Free Living

The other day my buddy Dave and I were sitting around talking about the value of free living. He is just the opposite of me when it comes to this kind of thinking and tells me about it often, "Nothing is free, not even going to the bathroom is free, you are wasting your time".
Of course I mostly disagree with that statement, but on the other hand he does make a good point. It does take money to live free, lots of money. The cost of building things that takes minimal cost to operate can be more costly than a person would ever get in return by using it. Did you catch all that?
So the question is, Whats the point? If it costs me more to build it than I can ever save by using it, then why build it? My only answer I can come up with Is, because I can. I could go into the environmental, tree hugging green issues but that is not mainly why. It is because I can use own my mind, build it with my own two hands and with the money I earned myself. When I am done I can look out and say, even if it is only to myself, I did it and it's my way. Built in America by an American.

The solar clothes dryer in the photo is a good example. I already had the parts to put it up so my cost for it was nothing. Savings on using it compared to using the electric dryer is staggering.

My buddy would put it this way.
The time it took to put it up at lets say $20.00 an hour = $6.00
The air conditioning lost each time you open the door to do a load = $2.00
The time for hanging the cloths and taking them down =$7.00

Total cost of the first load using free clothes drying =$15.00