price
organic whole-wheat pasta
Case: Multiple individual packages in a box (usually 10 or more) Bulk: Minimally processed or whole foods in large containers; not packaged in smaller portions
Bulk Price
Cost Savings
Club Bulk Price
Cost Savings
Required Quantity for Bulk Price
$0.66 (20%)
$2.99
$0.30 (9%)
$1.99
$1.30 (40%)
10 lbs
$5.19
$1.30 (20%)
$4.49
$2.00 (31%)
$3.63
$2.86 (44%)
9 lbs
$5.99
$4.80
$1.19 (20%)
$4.19
$1.80 (30%)
$2.81
$3.18 (53%)
35 lbs
organic whole-wheat flour
$2.00
$1.60
$0.40 (20%)
$1.09
$0.91 (46%)
$1.05
$0.95 (48%)
50 lbs
organic dried black beans
$2.91
$2.33
$0.58 (20%)
$1.99
$0.92 (32%)
$1.26
$1.65 (57%)
25 lbs
organic long-grain brown rice
$2.50
$2.00
$0.50 (20%)
$1.49
$1.01 (40%)
$1.15
$1.35 (54%)
50 lbs
organic whole rolled oats
$3.49
$2.79
$0.70 (20%)
$1.09
$2.40 (69%)
$1.12
$2.37 (68%)
50 lbs
organic sunflower seeds
$4.98
$3.98
$1.00 (20%)
$1.69
$3.29 (66%)
$1.99
$2.99 (60%)
50 lbs
organic raisins
$3.19
$2.55
$0.64 (20%)
$2.69
$0.50 (16%)
$2.09
$1.10 (34%)
30 lbs
nutritional yeast
$14.07
$11.26
$2.81 (20%)
$6.59
$7.48 (53%)
$4.97
$9.10 (65%)
50 lbs
popcorn
$2.59
$2.07
$0.52 (20%)
$1.39
$1.20 (46%)
$0.66
$1.93 (75%)
50 lbs
almonds
$9.78
$7.82
$1.96 (20%)
$5.29
$4.49 (46%)
$4.80
$4.98 (51%)
25 lbs
natural chocolate chips
$6.53
$5.22
$1.31 (20%)
$4.09
$2.44 (37%)
$2.55
$3.98 (61%)
50 lbs
honey
$5.05
$4.04
$1.01 (20%)
$3.79
$1.26 (25%)
$2.55
$2.50 (50%)
60 lbs
Case Price
Cost Savings
$3.29
$2.63
organic peanut butter
$6.49
organic canola oil
Item
34 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO LIVING ON LESS
32-35 Save on Groceries.indd 34-35
MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER
ISTOCKPHOTO/HSN PHOTOGRAPHY
keting. If you focus on buying bulk dry goods you can store, you can save thousands on your annual grocery expenses. For examples of savings, see the chart below, and read on for tips on how and what to buy in bulk.
Save valuable time and energy by using a pressure cooker for rice, beans and veggies.
ask around at a co-op, you usually can find an active club in your area, and you also can check www.coopdirectory.org and www. unitedbuyingclubs.com. To join a club, you often pay a modest fee to the club’s organizer. Also, you probably will be asked to volunteer to help unpack the monthly delivery. If there isn’t a club available, you can start your own. (Many distributors don’t even mind a single buyer.) All you need is a delivery space and a commitment to meet the minimum order of the distributor, usually $250 or more.
What to Buy Focus on your staple foods. Before you put in a big bulk order, keep a record of your eating habits. Look at what you buy every week or two. Buy that to start out. Flour is often a good bet if you like making your own bread. You can save big on pasta, too. It’s safest to stick with dry goods that won’t lose flavor or spoil, although a 10-pound container of peanut butter is a good buy for a family of four or more. Laundry soap and dish soap also are likely to be good choices, because there always will be cleaning to do. More importantly, there are some things to avoid buying. Don’t try a new product with a big bulk order, or order huge quantities of something you only eat occasionally. Otherwise, you may end up trying to use brown rice lasagna noodles for the next five years. Be conservative. One spoiled bulk order could erase your whole savings.
Bulk Food Storage Don’t wait until you get a 50-pound bag of beans home to figure out where you’re going to keep it. Have your storage infrastructure ready before you put in your first order. Plastic bags are handy to have for breaking down big bags into usable quantities, and they can seal bugs out, too. Your storage containers should be mouse-proof, bug-proof and sheltered from weather. Avoid damp storage areas. If possible, keep at least part of your bulk goods accessible in easy-to-see containers so you know what you have and what you need for the next order. Start small with your bulk orders, but start with your next shopping trip. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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KATHY RASMUSSEN (3); PENNIES: ISTOCKPHOTO/KEITH WEBBER JR.; DOLLARS: ISTOCKPHOTO/TOMISLAV FORGO
Energy upgrades to this house in Madison, Wis., including added insulation, have made it much more efficient to heat and cool.
Find out which energy upgrades offer the most value for your home — especially if you’re working with a tight budget.
BEST HOME ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS by GREG PAHL
H
ave you thought about making energy retrofits to your home? It’s a great way to make your home more energy efficient and reduce your carbon footprint. Energy improvements are good for your bank account, too, because money you invest in energy efficiency or renewable energy systems will pay off over time in reduced energy bills. That’s especially true right now, because the federal government currently offers big financial incentives for purchasing solar panels, wind turbines, efficient windows, added insula42 THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS GUIDE TO LIVING ON LESS
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tion, wood stoves and more. It’s also possible to finance home energy upgrades with a loan specifically designed for energy conservation. These loans are usually called energy improvement mortgages (see “Resources,” Page 46). However, it’s not always easy to determine what energy improvements you need. Which projects make the most sense for your home?
Which are really worth the money? And if you can’t do all of them, where should you start?
Imagine You Had a Little Extra Dough... Each home is different, and how much you could benefit from a particular project depends on many variables, including
Some of the best green home improvements will cost you little or nothing!
the age and design of your home, your financial situation and your personal priorities. To help focus on what you really need and want, consider this hypothetical scenario: You have been given $5,000 to spend on home energy improvements. What would you do with the money? Some of the projects that may come to mind first, such as solar-electric (photo-
voltaic) panels and wind power systems, are outside that budget. For example, if you were to purchase a residential wind turbine, you could expect to spend at least $10,000 and easily as much as $50,000. Solar panels usually fall into a similar price range (see “If Your Heart Yearns for Solar Power,” Page 45). Energy-efficient windows come with a big price tag, too.
High-dollar home energy improvements can lead to big savings, but you’ll want to calculate payback periods carefully.
They can cost between $200 and $800 per window. Add the cost of installation, and depending on the size of your home and the number of windows, you could easily spend $10,000 or more. Can you make significant energy improvements to your home on a more modest budget? Absolutely! You could add insulation, buy a new, high-efficiency furnace, or purchase a new energyefficient refrigerator. The big question is how to decide which of these energy improvements will provide the biggest benefits for you. Regardless of your home’s age, most residential efficiency experts recommend a home energy audit as a first step. An energy audit costs about $300, although low-cost or free audits are sometimes offered by local utilities. George Twigg, the deputy policy director at Efficiency Vermont, a state organization that connects homeowners with qualified auditors and contractors, explains how this process works: “The contractor will help guide the homeowner through the most cost-effective things that can be done to save energy. Often it’s sealing air leaks and other ways to tighten up the house. Those strategies have a reasonably fast payback, as opposed to windows, which have a fairly long payback time.” A “payback period” is the time required for the improvement to save enough fuel or energy to pay for itself, and it’s a useful tool in determining which high-dollar home improvements will yield quick results. For example, for home insulation upgrades, a payback of three to five years is not unusual, while for energy-efficient windows, a payback period of more than 10 years is common. One thing to keep in mind is you shouldn’t rely too heavily on payback period estimates from product manufacturers. Look for estimates from sources that don’t have a vested interest in the results, such as a state energy agency or an energy auditor (especially an energy auditor who isn’t also proposing to do the repair work he or she recommends). WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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