For nursery pots I started using old food cans, and pop bottles cut down to about 6" deep, & poke a few holes in the bottom. Seed saving from one year to the next. You can't save seed from foods you buy at the grocery store because most are hybrid varieties and won't reproduce true. You have to start with heirloom varieties, and save those seeds. Make my own compost from leaves, paper, grass and kitchen waste. You cut down on a lot of trash by composting junk mail and boxes that canned pet food comes in. Cardboard makes good compost, as does newspapers, paper grocery sacks, clothing labels, dryer lint and cereal boxes. Make your own seed starting mix from peat and perlite, because it needs to be sterile to prevent damping off and diseases that attack tender new growth. I make my own potting mix from screened compost, sand, used seed starting mix and perlite. It's especially important to have a loose, open potting mix with my nursery pots that have straight sides (cans and pop bottles) otherwise it would be too difficult to get plants out of them for up-potting. Cheryl

Taking Worthy's comment one step further, you might be able to do the math by taking the overall sqft cost and deduct the non-changing majors (HVAC, windows, doors, appliances). The figure you have left can then be divided to determine the adjusted sqft cost. As an example, 2000 sqft @$105 per equals overall cost of $210,000. Taking figures out of the air to cost HVAC, windows & doors (low priced), appliances, mediocre roofing shingles, and tiling for kitchen and bath, I came up with a majors cost of $40K which was then deducted from the $210K; that gave an adjusted sqft price of $85. That means removing 250 sf from the original 2000 would save you about 10% of the dollars while losing 12½% of the space. Personally, I think that's a bad deal. It is far more likely that you can save an equivalent amount (or more) by buying the least expensive for all replaceables. "Replaceables" means anything which is not actually structural, and which can be replaced without excessive effort. That means all appliances, kitchen and bath counters and cabinets, flooring, and doors. i.e. that lovely $2K front door should be put on hold and a $300 one used instead (or refinish a discarded antique for even less cash out of wallet) and using vinyl tiles instead of terrazzo. Some may disagree, but I consider roofing to be a replaceable -- unless you are spending big bucks for tile or metal, roofing IS going to be replaced at some point. Therefore it is not unreasonable to use elcheapo-15 year warranty now and in five or ten years replace with the wonderful bigbucks-50 year warranty stuff. The difference in cost is considerable. Unless you are planning to use insulative layers of window covering [$$], it is *not* cost efficient to not use sealed double-pane glass. However, using standard sized ready-made windows instead of custom sizes can save quite a bit (multiplied by the number of windows). Using elcheapo hollow-core interior doors can also provide a nice savings. Some savings can be less obvious, such as standard chrome faucets from a box store (the price difference can easily be $100 per, times the number of sinks). It can be painful giving up "I-wants" for the new house, but if you think of the less expensive stuff as temporary and the wanted stuff as deferred pleasures, it can be bit easier to accept the differences.

Here are the things we did to save cost. We live in a very expensive part of the country and a lot of planning was necessary to maximize bang for the buck. 1. Prioritize layout. It is by far the best return on investment to get the kitchen flow correct 2. Start detailed planning early. Meaning figure out exact specs of appliances and measurements very early. See a lot of model kitchen and read voraciously to figure out what you will want. Take time to write a sweeby statement. This is critical for the #3 below. 3. Invest in high quality appliances sized for your family. This is what needed for the actual cooking and storage. Pay attention to the phrase "sized for your family": Do not worry about resale or the jones.. Do you really need a 36in range.. Will a 30in range but better quality like bluestar not work better? How many pots do you have on simultaneously? Do you really need that giant fridge. Consider advances like Induction. Invest in a properly sized and powered hood. Most good appliance stores will let you come in and try a trial cooking on appliances etc. Same for dishwashers. Research the models and see what will do the best job for you. Appliances save you time later.. You will appreciate getting the cooking and the dishes done with less effort and with better results.Then shop for appliances early. Don't be afraid to consider ebay and floor models. Many of them come with warranty and well worth the risk. It is often a great way to buy better quality appliances at a cheaper cost. Don't worry about matching brands. Having all separate brands is OK. Bundled packages are often not a good deal. 4. Drawers - full extension & soft close and heavy duty glides where needed. This is the best advice from this forum.IKEA is a great way to get this and keep cost down. Do the plan of what goes where in detail and figure out the layout in detail. This is time well spent. Honestly, I feel that this is a very itrative process that the forum can really help you with and it is too expensive ti work with a KD.Don't over optimize. Drawer organizers and such are cheap after-market DIY options from Lee Valley, container store etc. 5. Plumbing - This is a significant cost as nice faucets cost money. Buy early and shop for sales. It will be much cheaper for you to buy than have your plumber supply. A case in point, my plumber quoted $400 for the garbage disposal and $150 for the sink basket drainer. I ordered both on amazon for $178 bucks and got a better model (insinkerator pro compact & Kohler duostrainer). A solid faucet will save you dollars by avoiding plumbing repairs in the future. 6. Materials --> Countertops and tile. Shop around. Consider remnants. The same thing can be found a lot cheaper. Notice brands and manufacturer and then shop around for the best price. The floor tile I wanted was quoted at $13per sq.ft. I got it on ebay for $1.50.. free shipping to house. Consider mixing materials if it can reduce cost. soapstone or marble counters and wood island etc. 6. Lipstick is last. Things that are easy to change like lights, cabinet hardware and paint can IMHO be a place to save money. Get the light layout right but don't spend too much on it. Again online prices are very competitive for lights. You can also DIY here to save cost.

I'd disagree with: 1) Cars. We had two and I decided to go down to one. I've always made compromises on what we've bought, but I love cars. I SERIOUSLY love cars! I figured this is the last new car I will probably ever buy, so why should I compromise unnecessarily? I made my list of "must haves" and "nice but not a deal breaker". Then I spent over a year reading, researching, and test driving. Finally bought it in May 2017. Gifted the two old cars away, and have been driving with a grin on my face ever since. Love the advanced safety features and power. This car is a joy to drive on our travels. 2) Furniture. I agree, wouldn't buy a used mattress but no objection to used furniture. BUT, I have a small LR and needed some very specific, modular pieces that I could move around for flexible seating. So we bought a new loveseat and giant ottoman. All the used modulars I've seen are the huge '80's and '90's overstuffed monsters - that's what I was getting rid of! 3) Designer Jeans. Hate jeans, never wear them. 4) Tech gadgets. You must be kidding! I don't seek out "name" tech toys but it is false economy to buy most used tech. Our desktops are built by a local shop, top of the line. They last 15+ years as download devices. My current desktop works as our network server with a RAID array; not superfast any longer but fine for anything except HD graphic videos, which I don't care about. Our laptops and tablets are name brands. Especially for smaller/thinner devices, their batteries are usually sealed and don't have long life. You want good performance, you need to buy it new. Yes, you can get one of the old Kindles for almost nothing. But if you've ever read on a Paperwhite Kindle, you'll know why almost everyone who originally bought a Kindle, upgraded to the Paperwhite. It is Nirvana for readers. I have impaired vision; reading on a phone gives me a headache, LOL. 5) Swing sets. No kids, no issue. 6) Formal wear & wedding. Really? People still need these for anything except a prom? Weddings - well, maybe. One couple out of the last 15 weddings we've attended, did the formal thing. 7) Books & college textbooks. SOMETIMES this will save you money. These days of e-books - not always. 8) Kids bicycles. Again, no kids. 9) Musical instruments. I'm a listener, so streaming is the way to go. 10) Tools. No way. But my tools are just basic ones, used for light home maintenance. I am not going to buy somebody's used Black & Decker jigsaw. 11) Exercise equipment. Yes, you absolutely can save $$$ on Craigslist. Personally, I'm a believer in gardening and walking. 12) Homes. I'm 50-50 about this. Old or new, sooner or later you are going to have to spend on home maintenance. If new, you have (hopefully) a maintenance-free interim; but you have no real way of telling if or where your builder/contractor cut corners until something goes wrong. If old - in our area the number of older homes that are truly turnkey, fully remodeled, good-as-new-right-down-to-the-roofing-nails, is so infinitesimally small a proportion, as to be realistically non-existent. If you find one, be prepared for a bidding war. 30+ offers are common out here; many mid-priced homes needing moderate remodeling will often have pending offers before the agent can even get the listing onto the MLS. Much of the existing SFH stock where we live is aging and needs remodeling. We are not talking simple cosmetics here; this means sewer systems, wasteful gas space heaters or floor furnaces wrapped in asbestos, aluminum wiring, soggy basements, no insulation or bolted foundations. In a high-labor market, remodeling is a six-figure budget cost - and that amount, on top of an already high RE price, is out of reach for even prospective homeowners already making $150+K.