Friday, March 20, 2009
Almost free cereal and a good recipe
This week at Publix you can get Post Trail Mix Crunch for $.10. There is a printable coupon for $2 off. The cereal is usually $4.19, but it's buy one, get one free this week so that make is 2.10 a box. With the coupon it's only $.10. Even if you only eat a bowl or two of it, it's a cheap breakfast. You can use the calories you save to try out this great, easy recipe for Lazy Lasagna. The raviolis are on sale at Publix for the whole month, plus there is a coupon. This is one of my husband's favorite things. It's makes an easy dinner if you serve it with bread and a salad, plus it makes more than enough for leftover lunches. Try it out and let me know if your family likes it!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Green thumb
I have been thinking since the fall that I wanted to grow a small garden. All of my grandparents used to garden and it was always fun to help them. I wanted my child to have the same experience of eating something she had helped grow. Plus we have a hard time getting her to have variety in her diet (she mostly only eats yogurt) so I thought this might help.
We have a rather large back yard for a house in a neighborhood, but it's all sloped. I started reading on the internet and decided to do raised bed gardening. Think a box filled with dirt. The soil warms up faster, making your plants grow faster. With that narrowed down, I started trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it. All of the forums kept mentioning this book called Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I found it at our library and am now going to buy it. Following his method you can grow enough vegetables for 1 person in a square that's 4 feet by 4 feet. The only tools you need are a bucket, a trowel, and a small shovel. It's not about making long rows in a garden that will overwhelm you; it's about tending a small space efficiently to make the amount you could realistically eat. You can read more here.
While I was researching I also found this tool at Gardener's Supply Company. The garden here is set up to be 3 feet by 6 feet. You can either look at and edit a premade template or you can make your own. You can print it out and it includes information about each vegetable its particular needs. It is very helpful if you don't know exactly how much room a pepper plant will take up (about 1 foot). They have plans for making a salad garden, one with all salsa ingredients, etc.
So far I've spent $16 dollars on the lumber to make 2 4x4x8 beds. At Lowe's they'll cut the wood for you and each piece was 16 feet long. I also bought some linseed oil to seal the wood. Lots on internet sites said you could use landscape timbers which are a little cheaper, but there was some conflicting information about whether the chemicals were safe for growing food. I'm trying to do it all organically (we'll see how that goes), so I thought it would be better to stay away from that. I've also bought some peat moss that was $10 for a huge bag of it. I bought 12 cubic feet of Jungle Grow organic gardening soil for about $40. I'm not sure if that's going to be enough to fill the boxes or not (I kind of doubt it) but it will certainly get me started.
As for what we are going to grow, I think we've decided on tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, carrots, marigolds (they keep pests away), and a couple of other things yet to be determined. It's too early to plant about half of those things, so I'm not in a big hurry to get it planted. I oiled to lumber yesterday so it should be ready to nail together today. I'm pretty excited.
I would like to encourage you to give it a try. If you start with just one 4x4 box and you hate it, then you're out just a little time and money. If you like it, it's very easy to add to. It's not too late to get started; in fact, it's just the right time. If you're not sure about growing your own food, you should check out Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's one of the best books I've ever read.
Embrace the spring fever and plant a garden!
We have a rather large back yard for a house in a neighborhood, but it's all sloped. I started reading on the internet and decided to do raised bed gardening. Think a box filled with dirt. The soil warms up faster, making your plants grow faster. With that narrowed down, I started trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it. All of the forums kept mentioning this book called Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I found it at our library and am now going to buy it. Following his method you can grow enough vegetables for 1 person in a square that's 4 feet by 4 feet. The only tools you need are a bucket, a trowel, and a small shovel. It's not about making long rows in a garden that will overwhelm you; it's about tending a small space efficiently to make the amount you could realistically eat. You can read more here.
While I was researching I also found this tool at Gardener's Supply Company. The garden here is set up to be 3 feet by 6 feet. You can either look at and edit a premade template or you can make your own. You can print it out and it includes information about each vegetable its particular needs. It is very helpful if you don't know exactly how much room a pepper plant will take up (about 1 foot). They have plans for making a salad garden, one with all salsa ingredients, etc.
So far I've spent $16 dollars on the lumber to make 2 4x4x8 beds. At Lowe's they'll cut the wood for you and each piece was 16 feet long. I also bought some linseed oil to seal the wood. Lots on internet sites said you could use landscape timbers which are a little cheaper, but there was some conflicting information about whether the chemicals were safe for growing food. I'm trying to do it all organically (we'll see how that goes), so I thought it would be better to stay away from that. I've also bought some peat moss that was $10 for a huge bag of it. I bought 12 cubic feet of Jungle Grow organic gardening soil for about $40. I'm not sure if that's going to be enough to fill the boxes or not (I kind of doubt it) but it will certainly get me started.
As for what we are going to grow, I think we've decided on tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, carrots, marigolds (they keep pests away), and a couple of other things yet to be determined. It's too early to plant about half of those things, so I'm not in a big hurry to get it planted. I oiled to lumber yesterday so it should be ready to nail together today. I'm pretty excited.
I would like to encourage you to give it a try. If you start with just one 4x4 box and you hate it, then you're out just a little time and money. If you like it, it's very easy to add to. It's not too late to get started; in fact, it's just the right time. If you're not sure about growing your own food, you should check out Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's one of the best books I've ever read.
Embrace the spring fever and plant a garden!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Diapers
Walgreen's has a great diaper deal this week. Even if you don't have babies, maybe you know someone who does (or is about to!), or you can donate them. There is a $5 printable coupon at coupons.com for Huggies Gentle Care Diaper Product. If your Walgreen's takes printable coupons you can get 2 Jumbo packs and a large thing of wipes for $1. Here's how it works:
2 Huggies Gentle Care Jumbo Pack Diapers @ $10
1 Huggies Gentle Care Wipes $6
3 $5.00 printable coupons
$20+$6=$26-$15=$11
When you buy $25 worth of Huggies products you get a $10 Register Reward. This is good on your next purchase. If you need it the same day, just do 2 transactions. Do the math. That's $1 for all of the diapers and wipes! Let me know if you get the deal to work for you!
2 Huggies Gentle Care Jumbo Pack Diapers @ $10
1 Huggies Gentle Care Wipes $6
3 $5.00 printable coupons
$20+$6=$26-$15=$11
When you buy $25 worth of Huggies products you get a $10 Register Reward. This is good on your next purchase. If you need it the same day, just do 2 transactions. Do the math. That's $1 for all of the diapers and wipes! Let me know if you get the deal to work for you!
It's arrived!
Spring is here (I hope)! To celebrate, it's time to bring out the flip flops! The Gap stores (Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap) is having a special give and get event. For every puchase you make, they'll give 5% to Teach for America. The get part is a 30% discount for you on your total purchase! You just print out the bar code here and take it to as many of the stores as you would like. Just think how cute your toes will look in those new Old Navy flip flops. It may be time for a pedicure....
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