Ever since we started growing our own vegetables in our garden, I’ve been addicted. I’m addicted to the taste of my fresh organic vegetables, and I’m addicted to all the money we save by not having to pay for as many vegetables.  We’ve started drinking green smoothies to help incorporate more greens into our diet, and while it costs us more to buy more produce, we spend less on other junk food and crap and I think we end up saving money.  I am bummed because our garden isn’t as fruitful as I wished, but I’m trying to come up with some remedies to that.  I’ve come up with a few ideas.

• Buy a membership to Costco.  The one thing that is holding me back is the $50 a year for a membership.  That is a lot of money!  Right now we’re using a friend’s membership when we want to go, but that gets inconvenient, especially with the amount of greens we consume. We do buy our dog food there because it is a lot cheaper and is good dog food, but my cost savings would be in the bulk vegetables.  Of course then I also wonder if we’d use them before they went bad, and also if I’d go over board and be tempted to buy other things while I was in there.  Sometimes I think if it’s a good deal I will buy way too much.  Of note: I haven’t had to buy body wash in over a year.
• Plant a fall crop. This is realistic.  I just need to figure out when to plant it.  Maybe that will be one of our weekend activities!  I want to plant lots of leafy greens like spinach, kale, and swiss chard.  I’m afraid of mustard greens because I tried those in my smoothies once and it was spicy!  Talk about gross.  This option will be the cheapest and easiest.
• Plant a hydroponic garden.  This is something I’d really like to do in the winter.  I’m also going to research planting some greens down in our basement.  My only worry is that we’d have to buy expensive lighting and that would stink.  Of course, it may be worth it. 

What do you think we should do?  Is there anything that I’ve missed?

Posted under DIY, Food

To Can or Not to Can: that is the question.  Yesterday I wrote how we save money by growing vegetables in our garden. I decided today to take it one step further and can some of the tomatoes that were overgrowing the garden. Please call me crazy.  I am still not done and I started about three hours ago!  This takes a lot more time than I thought it would.  This is an actual picture of one of our tomato plants.  It is over 5 feet tall!

I anticipate getting more tomatoes off these plants.  There are some green tomatoes growing currently.

Look how big these tomatoes are!!  I’ve never seen any this big.

This was my process: dip the tomatoes in boiling water for about 1 minute, shock them in an ice bath, remove skin and seeds from inside, sterilize jars, put tomatoes in jar, make sure there was no air in them, seal, and put in canner.  I know it sounds easy, but trust me, it was a lot of work!  Honestly I don’t think this was a money saving endeavor, but what can I do?  (pun intended)  The first batch is sitting in my dining room and I hope they seal.  If they don’t, I’m going to have to put them in the freezer, and I really don’t have all that much space in the freezer.  Plus, all the time that I spent on doing this would be wasted!

I think I would have saved (or made) more money had I taken them to the farmer’s market this morning.  If I would have done that, I would have saved time and energy.  I hope that my efforts are not fruitless come winter, and these canned tomatoes are better than any other tomato I’ve eaten.  I can make spaghetti sauce, chili, and a whole lot of other dishes.  Plus, they are in glass jars versus aluminum and I like that.

Do you think it’s worth it to can your own vegetables? 

Posted under DIY, Extreme Frugality, Food

On Sunday I decided I had enough of my basement smelling gross and being damp. I saw one spot down there that had been growing mold, and I don’t know about you, but mold scares me. The reason I hadn’t bought a dehumidifier already was because we had one (albeit small) already and I thought it was doing a good job. Wrong. I sucked it up, went to my local Home Depot, and grabbed one off the shelf and lugged it to my cart. $190 later, and I was the proud owner of a large dehumidifier. I took it home, drug it downstairs, and set it up. That evening I went to check on it and the bucket was already full! I was amazed. I have emptied that bucket twice a day since I’ve had it!

After all the him-hawing I did with purchasing it, I decided I was going to look on the bright side of things and see how overall I will be saving money in the long run. First of all, I would have less moisture in the basement, which means less mold, which means less health problems. Less health problems equals less money spent on going to the doctor and taking time off. Then I decided that not only could I look at it that way, but I also could use that water that the dehumidifier extracted for other things. I can water my houseplants, water my garden, and even add it to the small pond out front. Not only am I being more “green”, but I’m saving money on water!

I still feel a little bad about spending that much money on one item, but I figure it is a necessity. We can’t live with the basement like that. It’s dangerous! I’m glad I was able to look on the bright side of things and realize that there is always some positives that can come out of a negative.

Posted under DIY, Home Ownership