December - Share Your Money Saving Tips
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
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Share tips on saving money on gardening
Comments (22)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...See MoreIs this Safe? from '10 Money-Saving Tips for Buying Meat'
Comments (2)I'm not a butcher, but what I understand is that "wet aging" is the euphemism they've come up with for the product of huge meat processing plants, where they have the meat wrapped up in these individual vacuum-packed plastic bags - now I'm seeing not only the big pieces of meat like 20 lb pork loins and similar sized hunks of beef strip loins/rib eye, but smaller cuts as well, coming from the factory. "Dry aging" is what they do with meat in the cooler before its cut up - that can vary from a few days to weeks. And I understand that this is how the fancy steak houses do it - they buy the large cuts of meat that you refer to, then wrap it in cheese cloth or something similar that 'breathes' but protects the meat from drying out too much, changing that wrapping every few days in a cold store, and the end result is a steak they can sell for $70 a plate. But leaving a piece of meat in a sealed bag for an additional 3 weeks after you buy it? I don't think I'd try that. I'd guess that the "best before" date stamped on those big sealed packages is there for a good reason....See MoreYour best money-saving tip...
Comments (7)saftgeek I love the name so I must reply. These were things we did that saved us big bucks (a lot of this we learned from the GW posts - so that is tip Number 1 - use the GW forums): - Shopped locally for appliances. Seemed counter intuitive until we actually went shopping and bought from a local dealer - not the applinace person recommended by the builder. - Installed my own home automation (light controls), home security system, whole house audio. Also installed the recessed lighting. Home automation is cool - but very expensive if you sub it out. If you know how to wire up a toy train set you can do most of this stuff. The recessed is also expensive - but really nice to have (was a must have for me). Installing the recessed requires some basic knowledge of electrical and I worked with my electrician to make sure it was done right and to code. - Re-designed the original house plan (purchased on line) to remove what my architect called "ginger bread". Lot's of fancy railings, ornate pieces - these cost big bucks. Also re-designed the roof pitch and floor plan so that standard trusses could be used - removed the fancy roof taper that was in the original design. By doing these thinsg we actually gained more square footage but reduce the overall cost to built the structure. - Went with the first grade of architectural shingle but not the better grads that I wanted initially. It was a lot of money that was better spent in other areas. - Purchased some of the plumbing supplies on line (like stainless sinks) - but only the items where we found the savings to be worth it. - Did our own landscaping which was basically bed prep and mulching. We will do our own planting next year. - Installed my own water softener and whole house water filter. We have a well - hard water and iron. Contractor wanted 8000 dollars to treat it. Read a bunch of posts on the Plumbing Forum and did my own system for 1100 dollars - and it works! - Spent ZERO dollars on interior designers. DW used the GW to learn about colors and posted questions on various design issues. They saved us a bundle - and the advise was really good! - In general, made sure that every price we got from the vendors used by the builder were reasonable. In many cases - we paid a little more for goods but we received design services rhat we felt were worth it. If we found an item that we felt was too high - we bought it ourselves. In a few cases (like our granite) we were very unhappy with the pricing from the prefered vendor so we shopped and found our own - now our builder uses them instead. - Made as few changes as possible after construction started. All of the chnages we made after construction started were very minor - in the cosmetic category. - Got a construction loan that converted to the mortgage - same rate for both phases. Typically they charge more for the construction phase. - Did the double move (sold house - moved to rental - then moved to new house). If we had attempted a single move, we would have been in deep dodo (probably would be paying 2 motgages right now). For the first move, we packed ourselves but had the movers take everything. In the second move, we packed everything, but we moved a lot of the bulky but light stuff ourselves using a rental truck. Second move was about 30% cheaper than the first. - When clearing our very dense tree'd lot, we decided to hide the root matt and brush on the lot to let it rot over time. The cut trees were stacked neatly in 2 places. This was cost avoidance - the cost to take all that bulky mess will be a lot less after it rots for a few years. - I maintained the silt fence myself after I realized I was getting charged a lot of money each time it had to be repaired. - Installed my own humdidifiers and a hot water recirculting system. The combo of these 2 things saved us about 2 grand. That's about all I can think of. Best of luck with your project....See MoreBest Money Saving Tip For Me
Comments (4)cowboyind, Here I thought you were just getting a "buzzz" out of it. (;^)) Hadn't noticed that, as a matter of fact. Whether your message was hypothetical or not - the issue of the number of hypothetical hours remains the same. We earn "before-tax" money, but buy (most, i.e. non-deductible) goods with after-tax money. Which makes the concept of whether we want to exchange that amount of effort for so much money to buy certain goods even more relevant, for the number of hours is (almost) *always* larger. Another good idea along this line is, if we think that we really do want to buy the item, to ask ourselves whether we might be able to arrange to get the item at even less expense using another channel. For example, buy a (used) item at an auction, estate sale, etc. where there are quite often some really good bargains to be found. But - take care. Be sure that you know the market value of items that you desire before going, and keep your emotions in check. Sometimes, in the heat of an auction, people get their egos involved and bid items up to higher than retail value. Linens and some household accoutrements often go for next to nothing at auctions. With, often, a number of other itmes in a box - that you may be able to sell individually later in garage sales for more than you paid for the whole box, originally. So, you got what you wanted free - didn't you? Who can beat that? Unless you can get someone to pay you to take certain items off their hands. How often have you run on to such offers? Garage sales are a good source, as well. I bought a couple of (snmall) radios last year for $1.00 and $2.00. Good wishes to you and yours, ole joyful...See More
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