September Riot for Austerity

It’s the last day of September. The leaves are falling and there’s a chill in the air. Frost has been regularly decorating our lawn and car windows. It was 26 degrees when I awoke this morning at ten to six, and there was even snow on the ground. Our first snow–old man winter is definitely on his way.

Tomorrow October begins, and with it begins our second month on the Riot for Austerity. So it’s time for me to examine what we’ve done to reduce our consumption and what we could have done better.

Gasoline: 9 Gallons in September
On Track to Meet Our Goal: Yes!
Average Household of Our Size: 1500 gallons per year
Goal: 150 gallons
Our September Usage: 9 gallons
Discussion: I’ve been taking the bus a lot more often, and so has my husband though he’s almost always taken the bus as first choice transportation. Initially, I thought it would be difficult since our buses are running every 40 minutes now instead of every 20 minutes as they were a few weeks ago. Still, several efforts at running to the bus stop aside, we’ve caught the buses when we’ve needed to.

Of course, I’ve been lazy this last week and I’ve been sleeping in with the darker mornings. I’ve missed the bus quite a few times which necessitates my taking my car to work instead. Maybe I ought to get an alarm clock now.

UPDATED
Electricity: 1267 kwh in September
On Track to Meeting Our Goal: No!
Average Household: 11,000 kwh per year
Goal: 4,400 (which includes 1,100 times 4 since we purchase wind power)
Our September Usage: 1,267 kwh
Discussion: I received the bill in the mail this morning and the news is both good and bad. Our energy usage is down 20% compared to last September, but it’s still way too high. We’ve effectively used 30% of our energy allotment in one month, so it doesn’t look like we’ll be achieving electricity consumption goal this year. We’ve been reducing our use quite a bit by turning off lights that aren’t in use (elementary, I know), eliminating phantom energy suckers and using less hot water. Yet, I’ve been busy canning and canning food takes a lot of energy that we wouldn’t normally consume so it will be very interesting to see how we faired.

Heating and Cooking Energy: 6.6 Therms in September
On Track to Meeting Our Goal: Yes!
Average Household: 1000 therms per year
Goal: 100 therms
Our September Usage: 6.6 Therms (estimated)
Discussion: We’re not billed for natural gas since everything in our little condo runs on electricity. Talk about inefficient! We do use some natural gas in the way of the coin-op dryer on the second floor. Much of what we wash is being air-dried and since the little dude isn’t really using diapers any more except for nighttime, we’re using that dryer less and less.

Garbage Headed for the Landfill: 30 lbs in September
On Track to Meeting Our Goal: Yes!
Average Household of Our Size: 4,928 lbs per year
Goal: 468 lbs
Our September Usage: 30 lbs
Discussion: When you think of your waste as headed to the landfill, it changes your mind about the ease with which you throw something away. Between reducing what we bring into our home, composting our food scraps and recycling the rest we really don’t have much to send to the landfill. Still, 30 lbs is a lot of waste when you sit down and think about it. I certainly hope that we find more ways to reduce our waste even further.

Water: 1,140 gallons in September
On Track to Meeting Our Goal: No!
Average Household of Our Size: 109,500 gallons per year
Goal: 10,950 gallons this year
Our September Usage: 1,140 gallons (estimated)
Discussion: We still have a lot of reducing to go in this area, and it’s disappointing to see that we’ve gone over our monthly allotment by more than 200 gallons. It’s mostly me too. I love long hot showers, and long hot baths. On stressful days nothing solves my toddler’s tantrums or my own rising stress levels more than a long, warm bubble bath. I really ought to find a different way to cope. We also haven’t started handwashing dishes like I intended to. That takes a lot more work than I like, and I like no work on that front.

Consumer Goods: $212.50 in September
On Track to Meeting Our Goal: No!
Average Household: $10,000
Goal: $1,000 this year (with used good calculated at 1/10 of value)
Our September Usage: $212.50
Discussion: The bulk of this is a new pressure canner. I know. I know. I’ve broken the compact, but I had a lot of free food that had to get canned right away and a water bath canner just wouldn’t cut it and I only purchased the new one after visiting no less than three thrift stores. Beyond the price of the canner is used clothing, books and some other goodies. I still think that we’ll meet our goal since this month was an aberration and not our norm, after all the canner cost us $176.50 and the rest of the items added up to much, much less.

Food: Local, Bulk and Other
On Track to Meeting Our Goal: Yes!
Average Household: Most food comes from 1500 miles away
Goals: 70% is Local and Sustainable, 25% is Bulk Organic and 5% is Other
Our September Totals: This is tough to calculate, but an average of 3+ meals in our home have been entirely local with the bulk of other meals being comprised of local ingredients,
Discussion: I think we’re well on our way to meeting this goal, and my near constant focus on food preservation is definitely helping. Additionally, with a little help from our local grocer who is now starting to label the origin of food, I was able to learn that our beloved quinoa which I thought was from some distant South American country is actually from a ranch that is only 148 miles away. I’ve also found local, organically grown bulk flour for making bread. And there’s always the farmers market with its lush goodies. All in all, most of our meals are averaging a 40 - 50 mile transit instead of 1500 miles.

So, there you have it: some progress, some loss and a whole lot of area for improvement. How have you done on reducing?

September 30th, 2007