Easy and Low Cost Gardening

I was talking to a friend about home gardening and she was very frustrated that she spent so much money on soil, fertilizer, pesticide and pots last year but she only was able to harvest 6 tomatoes. 

Gardening does not need to be expensive. I compost all year long and use it to amend soil in my vegetable garden. I do not even have a real compost bin. I use the big trash can that has been sitting inside our garage for years. I poked holes around it and I roll it on the ground once a week.

My improvised compost bin.

I also save used ground coffee and eggshells. I crush the eggshells into small pieces and mix it with ground coffee. I then put it around the base of the vegetables. It protects my vegetables from the slugs and provides the nutrients that they need.

Ground coffee and eggshells are good for your garden.

Lastly, I practice companion planting. I personally do not like using pesticide in my garden. I strategically place my vegetables where each kind can benefit from the other. An example, I plant tomatoes with garlic, marigold, and nusturtium. Garlic repels spider mites, marigold repels nematodes, and nasturtium deters aphids, whiteflies and squash bugs. I let my vegetables help and protect each other.

I never had to buy fertilizer or use pesticide. All I do is water my plants regularly and wait for the harvest. 

My husband said I give to much caffeine to my plants and that is why they are hyperactive that they could not stop producing. 

Too much caffeine? This is a photo from last year when my kabocha squash took over the backyard.

From carnivores to...wait, what?

Kale became a vital part of our everyday diet.

During the flu season in 2012, my husband and I caught the virus. We got hit so bad I thought we were going to die. Even when we recovered from it, it took us a few months before we totally gained our strength back.

That experience made us reconsider our eating habits. We both love meat. We can eat steak everyday. When we were newlyweds, we ate steak almost everyday until we got so sick of it.

My husband hardly ate vegetables. I do like vegetables but I like meat better. We were a family of carnivores until my husband's primary doctor persuaded him to eat more vegetables and less meat if not at all.

It was hard in the beginning. My husband does not like cooked vegetables and munching on carrots and celery can get boring. 

One morning, my husband suggested, maybe if we would make a smoothie out of different vegetables, we will be able to eat it.

It took a few experiments before we finally perfected the right combination. It is a mixture of banana, blueberries, tomatoes, carrots, celery, kale, spinach, cucumber, chia seeds and flax seeds. I know, it does not sound appetizing but believe me, it is good and it works. We eat it everyday for breakfast.

Another flu season had passed and thougn we were always surrounded by sick people, we did not get sick at all. We even stopped buying and taking vitamins and other supplements. We get all the nutrients we need from fresh vegetables and fruits.

Eating healthy can save you money in the long run. You will not be spending it on doctors, medications and hospitals. 

How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

My cute dog Lilly

Our dog is the cutest and the smartest dog in the whole wide world. After we got her from a local shelter, it only took  a week before she started running our household. She is very loving and playful dog. When she wants something, she only has to stand in front of us, wag her tail and with those big brown eyes looking at us, we would do anything for her.

We do have the tendency to spoil our dog rotten. She even has her own couch. We take her to the groomer once a month where we spend $45 for every visit. I, on the other hand, visit my hairdresser three times a year and my husband cuts his own hair. 

We buy her so many toys. She has to have the best foods and treats. The only thing that we do not do for her is dress her up. My husband believes that dogs are hairy enough to keep themselves warm and comfortable. 

On food alone, we spend $118 a month. We give her a mixture of dry and wet.  

Veterinarian visit is always expensive. Good thing we only have to take her once a year.

We love our dog but we realized she is becoming too expensive for us. We started to bathe her ourselves. It is quite an enjoyable task and she loves it, too! We saved $45 every month.

Costco became our place to buy dog foods and treats. For a 40-pound bag of dry food, we pay $27.79. For a box of wet food, we pay $18.79. The box contains 24 cans of 13.2 ounce of wet food. A 15-pound dog biscuits only cost us $11.79. The dry food lasts for six months and the wet food for a month and a half. That is a huge savings! 

As far as her toys are concerned, it turned out that her favorite is the one that was a free give away from a pet store. We did not have to buy every cute toy that we see in the store. If she does not want to play with it, it is just a waste of money. What she likes most is for me to chase her around the house and the backyard. Priceless.

Compare Prices

When it comes to grocery shopping, convenience was on top of our list. We liked the idea of getting everything we need from one place. My husband is retired so we have the privilege of doing all the shopping on weekdays. We do not have to fight for a parking spot.

A rude awakening happened when one time, we were looking for an after shave cream and our favorite grocery store did not have it. We had to drive to another store to get it. That was when we discovered that all this time, we have been overpaying at our favorite store for the same brand. We saved two dollars by buying it from another store!

I started walking back and forth on each aisle checking prices. My suspicion was confirmed. They have better deals! We did not stop there. We made it our mission to check different stores and compare prices.

We also realized we were not taking advantage of our Costco membership. We have been a Costco members for a long time but we only use the card to buy gas, paper towels and bathroom tissues. After our experience from the other store, we decided to check what else does Costco sells.

We discovered they carry almost everything we need and they are cheaper and bigger. We never went back to our former favorite store. Our shopping schedule also changed from weekly to monthly because we were buying things in bulk. 

Convenience is good but saving is better.

Cook That Meal

Give me no jewelries nor flowers. Give me food, lots of it!

My husband was ecstatic when he learned that he married an unusual woman. I am not into jewelries. I could careless if my clothes are old as long as it is still wearable. I am content with a few pairs of shoes I have. I believe that flowers belong to the garden. 

What my husband did not expect was, I have a bottomless stomach. Being a wonderful man as he is, he introduced me to every good steak house and sushi place around. We used to eat out at least three times a week. We were spending so much on food my husband was probably thinking buying me jewelries were much cheaper.

It was not intentional that we stopped eating out so much. We just got tired of it. One night, my husband offered to cook dinner for us. He was raised by a Sicilian mother and one thing he learned from her was to make a spicy Sicilian spaghetti. It was our first home cooked meal. It was GOOD!

Next thing we knew, we were planning our next dinner at home. We discovered it was more fun cooking our own food. Even better, the money that we used to spend on restaurants stayed in our wallet. We kept it that way. We now only eat out for special occasions.