Riot for Austerity – Month 13

We entered the second year of the Riot. I’ll keep last year’s averages (calculated here) visible as a baseline. In case you’re wondering, I use this calculator. Gasoline. I added DH’s miles on public transportation (shuttle), which I neglected to do last year. This was an exceptional month, as we made a round-way car trip …

Riot for Austerity – Month 12

We finished our 12th month, we made it around the year! I’ll list this month’s consumption first and then I’ll discuss the yearly average. Gasoline. 7.4 gallons pp =18 % of the US National Average Yearly average: 24.8% I just saw that I never calculated DH’s miles on public transportation (shuttle). I’ll start adding those …

Riot for Austerity, Month 11

Our Riot is almost a year old! It feels great to have come this far, and I can’t wait to tally up the yearly average. But first, month 11. Gasoline. This went down a bit from last month because DH’s shuttle rides again. 9.55 gallons pp = 23% of the US National Average Electricity. Our …

Riot for Austerity – Month 10

This month there were no shifts in the household: just the three of us, which makes the reckoning much easier. Amie feeds the compost tea some molasses Gasoline: 27% This stayed the same as last month. The school year hasn’t started yet, so DH is spending more time working from home and Amie isn’t daily …

Riot for Austerity – Months 7, 8, and 9

Months 7 – 9, that is, May to and including July. So I’ve been slacking a bit, not on the practice – I hope – but on the monitoring and recording. Then again, if your practice isn’t wholly a routine yet, monitoring and recording may well be essential (not sufficient, of course, but necessary)… Let’s …

Riot for Austerity: Month 6 – and Ode to Freecycle

Gasoline Whenever there’s a birthday party or a school outing, I volunteer to drive ourselves plus several more kids there and back and even around to their houses. This month has been laden with those, and DH has had to drive in to work a couple of times. Result: 9.65 gallons/person, or 23% of the …

Riot for Austerity: Month 5

“Rekenen,” Dutch: to count Am I reckoning month 5 already – or only? Sometimes it seems like we’ve been doing this all our lives, other times it’s like we only started yesterday. It shows that we’re not totally “in the habit” yet. I’m 16 (!) days late in reporting. Also, this month is ugly: our …

Riot Reckoning: Month 4

“Rekenen,” Dutch: to count Gasoline: doing much better at 16% Between us we consumed 20.3 gallons. That’s 6.77 gallons/person, that’s: 16% of the US national average. I have this great deal with another mom from Amie’s preschool: in lieu of my watching her kids for four hours a week, she watches Amie for two hours …

Riot for Austerity Month 3: An Average Winter Month

Gasoline: 25% After our road trip splurge last month, we did better this month: we used 31.1 gallons between the three of us, which makes for 25% of the US national average, but more than our first month Rioting (19%). The reason was the schedule changes that necessitated DH to take the car into school …