Interesting question. My husband and I live on a permaculture farm, in the high mountain desert of Idaho, 4700+ feet elivation. We are in the heartland of potato country.
We raise most of our own food. We raise meat goats and meat rabbits. When I state I'm cooking from scratch, I'm really not kidding. That means grinding the wheat to make flour to make the bread. Last time I checked at the grocery store, to come anywhere close to the quality and taste of the bread I bake it was $6 a loaf. Bread has gone up a LOT in price. Still, let's stick with the $6 a loaf.
We eat two loaves a week normally. $12 for a weeks worth of bread X 52 weeks in the year= $624 a year (at least) for bread at grocery store prices.
I can bake a loaf for $.10 cents. Two loaves a week is $.20 cents X 52 weeks= $10.40 for the year. So for less than I would spend I one weeks worth of bread, I can bake it for the entire year.
At the end of the year, my single waste product is a plastic foil pouch the bulk yeast came in. Everything else came in burlap, paper, or cardboard.
We only buy food products in bulk. Like during potato harvest, we contact one of our neighbor farmers. If we don't get the 300 pounds of bulk potatoes for free, they usually cost around $10. I think (but I'm not actually sure) a 10 pound bag of potatoes at the grocery store is $2. That would be $60 at grocery store prices.
Because I raise meat goats, and meat rabbits, our meat, if we butcher it ourselves, has a cost of $.30 cents a pound for the rabbit, and $.75 cents a pound for the goat. Both meats are extremely healthy compaired to the confinment raised, grain feed meats you find in the grocery store. What little fat you find in the meats of our animals is actually healthy for you.
Rather difficult to put a price on the bennifits of not having major medical problems due to the really bad meats from the grocery store.
We grow our own fuel (rapeseed) to use here on our farm, in our trucks and tractors. We do NOT use it off farm, as we have not paid the hefty bonds one must to legally do so. Our fuel is about $.69 cents a gallon, to use here on the farm.
Since we have food storage (about a years worth), and only go to the store twice a year or so to stock up, our savings in gasoline are really signifigant. Not to mention the fact that delivery trucks are not running to the grocery stores to deliver our breads, meats, fruits and vegtables.
Christmas gifts around here, if they are not homemade quilts, or scarves I knitt from the wool from my Angora goat, tend to be used books, quality tools, quality boots, wool socks and blankets from the army surplus store, and items like that. Everyone is our family is an avid bibliophile. Used books are inexpensive, and everyone is thrilled to recieve them. We also purchase good quality items instead of cheap junk.
My former neighbor use to spend $39.95 on a wheelbarrel every year. I spent $150 on a wheelbarrel. 12 years later, I'm still using it. That means my wheelbarrel is now at a price of $12.50 a year, and it goes down each and every year. I assume that neighbor is still buying the $39.95 wheelbarrels. In 12 years, they will have spent $479.40 on wheelbarrels.
We always buy the best quality, best made items we can afford. We do not buy trendy. We buy neutral colors in furniture, so the look of a room can be changed with new throw pilows and items like that.
I have found amazing watercolors (real ones) over the years shopping at garage sales and thrift stores. I have not paid more than $10 for a single picture. All have come nicely framed and matted.
I really could go on and on. Living on a permaculture farm, with both my husband and I having very strong goals toward being independant gives us a VERY green lifestyle. Our only bills are a mortgage and student loan. Both will be paid of years early. At some point we will also be completely off grid as our farm will produce it's own electric, and heat.
I've dawdled long enough on the computer. Time to go do chores!
~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years