"High food and gas prices" Topic

These have a silver lining.Its a perfect excuse to make "lifestyle" changes for the better.Yesterday,my daughter and I walked to the library after planting radishes in the garden.

Eating healthy is harder though. Produce and good quality meat prices are very high, crap foods are cheaper…

CPT Jake, look for a local Farmer's market and buy your produce there. It cuts out a lot of middlemen and they don't have to haul it as far, saving gas money that you would otherwise have to pay.

My mom had an extensive garden when I was young. She grew potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, chives, onions, carrots, dill, mustard, cucumbers, green beans – you get the idea. And she canned a lot of this stuff. Nothing like homemade mac and cheese with some of my Mom's canned stewed tomatoes and peppers on a cold February night.

I can my homemade tomato sauce and send it off to college with my oldest. I think home canning is one of the best things you can do for your food budget.

This was me at the supermarket checkout counter last week:

YouTube link

Dan

By comparison shopping you should be able to keep your grocery budget down. And buy two of things when they are on sale, once you've got a little stockpile, keep rolling the extra into sales items and markdowns. After a while you'll hardly ever have to pay full price for dry goods and things that can be frozen. If you don't already, learn to cook. Making stuff from scratch is cheaper than buying boxed dinners.

A garden is nice, though beware the initial investments can get pretty expensive. Mine's been established for 10 years now and we still spend $50-$100 each year at the garden center.

We started our garden a week ago,and I've spent about $25 USD so far. I put in 20 hills of potatoes,cost about $6.50 USD for the seed,but if I get a yield like last year,it'll be almost 100 lbs. I really wish I had the money for an old farm,I would do enough to last all year!As it is,I have probably 25-30% of my backyard as a garden,and it gets bigger every year.Less grass to mow,but more weeds to pull.

What Jana Wang says. Spot on target.

If you don't have a local farmer's market, treat the supermarkets as seasonal markets. Buy the produce that's on sale, not just anything that's available. I won't buy apples again until they drop to less than 50 cents a pound. Not buying cucumbers or Bell peppers right now, for the same reason: they're out of sight.

We have been able to get the backyard garden in for less than $50 USD (so far) this year. But part of that is because Nancy has a huge stock of seeds. Some that went in this year are almost 20 years old, but still sprout.

But comparison shopping is the key to saving money in the supermarkets. No question.

Allen

I do alot of composting,so that helps keep the cost of the garden dow, I do not put any kind of herbicides on my yard,so when I mow,that goes into it.Also,the maple tree next door adds to it as well. Since I do get a lot of dandelions,I've been investigating recipes that call for the greens. You can even make pasta out of them.I stay away from the flowers on the edge,just in case old Fido happens to mark them.

I do a lot of composting too, last year I had a 3-bin cedar composter built to the tune of $300 USD in lumber. This spring though I had to buy a bag of urea to give it a kick as it was a cold dry winter and it's not breaking down like it should. Add in 2 bags of ready compost and 2 bags of peat moss for the new bed we broke ground on last year, plus paving stones to edge it, 4 bags of mulch, a giant bag of potting soil for the seedlings, and a roll of weed barrier, and we are well over $50 USD already. I'm using last year's seed, with a few new additions, so that's been cheap, but we just bought a dozen strawberry plants because our old bed has reached the end of it's life. Also put in asparagus for the first time this year. And we bought a rain barrel this year, and fittings for it….

So we're not "saving" any money on the garden, but oh boy when those first tomatoes and the sweet corn comes in…

Its a perfect excuse to make "lifestyle" changes for the "better".

Fixed that for you.
-Kle.

Gardens are great if you don't have a resident herd of deer. I have a big buck that spends the summer sleeping at night behind my shed and 7-9 does that chew on my bushes throughout the winter.

These are 'my wife's deer'. She never gets tired of watching them.

Well I guess I could get a hunting license . . . but my property is posted -- 'no hunting' among other things.

I may have to have a talk with the owner some time.

Until then, a garden just isn't going to happen.

mjc

"I had to buy a bag of urea…"

Say what? *Buy* urea? I just pour a gallon jug at a time into the composter!

The same "product" works to keep deer away. Sometimes. Big cat urine works better.

Allen

I'm trying out worm composting this year. I'm slowly learning the right moisture level for them. Very slowly.

As for radishes, I enjoy growing them, but I don't know what to do with them once I've grown them… not much of a radish eater.

Though urine has urea in it, it's not the same thing. Besides, I couldn't find anyone willing to stand there and fill the jug for me. :D

Worm composting? Doesn't that just naturally happen?

Worms tend to be involved normally, but "worm composting" is a specific method.
link

"Though urine has urea in it, it's not the same thing."

You're right, as human urine has additional nutrients: potassium and phosphorus, mostly. That's what makes it an even better fertilizer and compost activator than chemical urea. But the urea in urine and the urea in chemical fertilizers are similar.

"Besides, I couldn't find anyone willing to stand there and fill the jug for me."

There's no other good reason for getting up at 2:30 AM, I assure you… ;^)

Allen

"You're right, as human urine has additional nutrients: potassium and phosphorus, mostly."

And, returning to the warfare theme, human urine plus composting makes…