I just got lots and lots of seed packets at our local Dollar General stores in September (I'm in SW IN). They are regular price 2/$1 or $3/1. They put the garden stuff on clearance in September. We paid $0.02, or $0.03, or $0.05 a packet for seeds! Yippee. Got lots of vegetables and even more flower seeds. Way more than we can plant. But, my kids really enjoy gardening, and I'm not great at it. So, I figured, it won't cost me much for us to try and fail with all these. I'm planning to let the kids help me trying them different ways, like inside, winter sown outside, planting after the frosts, starting in the greenhouse. I figure we'll probably learn a lot and if I keep track of it okay. Then, the year after that I probably will make better use of the money I spend on gardening, cause I'll have made lots of mistakes with my super-discounted seed collection! PS. I fully intend on searching for more seeds next year, too. But, the awesome prices I got will help me have the willpower to wait til September not waste $$ paying full price when the displays start popping up in early spring! :)

Frugal has at times been a necessity here, but most of what I have done have been mentioned already. 1. Composting, whether spending matter or not, nothing is better than real good compost, and it is rarely if ever for sale. 2. Taking cuttings and suckers from roses. At times these have been my best and most interesting varieties; New Dawn, Alba Maxima, Charles de Mills, Comte de Chambord, Jacques Cartier, Great Western. Some varieties are even better ownroot. 3. Buying seeds from Ebay and places on the web. Sometimes a good offer for lots of Sweet Peas and seeds you need a lot of turn up. Buying seeds have made me able to have loads of pansies, violets, snapdragons, lobelia, alyssum. 4. Rainwater barrel in summer, we used to have a large one on the corner of the house, it was great to have in periods when the government ordered water saving. 5. The cheapest organic fertilizer here is pelleted chicken manure, I have used in on the lawn, for summer flowers with great success, but only ever so little on the roses. 6, Taking advantage of the good offers that present themselves in spring and early summer. They are often well worth it. 7, Remembering to fertilize spring bulbs as soon as the pop up in spring, they reliably bloom the next year, and sometimes multiply. Daffodils, crocuses, snow drops and some tulips respond very well to fertilizing. They will return for decades and decades then. 8. Years a go there was an area outside the garden that had really bad soil, if it even could be called that, nothing would grow there. I sowed a blend of greenmanure seeds and let it grow there for a few years. I think it was flax, red clover, white clover, grass, buck wheat, yellow and blue lupines. 9. I still pick nettles, yarrow and comfrey and make a sort of compost tea some times. It stinks, but its organic, free and plants respond to it like any fancy brand fertilizer. Using free manure where I could get it, horse mostly but cow and sheep at times too. Later I have read a lot of famous rose gardens does the same. At the cottage we collect seaweed, every spring we clean the tiny bay area where we have our boat. It is composted or used straight in the soil. Great soil improver. Taking advantage of tidy-up sales at the end of the autumn, here we often get the sacks of organic fertilizer at half price when christmas decorations start taking over the garden centers.

I agree with Donna, make a written budget and stick to it. Allow so much for "fun" money out of it too because more than likely you're going to spend it anyway and you need to be accountable for it so you know where your money is going. I allot myself/kids $100 a pay period to just blow on whatever. So much for food, don't go over the amount so before shopping you need to write down what you plan to buy and keep a running total either with a calculator or by rounding off in your mind. I allot $200 a pay period for food and other household items like toilet paper, shampoo and other necessities. Movies, eating out comes out of the "fun" money. Up until I decided to give up sugar I was still buying an occational white chocolate mocha at Starbucks on my way to work. It came out of the fun money. It's amazing when you do a budget how much extra cash you come up with that you were just blowing. 2 1/2 years ago I was living paycheck to paycheck. I had a good paying job and so it was frustrating not having anything left after paying my bills. I decided it was time to get out of debt and started trying to pay off my debts one at a time. Then at the end of the first year I started listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio, I started doing a written budget and paid off as much in six months as I did over the whole previous year. I still have a ways to go and went off his plan a year ago to save for our upcoming trip, using the same budgeting principles. The whole trip is being done with cash. Get rid of credit cards and other loans because that's what eats away your money like it's nothing. I have 3 loans now besides my house payment and those 3 will be gone before the end of the year. Plan for birthday gifts and Christmas by saving for it each paycheck. Less likely you will have to charge those gifts at the last minute. Same with vacations. Oh, and if you blow the budget one pay period don't throw your hands up and give up saying it doesn't work, because you're going to mess up every once in a while. Have fun staying at home and enjoy your kids while you can. Sooner than you think they will be teenagers and heading off to college. ) :

I agree that having nat gas heat for your home makes your home more attractive at time of placing it on the market. Trane use to underwrite their labor ext warranty through a third party. It was a good warranty unlike most of the third part warranties available that are problematic and just short of fraud in many instances. Be careful here. If you plan on selling your home, I see no need for an ext warranty. If you do decide on purchasing a warranty, you want to understand it along with exclusions and if it is transferable to your home's new owner. IMO