Your Money_ The Missing Manual - J. D. Roth [43]
Have fun. Don't make gardening more work than it has to be. Your garden doesn't need to be perfect: Pick a favorite fruit or vegetable, plant a few seeds, and have fun watching them grow. If you have kids, get them involved, too.
With a little effort, your yard can produce food that tastes great and saves you money!
Frequently Asked Question: How Much Can a Garden Save Me?
Many prominent penny pinchers claim that gardening is a great way to save money: Michelle Obama is growing vegetables at the White House, and the Burpee seed company boasts that $50 in seeds and fertilizer will yield $1,250 in produce (http://tinyurl.com/burpee-claim). Burpee CEO George Ball told the Wall Street Journal that $1 in seeds will produce $75 worth of beans.
But how much does a garden really save? My wife and I set out to answer that question in 2008. For 12 months, we tracked the costs of seeds, fertilizer, water, and electricity. We carefully weighed every fruit and vegetable we harvested, comparing costs with local supermarkets and produce stands. We also logged the time we spent working in the garden.
At the end of the year, we tallied the results. We'd spent 60 hours working on our crops and $318.43 on seeds and supplies. We harvested $606.97 worth of food, including $225.74 in berries, $294.59 in vegetables, $66.63 in fruit, and $20.10 in herbs.
We repeated the experiment in 2009. This time, we spent $351.37 (and 63.5 hours) and harvested $809.74 worth of food. So we didn't get the kinds of results Mr. Ball claims, but we doubled our investment in just a year. That's a better return than mutual funds—and tastier, too. For more about the Get Rich Slowly garden project, check out: http://tinyurl.com/GRSgarden.
Tip
Saving on food is always a popular topic at Get Rich Slowly. If you crave more tips, here's 3 years' worth of articles on the subject: http://tinyurl.com/GRSfoodlist.
Pay Less for Power
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average family spent $372.08 per month on utilities in 2008. You can't do without light and heat, but as the following sections explain, you can cut utility costs, adding more money to your cash flow.
The electric company
Michael Bluejay has a great website about saving electricity (http://tinyurl.com/saving-electricity), where he describes how electricity works and, more importantly, gives real-world examples of how you can use less energy (and thereby save money). The best tactic, he says, is "dealing with the biggest electricity-guzzlers rather than worrying about items that don't use much electricity." This chart from the Department of Energy shows how the average American household used electricity in 2005:
Source: www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/home_energy.html
Because heating and cooling use the most energy, they also offer the best opportunities for saving. Bluejay estimates that the typical family can save about:
$1,200 a year by using space heaters instead of central heating. (And you can save even more with a heat pump—after you recoup the installation costs.)
$600 a year by using fans instead of AC.
$150 a year by drying clothes on a line instead of in a dryer.
$150 a year by washing laundry in cold water instead of hot.
$100 a year by replacing regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents.
$75 a year by getting rid of your TV.
$60 a year by putting your computer in sleep mode when you're not using it.
Tip
A programmable thermostat is an easy way to reduce utility bills. It lets you turn off the furnace automatically when you're asleep or not home. The government estimates the average homeowner could save $180 per year by installing an Energy Star programmable thermostat (see http://tinyurl.com/ES-thermostat).
If you're gung-ho about cutting your power bill, Bluejay recommends the Kill-a-Watt electricity meter (http://tinyurl.com/killwatt),