As gas and milk race toward five dollars a gallon and soon no doubt will surpass that sum, I have initiated certain economies in my life.
I have discovered that paper coffee filters are endlessly recyclable. There must be some point at which they break down, but so far I haven't reached it. The other advantage to this is that I no longer throw the filter into the compost with the grounds out of laziness. Clearly it takes a long time for them to dissolve. I figure that by re-using coffee filters I am saving about a dollar a year. Of course I could make cowboy coffee and not use a filter at all, but I think I have enough filters for the rest of my life. Frank Herbert found that he could make passable coffee by simply pouring cold water on the grounds and waiting a couple of days. Still he had to heat it to drink it. He also used empty beer cans for insulation.
And I have stopped buying bread. I no longer want to eat the horrible stuff I can get here, where most people eat tortillas. I bake my own substitute by mixing plain non fat yogurt with self raising flour and a little water. It is good, but you have to wait a day before slicing. It's not that good, but it works. I think this saves me around two dollars a week. Not sure how much the electricity costs for baking at three-fifty for about thirty minutes once a week.
Soon I will bite the bullet and replace my true home, my van, with a 1998 Toyota Corolla to half my miles per gallon, but oh no not yet not yet! I leave on my summer tour in a few days. The van has two hundred thousand miles and a check engine light, but I will joyfully set out to look for that danged America again. Can't think where I put it but I know it's around here somewhere..............