20 unusual ways to save money: Raise chickens

I'm not a member and probably won't be unless my wife can talk me into it, but it does seems like a pretty cool club. If you want to save money, raise chickens. It's a unique idea, yes, but it's not as crazy of an idea as one might think.

Less than two miles from our house, whenever I drive toward the Interstate, I'm treated to the rather fun sight of some rogue chickens running about in the front lawn of a house. It's not a farm. This is a home in a rural area, yes, but it's flanked by other houses. In other words, in what my mind envisions as the 21st century, chickens in suburbia seems wrong.

But cities around the country have passed laws allowing residents to keep chickens in their backyards, including: Fort Collins, Colorado; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Wake Forest, North Carolina; Oakland, California; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City and even New York City.