What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

There is an excellent YouTube video on making sub-irrigated planters. I took that concept of the sub-irrigated raised bed and redesigned it. I resized my project to a 2X4 bed raised up on legs. At the time, I was thinking would it be possible to build an elevated planter for people in wheelchairs, where they would not have to bend over to tend the plants. Also, the sub-irrigated concept was to make the planter more self-sustaining. I am happy to say that my elevated sub-irrigated planters are my best ever planter in terms of low maintenance and overall production harvest.

I built my planter out of wood so it would look nice on our decks. Also, I am fairly handy building wood projects, so it worked for me.

First of all, here is the video you requested....

So, I made my sub-irrigated planter up on legs. I lined the inside bottom up to about 6 inches high with pond liner to make the waterproof reservoir. Then I lined the bottom with these 4 inch perforated drain pipes, capping the ends with weed barrier cloth to keep the potting soil out of the drain pipes.

In order for this concept to work, the drain pipes are 4 inches round, so you have to drill an overflow hole at 3 inches. That gives you a 1 inch air gap barrier between the water reservoir full level and the top of the drain pipes. Without that air gap, your plants would drown. Potting soil is simply spread between the drain pipes and the water wicks up through the soil.

In a normal summer, with average rainfall, I only have to refill my sub-irrigated planter about once a month. Of course, that will depend on your local weather. I inserted a PVC pipe for refilling the planter with water. It goes all the way to the bottom. Then I just cut off a slice of water pool noodle and used it as a water level indicator. When the water indicator is flush with the top of the PVC fill tube, it's time to refill the planter. Again, for me, that is maybe only once a month.

My 2X4 foot planter with a 3 inch water reservoir in the bottom holds about 15 gallons of water. The plants drink up water as needed. All I do is check the indicator to check on the status. When I refill my planter, I stick a garden hose into the fill tube and let it run until water starts coming out of the overfill hole.

Here is a picture of my sub-irrigated planter full of bean plants. Because they always have access to water as needed, this 2X4 foot planter produces more beans than I ever got out of my in-ground garden planting 3X or 4X as much space. I'm not a great gardener, but with this system, you can't over water the plants because of the overflow hole. And I don't underwater the plants because I just have to look at the water indicator to see the status of the water reservoir. Nature maintains the correct water soil balance.

The only downside to this planter is that the drain pipes and pond liner add to the expense of the build. When I built my planters, I spent about $50 for the wood and maybe another $25.00 for the drain pipe and pond liner for each planter. For me, it was worth it.

However, in the spirit of this thread and being more frugal, I would suggest that you could make this same planter out of reclaimed lumber or pallet wood, line the wood with feed bags as discussed, and then a much less expensive liner option like a heavy plastic garbage bag. If you don't want to buy perforated drain pipe, you could fill the bottom 4 inches or so with plastic jugs and such with small holes drilled on all sides in them to fill up with water and drain out as needed for the plants.

If you go with a plastic jug option, just make sure you use a heavier plastic container like the thickness that your liquid laundry detergent comes in. The plastic jug has to be strong enough to support the top ~12 inches of potting soil when wet.

I estimate that I could build this type of sub-irrigated planter with free pallet wood, feed bag and garbage bag liner, reusable plastic jugs, and just a 2 foot section of PVC for less than $10.00 total including all the screws to hold everything together. Compare that to paying about $200.00 for a similar planter you might buy at the big box store.

BONUS IDEA: There is a guy on YouTube named Leon who has many videos on making wicking tubs out of different materials. I will link this next video on how he uses plastic tubs with empty plastic milk cartons for his wicking tubs. The advantage to his system is that you really don't need any wood working skills and you can put together one of his wicking tubs in practically no time.

If you like that concept, he has many, many video on his concept but built with slight variations in the materials. So, check out his channel and I'm sure you would find something that would work for you.

Bottom line, if you are willing to learn the concept, you can build your own sub-irrigated planter or wicking tub for pennies on the dollar compared to buying essentially the same thing at a big box store. FWIW, I know that my elevated sub-irrigated planter is a much better build than the kits I see at our local garden centers.

Wow! Awesome post!

I've read through it, but I will be re-reading it with a pencil and pad of paper later.

 

[gtaus]

Wow! Awesome [sub-irrigate planter] post!

I've read through it, but I will be re-reading it with a pencil and pad of paper later.

I love to talk about my sub-irrigated planter because, as a very poor "brown-thumb" gardener, even I have had tremendous success with it. I made my sub-irrigated planters about 4 years ago and bought the wood, PVC pipe, and pond liner for the project. It cost me about $75.00 in materials for each planter. However, if you take the time to understand the concept of these sub-irrigated planters and throw in some great advice on reusing materials on this frugal thread, you could cut the costs down on your build to less than $10.00 per planter.

Our local big box stores sell kits for these sub-irrigated planters, but you easily spend $200+ on those kits. If you understand how the concept works, and you use free pallet wood or reclaimed wood and recyclables, you could drop that cost down to almost nothing. Having a good imagination on using recyclables instead of buying new materials is a very frugal way to save lots of money.

If you don't want to build a sub-irrigated planter out of wood, then the video on Leon's easy to put together wicking tubs is must see YouTube video. You have to have a big tub for the planter, but just about everything else could be made with recyclable materials. Like I said, Leon has many, many videos on his wicking tubs where he uses different materials to make his planters. It might be worth your time and effort to go to his channel and check out some of his other videos as well. Leon is offering a lifetime of knowledge that is yours just for watching a video. That's truly amazing.

IIRC, Leon was able to score some big tubs that were previously used as cattle feed, or something, so he did not have to pay for those tubs. That's frugal if you can find them.

I found some nice looking tubs at WalMart for about $10.00 each, but they froze and cracked in the winter. So, I would have been better off with something like a heavy plastic on those cattle feed tubs. My WalMart tubs probably would have been fine in a warmer winter climate or if I had simply covered them with a plastic garbage bag in the fall to keep out the rain water which ended up freezing and cracking my tubs. My bad.

When I first came across these videos, I, too, took out pen and paper and was writing notes to myself. Another good thing to do is to "Save" the YouTube video to your YouTube "Watch Later" list. That way you can easily go back into your YouTube library and rewatch videos you want. I don't know about you, but I often pick up new things the second time I watch a video. If there is a lot of new content for me, I might even watch it a third time to really soak in that information.

 

[igorsMistress]

Here is an easy frugal tip for eveyone.... Check out the price scanned of the items you buy at the store. If it scans at a higher price, let them know.

My story. I was in WalMart the other day. I bought some ceral off that shelf that was marked $1.43. When I went to the self-checkout scanner, it scanned at $1.98. That's a 40% hidden mark-up people!

I called the young female attendant over to my station and showed her the box of cereal, what it scanned in at, and told her the price on the shelf. Now, I don't want to put anyone down, and she tried to be helpful, so she said "let me scan it for the price." I smiled as she scanned the box and quietly told her, you will not get a different scan price. Of course, it scanned at $1.98 so she tells me, the price is $1.98.

I replied, yes, I know the scan price is $1.98, but the display price on the shelf was $1.43. That's the price I want to buy it at.

She looks at me and says she is sorry but they cannot change the scan price. I immediately correct her saying,"yes you can." She replies, "well, I'm not allowed to change the price." Again, I respond, "yes, you can." Then she finally admits, "I don't know how to do it." To which I said, "That's the issue. Call over a manager to do the override."

It took a few minutes, but the manager came over and I explained to her that I wanted to buy the cereal at the shelf displayed price of $1.43 and not the scanner price of $1.98. So, she went back into the store, verified the price, and came back and told the young attendant to markdown the item. I quickly jumped in and asked the manager to show the girl how to do it, because she had not yet been trained on it. Which she did, and then I went on my way having made my point, saving some coin on purchase, and thinking that young girl watching the self-checkouts was just a little bit better off than before we had our interaction.

Now, you might be thinking, was it worth my 15 minutes of time waiting for them to verify the price and mark it down to save 55 cents? In this case, I had my car back in the auto shop waiting for a tire repair. So, I had a good hour, or longer, to waste in the store until my car tire was fixed. I was willing to wait them out, hold up the line, and make them run around to fix their problem.

But, I know that they probably sold out all that cereal on the shelf that day, with it scanning at a hidden 40% markup, and I was probably the only one to complain about it. They just leave the old, lower, price on the shelf and most people don't bother to check the price of items that they buy when they scan them in.

I still believe that a person should be confident that the display price and the scanned price will be the same. It's just not so anymore, at WalMart and other stores. Those hidden 40% markups add up fast. I especially pay attention to high dollar value items that are on "Sale" but somehow seem to scan at the regular retail price. Anyone else notice this happening to them?

This sounds familiar. We bought paper towels and the price on the shelf was $6.00 different from the scan price. However, whoever did the price check said it was the higher price. We ended up having to show the department manager where we got the product and the price on the shelf, turns out we were correct. So definitely watch those prices!

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

This sounds familiar. We bought paper towels and the price on the shelf was $6.00 different from the scan price. However, whoever did the price check said it was the higher price. We ended up having to show the department manager where we got the product and the price on the shelf, turns out we were correct. So definitely watch those prices!

They sometimes put a more expensive product on the shelf with the label of a lower priced item and somehow make it YOUR fault you didn't check the 12 digit number that is too small for human eyes to read.

It feels very dishonest and rude to be scolded for trusting they did their job and not doing their job of checking whether they stocked the shelves properly.

 

[igorsMistress]

They sometimes put a more expensive product on the shelf with the label of a lower priced item and somehow make it YOUR fault you didn't check the 12 digit number that is too small for human eyes to read.

It feels very dishonest and rude to be scolded for trusting they did their job and not doing their job of checking whether they stocked the shelves properly.

I agree with you. In our case it was clearly the price and it all matched though. They just had two different locations with very different prices. They messed up though, that’s for aure!

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Watch out, this happened to me, I saw an marked down item , and took it with me, at the checkout, it was about 30% more, I said it had been marked down, when they went back to check it, the marked down tag had been removed now every time I buy something marked down, I take a picture of the product and the marked down price!!!

 

[Sally PB]

now every time I buy something marked down, I take a picture of the product and the marked down price!!!

That's a great idea.

 

[gtaus]

They sometimes put a more expensive product on the shelf with the label of a lower priced item and somehow make it YOUR fault you didn't check the 12 digit number that is too small for human eyes to read.

I went into our local WalMart a few days after making them mark down an item I purchased at the checkout to match their lower shelf price. They still had the same item on the shelf, with the same incorrect lower price (assuming the scanner price was more current). It really feels like a deliberate bait and switch on the price.

There was a young woman employee stocking the shelves in that aisle. She had a price scanner. So, I called her over and asked her to tell me the price of that item. The shelf price was, for this example, $1.00. She scanned it and it reported $1.50. She happily told me that the price was $1.50. I told her I was confused because the shelf price was $1.00 for that item, and I showed her the display price.

I asked her what price I was going to get charged at the checkout. Well, she said, it would obviously be $1.50. Hmm, I said, and you don't see a problem with displaying the price at $1.00 and hiding the checkout price at $1.50? She looked confused. She had no ability to make the connection that we shoppers expect the display price of a product to match the price we get charged at the checkout. Even though she personally scanned the price of the item and read the display price on the shelf did not match, it had absolutely no effect on her.

I was expecting her to at least remove the "incorrect" lower price on the shelf display, but she did not. She just asked me if I needed any help with anything else, which I did not, so she just went back to stocking the shelves down the aisle. I guess it's not worth your time to talk to someone who fundamentally does not care.

So I grabbed one of the items, took it to the checkout, scanned it in at the higher price, and called the store attendant over to complain about the price scanning in higher than the shelf display. I played the old man card and told them that I was shocked that the scanner and display prices did not match and insisted that a manager send someone there to verify the shelf price was lower. I was willing to wait (and hold up the line) until they verified the price. Which they did, and then they did the local markdown at the register, and sent me on my way.

Two weeks later, I was back in WalMart, and the display price was still showing $1.00 for the item. How many people got charged $1.50 for that item and never knew they paid extra? This was a high turnover item and they sell the product by the pallet load daily. It's a complete rip-off and even if you personally get a markdown, they are overcharging everyone else who do not check their receipts.

It feels very dishonest and rude to be scolded for trusting they did their job and not doing their job of checking whether they stocked the shelves properly.

I refuse to be scolded for their deceptive practices. And, I don't mind holding up their checkout lines for as long as needed for them to markdown the item for my purchase. Problem is, of course, they have no intention of correcting the situation because they make more money by displaying a lower price on the shelf and scanning the item in at a higher price.

I know the stores don't have it easy with us shoppers, either. I was having a flat tire replaced at WalMart automotive this week. I wanted to look at a new OBDII auto scanner for my car. The shelf was empty. So, I asked the automotive manager if he had any scanners somewhere in the back in stock, because it appears that they are all sold out on the shelf. He told me, not sold out, every scanner was stolen from the store. He said the scanners walk out of the store faster then they can put them on the shelf.

I hate to hear things like that, because, in the end, we all end up paying in small part for someone else's theft from the store.

I guess everyone is stealing from everybody these days. If you want to live a frugal lifestyle, be sure you verify the scanning price at the checkout because you cannot have any trust that the store will charge you the display price.

 

[gtaus]

I like to reuse items if I can find a second life for them. I am currently drinking ice tea and other dry mix drinks that come in nice plastic containers like this...

The containers are 6-1/2 inches tall...

by 2-1/2 inches wide on the front/back and 2 inches wide on the sides.

They are an opaque tan color, and you cannot see what is inside the container. I have saved up more than a dozen of these plastic containers thinking they must be good for something. But, it is time to find a second life for them or send them off to the recycle center.

So, I'm reaching out to the forum to see if anyone has ideas how these containers could be used. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

 

[LizzzyJo]

I like to reuse items if I can find a second life for them. I am currently drinking ice tea and other dry mix drinks that come in nice plastic containers like this...

View attachment 3374321

The containers are 6-1/2 inches tall...

View attachment 3374324

by 2-1/2 inches wide on the front/back and 2 inches wide on the sides.

View attachment 3374326

They are an opaque tan color, and you cannot see what is inside the container. I have saved up more than a dozen of these plastic containers thinking they must be good for something. But, it is time to find a second life for them or send them off to the recycle center.

So, I'm reaching out to the forum to see if anyone has ideas how these containers could be used. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

I like using skinny tubes like that for Tupperware for the fridge when I make things like dressings. They fit in the fridge door well. They have to be labeled but that’s ok for me. At least a bit of life left in them before the trash that is our recycling system is nice.