Riot for Austerity, Month One

The first month of the Riot for Austerity was fairly quiet at my house. At least, quiet in the sense that I didn’t make any dramatic changes. I didn’t turn off the fridge, or go carless (though I would dearly like to do both). But here are my tallies for the month, along with comments.

Gasoline: I was able to significantly cut down on the amount of my personal driving over the last two weeks of the month. Part of this success was determined effort. But, it didn’t hurt that I’ve been too broke to buy groceries. On the downside I accepted a temporary part time job last week where in I ferry around a lady who’s just had surgery and can’t drive. But at least it will help my income slightly.

Electricity: I’ve been running the A/C about the same as in the first two weeks of the month. It never dropped below 95 here the whole month –and that’s without the heat index. When I was a kid that type of weather happened only in July and August, and never for more than a few days at a time. That’s demonstrable climate change in the space of a decade and a half. Anyway, ole Murphy decided to show me on Friday that I CAN live without air conditioning. My A/C quit working and I haven’t got the money to fix it right now. I’ll make up for the A/C use this winter because I won’t have to heat very much at all given the climate.

Heating: That’s not exactly been a problem, given that the daytime temps have been in the high 90s.

Garbage: I made significant reductions in garbage production this month, with the exception of the cat litter problem. I’ve had a lot of helpful suggestions on that issue, but nothing I can really implement where I’m at. The garbage fluctuated between 3 and 10 pounds all month, which isn’t bad in a two-person household.

Water: I finally convinced my brother to reduce his 20 minute showers to fifteen. (Hey, it’s a start.) And I haven’t had to water the garden much in the past week. Why? Rain!!! Pretty much every afternoon. (Happy, happy dance here in Drought Land.)
Consumer Goods: Okay, I said this wasn’t a problem for me, and it’s not really. After I realized I didn’t have to count what I bought at the church yard sale, my total consumer spending for the month dropped to $10 after discounting. And the only thing I bought that I didn’t really need was a dollar dog toy. (And this has turned out to be a wonderful purchase –my lab mix has spent hours playing with it.) I bought the dog toy, some razors, a bale of wheat straw (discounted 50% by the rules), and an internet phone cord.

Food: My garden is slowly ramping up its production and my meals are becoming more and more local. Sunday night I had a meal that was 99% local –and that 99% came from right outside my back door. Boiled jacket potatoes mashed with organic butter and spices, crookneck squash boiled for about a minute and also dabbed with butter and pepper, and homegrown tomatoes. The only things that didn’t come from my garden were the butter and the spices.

I’m making progress. Slowly but surely. That’s all that matters.

90% Reduction weeks 1 and 2

I didn’t get an update posted last week, sorry. I had a bad cold (courtesy of my brother, who brought it home from his job and subsequently gave it to me) and I was busy with the first week of school. Here are my advances thus far:

Gasoline: I haven’t really been able to reduce my driving too much yet. I’m working on it, but it is hard. I’ve had to turn down several offers from friends to hang out, both because of the 90% reduction and money issues; I just can’t afford a lot of gas right now.

Electricity: My usage went up slightly last month but not much –especially considering that I finally had to turn on the A/C.

Garbage: I forgot to way it last week, but this week it only weighed 3 pounds!

Water: I’ve been more careful with water usage, but I’m not yet able to tease out what’s mine, what’s my brothers, and what’s the garden’s.

Consumer Goods: I have spent a grand total of $26.05 on consumer goods this year. $4.05 of that was on a bale of straw, and $20 of it was at my church’s yearly yard sale. What I got out of the latter was mostly useful stuff –towels, dish rags, and the like. I haven’t discounted those things yet, so I don’t have my actual total. I'm going to use the linens for things like cleaning (I only have a few and they're getting worn out fast) and am going to turn some of the more ragged ones into cloth pads.

Food: This one is hard for me. I’m not sure how to calculate totals and percentages. If I do it strictly by price alone, then non-local wet and bulk will take up the most of my diet. For example, I may buy 3 pounds of squash in a month at $1.25 a pound at the farmer’s market, and then one half gallon of non-local organic milk at $3.50. Right there, the one half-gallon of milk has outdone my 3 pounds of squash! And then there’s the stuff from my garden, which I don’t pay for at all. Any ideas?

Oh, and for those worried about the snake, I didn’t kill it. I can’t since its not dangerous –my religion forbids unnecessary killing.

90% Reduction Plan

All right, I’ve been working on my reduction plan. I know I’m doing this at the last hour, but here goes. This project is going to be hard to do with two people in the house (at least for the summer), one of whom isn’t involved. But I’m going to do my best.

1.) Gasoline. Current Usage: 336 gallons per year. Goal: 50 gallons per year. This will be tough, given that I live in an area without public transit. My primary destinations are: school (5 miles round trip, 3-4x a week, depending on the semester), the artists market (10 miles round trip 1x per week), my grandmothers (20 miles round trip, 1x per week), and church (10 miles round trip, 1x per week). I also occasionally have to run to the store as well. That’s 60 miles, or roughly 2 gallons of gas, a week. Right there that’s a 104 gallons a year, or more than twice the allowed limit. But, I still use another 232 gallons of gas a year, and there I definitely have opportunities to cut. So here’s my plans to cut:
-limit trips to the store and farmer’s market to no more than twice a month, preferably once. (Save in the event of an emergency.)
-limit social outings to twice a month.
-limit trips to the library to twice a month, and only then on the way home from church (it’s on the way).
I’m also going to Canada for ten days in August (a trip that I’ve all ready had planned) so that will burn some gas. But, I am going by bus so that will fall under public transport.

2.) Electricity. I’m screwed as far as getting down to 90kWh per year is concerned, since I have an all electric house. Since my power is renewable –at least the first 300 kWh/month –this is not the highest on my list to reduce below the 300 kWh/month mark. Toward that end I’ll be making some changes though:
-keeping the ac off as much as possible (once the smoke clears, at any rate)
-unplugging the microwave when not in use
-reducing the amount of laundry I generate, and always using the clothesline
-trying to cook only two or three times a week, and trying to bake only one day a week.
I’m not going to be getting rid of my fridge like some are doing. I use it to keep leftovers, and to freeze food for future meals. This is crucial to my being able to eat right during semesters. Once I get out of school this won’t be so much of an issue.

3.) Heating and Cooking Energy –not applicable; included under Electricity usage above.

4.) Garbage and Recycling. Garbage –for my personal trash production I’m almost there. I’m going to work on reducing the amount of packaging coming into the house. I’ve been working on this for some time but obviously have more work to do. But how the devil do I reduce the amount of cat litter and waste? Any ideas?
Recycling –I am a BIG recycler. I try to recycle everything, including a lot of things that would go into other people’s trash. Cardboard boxes, cans, plastic bottles, and glass, all go to the recycler. I’m not sure how much I produce, so I need to measure this, but it’s obvious I need to cut down on the number of canned goods and boxes coming into the house.

5.) Water –I’m going to install rain barrels to use for watering the ornamentals (when it finally rains again). And I’m going to start using more graywater. I also had to talk to my brother about his water usage yesterday. Not because of this project really, but because of the drought and my pocketbook. The boy is a water hog –he can’t stand taking less than a twenty minute shower everyday. (Sometimes twice a day.) He has literally doubled my water usage in the few weeks he’s been here. So I spoke with him and he’s agreed to do better.

6.) Consumer Goods –I’m about there right now, thanks to compacting and a frugal sensibility. I need to find out how food plants fits into this though.

7.) Food. I’m going to get all my fresh fruits and veggies exclusively from my garden and the farmer’s market. I’m going to start eating more fresh foods as opposed to bulk. I’ll start canning and freezing more of my own food instead of buying so much canned foods. I’m going to reduce the amount of dairy and all processed foods still further –crackers, chili, etc. I am also going to extend my garden beds so that I can grow more of my own food, and this fall I hope to try my hand at small scale grain production (in the form of oats).

90% Reduction: My Stats

Here is my baseline for the 90% reduction campaign, starting on June 1st.

Baseline

1. Gasoline
U.S. Average: 500 gallons per person per year
Goal: 50 gallons per person per year
Me: About 336 gallons per year, or about 2/3 of the average. I think that I have significant opportunities to cut in this area.

2. Electricity
U.S. Average: 11,000 kWh per year, or 900 kWh per month
Goal: 1100 kWh per year, or 90 kWh per month
Me: A few months ago I began an electricity diet. My average over the past year is 619 kWh per month. However, over the last several months my usage has been slightly above 300 kWh. The latest bill, which came in Friday, was the lowest yet -309 kWh. The bottom line is that I am currently using about 2/3 the electricity of the average American household. Also, I am also on the waiting list for Green Power Switch, a TVA program which sails renewable energy to consumers. When I get onto the program, the first 300 kWh of my electricity will be from a combination of solar and wind power. I do not see this a cop-out or a final solution, but merely as a stopgap until I can cut my usage still more. This program may not always be available after all, I may not always be able to afford it, and the less I use the more is available for someone else.

3. Heating and Cooking Energy –currently not applicable, as my house is all electric.

4. Garbage
U.S. Average: 4.5 lbs per person per day, or 1642.5 lbs per year
Goal: .45 lbs per person per day
Me: Here’s another area where I was surprised at how much I consume. For my personal trash production, I produce about 3.5pounds per week (as a conservative estimate), or 11.1% of the U.S. average. However, when you factor in cat litter and its, um, accompaniments, I produce about 40.3% of the U.S. average. This obviously will have to go down. I’m not sure how I produce this much –I throw away almost nothing; mostly packaging that can’t be reused or recycled.

5. Water
U.S. Average: 100 gallons per person, per day
Goal: 10 gallons per person per day
Me: Somehow I use about 67 gallons a day, or again, 2/3 of the U.S. average. How this could be is beyond me. I need to look at all of my systems again.
Problems: My brother will be living with me over the summer while he works at a nearby factory to save money for school. This will complicate my calculations for the next few months.
Deviation: I am NOT going to be able to get down to 10 gallons a day (except under emergency conditions). This is because of myself, my pets, and my garden. So I am changing the goal just a bit. My goal is going to be 10 gallons a day for myself, 5 for my animals (counting them in total as half a person –my Siamese will not be happy with this distinctions), and 20 gallons for my garden. That give me a goal of 35 gallons a day, about half what I use now. (Plus 10 more per gallon over the summer while my brother is here.) I am also looking at greywater systems and rainwater catchment systems.

6. Consumer Goods
U.S. Average: $10,000 per household per year
Goal: $1,000 per household per year
Me: Without counting my tuition and books (which I can do nothing about until December of 2008) I am about there. Being a compactor really helps with this. My tuition and books are currently about $5300 per year.
Without tuition and books, I’m about at goal.
With tuition and books, I’m at 63% of average.

7. Food
U.S. Average: ?
Goal: Local -70%, Bulk -25%, and non-local/Processed 5%
Me: This one was hard for me to estimate. Local -15% (and growing); this is all of my fresh fruits and vegetables, and my free-range eggs.
Bulk- probably about 50%; this includes dried beans, pasta, rice, various flours, powdered milk, oats and (I think) raisins and nuts.
Wet/processed -35%; this includes organic dairy, ice cream, canned and frozen veggies and fruit, juice concentrate, pasta sauce, salad dressing and other condiments, and the occasional box of Annie’s mac and cheese or can of Amy’s chili.
Minor Deviation: I’m not counting free food in this, as I have no idea where it comes from, and as broke as I am, I’ll take it anyway. Its less than 1% of my diet, at any rate.

EDITED TO ADD: I made a mistake with the garbage calculations. I forgot to take into account the fact that my brother has been living with me the past week, so the garbage calculation should have been for 2 people, rather than one. This changes my garbage production to 11.1% without the cat litter, and 40.3% with it, so its not as bad as I thought.