I hope I didnt scare you away from gardening with my title. I am constantly reading blogs and articles about saving money and so many of them list gardening as a way to cut your grocery budget and thats about as far as they go in the explaining. That drives me crazy. Lots of people who click on these articles are looking for solutions now. I think maybe the fastest thing you can grow and harvest would be radishes and lettuce and thats if the weather is really warm and 4 weeks to harvest is really pushing it. I even read where you can start out with spending only $7 on seeds. Where does this person get their seeds? I just spent $7.50 on three types of lettuce seeds to grow in the house under grow lights.
Lettuce on the left and sprouts on the right. these are only a week old except the lettuce in the very back. Those are survivors of the cat attack mentioned below.
Mr Ladybug and I bought a gift card for each other for Christmas from Bontanical Interests Seed Company. It was $37.50 for a $50 card. Most places offer free shipping if you spend $50 so we thought that was a good deal and they are one of our favorite seed companies. I promise you, we will spend more that that on seeds this year. I should probably write this all down and keep a running total of cost of gardening and what we harvest. I dont even care if it comes out gardening is more expensive. Its therapy for us and I am sure its cheaper than paying bail money.
We planted some things inside a few weeks ago and our cat let those things start growing and then decided in the middle of the night when he has the whole entire house to be anywhere he wants the only place he wanted to be was in the plants. We have since cat proofed the growing station or at least Socks wants us to think that we have.
In the very back you have a rosemary plant on the left and mystery plant on the right we are hoping its St Johns Wort. Mini basil and marjoram in the front.
Last weekend Mr Ladybug was off 4 days we ran to Lowes on Saturday to grab the lettuce seeds, Sunday we went to the gas station and Half Priced Books and Monday and Tuesday didnt even leave the house. It was wonderful. Not sure if we will venture farther than 2 miles from our house this weekend or not. We will be going through seed catalogs and getting our order ready. We need to make sour cream for two or three of our dinners this week. I am sure we will visit the restaurant I got the gift card for since Mexican is Mr Ladybugs favorite, we need to bake bread, I need to get my library book that is in and maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby for some fabric. We are getting wild and crazy in our old age.
Mushroom log I bought Mr Ladybug for Christmas. Expect lots more photos of this thing.
I am $45 under budget on my groceries this week. With that said I didnt need any meat. The only meat I bought was frozen salmon. We were lucky enough to get a whole deer from our brother in law and uncles recent hunting adventures, we have rabbit meat that we raised ourselves and I am one of those people who refuse to buy meat unless its on sale and when it is I stock up. In fact canning mean this winter is on our to do list to save money, time and freezer space this summer. I will put my extra money back and hope to have some more next week and when I come across a deal I cant pass up I will stock up. I will start a list today of anything I think of or any recipes I want to try for my next week of grocery shopping. Planning really is the key to save time and money.
Here is a sample of what we will eat this week if you were wondering.
Breakfasts could be any of these, my guys like options
cereal for the girl which is why shes my favorite at breakfast time
egg McMoms, either bacon, ham or sausage
pancakes are the boy favorite
scrambled eggs
breakfast burritos
oats
Lunches
sandwiches, ham. turkey, pbj
wraps usually turkey
soup
salad
baked potato
Dinners there will be salads and veggies thrown into the mix
homemade pizza we usually have once a week normally on Friday
steak, baked potato and a salad
pork and veggie fried rice
spaghetti
some sort of tacos with beans and corn
some sort of soup like chili
Snacks
crackers
cheese
fruit
baked goods
popcorn
chips
I hope everyone is recovering from all the holidays nicely. My college kids start back next week, Mr Ladybug will be working full weeks and I can get things back in order and get back to my regular routines and maybe know what day it is. Have a great weekend.
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