I love growing my own plants, so I will knock on doors and ask people for seeds and cuttings. I've made some great garden friends in the process, one elderly lady who nearly landscaped my whole yard because I offered to help her clear out overgrown yard for the plants. She had some seriously gorgeous large bromeliads that sold for $50 each at the one place you could buy them in the area. I must have gotten $1,000 worth or bromeliads and other plants from her for 8 hours of work. We remained friends and I got even more plants from her in years to come. I also trade plants and seeds with people online and off, and dig up, get seeds from, or take cuttings from beautiful blooming natives from the side of the road. I have no pride when it comes to my garden. LOL Of course, I buy half-dead perennials from Lowe's and WalMart markdown racks and bring them back to live. I also live in an apartment complex and have gotten some plants people left behind or gave to me when they moved. I also used to belong to a community garden and got quite a few free plants and seeds from there. I was just figuring how much I've spent over the past 3 years since I"ve lived in this apartment on plants, and it came out to less than $50 and most of that was fertilizer and potting soil. Speaking of potting soil, Lowe's will sometimes mark down broken bags, because they can't sell them for full price. I got 5 bags of nice, organic soil for 50% off by offering to take the broken bags off their hands for a discount. Same for plants with broken pots. I got a beautiful peach tree once for 1/2 price because the pot had split down the side and wouldn't hold water, so it was drying out and dying. But the best and most treasured seeds and plants I get are from GWers. I have such good friends here who regularly send me plants and seeds for no reason at all except they know I love growing from seed and don't have much of a budget. I always pass the favor forward or send them something I know they are looking for.

Two of our pets are on special diets for urinary tract issues, so we get their food from our vet. Our local pet supply store (Centinela) gives 10% off on Tuesdays if you are 55 or over. They have a good selection and monthly coupons, so I get the rest of the food there. You might look to see if there is something similar in your area. Petsmart and Petco aren't bad either, and often have coupons and discounts if you get their keychain card.

Only locally for me. Rona, Home Depot; Co-op and Safeway sometimes have the odd unusual plant though usually overpriced. There is a great nursery right in my community so I go there a lot to try to catch new shipments and have found the most varieties there. I've checked out several other local garden centres and nurseries with varied success. Rona had some really nice ones yesterday... pink Aloes, gasterlaoes, black Haworthias etc but they are all super tiny, dehydrated and stressed and $10-12 in those moss-filled designer magnet pods. I decided to buy a lavender for the garden instead :) I haven't ordered online ever, so I can't recommend any links :)

I only came upon one library book that some inconsiderate reader had annotated in ink. It was so distracting that it spoiled my attempt to read and enjoy the book. In one of my rarest of moments, I brought it to the attention of the library staff and the book was promptly removed from their catalog. I fussed...to myself...for days, I was so annoyed. I simply couldn't accept the lack of respect for public property. I don't mind a pencil doodle here or there in a child's book if it has some character. I was scolded severely as a child for doing same but I remember how interested I was in the book and the character that I simply had to personalize the book. When I see minimal pencil contributions of that nature...it brings back a lot of memories. My whole world began in books and I can understand the exuberance of a child doing exactly what I did. But minimally...and never to a book that doesn't belong to the parties involved.