Great rechargeable battery deal at Walgreens

I just found this great deal at my local Walgreens and wanted to share.

Walgreens sells Energizer rechargeable batteries, size AAA, in packs of 4, normally $12.99. At my store (through 3/28/09), they are on sale for $7.99 per pack.

In this month’s EasySaver catalog, customers can get a rebate of $10 for buying two packs of Energizer batteries (or $15 for three packs). That rebate is increased by 10% (to $11 or $16.50) if you choose to have your rebate added directly to a gift card instead of sent by check. To claim a rebate via gift card, you can submit rebates online anytime during March. The balance can be added to your existing gift card automatically.

If I claim my rebate for these packages, I’ll ultimately get them for $3.13 a pack including tax. This is perfect as we are seeking to convert all our batteries to rechargeables.

I’m not sure if the sale is at all retail outlets — if you find out, let us know! But it’s sure worth checking. I don’t need any more AAA batteries, but I do need AAs, so I will be checking back before the sale ends just in case I can claim that 3-pack rebate.

As always with deals, YMMV.

Save on postage despite increases

On May 11, the U.S. Postal Service will increase the cost of mailing a first-class letter to 44 cents, two cents more than the current 42 cents.

If you use 10 stamps a month, this increase will cost you $4.80 more a year.

Save a few dollars on this year’s postage:

• Purchase “forever stamps” (pictured at right) now. Buy a roll of 100 and you’ll pay 42 cents for stamps that you can use for the 44-cent first-class mailing cost later this year.
• Go online to credit card and loan providers and sign up for e-pay. Enter your bank account information, confirm some security information, and then arrange to transfer funds online. With most lenders, you can either pay automatically (for instance, have the full balance paid automatically each month) or arrange a specific payment on a month-by-month basis.
• Have bills paid automatically. Check with your credit card company, bank and/or vendors to see if you can be billed automatically. For instance, my gym and cable company charge a credit card automatically. I get points toward a cash-back rebate, and only have one bill to pay. My mortgage, insurance and utility bills are automatically withdrawn from my checking account on a certain day each month. Note: This is also a good way to hang onto a credit card that you’re concerned might be closed in this economic climate. Have one bill — such as cable — charged to the credit card, then pay it every month.

How else do you save on postage?

Some (sort of) good economic news

Everywhere you turn, the news is loaded with sludge: We’re in a recession. Is it a depression? Nobody knows … but it’s bad. We’ve lost 25% to 30% of the value of the stock market. Our home values have declined. Unemployment is up.

A common descriptor is “the worst recession since the Great Depression.” The problem is, that comparison makes many people jump to the conclusion that this is as bad as — or the same as — the Great Depression.

But let’s take a glass-half-full approach. We’re still much wealthier than most people in the world. In 2007, the average world income was $7,000.

Still, only about 19 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with per capita incomes at least this high. Countries with an average income near $7,000 include Mexico, Chile, and Latvia. They rank about 40th in the global income table.

Now vs. Great Depression

Want to compare life now to the Great Depression to get some perspective?

Now:

• Unemployment stands at 7.6 percent.
• 13.6 million Americans have lost jobs during the past year. U.S. population is nearly 306 million. Those job losses have hit individuals comprising 4.5 percent of the population (not counting the families that depend on them.)
• 37 million Americans live below the poverty level. (This is about 12 percent of the population in 2007.)
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average is at about 7,600, down nearly 40 percent from 12,350 one year ago.
• 24 banks failed in 2008; 13 more have failed thus far in 2009.
• All failed banks’ holdings are insured by the FDIC up to $100,000, and with temporary hardship measures, up to $250,000. Consumers experience a lot of hassle, but do not lose their money.

Not fun. But as bad as the Depression? Nuh-uh.

During the Great Depression:

• The unemployment rate was over 23 percent in 1932 and 1933.
• 13 million Americans lost their jobs from 1929-1932. The U.S. population in 1932 was nearly 125 million. Individuals who lost jobs comprised 10 percent of the population.
• In 1929, more than half of Americans live below the minimum subsistence level.
• Industrial stocks lost 80 percent of their value in 2 years.
• In 1933 alone, 4,000 commercial banks failed.
• Bank failures resulted in losses of $1.3 billion to Americans. FDIC insurance was put in place in 1934. (This would be equivalent to about $13 billion today.)

Other numbers to watch out for

Similarly, recent job loss figures were accompanied by dire noises that they were the worst job losses since the end of World War II. But let’s think about it: World War II ended. The men came back from war, and the women went back home (mostly), resulting in a great loss of employment. Munitions and aircraft factories shut down, ending more jobs. And the U.S. population in 1945 was 132 million, or about 43 percent of what it is now. Take a deep breath.

If you want to know more …

A recent article on the Financial Post blog takes a look at why things might not be (or feel) as bad as they’ve been touted:

A wise adviser to President John F. Kennedy, Arthur Okun of Yale, devised the “misery index” to gauge the pain of economic crisis — a measure that simply adds together the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. It hit 22% in June, 1980, during an inflationary recession that preceded the Fed’s disinflationary squeeze of 1981-82. The misery index was nearly as bad in January, 1975, at 19.9%.

Assuming inflation was close to zero this January, the misery index would have been roughly the same as the unemployment rate, or 7.6%. By this standard, we have a very long way to go before the economy feels nearly as miserable as it did in 1975 or 1980.

What’s next?

Could things get worse? Oh, yes, and just today, stocks have fallen based on worries that the situation is declining.

Worry, in a sense, is at the heart of the problem. The credit crisis (here’s a primer) is the problem’s “lungs” — without credit, our economy can’t breathe.

The Cheap family is doing OK, although Mr. Cheap’s job as a teacher doesn’t feel as secure as it did six months ago (school districts around us are cutting staff because of budget shortfalls). I’m a freelancer, so I have several streams of income; losing a large one cut my monthly income by a third last fall, but at least I still have work. Most friends who have been laid off have found new positions, while others are hanging on. And of course, we live in Colorado, where conditions are among the best in the nation.

Meanwhile, however, take a deep breath, do what you can, share what you have, and hope and work for the best.

And feel free to share how things look in your neck of the woods.

How do you save your money?

This post over at Get Rich Slowly has drawn a lot of “me too” comments and a lot of flack for the idea being stupid. Intrigued? The guest subject pays her bills, then if she has any extra, she shuttles the money right into a savings account so she isn’t tempted to spend it.

Easy-peasy, right? But how many of us do it? I won’t ask for a show of hands.

I save money several ways:

1. I have savings accounts set up with ING Direct for an emergency fund as well as Christmas, vacation, my child’s school tuition, summer camps, etc. Mr. Cheap has his own “fun money” account there too. Every month, those accounts reach into my checking account and automatically transfer set amounts into savings. It’s like another bill and I never miss it.
2. In addition to a basic emergency fund deposit, long ago I started depositing $1 a day into my emergency savings account. Each week, that account pulls $7 into savings. I don’t even notice a transaction of that size. But in the 19 months I’ve been doing it, I’ve effortlessly saved $532, plus another $20 or so in interest over that time. $550 that feels like nothing … isn’t nothing.
3. I save change in a change jar. When the jar is full, I turn it in at Coinstar. I use the receipt to pay for groceries (the machine is at the grocery store), but then I transfer that amount to my savings account.
4. I sock away extras. If I get paid for extra work, or sell something on eBay, I transfer the money into savings. We sold some of my daughter’s old toys this fall for big bucks. She got part of it to invest in new toys and her own savings. I put the rest aside to buy her a new mattress, something she really wants.
5. From my business, I put 25% of each and every client payment into a savings account. I have to pay self-employment tax and quarterly estimated income taxes. This amount more than covers what I need to pay, which means that it leaves a nice cushion for months like this one, when an invoice got lost and a client paid late. Plus, no freaking out at tax time if I earn more one year — I’ll have the extra to cover a tax bill if need be. (When I started out and didn’t yet have a child and a mortgage, I was able to set aside 50% of each check — and at year’s end, paid off my remaining student loans in a lump sum.)

A new tool to try

I’m thinking about adding one more method. I’ve been observing myself using shopping self-restraint lately … and thinking about some big home improvements I’d like to make. I’m thinking I should make note of the small purchases I don’t make — maybe a latte, maybe an item of clothing, maybe a little something at Target — but could probably afford, or would normally buy. Then I could tally up those totals over the week and transfer the amount to an account for fixing up other areas of life. I think it just might provide the motivation to hone my attention to purchasing even more.

I’ve heard of people getting aggressive about grocery savings and then taking the “you saved $xxx today” amount from their grocery receipt and transferring it to savings.

One could do the same thing with thrift store purchases — add up how much you might have spent and pay it to yourself instead.

What do you do?

What are your little tricks for saving money? Share the wealth!

9 money-saving home fix-ups

The Internet is buzzing this week with ways to save money on adding efficiency to your home. Most likely, January heating bills have been rolling in, and with the economy in its current tizzy, belt-tightening is the watchword.

Fortunately, even if you’re living pretty lean, odds are good that you can save some more money by tightening up your house. With utility costs rising, a penny saved is truly a penny earned — or, today, one you don’t have to earn. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

1. Do it yourself. If you have more time than money (or even a fairly balanced time/money ratio, or you just like to keep those pennies to yourself), do some research, ask savvier friends/neighbors/relatives for advice, and give a project a shot yourself.
2. Find one of 50 things from this list to do. This Old House has a list of 50 DIY ways to save money. Odds are good there’s at least one that applies to you. I’m especially intrigued by the $50 Black & Decker Thermal Leak Detector that allows homeowners (or renters) to find leaks so you can correct them.
3. Change your lightbulbs. You might have already installed CFLs. But new technology is around the corner, so if you haven’t done it yet, read The Simple Dollar’s extensive overview of lightbulb technology — if nothing else, you’ll be equipped to persuade others if you peek into their light fixtures and see that they haven’t made the change.
4. Consider dual-flush toilet technology. This is the special flushing science that offers a light rinse for #1, and a super swish for #2. When I went to Germany in 1989, the toilets were this way, so I remain perplexed as to why dual-flush commodes are exotic extras that cost $300 in the U.S. But now an ingenious American has invented a way to make your current toilet dual flush for $30, made in the USA. Their calculator estimates our family would save 9 gallons a day, a savings of $6 (and about 3,300 gallons) a year.
5. Take tax breaks. If you install energy-efficient upgrades to your home — from HVAC systems to insulation to solar to doors and windows — you can receive a tax credit on your 2009 federal income tax return. Additionally, some tax credits are still available for buying hybrid vehicles from certain manufacturers. The full list is here.
6. Replace your water heater with a tankless version. If your water heater bites the dust, replace it with a tankless or on-demand heating unit. You’ll gain floor space in your utility room and hot water when you need it — and save lots of money. This super-duper version (not endorsed by me; found via random search) costs about $1,100 and says it can power two showers at once. (Our tank version can’t do that … or not for long.) It also qualifies for a $300 tax credit. Mr. Electricity’s site gives a great rundown of all things hot-water-heater, and gives a rough ballpark that a gas-fired tankless unit might save around $100 per year, with installation costing $1,200 more than a tank version. But tankless heaters might last 20 years compared to a tank heater’s estimated 10-year lifespan. Ultimately? With the tax credit, the tankless version might cost $900 more per year. It will pay for itself in 9 years and last 11 years after that.
7. Insulate your tank water heater and pipes. I have been putting this off, but for $20 you can buy a water heater blanket that keeps heat in the tank. (Our water heater is 4 years old, so replacing it doesn’t make sense at this point.) Insulate the pipes for bonus water and energy savings. Pipe insulation costs around $0.16 to $0.66 per foot. Tip for the not-so-plumbing-savvy: Measure your pipes first and get insulation that fits. Water pipes come in different diameters!
8. Check if your utility offers rebates. Our utility company is subsidizing the cost of CFL bulbs (at various local retailers) and offering rebates for energy-efficient upgrades. For a tankless water heater, for instance, they will rebate $100 — which would take the payback period down to 8 years instead of 9 years.
9. Rent, don’t buy. Check a site like Zilok, Craigslist.org or Kijiji to see if you can rent a tool you’ll need only once rather than buy. Check into local resources — I saw recently that a blog reader had checked out a Kill-a-Watt device from their local library to measure their electricity usage – what a great idea!

What am I up to?

Here’s what I plan to do to tighten up my own house some more:

• As I mentioned, I vow to insulate my water heater.
• Our dining room has a dimmer switch, rendering CFLs unusable. It’s the only place where we still have incandescent bulbs. And we don’t dim the lights. I will replace the switch with a standard switch so we can use CFLs here.
• We purchased an energy-efficient pet door. But then we realized our old wood door is horribly inefficient. With the tax credits now available, we are hoping to install a new, energy-efficient entry door and put the dog door into that entryway.
• Again, with the tax credits (10% of the cost of windows and doors), we would love to replace a very large picture window in our living room. It’s the only window that has not been updated from the original 1950 construction. Every year, we put plastic over it, but a new window would save heat in the winter and avoid burning us up with the death-ray-like light that it beams into our home in the summer.

How about you?

Do you have any ideas for home improvements? Maybe this weekend is a good time to start …

How to use coupons (and get the most from your grocery bill)

Saving on groceries. It’s a trend, it’s a necessity, it’s addictive. I know, because I’m one of those people who comes home and crows about those little numbers on my grocery receipt. (Today, I saved 38 percent. Last week, it was 41 percent. I think my all-time high was a very special 52 percent.)

How do you do it?

Well, every week, your newspaper carries hundreds of dollars worth of coupons. More might come to your home in a Valpak or similar mailer. Online, you’ll find zillions more coupons. Combine those with other deals and you’re off and running.

So just how do you find them and use them? J Pruitt asked this question on an older deals post. I’ll provide a few suggestions here. I’m sure you all know many more, so please chime in in the comments. And don’t forget to check last month’s article with 21 ways to save on groceries.

Use a price book

If you have a great memory, you can do the basics in your head. Otherwise, make a price book (Google it or check here for details):

1. Know the prices of the things you buy so you can tell if they’re really on sale.
2. Compare brand names to store-brand names. Compare the price with the coupon to the available price on the store brand. Check by ounce or by container size — one can might be 18 ounces and one 15 ounces.

Find coupons

Coupons are like free money — as long as they don’t motivate you to buy a bunch of stuff you don’t need or that is still expensive with coupons. Here’s where to find coupons:

1. Check your Sunday newspaper.
2. Ask friends or relatives who don’t bother with coupons to save their circulars for you. You can use multiple copies of the same coupon to buy multiple items that are on sale — stock up!
3. Check your Wednesday newspaper (or whenever the food section and extra ads might appear during the week). Our paper sometimes has extra copies of the coupon circular in the Wednesday paper.
4. Sign up for the shopper card. Give your correct contact information. You will get money off at the register, and some retailers will mail you valuable coupons. (I often get coupons for $2 off a produce purchase, or $10 off a purchase of $100 or more, as well as money off specific products that I purchase regularly.)
5. Go online. Two of the biggest coupon sites are SmartSource.com and CoolSavings.com. (I did this in preparing this post — in just a few minutes I found 7 coupons with a value of $5 before doubling, or $7 doubled.)
6. Take the register coupons that print out when you check out. If you don’t need them, recycle them or leave them for someone else.
7. Check other stores, like Walgreens. Walgreens has an EasySaver coupon circular online or inside the store. Each month, several items are free with a rebate. If you apply the rebate to a gift card, you receive an additional 10 percent off.

Find sales

The surest way to get the very best deal is to combine a coupon with a sale price. Check your store circular, or find it online. Visit your grocery store Web site or try MyGroceryDeals.com — you sign in and find sales and coupons for your zip code. (This site was mentioned in the comments on my 21 ways to save post.)

Double your coupons

Many grocery stores double coupons up to $1. This means they double any coupon with a face value of less than a dollar, for a total value of no more than a dollar. A coupon worth $0.25 is doubled and redeemed for $0.50. A coupon worth $0.55 has $0.45 added to the value for a total redemption of $1. Any other coupon up to $1 is worth $1, and any coupon of $1 or more is redeemed at its face value.

About.com has a list of stores that double coupons, by state. To be sure, call your local store and ask.

Get organized

Use your coupons in whatever way works best for you. Some people take the whole circular shopping with them and look for coupons when they get to something they want to buy.

I use a coupon organizer that I found at Goodwill for 99 cents. I added additional dividers for categories I use. Every Sunday, I cut out coupons for the items I need. At some point during the week, I take the coupons off the counter and put them in the organizer. When I am going to do a big grocery shopping trip, I make a list as follows:

1. I check for things we’ve run out of and need immediately and add those to the list.
2. I look through the sale flier and add the super deals to the list. (For instance, this week cream cheese is 79 cents. I will probably buy about 5 blocks, depending when the expiration dates are.)
3. I sort through my coupons. I discard coupons that are expired … except the ones that just expired. Sometimes those are worth a try!
4. I pull out coupons that match sales — those are the best deals.
5. I pull out coupons that will expire in the next couple of weeks — if there’s a good price, I might use them before they expire.
6. I keep the new coupons out — sometimes those are for an item that is on sale because it’s new and hot.
7. I sort the coupons in approximately the order in which the store is organized.

I write the coupon items on my list, or just put the list on top of the coupons and head for the store. As I shop, I compare coupons and prices. If it works, I put the item in the cart (of course!) and tuck the coupon behind my list. If not, I stick the coupon back in the front of my organizer and deal with it later.

Scan as you shop

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the shelves. I’ve found many things on sale that weren’t listed in the flier. Especially for your regular purchases — for me, canned beans, cream cheese, milk, produce and my weakness in packaged goods, Betty Crocker cookie mixes — always take a look in case they are on sale. Another reason, too, for going through the coupons is that you’ll have an idea while shopping that you have a coupon for a certain item so you can save more.

Buy low, live high on the hog

When an item is on sale for the cheapest you’ve ever seen it, don’t just buy one — buy as many as you’ll possibly use before the expiration date. Then don’t buy it again until it goes on sale again for a great price. If you must buy while it’s high, buy one and wait until you buy more. Truly, this is the key to great prices. I have many boxes of crackers in my storage room, because they are regularly priced low at Costco — and I had a coupon to save $2.50 more per box.

Store well

Learn how to store things. Milk can be frozen — so if you find a great sale, be sure there’s some headroom in the carton so it doesn’t explode, and pop it in the freezer. If I find onions are $1 a pound at King Soopers and $0.39 a pound at Costco, I buy the enormous bag and store it in my chilly laundry room for weeks. Check out these tips on storing food and this article on modern root cellars.

Learn from the experts

If you’re intimidated, sign up for a service like The Grocery Game that guides you along. I did this when I was starting to really save money. If you haven’t been doing it, you’ll more than make up the membership costs. And once you gain confidence, feel free to cancel your membership if it isn’t convenient for you. This site gets you looking at your grocery receipt, and you’ll never want to turn back.

Don’t buy what you don’t need

Did I say this at the beginning? That’s because it’s really important. If you get a great deal on a pantry full of yogurt-covered chocolate raisin pasta clusters or hair dye, well, that’s $10 you shouldn’t have spent.

On the other hand, if you get really good and can obtain a lot of free tampons that you don’t need because you use a Diva Cup, you can donate those to a women’s shelter and feel great (and perhaps take a tax break).

(This post doesn’t yet touch on warehouse stores, which are their own saving wonderland if you use them well.)

What other ways have you found to cut down the grocery bill?

Credit cards are going down

Have you noticed anything strange about your credit cards lately?

If you’re like many people, where the credit card issuers once were falling over themselves to stuff your mailbox full of unsolicited credit card offers, now the letters are informing us of grimmer matters:

• Because of inactivity, we have closed your account.
• To help you maximize your credit, we have lowered your credit card available balance.
• While your American Express card once had unlimited charge availability, for your convenience, we have added a credit limit of $4,000.

Reeeaaaal convenient, credit cards. Real convenient.

Especially because we’re about to get a new credit-scoring mechanism known as FICO 08, which counts the percentage of credit used (out of your total available credit) more stringently. That means if your credit limits are lowered, but you carry a balance, the balance makes up a greater proportion of your available credit. And that might mean your credit score goes down.

What if it happens to you?

The limit-slashing has been going on for a while.  But from what I hear, it seems to be getting more serious recently.

If it happens to you, you can call the credit-card issuer and ask them to reinstate your limit. If you have not missed payments and can convince them you need the additional credit (you put all your bills on that card and pay it off monthly), they might go for it.

Do not close the account. That will only shrink your available credit (impacting your debt-to-credit or credit utilization ratio) even more. If you want to show them, start using a different card instead, but keep the other one open.

It may sound like a good idea to close an account once you pay it off. But when you do, you slash your total available credit, which raises your utilization ratio and takes your credit score for a tumble. Your score also factors in the average age of all your accounts (the older the better), so closing an older account is a double-whammy. (See the Kiplinger’s article for more.)

Around the Web

Credit cards are convenient. No doubt about it. They also cause financial migraines for millions of people — and of course, they’re ultimately a tool for big companies to make big, big bucks. Check out these articles to learn more about how to use credit smarter:

• The games credit cards play – This guest post on Get Rich Slowly talks about how to avoid credit card company traps.
• If you’re looking for a primer on how to be smart about using credit cards, check out this post on Free Money Finance.
• Wise Bread took a look at new fees credit card companies are charging — including a monthly fee (on top of interest and the fees charged to retailers) for the privilege of holding a card. Check those statements!
• And here’s a testimonial about the rebate coming to one blogger from USAA (this card is available only to military families, but other cards offer good rebates too). Who knows if this way of benefiting from credit cards is here to stay, but if you can use credit responsibly, enjoy it while it lasts.

It can’t be said too often — check your statements, find out what is going on with your credit, and take care of your financial well-being. Your best move of all — don’t get into too much debt, and if you find yourself headed there, pay it off as soon as you can. You’ll sleep easier without worrying about those wacky credit card tricks.

Do you have a green resolution?

We’re more than two weeks into the new year. How are the resolutions coming? If you’ve slumped off your diet already or missed a trip to the gym, there’s still time to add a green resolution — one that’s relatively effortless to keep (at least compared to losing those last 10 pounds) and that will make you feel great.

If you’re floundering for what to choose, this past week, Verda Vivo wrote about 10 green resolutions you can keep. She has a great list, and I’m happy to say we do all of them, with the exception of regular use of public transit. (Fortunately, we still drive less than average. But Little Cheap’s school is not walkable, and Mr. Cheap lugs a lot of stuff to work with him as a teacher.)

As for me, I have a resolution that is both greener and cheaper:

Leftover night.

Some of you are probably scoffing, eating leftovers all the time. I, however, am really not a fan of leftovers. Especially if I didn’t love and adore (we’re talking it’s-one-of-my-favorites, lifelong-passion kind of love) the meal the first time. And I am a lazy cook. Meaning given my druthers, I would eat popcorn (organic! air-popped! with organic butter and organic salt!) three nights a week for dinner.

Fortunately, Mr. Cheap is an excellent cook. Fortunately for him, he likes to eat enough that he is more than willing to whip up dinner after a hard day in the salt mines classroom. So he cooks, and I eat. But we have different tastes, so usually the dinners — while delicious and appreciated — do not meet my “love and adore” criteria, and the leftovers sit.

Often, Mr. Cheap takes the leftovers for lunch. Very often. It’s a great way for him to enjoy good food inexpensively. I work at home, and sometimes I eat leftovers for lunch; other times I have something simple and inexpensive. (Not popcorn, I swear. Well, maybe sometimes.)

But the other day, I cleaned out the refrigerator, and I threw out 8 containers of food.

EIGHT!

Truly, this is not typical for us, but it was alarming.

Thus, leftover night. It’s a good solution for using things up rather than tossing them in the compost. It will make life easier for us both. And it will test my creativity as I find new ways to make something old into something new, or to combine leftovers to make another good meal.

We started last night. To appease the troops, I bought some more organic chicken bratwurst to fill out our leftover choucroute (sauerkraut) and potatoes. It tasted great.

Making this kind of change also goes right along with One Green Generation’s post last week about the one thing (or several things) that are really hard to change on the path to sustainability.

What about you? What’s your resolution?

Get paid for your gas guzzler

On Wednesday, legislation introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate proposed paying consumers to stop driving super-polluting vehicles.

Called “cash for clunkers,” the law would pay Americans on a sliding scale if they hand over a car for scrap. Qualifying vehicles are those that got less than 18 miles per gallon when new. Drivers would not receive cash, but instead would get a voucher for up to $4,500 toward the purchase of a new or used vehicle that exceeds federal fuel efficiency targets by 25 percent or more.

Alternatively, people could choose to receive a voucher toward public transit fares.

The voucher scale would be this:

• 2002 or newer – $4,500 voucher for a new vehicle; $3,000 for a used car or transit fare
• 1999-2001 vehicles – $3,000 for a new vehicle
• 1998 or older – $2,000 for a new vehicle

Legislators envision the program lasting for four years. Get the full scoop here.

You might already qualify

Some people don’t have to wait for the legislation to pass. Some U.S. states (Texas and California, for instance) will pay consumers to stop driving those inefficient cars. Canada might give you a bike. See this link for more information, then search for your own region’s policies.

Sign up now for CSA vegetables

Some of us are complaining about holiday debt. Much of the North American population is bellyaching about the frigid temperatures. But for some of us, the worst part of this time of year is opening the fridge and finding that we have to actually go to the store to purchase vegetables.

Sure, we miss the food we grew in our garden. But honestly, between the kale overload, the dog eating all of my beautiful haricots verts, the tomatoes that didn’t get ripe enough, the peanuts that didn’t grow and the Brussels sprouts that (as usual) did not manage to finish their sprouty business before winter arrived, the garden was a bit of a drag.

What we are really lacking is the produce from our CSA, which overflowed our refrigerator from June through December.

That’s because last year, we joined a community-supported agriculture program that supplied our veggies from mid-June to mid-December. We’ve just signed up again, and I hope you’ll think about doing the same.

What is a CSA?

If you’re unfamiliar with CSAs, here’s the rundown. Community-supported agriculture is just as it sounds: The community supports an agricultural enterprise directly. Members of a farm’s CSA arrangement pay a subscription fee for a “share” (or a portion of a share) of the farm’s produce. Some CSAs require members to pick up produce at the farm. Others set up convenient locations where members collect their shares.

• Farmers benefit from having a predictable income stream, and gaining income that comes in before they have to start purchasing seeds and other supplies.
• Members benefit from paying ahead for their produce, obtaining local (and usually organic) produce nearly direct to their door. Usually, the price for the share is a fair deal — and sometimes it’s a great deal.

Joining now is a great idea

Ideally, CSA members pay the fee as early as possible, so that the farm can purchase seeds, equipment, hire employees, pay for insurance, and handle all the myriad expenses that go along with growing our food.

In the words of our CSA, Grant Family Farms:

This is a very important time for the farm, for when there is nothing to harvest, we have no cash flow, and with the CSA we have embarked on an attempt to become a sustainable farm model, a new chapter to the history of farming.

Here in Colorado, where our CSA is based, farmers are facing challenges heading into this growing season. Again from Grant Farms:

As you know we took a very direct hit this season with a very angry August hail storm. Thankfully, you all had patience and understanding as the crops recovered for a great bounty in the fall.  To make a long story short, with the hail storm and the devastatingly strong winds in October, blowing much of our corn harvest to the ground, Grant Family Farms had a very bad year and are in need of cash flow to start buying seeds, making payroll, fixing tractors and all that goes into growing food.

This farm is absolutely not alone. In Colorado, 24 counties received a disaster designation following these storms. Tornadoes, dry weather, wet weather and all kinds of unexpected conditions dashed farmers’ hopes around the world. It’s part of being a farmer. And by joining a CSA, you can share the risk — and the joy — of growing and enjoying local food.

What will you get?

We chose a small or half share of produce. Each week, we picked up a large, reusable plastic box (or emptied its contents into our own bags).

Inside we found a variety of items. I detailed our first CSA pickup here. It was our skimpiest; in Colorado in June, without greenhouse conditions, the pickings are slim (most often including lettuce, radishes, possibly peas, and spring onions).

Throughout the season, the selection expanded. In October, the heart of harvest season as Colorado farmers and gardeners hold their breath, hoping Jack Frost will wait, I wrote about putting some of our stash away.

Each week, I would estimate we received around 20 lbs. of produce. Toward the end of the season, boxes were even heavier, loaded down with weighty beets, enormous cabbage and a wide variety of winter squash.

The cost breakdown: Less than $1 per pound!

And we didn’t even receive the peppers and tomatoes we had hoped for, because they were demolished by the brutal hailstorm. Better luck in 2009 is likely.

What can you do with it?

• Of course, you can eat it!
• We had extra veggies many weeks, and we happily shared bits and pieces: kale and corn to a neighbor, cabbage and greens to my massage therapist, parsley to my mother-in-law’s bunnies, cauliflower to my knitting group’s fearless leader, and a variety of goodies to our parents.
• We also put a lot of it away. We cooked and froze cauliflower, sliced corn off the cob and froze it, chopped and blanched and froze spinach and kale.
• From our basement laundry room/root cellar, we have been gradually working our way through potatoes, cabbage, squash and onions.

What it means for us this year

This year, we plan to grow our own garden differently. We’re going to grow just for fun:

• The tomatoes we love.
• A tomatillo for salsa.
• Some jalapenos.
• Our fruit trees.
• Lettuce and radishes in the spring, before the CSA is operating.
• My beloved okra.
• And a few things we’ve heard of but never tried.

Join Grant Family Farms

If you are on the Colorado Front Range and are interested in joining the Grant Family Farms CSA, you can sign up here.

They offer all kinds of goodies:

• 26 weeks of great organic vegetables
• 5% off every share paid in full by Feb. 28
• 5% off shares PLUS a free T-shirt AND a free canvas tote bag if paid in full by Jan. 31
• Full, half and single shares and the opportunity to split shares with a friend or neighbor to accommodate all household sizes
• Or the opportunity to put down a deposit now and finish paying later
• A great annual party for all CSA members at the farm
• Opportunity to purchase meat, egg, flower and fruit shares — or whatever they come up with this year!

I can assure you from our experience this year that Grant Farms has a fabulous, generous spirit. We received unexpected goodies including a bottle of their own wine, a holiday evergreen wreath and samples of fruit preserves from their fruit share partners. YMMV, but it was fun to be surprised.

If you do join Grant Farms, please mention that you heard about them here!

Find a CSA

If you are one of many readers outside this area, and/or if you want to check out all your options, there are many ways to find the perfect CSA near you. Try these avenues:

• Local Harvest allows visitors to input their ZIP code to view a list of CSAs near them.
• The US Department of Agriculture offers an “alternative farming systems information center” that includes information about CSAs and resources to find participating farms.
• Or simply Google “find a CSA” with your state and see what you find.

Some CSAs specialize in staples, some in exotic produce. Some ask you to commit to working on the farm; others offer working shares as an option for those who can’t afford to join.

Whatever option you choose, a CSA is a great way to truly put your heart — and your dollars — behind local agriculture.