Mar 9 | Money Saving Tips
Every Monday in 2015, I’ll be sharing a different idea to help you save money! Add all of these tips to your frugal repertoire and you’ll be able to save a lot of money this year! I hope you’ll gather a few new ideas or at least some inspiration from this series.
9 Tips for Gardening on a Budget
Are you ready to “get growing?” The arrival of spring has many ready to get outdoors and start planting their gardens, but what if you are working on a limited budget? Well the good news is, gardening doesn’t have to be expensive, and in fact it can be a great way to save yourself some cash in the long run. If you are considering planting a garden this season and want to do so for less, take a look at these 9 tips for gardening on a budget. You will be amazed at how easy it can be to “get growing” for less!
1. Start your seeds indoors.
Sure you can buy seedlings, but starting your own seeds indoors is cheaper! A seedling cost at least $1-$5, while you can get an entire pack of seeds for $1 or less. So start your seeds indoors using seed starters and some basic soil, and you can have your own seedlings in no time. (Read this how-to post for details on how to start your seeds indoors!)
2. Check out your local dollar store.
Dollar stores have a great selection of gardening gear for just $1 each. Choose from seeds, flower pots, gardening gloves, fertilizer spikes, watering cans, starter trays, and more! It is a great way to build your gardening stash for less.
3. Use natural fertilizers.
Instead of buying plant food and fertilizers, try making your own! Crushed egg shells and coffee grounds make excellent plant food. You can also use fruit peels to help nourish the soil and keep your plants healthy.
4. Practice chemical free pest repellent.
Again, you can buy your own pest repellent, but why not make your own for less? A simple spray bottle of water and a few drops of Dawn Dish Soap can help keep many pests at bay! This is a great way to save cash and omit chemicals in your garden.
5. Start a rain barrel.
Instead of spending money on watering your garden, catch rainwater instead. A rain barrel is the perfect trick for catching rain perfect for watering your garden with. Even a small barrel or bucket can give you enough water to keep a small garden satisfied.
6. Make your own garden markers.
You can make garden markers out of all kinds of household materials. Try making some from wood craft sticks and markers to get started. This is a great way to keep your garden organized for less.
7. Team up with friends.
Team up with friends and neighbors to borrow each other’s gardening tools and equipment. You can even share seedlings and thinned out plants you no longer need. This is a great way to get the items you need for cheap or even free.
8. Use a small space.
Rather than tilling up a large piece of land for a garden, try out small space gardening! Living in a townhouse, we actually don’t have the land for a big garden so I put container gardening to use. Sometimes that might even feel overwhelming. If so, try growing just a few herbs that you often buy from the grocery store. Or grow a lasagna garden so you have all the ingredients for a delicious marinara sauce on hand. Here are a few more ways to grow a garden in a small space.
9. Look into community gardening.
Community gardening could be a great option for those of you that want a big garden but don’t have the space or want the time commitment. Do a little research about the community garden options in your city to see if this might be a good fit for you.
Gardening is a great way to grow your own food and save some cash. Give these tips for gardening on a budget a try and see how easy it can be to grow for less.
See the other articles in this series, here.
Mar 2 | Money Saving Tips
Every Monday in 2015, I’ll be sharing a different idea to help you save money! Add all of these tips to your frugal repertoire and you’ll be able to save a lot of money this year! I hope you’ll gather a few new ideas or at least some inspiration from this series.
One of the ways we like to save money at home is by doing at-home hair cuts for my husband. (I’m not willing to let him have a go at my hair quite yet :)) While I’m not an expert in the least, no one has ever said anything bad about his hair! After all, I simply cut his hair the same length all over, then trim his neck with the trimmer and around his ears with a pair of scissors. Simple! I estimate were saving at least $20 every 6 weeks or so.
I think it also helps that we have a decent hair trimmer to work with! We have the Wahl 3231 22 Piece Home Pro Haircutting Kit which we purchased after reading the reviews on Amazon. So yeah, if it weren’t for this great $18 tool, we’d be spending a lot more on haircuts throughout the year!
While I’m not quite brave enough to cut my own hair at home, I have cut my own bangs. I’ve also trimmed my daughter’s bangs. (Which I’ve now decided to grow out.) Here are a couple of tutorials I found that may me useful for you:
Do you cut your own hair at home? How did you learn?
Feb 16 | Money Saving Tips
I happen to think that using a slow cooker can save you quite a bit of money. After all, everyone wants to eat healthier, but planning, shopping and prepping meals all.the.time can get old really fast. While I don’t mind cooking, it’s not one of my favourite things to do, so making the task easier is a priority of mine. 🙂 The fact that I can quickly put ingredients together into the slow cooker, turn it on, then walk away while it cooks all day practically makes me giddy.
Using your slow cooker on a regular basis can help you save in quite a few ways. Read on for some of my favourite tips, tricks and recipes for making your slow cooker a great money saving tool:
52 Ways to Save: Use a Slow Cooker
1. Purchase Cheaper Cuts of Meat
When you have a slow cooker, there’s no need to buy those expensive cuts of meat. Because the slow cooker cooks slow, it’s great for tenderizing cheaper cuts of meat.
2. Save on Electricity Costs
Did you know that slow cookers actually use less energy than the stove top or oven? It’s true! Don’t just save dollars on your grocery bill, save on your electricity bill too!
3. Use Less Meat
Perhaps it’s the recipes I use, but I’ve noticed that I use less meat when I make a slow cooker meal. Meat can be one of the more expensive things on your grocery bill so making it stretch can help a ton. I often times shred the meat I use or the vegetables far outweigh the meat quantity. Of course, you can skip the meat entirely and create a delicious pot of baked beans, lentils or what ever strikes your fancy.
4. Resist the Take Out
The slow cooker sort of takes away a lot of the excuses you could have for ordering take-out. After all, you put together your meal in the morning, when you’re (hopefully) your freshest. So when you’re tired at the end of the day, your dinner is already cooked!
5. Double Up
Or in other words, make a huge batch and freeze the extras for a super easy meal that you can just pull out and heat up!
6. Round up the Fridge
Do you have a few leftovers that are staring to pile up in the fridge? Vegetables that are just about on their last legs? Throw them into your slow cooker and create a delicious soup or stew! Try out this Pantry and Pasta soup for some ideas.
7. Not Just for Soups and Stews
Slow cookers are good for sooo much more than soups, stews, and chilis. Check out this post for 5 Unique Ways to Use Your Slow Cooker.
So, are you convinced that the slow cooker will save you money? How often do you use one? Do you have any great recipes to share?
Below, you’ll find a bunch of our favourite slow-cooker recipes:
Feb 9 | Money Saving Tips
Every Monday in 2015, I’ll be sharing a different idea to help you save money! Add all of these tips to your frugal repertoire and you’ll be able to save a lot of money this year! I hope you’ll gather a few new ideas or at least some inspiration from this series.
One way I really like to save money is by making, from scratch, items that are normally bought at the store. Some of my all-time favourite products to make are homemade cleaners. I’ve mentioned before, but I’m really into DIY projects that I can complete in an hour or less. Homemade cleaners definitely fall under that category. In fact, you could create a whole line of cleaning products that will clean your entire house in well under an hour. That my friends, is a good use of time and money for me! (Now, if only doing the actual chores was that quick…)
I’ll admit that we’re not 100% store-bought cleaner free. I still buy laundry detergent and Windex. Though often times I’ll just use water and a cloth for the windows/mirrors. As for laundry detergent, I just can’t get enough nerve to try making my own homemade laundry detergent. Maybe one day, but for now, buying those two things is what works for our family!
In the very basic sense of homemade cleaners, all you really need is vinegar, baking soda and water. Those three ingredients together and separately create the basis for your clean house. The best part? Those ingredients cost just mere pennies to use each time you create a DIY cleaner.
Over the years, I have posted quite a few Homemade Cleaner recipes on Simply Frugal that I thought I’d put together in one post for you. Here are my favorite, tried & true homemade cleaner recipes:
All-Purpose Cleaner
This all-purpose cleaner is a step up from a really basic recipe. It requires a couple of products that you may not have on hand initially but once purchased, a little goes a loooooong way.
DIY Natural Soft Scrub
This DIY natural Soft Scrub works so well! I would suggest making just a little bit at a time since it does solidify and becomes hard to get out of the jar.
DIY Super Citrus Cleaner
This Super Citrus Cleaner works really well for the soap scum we had in our bathtub! Try it out for yourself!
3 Ingredient Drain Cleaner
About once a month, I freshen up our drains with this 3 Ingredient Drain Cleaner.
Homemade Dryer Sheets
Sometimes I add white vinegar into the fabric softener dispenser in our washing machine. Other times I throw in one of my Homemade Dryer Sheets!
Those are the homemade cleaners that I regularly use in my home. I know that if you do a search on Pinterest you will find a ton of other homemade cleaner recipes. Try the ones that catch your eye. They may work for you or they may not! Just keep trying and eventually you’ll be saving a whole bunch of money because you stopped buying store-bought cleaners.
If you’re looking for more information on how I clean our house without chemicals, read this post: How to Clean Your House Without Chemicals.
If you use homemade cleaners, what recipes do you use? Have you had any epic flops? What about laundry detergent, have you tried making that?
Jan 19 | Money Saving Tips
Every Monday in 2015, I’ll be sharing a different idea to help you save money! Add all of these tips to your frugal repertoire and you’ll be able to save a lot of money this year! I hope you’ll gather a few new ideas or at least some inspiration from this series.
Staying home more often is one of the simplest ways to have more time, spend less money, accumulate less clutter, and to simply live a less busy lifestyle!
Staying home used to be so hard for me. I’d go out to the mall or even drive over to the next city over for some ‘better shopping’, way more than I needed to. These trips would always result in money spent on lunch out, deals I may have thought I needed, and probably takeout for dinner because I was too tired to cook! Totally not worth it.
Staying Home means I have More Time, More Money, Less Clutter and a Simpler Lifestyle!
I’m amazed at how much I can get done at home when I limit my time out in town. I actually enjoy my twice a week grocery shopping trips because I have had time to plan the grocery list and meals. (and actually create the meals that I bought the groceries for!) I’m also somewhat impressed at what I can get accomplished around the house by staying home more often. I also have more time to play with my daughter one on one.
Another perk to spending more time at home is that I do less unnecessary spending. So I’m keeping more money in my bank account and bringing home less clutter. Win win!
Since having Sienna, I’ve found myself needing to be out more often. (For sanity reasons ;)) But I have also consciously chosen activities for us that don’t cost much or any money at all. We’ve gone to the library for story time, joined a Mother Goose program and gone for playdates at friends’ homes. We recently started going to a drop-in gymnastics class that costs only $5. As for me, I have a bi-weekly date with a couple of longtime girlfriends at my one girlfriend’s home. We bring snacks, but the conversations we have, no money can buy!
So as you can see, I don’t cut out every activity because I do value time spent with others in the community and my friends and family. But staying home more often really allows me to focus on what I value most and allows me to become refreshed so I can be a blessing to those I see when we do go out.
Staying home more often really works for me!
Here are some ideas to be happier at home:
- Invite friends or family over for a movie/dinner night
- Buy/pick some inexpensive flowers such as daffodils
- Read a good book
- Take a nice bath
- Enjoy a dinner by candlelight
- Clear out as much clutter as possible, clean off the kitchen countertops, get rid of at least one pile of papers
- Listen to your favorite music
- Listen to your favorite music LOUD when you’re cleaning
- Surround yourself with the things you love, allow no room for things that don’t make you feel happy
- Take time to enjoy your favorite hot or cold beverage in the mornings (or evenings)
- Keep your favorite candle burning
- Play hard with your children
- Bake: it tastes great and smells wonderful
- Try a new recipe that you found on Pinterest or another recipe site
- Work at wanting what you have rather than having what you want
- Play board games with family or friends
- Stop resenting what your house isn’t and start appreciating what it is.
- Display family photos
How does staying home save you more money? Please share in the comments!
