Day 14 - Urban Gardening

It's Day 14 of the 23 day challenge over at Frugally Sustainable. Today's topic is Urban Gardening. Have you given any thought as to how much money you could save growing your own produce? You could tuck some herbs in to your landscape, have a couple of raised beds, tubs of fruit such as blueberries and citrus trees, even do some sprouts right in your own kitchen. Saves a bundle of money!


If you need some help on figuring out where to start, check out the Urban Organic Gardener. Mike has A LOT of ideas no matter how big or small your gardening space is. I really like his sections on composting and natural pest control.  We are organic gardeners and sometimes I think the bugs must spot the "open for business" sign. Mike has some pretty good, and funny ideas on how to control those little BUGgers.... get it? Bug.... Well, onto the Daily Goal......


Daily Goal: Share with us your gardening goals for 2012.

Gardening Goals? Wow! I have a bunch! We started gardening on a much larger scale about 2 years ago. I kept hearing in my head, "Garden like your life depended on it." So I did!

LAST YEAR                                                                                    
2 raised garden beds                                                                     
2 big pots for potatoes                                                                    
2 8' section Gutter Gardens                                                            
1 - 4 x 4 strawberry bed                                                                 
2 - Rain Barrels to save water for drip                                    
About 15 different kinds of herbs                                                   
We grew sprouts throughout the summer to add to salads
(mung bean, alfalfa, pea, sunflower, wheat berries)
Added a greenhouse


THIS YEAR
Add 4 more raised beds
4 Potato Pots (russets, white, reds, golds) 
4 more outdoor raingutter gardens 
3 more Strawberry beds   
More rain barrels working in tandem for drip irrigation  
More herbs & medicinal varieties as well                                                                                           
Espalier a pear, cherry and apricot along a fence
With extra gardening beds, try to preserve more of what we grow
Get an earlier start in the spring utilizing the greenhouse
Ok, not necessarily GARDENING, but I am pushing for 2 to 3 hens for fresh eggs

Last year we grew peas, beans, celery, onions, leaf lettuce, baby carrots, potatoes, spinach, chard, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, zuchinni, and much more! Basically, we looked at what we eat in the way of fresh produce and tried to grow it. We even have fruit (lemon, lime, mandarin orange, fig, apple) and avocado trees.... dwarf varieties so we didn't take up all our backyard in trees and blueberries, grapes and ollallieberries too. 

HERE'S a little video of what we are doing.....

Day 11 - Going Car - Lite

I could just tell from this title that THIS was going to be a challenge. 


Sometimes I tell my husband that I feel like we own a car lot. Just too many vehicles, even though we drive each of them and they are all just about paid for. We plan to get rid of the excesses this year so hopefully, this will be an area that we can work on reducing.

But you want me to go "Car-Lite" for the assignment?

Daily Goal: Plan a time in the near future to do a tiny experiment: Keep your car parked in the garage and try going to your local grocery store through an alternative method (i.e. on foot, by bike, or by bus). Foot, bike or bus not an option? Plan a trip into town and coordinate a carpool with a friend or neighbor. Side note: If you take your bike,  it has a rack, a carrier, or a basket so you can bring your purchases home.

Oh, OK, I think this challenge is doable for us. Even though my hip prevents me from walking the 8 block round trip to the grocery store, I can and have riden my bike. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, we have a couple of E-moto electric assist bikes we found last year at Costco. We outfitted them with bike bags and can do a pretty good size trip between the two of us.

Here is the catch though.... these bikes cost us quite a bit. They were definitely an investment. We are both in our 50's and wanted to be able to continue riding our bikes and the electric assist helps us go up hills and pedal easier when the going gets difficult. But the cost of having to replace a stolen bike makes it very difficult for me to park my bike, even with a HUGE lock on it, in front of a grocery store and shop for 30 min. 


We have discussed getting a BOB to tow along behind one of us. That would make it easier to haul BIG groceries and the bike / trailer combo may appear too much to steal in a short time as well. We've been looking at our local Craigslist and garage sales for one since last summer. Hopefully we will find one soon.

Could you do it? Have you thought about other ways you may be able to commute around without driving? How would YOU complete the Daily Goal?

Day 10 - How To Stop Spending Money To Impress Other People

Do you find yourself trying to "Keep Up With The Joneses?" They get a car, you try and get a bigger, better car. Their kids go to a private school, you try to send yours to the same school or one a step up. They are taking a 2 week vacation all over the USA with their kids over the summer. You KNOW you don't have the money for that or the time but you decide you are going to do it anyway. "Let's apply early for a couple more credit cards to finance our vacation with...." Trying to keep impress others is sort of like throwing money down the drain.

Have you ever asked yourself why keeping up or trying to impress your friends is so important? What if you made a choice NOT to do it? Would your friends NOT be your friends anymore? I've got news for you.... if that's all it takes to wreck a friendship, it wasn't a friendship to begin with!


All good questions! Maybe a little soul searching is in order. We were all created to be "different" people and it is those differences that makes life interesting. Why not focus on being who you REALLY are, YOUR hobbies, YOUR lifestyle. Get off the "keeping up with the Joneses" train and begin to make your way. 


I used to work at a bank. Every day people would come in to explain their money problems to me. How their checkbook wouldn't balance, wondering how they bounced 6 checks, not understanding finance charges or how interest is calculated, up to their eyeballs in debt and wondering why they didn't qualify for a credit card or loan. It's so crazy to me why schools teach you all kinds of History and Science you may NEVER need, but they don't equip you for LIFE 101. Maybe if we were taught more about how money works, we would be better at living within our means and NOT trying to live like someone else. Unfortunately, most of us spend up to our last penny of money, and even over sometimes, just to live, look, and do what others are doing. 

So today's post at Frugally Sustainable asks us to write down ways in which we can stop spending money trying to impress others. We've been at this for a while so I'll share some of the things we are doing. 

1) We don't impress others with what we choose to wear. I developed my own kind of "uniform" that I wear daily. Most days it's jeans and a t-shirt or long sleeve shirt and tennis shoes. All pretty economical. I have some dresses if I absolutely HAVE to dress up and shorts and tops for summer but mostly it's just jeans and t-shirts. 
2) We don't impress others by going out to eat at fancy restaurants. We eat at home more than we eat out, buy food in bulk and have a food storage pantry. That gives me "options" come dinner time. AND I make the commitment to get in that kitchen everyday and make something. I usually write down menu ideas for the week based on what I have in my freezer and pantry and that's what we eat. I have spent money on kitchen tools that make "making dinner" easier such as a crock pot, pressure cooker, rice cooker, kitchen grill, etc. 
3) We don't impress others by buying so much stuff that we are in debt up to our eyeballs! We save money every month. It's the first thing I do after we get paid. We take the money out of the bank so we are dealing with physical CASH and put it away. Out of sight, out of mind. Then we forget about it. If we absolutely need to have a bit more to make ends meet (we are only paid once a month!) then we will take out only the bit we need and no more. 
4) We don't impress others by continually buying new stuff to decorate our house with. Instead, we use our God given skills to decorate, paint, sew up cute pillows and things that make our house homey and inviting.
5) We don't impress others by taking expensive vacations, buying the latest electronic gadgets and seeing movies a couple of times a week. We take vacations we can pay for with cash, keep our electronics years or until they break, which IS usually years and buy discount tickets for movies at Costco, wait for them to come out on TV or rent them for $1 at our local Redbox if we really can't wait.


For a really cute little "read", visit Beth Berry of Revolution of the Home and find out why she says Keeping Up With The Jones is LAME!

Day 9 - The 30 Day List

If you live in the USA, you probably LOVE instant gratification. You're hungry? Plenty of stores and restaurants open at all hours to help you. Love to shop? Even if your local stores are closed, there are plenty on the internet that are open. Want an IPad, coat, purse, golf clubs, gym membership? If you have credit or money in the bank, you can have it today. Instant.... Gratification. 


But what would happen if you decided to wait just a bit? Would you still want it in, let's say 30 days? Thats the question posed today at Frugally Sustainable.


Daily Goal: Begin today using the 30-day list for non-essential purchases. 


Sometimes I wonder just how much I "need" something. Is it a true NEED or is it just a WANT? So Andrea is having us print out a list, put the item we THINK we want on it, the date we wanted it and the price leave it on the list for 30 days. Put that list in an area where you see it daily. That gives you a chance to really do some thinking, to take the impulse out of the purchase. She suggests mulling it over for 30 days, checking prices, asking those important questions about it, really getting in touch with the "desire" for the item. Then at the end of 30 days, if you still want the item, you can get it... provided you pay CASH for the item. 

How do I think this is going to work? BEAUTIFULLY! I shared yesterday that sometimes all I have to do is fill my cart and then leave it. There is something psychological about the entire shopping process. There has to be. How many people do you know that have gone completely bankrupt because they purchased what they had to have today, no matter what the price was, and opened up credit cards or used hard earned cash to satisfy the "need of the day"? And that item you HAD TO HAVE TODAY, is replaced by the NEW something else tomorrow. I think waiting to buy is going to save us a bunch of money!! 

Day 8 - Learn To Control Impulse Spending

This is the Daily Goal from FrugallySustainable.com:

Determine your strategy for controlling impulse spending

Hi, I'm Karen and I'm an impulse shopper..... Its getting better but definitely NOT perfect! My downfall is Internet shopping. Lately I've used a little trick and it seems to be working. I'll shop here and there and put items in my "cart" but never check out. At the end of my computer session, I close all the shopping windows. Somehow it's working for me.

When store shopping, right before I check out, I "edit" my cart. Comes down to need or want. Wants are out or narrowed down to just one item. Some days the cart is ALL wants and I end up leaving the entire cart somewhere in the store. It seems to feed the need to shop without actually purchasing anything.

My husband and I decided to have a larger goal/ vacation plan to save for. Instead of getting the "feel good" feeling from a bunch of small impulse purchases that clutter up our living space, we are saving daily for something better that's worth waiting for. Seems to make it easier to NOT shop.

How about you? What are your weaknesses and how do you stop impulse shopping?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 5 - Save on Groceries

See list of 50 ways to save on groceries HERE: 


Daily Goal: Pick a few things from the list that you think will have the greatest impact on your monthly grocery budget.


I think the money saving ideas I plan to adopt are....


9. Grow your own herbs. I'm a gardener and LOVE to put things in the ground. This past Fall, hubby bought a really nice greenhouse for outback and I can put some seeds in pots and grow indoors year round. Those herbs at the store that do so much for home cooking will be MUCH more economical this way.

14. Shop at Farmer's Markets. I am lucky enough to live in an area that has numerous Farmer's Markets per week. One of the largest is in San Luis Obispo on Thursday nights. We went last week and found some super deals on local seasonal fruit and veggies... yum yum. It was lots of fun too!

23. Keep your receipts and enter into a spreadsheet. I've done this for our monthly home and utility payments so I already have an idea of what I want to do. I think doing a spreadsheet would help with knowing when things go on sale locally and what a "good" price really is.


50. Make and use cloth grocery bags. LOVE the idea of making and taking my own bags. So much so that I've made some veggie bags already. I watched the video over at Frugally Sustainable (can you believe 5 bags from one single T-shirt!!) and plan to make some of those too. Over at the Zero Waste home, they use glass to carry home meat in... hmmm, don't know if I'd be brave enough to try that! Go check out the Johnson family HERE.

So those are some of my plans.... what do you do to save money when it comes to groceries? 

Day 4 - Reducing Household Bills

"Pick ONE thing from this list that you can implement to start saving some extra cash and let us know in the comments and/or in the forum what you’re going to tackle."

15 Easy Ways to Save Money On Your Household Bills

1. Buy in Bulk - We do this regularly. Nearly everything we purchase is at either Costco or Smart and Final. We have a pantry area and freezer and are able to store food and most food has a freshness date of at least a year from purchase date. For those items of more of a fresh nature, we will as our kids what they could use and either give them the food or go in on the price and separate out the food. It has saved us a substantial amount of money!

2. Use Coupons - I've tried using coupons and if there is something SPECIFIC I need, I will attempt to use them. We do not, however, use every coupon, every week like some shoppers do. So many of the items are cleaners, hygiene or convenience foods and we make our cleaners, and food from scratch.

3. Use Space Heaters - Rather than using space heaters, we use throws to stay warm or layer some clothing items. We do occasionally start up our electric fireplace and let it warm up the room then shut it off. Along these lines, we have used a balanced payment plan for our utilities for YEARS! And average annual amount is divided into 12 equal payments and that is what we pay per month. At the end of every 3 months, differences are figured so you don't end up having those HUGE wintertime bills. Both our gas and electric company offer this service.

4. Open Windows in the Summer - Since we don't have air conditioning, we are forced to open the windows on nice days. On those occasional days when the temps creep up to 100, we will keep the curtains closed, and we use curtains that are "thermal", they help keep the warm in in the winter and the warm out in the summer. During the hottest days, we will use electric fans to keep the air circulating. A few years ago we put electric ceiling fans in nearly every room in our house and that has helped too.

5. Line Dry - I've done this on a small basis for the past year. I have just a small wooden clothing dryer but this year, we've already been trying to figure out a better way to dry everything on nice days. It's so bad sometimes that people think they can control what you have in your yard and no one wants to see your laundry (??) so we have kept it small for now. I LOVE the smell of the clothes and on most days it only takes 1/2 a day to dry.

**6. Telephones (home phones, cell phones, extras) - This is a hard one. I've had a smart phone for years. But my current phone is almost 3 years old. I've gotten very used to having a cell phone but it's pretty expensive with all the extras. I've thought about dropping back to a more basic phone and trying to go back to just using it for emergencies. As far as the home line goes, I'd love to drop it entirely but my husband's work requires a land line so we are stuck. I've told him that if they require it, they can pay for it, but we aren't that lucky...

**7. Bye-Bye Cable Television - This is another hard area for me. We don't go out to see movies all the time since we have the movie channels at home. BUT, have you noticed that those movies are very seldom new??!! So we actually went to Netfilx to get the streaming movies thinking we would get rid of the extras on cable. But I haven't done that yet. Plus, now that we are on the streaming only portion of Netflix, they don't have a ton of choices either. I guess we just need to bite the big one and go cold turkey. That's actually been on my list of to do New Years goals for the past 3 years!! Still watching....

8. Lights Out! - This isn't that hard for me. I'm always switching off the lights we aren't using. We also went through the inside of our house and replaced the expensive to use incandescent bulbs with fluorescent. Then outdoors we use solar rather than electric path lights. That has really saved us! 

9. Cook from Scratch - This is another pretty easy thing for me to do. I've been cooking ever since I was a little kid and love it. I utilize the crockpot on busy days, put together freezer casseroles and think "dinner" right after breakfast so I have a plan for dinner and all the items necessary to complete it. We do go out one night a week on a date but you'd be surprised... once you start cooking at home, you really don't WANT to go out! Nothing is as good as what you make.

10. Use CASH - I know there are a lot of people that deal only in cash, meaning seeing that cash leave your hand. We don't go that far, I really HATE carrying cash, but we do leave the credit cards at home. If we can't afford it, we don't buy it.

11. DIY (Do It Yourself) - Thankfully, I have a VERY handy hubby. We've had electrical, mechanical and plumbing issues that he has been able to fix. He can take apart little appliances and make them work again like magic. This really helps when you buy those 2nd hand items at garage sales and thrift shops for pennies on the dollar but they don't work! And I've done my share of painting, cleaning and decorating for pennies.

12. Buy Used - Wow! My house can speak to the ways we've saved money here! One of my very best purchases last year was a fireplace for my living room that came with a HUGE mirror for $300 on Craigslist. Sound expensive? Not when you hear that it was really a $2000 fireplace! 

We've also bought furnishings for our guest rooms, outdoor items and use and donate to our local Freecycle.

13. Cut Your Own Hair - Well, I don't know how to cut hair but I did pay for one of my daughters to go to cosmetology school and she cuts our hair for now. I also wear a very simple hairstyle.

**14. Pack Your Lunch - Hubby is working on this one. He doesn't mind taking his lunch and is probably only eating at work 2 times a week out. We usually make enough dinner that I will have leftovers for lunch the next day.

15. Make Homemade Cleaners - This is one thing I'd LOVE to learn more about. I think too many of the store bought cleaners are toxic to the environment, but most of the replacement cleaners don't quite measure up to the cleaning capability or the fresh smell. I'm still looking for recipes that I like and will probably check out the ones on Frugally Sustainable.

(Taken from the Frugally Sustainable Website)