I did a star quilt that had a couple of hundred flying geese. I figured the difference in how much fabric it took between the waste method where you sew a triangle on each corner of the rectangle and trim away the extra and the no waste four at once method and the difference was a full yard of fabric.
So I use the four at once method and it's fast and easy.
It's the bottom one on this page.
http://www.quilterscache.com/H/Howtomakegeese.html