Just curious who else is living super frugal

[jbirds2012]

We started living very frugal in 2010 after I had a stroke...we have scrimped and saved and finally thanks to a family gift of property get to live in the country and have animals...now that we are used to living frugal its hard to spend money on things...we have it but dang it was hard to save that money...I started a blog about living frugal and a local group of savers but now we live in the country its time to start a new chapter in life...we do not buy new anything...we try and upcycle or recycle anything we can...its a matter of choosing security over frivolous spending...I spend more money on chickens lately than anything else

your dog looks a lot like our susie

 

[erinszoo]

So, question about frugality and gardening ... to my way of thinking it is much more frugal for me to have plants that produce well and provide food for our family that we will eat. Others seem to have the opinion that only growing heirloom seeds is the way to be frugal because they can save the seed for the next year. My experience with heirlooms hasn't been great though. They are usually harder to germinate, harder to keep up with, they don't produce as well, and the bugs and diseases just seem to eat them alive from one day to the next - none of which makes for a bountiful harvest of food on my table. I also seem to get stuck with "heirloom" seeds that don't actually produce what they are supposed to produce even though they come from a company that is supposedly completely heirloom. Personally I can't see what's wrong with growing hybrids and think in the course of being frugal it's a good deal to have actual food at the end of the growing season rather than just more seeds. But I'm wondering what other people's experiences are on this thread.

 

[Totalcolour]

So, question about frugality and gardening ... <<<Personally I can't see what's wrong with growing hybrids and think in the course of being frugal it's a good deal to have actual food at the end of the growing season rather than just more seeds. But I'm wondering what other people's experiences are on this thread.

Same sort of thing with chickens. My purebreds don't perform nearly as well as my mutts. HOEWVER< I keep the purebreds to breed more mutts from - f1 = hybrid vigor.

I think that if you are going to put food on the table, you should do it the best and most profitable way you can. If that means regular seeds for a bountiful harvest and new seeds next year, then GO FOR IT! (jmho)

 

[jbirds2012]

So, question about frugality and gardening ... to my way of thinking it is much more frugal for me to have plants that produce well and provide food for our family that we will eat. Others seem to have the opinion that only growing heirloom seeds is the way to be frugal because they can save the seed for the next year. My experience with heirlooms hasn't been great though. They are usually harder to germinate, harder to keep up with, they don't produce as well, and the bugs and diseases just seem to eat them alive from one day to the next - none of which makes for a bountiful harvest of food on my table. I also seem to get stuck with "heirloom" seeds that don't actually produce what they are supposed to produce even though they come from a company that is supposedly completely heirloom. Personally I can't see what's wrong with growing hybrids and think in the course of being frugal it's a good deal to have actual food at the end of the growing season rather than just more seeds. But I'm wondering what other people's experiences are on this thread.

yes, i can relate, we bought heirloom and what i knew was good from past experience called "celebrity" tomatoes and both were good tasting, and canned up good. the heirlooms brought back memories of my childhood, the celebrity tasted like what ya get at mc'donalds, not bad but not great. i planned on being a vigilent seed saver, but life got in the way to fast. so we will plant some from seed and buy some plants again. also we expanded our exesting garden by 2/3's and added a vinenard in a different area witch is easyier said than done, but very nice to get started on. i am getting ready to crank up my electrical and solar company so it will take me away from being here and being a farmer, but will give us the money to be more efecient farmers in the long run. it's a lot of work but folks have accused me of not letting any weeds grow around me, and i ain't stopping yet.

 

[MamaRoo]

Does anyone just plant all over their yard? Much of my yard is little more than a scraping of dirt over hard packed clay. I have a small raised bed area but last year the squashes took over and nothing else really grew. This year I plan to plant those squashes bent on world domination in the old pile of chicken manure from last year, which is off on the other side of the yard, in the flower beds along the sides and tucked into other assorted areas. I'll grow the peas and beans next to the house so I don't have to climb over other plants to get them, And maybe I'll just tuck potatoes in here and there where I can find room. My house may end up looking like a front page cover shot for Gardening Disasters, but all I really want are some veggies.

 

[In His Service]

Sounds like a good idea to me, as long as you don't forget where the potatoes are when it is time to dig them up,

 

[nok13]

hey i just discovered that my sweet potatoe plant that my hsuband had started in teh house, aactually had babies... so now i want to know how to do taht in a big container or tires piled up, cause this little one was just in a regular window container.

as for the person with the veggies all over: try containers. try going vertical. i have very little space with almost no sun so i spent half of last year watching where the sun stayed the most and now have started using tires and wooden boxes and hanging things and layer things upward. there is a lot of information about vertical gardening, container gardening, using recycled stuff for gardening. my husband plants stuff like they do in his village inthailand, he just flings seeds of all the differnt stuff he saved, and when all the stuff is high enough to identify, he starts moving seedlings around and puts things in every available space which is wy i had hot chili peppers in my fushia container, and basil among the geraniums... i do flowers and herbs (medicinal) and he does veggies (any thai seeds that the workers here trade among eachother, rotten veggies flung in the ground, pits, cuttings, whatever, not always successfuly). for us, chilis are a real savings since he eats so many per meal. the same for coriander, basils, and for me, all the herbs. other veggies were less successful , and water here is very very expensive so buying was cheaper then growing, althoug i intend to do cherry tomatoes from hanging bottles (internet idea). and i cheat also. i buy seedlings that are proven to work in jerusalem (up the mountain is the name of our climate area: arid, winter rainfall, cold nights even in summer, cold almost frost winters, rocky soil, rocks everywhere, a glut of rocks, alkaline soil, rocks, and , did i say rocks? so a lot of stuff doesnt work.

as for other frugal things: close to pesach(passsover for us) and although i was one step int eh direction of going shopping for a table cloth and some kitchen thingsy for refurbishing the kitchen /dining /salon area, i stopped at the door and thought. WAIT. can i not cut up and redo some of the older table clothes, AND make cloth napkins? so i will be doing that instead. also redoing our bed/sofa (we have dogs so need washable changeable comfortable sofa covers) and waiting for when everyone starts to throw out all their old sofas/beds/kitchen stuff. already found a NEW teflon/natural frying pan, never used but the handle had broken. hubbby is good with welding so he will re vamp the pan. found shelves for storeage area under our otuside apartment stairs, they just need some extra metal supports. AND i found 15 matching dinner plates that someone had apparently left outdoors for a year, and didnt want them (probably a guy who received a gift and a new girlfriend didnt like them), so now we have a matching set of plates (all my plates and bowls and such are also from others' throwaways so nothing matches, not even a on purpose non matching set which is like junk chic. they just didnt match. at all. so now my kids cant complain we dont have plates . (hubby and i eat out of bowls, thai style, also,no forks, so waiting for someone to throw out some silverwear too). in one more week, every curb in every town/city/moshav/kibbutz will have tons of household items, some brand new, others needing repair, and all waiting to be adopted by us 'curb shoppers'.
even pesach(passover) presents to my kdis this year were made and not bought except for the youngest since she is only now setting up home(studio size).

 

[erinszoo]

Does anyone just plant all over their yard? Much of my yard is little more than a scraping of dirt over hard packed clay. I have a small raised bed area but last year the squashes took over and nothing else really grew. This year I plan to plant those squashes bent on world domination in the old pile of chicken manure from last year, which is off on the other side of the yard, in the flower beds along the sides and tucked into other assorted areas. I'll grow the peas and beans next to the house so I don't have to climb over other plants to get them, And maybe I'll just tuck potatoes in here and there where I can find room. My house may end up looking like a front page cover shot for Gardening Disasters, but all I really want are some veggies.

I plant wherever we can that will get enough sunlight to grow stuff. I have raised beds, containers, and I'm building a gutter garden to add some more vertical space. We are redoing our chicken yard and I'm even going to plant winter squash on the west side of it to grow up and over which will help on space for letting the squash sprawl but will also help keep the chickens cooler in the afternoon sun of our extremely hot summers. That's the plan anyway. We've tucked fruit trees and bushes in along the borders of everything and we are even using a piece of the alley this way for growing potatoes. If my front yard got more sun, it would be planted as well.

 

[DragonRider]

Wow, that just doesn't make sense! LOL! I mean, why bother printing/publishing a coupon for your product when the consumer can still buy something else cheaper? Hahaha! The thing I like about using coupons is that sometimes I am able to go off the beaten path, so to speak, and buy something I ordinarily would not be able to afford because I now have a coupon that brought it down to a reasonable price. This way we are able to enjoy at least a little more variety other than the usual meals we have to make because that is all we could afford. The economy in Northern California has taken the worst dive I have ever heard of, and we are here suffering through it. It is a good "Life's Lesson" though, because when I do start working again, I will definitely have alot more money to save since I have become so adept at making ends meet with virtually nothing!

 

[marlo1968]

I grow a garden and can or freeze anything possible. I have chickens for eggs, I sell the extra (have 29 hens) to pay for their feed. Grocery shop about once per month. We get our milk fresh, so no store bought here. For most fresh veggies when the garden isn't producing, I buy through Bountiful Baskets - online order. For $15 you get what's worth at least double that. This past weekend the basket was 1 bunch of bananas, 1 bag small blood oranges, 6 baby pears, 2 large fuji apples, 2 butternut squash, 2 bell peppers, 1 head living Butter lettuce, 4 huge carrots (by huge I mean 6-8 inches long and 3-4 inch diameter), and 1 bunch asparagus. These Bountiful Baskets Sites are available in most states, check it out online at www.bountifulbaskets.com . We love it. Since its just me and the hubby now we usually share with another couple. You can also buy different breads, sometimes tortillas, large cases of fruits, this past time blackberries and oranges were available, also there is always granola available to purchase, these are called "extras" and you pay extra for them. This past week there was a "juiceing pack" for $8, which included a package of spinach, swiss chard, celery, ginger root, 2 limes, 1 lemon, 2 small fuji apples. The breads, like a nice multi-grain you get 5 loaves for about $12. Veggies and Fruits change each week. It's a great way to save money.