Seeds
Checking Off My To-Do List
I’m horribly behind on posting this month. I’m not sure where the time goes, but I can’t believe it’s already the 10th of March. Things have been busy this month as my husband and I have been traveling back and forth a lot between our house and our vacation home.
I started a to-do list and lately I seem to be checking off everything except writing in my blog. I finished planting the starter seeds for my garden, scanned and copied a bunch of photos for my grandmother, called a bunch of banks, credit card companies and credit unions and finalized the re-certification for PMP. Somehow or another I still have two pages worth of to-dos remaining and a busy week ahead.
My plan is to get back on track, but with the ACC and NCAA tournaments just around the corner I know that’s unlikely. Although there are a million things I probably should be doing, I know that I’ll be parked in front of the TV cheering on my team. If they win a few games I might just try to round up some friends and fly out to the games. That’s an expense that isn’t exactly in the budget, but will be ever so worth it if we win!
I guess there’s always time for to-do lists. In the mean time… Go Terps!
Implementing PAYGO Rules For Personal Finances
Last week, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky created quite a stir when holding out his vote for extending unemployment benefits. His contention was that it violated the self-imposed PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) rules that Congress and the President reinstated just a month earlier. Bunning eventually caved and the benefits were extended, but just because the government can’t operate under PAYGO doesn’t mean we the people can’t.
Photo by robson2313
PAYGO requires new federal spending to be offset by budgetary cuts or tax hikes. Makes sense; without paying as you go you will surely wind up deep in debt, which is exactly how we find our country. As most things political go, PAYGO seems to be more for show, as politicians on both sides have ignored their own rules, or taken advantage of lapses in PAYGO, to spend like maniacs.
Since the idea of debt first came along, people have opted to borrow versus saving for a variety of reasons. Farmers often needed to borrow money for seeds and tools to produce their first crop. Many business were started with loans, because they had significant upfront costs that owners were unwilling or unable to cough up. Homeowners cannot usually afford to buy a house for cash, so we choose to take out a mortgage.
These examples all seem relatively easy to justify, but then a little tool came along called the credit card, which made it much easier for households to borrow money for everyday items. With credit cards, the idea of paying as you go became nearly obsolete.
Every now and then I hear stories of someone who built their own home. They often saved up to buy some land, then the materials, then completed as much as they could on their own while saving to pay someone to finish up those things they lacked the expertise or physical ability to do themselves. I’ve always admired these types; not only for their self-reliance, but because they understood the pay as you go way of managing your money.
My wife and have implemented PAYGO in our own household, on a smaller scale. A few months ago we agreed not to sign up for any new subscriptions, or add to our recurring monthly expenses, without canceling something equivalent.
For instance, after living for more than a year without cable television to speed up our get out of debt plan, we decided to sign back up for basic programming. Doing so would add about $30 to our monthly budget. To pay for it, we scaled back our Netflix membership (a $10 savings), canceled a weekend newspaper subscription (I can read it online – $10 saved), and I canceled a forums membership I no longer participated in (at $9.99/month).
In our example, we eliminated two things that were no longer useful to us, or that we no longer enjoyed, so it wasn’t too big a deal. However, we have had times where we wanted to add a new service or subscription, and couldn’t identify we were willing to eliminate. Enter the other side of the PAYGO equation: Increasing income.
The government can increase income by raising taxes. Fortunately, we don’t have the ability to levy a tax on others and collect their money, so we have to raise the funds ourselves through work. If you receive a raise at work, you may want to allocate a small percentage of your new income to adding something to your household that would add value.
Perhaps you’d like to listen to audio books on the road to increase knowledge on a particular subject. Or maybe there is a cooking class you’d like to attend, or a gym membership could help relieve stress. Whatever it is, use a small percentage of your new, monthly income to reward yourself. Notice I said “small percentage.” There is a risk here of lifestyle creep – inflating your lifestyle to meet or exceed your new income. Tread carefully.
By implementing a pay-as-you-go system in your personal finances, you will not only avoid debt, but you will be able to take pride in the things you own because you really own them, they don’t own you. And yes, that’s right out of Tyler Durden’s Guide to Personal Finances.
Post by Frugal Dad
Square Foot Gardening: How To Grow Vegetables In Your Own Backyard
This introduction to square foot gardening first appeared nearly two years ago here at Frugal Dad. I’ve republished here with a few updates sprinkled in. With the weather warming up here in the south I’m itching to get started on this year’s garden, and plan to build a much larger on-the-ground square foot garden. Look for garden updates coming soon!
I recently discovered an interesting gardening method called square foot gardening, and decided we would give it a try here in the Frugal household. The founder of the concept, Mel Bartholomew, has a fantastic resource available in the book All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!
I’ve always thought the idea of growing your own vegetables would be a lot of fun. Even if the cost savings are not significant, there are plenty of other benefits to starting your own garden.
Our first square foot garden box built in February 2008
Gardens appeal to self-sufficient, frugal types like me. While I won’t be able to fully feed my family of four with our mini-harvest, we will surely enjoy some fresh-picked vegetables to supplement our spring and summer meals. With any excess, we may even do a little canning. Gardening is also therapeutic in that provides something to look forward to, and is a great stress-reducing hobby.
One of the major challenges to gardening is our lack of quality soil, and frankly, hand-digging a gardening can be a lot of work. While I could rent or borrow a tiller to handle the job, I prefer the square foot gardening method in raised beds. Using this method, you control the soil content, and it doesn’t require any digging prior to planting.
What is Square Foot Gardening?
The idea behind square foot gardening is that you can plant fruits, vegetables and flowers in raised beds, above poor soil conditions. Seeds are planted in 1X1 square foot plots, and when harvested a new plant is installed in the square. Raised beds can sit directly on the ground, or include a bottom layer and be placed on patios, decks or porches. Because of a bad back, and a dog with a propensity to dig up our new plants, we decided to build a 4×2 foot table-top design.
Materials Needed to Set Up a Square Foot Garden
Material costs vary depending on factors like the size of garden you plan to build. For our first tabletop garden, we opted to build a 4ft. by 2ft. configuration because it fit the table we were planning to use. Most people typically start with a 4ft. by 4ft. design for their first square foot garden. I’ll share with you what materials I used, but keep in mind the pricing could be higher or lower depending on your local costs of lumber, soil, etc.
(1) Sheet untreated plywood – $0.00 (leftover scrap from a previous home improvement project)
(2) 2×6×8 pieces of untreated lumber – $7.38
Don’t get treated lumber because treatments can seep into the soil and contaminate your planting area.
(8) #8 x 3″ Wood Screws (or deck screws) – $2.94
Use these longer screws to connect the corners of the 2×6’s after cutting to the desired length.
(8) #6 x 1″ Wood Screws – $0.98
These were used to anchor the nylon line to create a grid system for the 1×1 planting plots. I also used a few to fasten the sheet of plywood to the 2×6’s to create a bottom to my container.
(1) Pack of Twisted Nylon Line – $4.43
I used this and the smaller screws to create a grid system on top of the container, in 1×1 square foot patterns.
(2) 2cu ft. bags of Miracle Grow Garden Soil (for flowers and vegetables) – $13.54
There were more frugal recipes here for soil, such as 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. However, I could not find the ingredients packaged locally and the individual ingredients bought separately at the larger home improvement stores were more expensive the bags of Miracle Grow.
Update: This year I plan to visit a nursery and pick up the specific ingredients suggested in the book. The commercial, pre-packaged bags of soil still have too many fertilizers, etc. for my liking.
(10-pack) Strawberry plants – $3.98
(1) Burpee Seed Pack Super Sugar Snap Peas – $1.57
(1) Burpee Seed Pack Tomato, Early & Often Hybrid – $2.47
(1) Burpee Seed Pack Cucumber, Burpless Beauty – $1.88
Total Start-up Cost: $39.17
Building a Square Foot Gardening Box
It was my daughter’s idea to use popsicle sticks to mark the type of fruit or veggie planted. We will fill in the remaining squares after we eat another round of popsicles!
Since we decided to go with raised beds on a table top I checked the dimensions of the table and came up with a suitable size for our square foot gardening container. Four feet by two feet would allow for eight square foot plots for planting. First, cut the 8ft. long 2×6s down to size. Next, position the 2×6s on the table in a rectangular pattern, alternating corners to make the “inside box” dimensions four feet by two feet (I chose not to alternate corners because the table I was working with was only 45 inches wide, so I needed it to be a little narrower). Fasten the sides using the #8×3″ wood screws. If you have trouble with the wood trying to split you may want to first drill pilot holes.
Update: This year, instead of a tabletop design, we plan to build four 4×4 boxes to plant a variety of vegetables and flowers (for color and some marigolds to keep some insects away).
With the sides now fastened it is time to attach a bottom to the container, unless you are planning to put the raised bed directly on the ground. If this is the case, use some cardboard or weed blocking fabric to discourage grass and weeds from coming up through the soil. In my case, the container will be placed on a table top so I needed to attach a bottom to hold the soil in place. Fortunately, I had some untreated plywood I ripped to size. The bottom doesn’t have to be thick, so 1/4″, 3/8″ or 1/2″ plywood would do just fine. Fasten the bottom to the container using the #6×1″ wood screws (assuming you didn’t use 1″ plywood).
Update: With an on-the-ground design we will not place a “bottom” on the boxes. However, we do plan to put down some weed barrier (cardboard) to slow weeds from popping up in the box soil.
Plan for drainage by raising the box up a couple inches. I ripped a couple scraps from the remaining 2×6s and used them to attach four 2″ feet for each corner of the box. I also drilled a few 1/8″ thick drainage holes in the bottom of the box to allow standing water to flow out the bottom.
You can see we quickly outgrew the plots on the original 2′x4′ box
Create a grid system on top of the square foot gardening container using nylon line and #6×1″ screws, spaced a foot apart across the width and length of the container. Drill the screws about half way into the top of the 2×6s, leaving enough room to tie a knot of nylon line around the screw. If the end of the nylon line frays after cutting (as mine did), use a lighter to gently melt the ends to prevent further fraying.
Update: The nylon string help up pretty well, but got dirty quickly and wasn’t as aesthetically pleasing a some more elaborate lattice systems I’ve seen.
I’m not sure what to expect from this effort in terms of food yields, but just the process of building the box, filling it with dirt and planting seeds with my kids was worth the $40. If the small garden yields a few fruits and veggies during the spring and summer then all the better. Who knows, if we can cultivate a good crop we may build more boxes next summer and section off an area of the yard so the dog does not eat our produce.
I think over time it will help my kids understand the true value of things. Those strawberries don’t just wind up in the produce section of our local grocery stores. As I pointed out to my daughter today someone has to plant the seeds, water the plants, harvest the crops, clean the strawberries, package them, and transport them to a distributor.
I’d love to hear about your gardening plans this year in the comments below!
Post by Frugal Dad
Survival seeds
You may have noticed the "Hometown Seeds" link on the side bar. The story goes that they emailed me and asked me to put put up the link. I went to their site and looked around. They have a good variety of seeds at a good price, and besides that, I like their attitude, so I put up the link. A couple of days ago, Saturday to be exact, I received a package of "Survival Seeds" from them, with a very
Weekly Roundup: Become a Frugal Dad Fan Edition
I have finally taken the Facebook plunge! I created a personal account some time ago to reconnect with friends, but just this week I set up a fan page for FrugalDad.com. My goal for the fan page is to provide a place for readers to interact with me outside of the comments section, Twitter, etc. I enjoy chatting in those environments as well, but let’s face it – having a discussion is tough to do in 140 characters, or through the back-and-forth nature of blog comments.
Yesterday I tossed out a “Discussion” feature and a few questions to get things going. Since I removed the forums feature here at Frugal Dad, I’m hoping this can replace some of those features. Because many of the discussion topics are seeds for future posts, your feedback is greatly appreciated. Who knows, I might just mention one of your comments in the post and reference your blog.
Hope you’ll join me over at the new Frugal Dad fan page at Facebook! Click the banner below to join, and be sure to check out the roundup below.
The Frugal Roundup
Want to Get Out of Debt? Become A Master at Instant Gratification. Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Read on to find out what Neal means about mastering instant gratification and using it to your advantage. (@Wealth Pilgrim)
Do You Need a Local Bank? We are fans of ING Direct, but also maintain a local checking and savings account. We keep a local emergency fund (the first couple thousand of our fully funded emergency fund) here just in case we need cash in a hurry. (@My Dollar Plan)
Finally Out of Debt? Here’s How to Stay Out. So many people fight for years to obtain debt freedom, only to fall right back in the trap of living beyond their means. (@Wisdom Journal)
Google Street View – Great For House Buyers. We have been entertaining the idea of relocating here lately and have found Google Street View to scope out a number of properties in other cities. (@Four Pillars)
Sneaky Ways Restaurants Use Menus to Entice You to Spend More. I’ve read a number of articles on the ways grocery stores use consumer psychology to make shoppers spend more. This is an interesting piece on similar strategies employed by restaurants. (@Wallet Pop)
Why Freelancing Benefits Your Day Job. Those who have read FD for a while now know I’m a big proponent of the “side hustle,” for exactly the reasons pointed out in this post. (@Fiscal Fizzle)
The “Local Store Premium” – How Much Is It Worth to You? This weekend I worked on a couple major household repair projects. Rather than going to the big box warehouse store, I decided to try our local hardware store for supplies. I paid a little more, and they had less product options, but I felt good about helping a local store this time around. (@The Simple Dollar)
Best of the Rest
- Become a Fan of Generation X Finance on Facebook
- Organizing Your Way to a Simple Christmas: Gift Lists
- What Kind of Spender Are You?
- How to Get Rid of $106,000 in Debt
- Price-Placebo Effect: Are You a Victim, Too?
- Trusting Your Intuition
- 3 Quick Tips to Make Your Life Better Today
- 7 Ways to Build & Maintain a Personal Network that Works for You
- Learn More About Lending Club Credit Rating and Collection Process
- How Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Works
- Loan Modification Companies vs The Fair Housing Authority
Hope everyone has a great end of the week. Just a heads up – only 10 weeks until Christmas. Don’t wait for the last minute and charge presents on a credit card. Start saving now and enjoy a cash-only Christmas!
Post by Frugal Dad
Saving seeds
If you garden and you’re frugal, surely you’ve saved at least a few varieties of seeds from year to year. If you haven’t, you’re wasting money. The seed companies get theirs the exact same way you can get yours, so why pay them to do it? I keep reading that hybrids won’t breed true if you save the seeds from your own crops and that’s true of some things, but not all. I have saved seed from hybrid