Guest Post: Grow Your Own Garden!

 Look how cute my little tomato plants are!! Above are 2 that are doing very well and my girls can not wait to start eating some FREE tomatoes!! Below are my raspberries!!

If you are looking for a way to save some money with out having the care of your own garden, you can always visit your local Farm. Visit PickYourOwn and search for a local farm in your area where you can tour their farm, pick your own flowers, veggies or fruit all for a very reasonable price! We live near Cincinnati and I found 3 that are within driving distance for us to visit and pick our own!

The PickYourOwn site offers a ton of information! Below I included a farm in my area- they tell you exact location, what they have to offer and any visitor information you may need to stop by! They also have reviews from readers so you can see what others have to say about a local farm. Some farms offer a lot of options or they may specialize in just one produce like the farm below!

Green Acres Landscaping and Nursery - Blueberries

5700 Kyles Station Road, Liberty Township, OH 45011. Phone: 513-777-8330. Open: call first to verify availability; on Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm, Saturday from 8 am to 4 pm, Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm. Prices: $4.50 per quart or $12.00 for 3 quarts Quart containers provided (Suggested by a visitor, ADDED: June 24, 2009) (UPDATED: June 13, 2010)

Have your own garden that you want to share? Have any tips, ideas, pictures or just anything you want to share showing you getting dirty? Add the link to your post below, and if you want to share- copy this button and add it to your post. Your readers will then be able to see others gardening tips, ideas and pictures!! Don't have a blog? Leave a comment telling us about your garden!!

Thanks Just Trying to Save Money!

Frugal Friday: Growing Your Own Grass for Your Easter Basket!

A friend of mine wrote me this email and I thought I would share it with you all for this weeks Frugal Friday Post!

Here's a fun little Easter project. Growing up, we always grew our own live grass in our baskets. It was so much fun to be able to plant the seeds and wait and watch the grass grow. I loved this tradition growing up, so I decided to pass it down to my own boys. This year we just did one basket. I lined the basket with a plastic grocery bag, and sent my son out to fill it with dirt. Then, together we sprinkled it with seeds and watered the seeds. Since this is his first planting experience, I don't think he's quite sure what we are doing, but he will soon find out! Today was the first day we started seeing a little green sprout up!!  It also makes a nice decorative centerpiece on your table or counter...fill it with some eggs, and you have a live Ester decoration!  Don't waste time getting started though, as the grass will take 7-14 days to begin growing and Easter is right around the corner.

Thanks Sarah!

Frugal Friday: Homemade Bubbles!

With Summer fast approaching, that means more time outside! My kids love bubbles, but we go through so much of them! Whether they use their bubble lawn mower too much or they just pour them out, we us a lot!
So, I thought it would be a cool idea to share with you how to make your own! It's very inexpensive and super easy to do!

Ingredients:

• Water
• Dishwashing liquid (if you coupon this is always free)!
• corn syrup

Directions:
Stir together 6 parts water, 2 parts Joy dishwashing liquid (this brand works the best), and 3/4 part corn syrup. Store in a covered container. **Try to recycle something to save even more money! I would say a laundry detergent bottle you just finished using!

Another money-saving tip is to find creative objects around the house to make your own wands! Have your kids get involved and search for things to use! Maybe an old wire hanger. Twist it into the shape of a wand. What are some of your ideas?

Image source from petitelefant.com

Frugal Friday: Kid Friendly Garden

Spring is almost here! So, I thought it would be a great time to start planting a garden! Unfortunately it’s not always easy to get the kids involved on such a large project. So, I’ve got the perfect solution for both!

If you’re like me, you love to use Organic products without paying the steep price. My kids absolutely love yogurt and we can usually get it for Free at the grocery store after using coupons! So we have a ton of these little yogurt cups. I was trying to think of what I could use them for instead of throwing them away. Then the other day we got the Danonino Yogurt that had the awesome idea of planting seeds in them! They even come with a little pack of seeds! Even if you don’t have this specific yogurt you can still to this project!

Supplies:
- Clean, empty yogurt cups
- Potting soil
- Seeds ( I would recommend herbs or something that will grow well inside)
- Water
- Kids that don’t mind getting their hands a little dirty!

Directions:
- Fill the container ¾ of the way full with soil
- Place the seed on top and then smooth over with more soil just until you can’t see the seed
- Pour a little water in
- Wait for it to grow!

This is super cheap and easy! Kids love being able to get involved and get their hands a little dirty. Plus, they actually get to watch it grow. Then when it’s ready you get to have fresh organic herbs to use in your favorite dishes! My kids are so excited about theirs!

Frugal Friday: Homemade Yogurt!

My good friend Sarah sent me an email of a great Frugal idea! She made yogurt from scratch! How awesome is that! If you're like me and many moms I know, we are always looking for frugal Organic food!

So, here's the recipe:

• Turn your crock pot to low and pour in 1/2 gallon of milk.
• Heat on low for 2 hours and 30 minutes. (for 2 quart crock pot,  add an extra 15 min. for bigger crockpot)
• Once 2 hours and 30/45  minutes have elapsed turn your crock pot off and unplug it. Let the milk cool in the crock with the lid on for 3 hours.
• After 3 hours remove 1-2 cups of the warmed milk and place in a bowl. To that add 1/2 cup of yogurt with live active cultures and mix very well.
• Pour the yogurt-milk mixture back into the milk and whisk thoroughly.
• Place the cover back on the crock and wrap the entire crock pot in a thick bath towel or two.
• Let it culture overnight, 8-12 hours.
• In the morning stir yogurt (if desired) and store in glass quart jars or a container of your choice.
• For optimum texture, refrigerate for at least 8 hours before using

Total work time for you: about 5-10 min!  the crock does the rest!

The first time you will need to but 1 cup of  plain yogurt (I used the greek plain), after that, you simply take out 1 cup from the batch you made and set aside for the next batch.

after you set aside the cup for the  next batch, you can add different flavors.  I mixed mine with some vanilla extract, and some with frozon blueberries thawed.  

Savings:

the cheapest organic yogurt is about $3/quart (on the cheap side)

I used 1/2 gallon (2 quarts) organic whole milk $3 

basically cuts the yogurt budget in half if not more! and tastes so yummy! 

Frugal Friday Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Frugal Friday Blog Hop 2/11/11 hosted by Living on Love and Cents, Mom On Dealz, Madame Deals, The Coupon Challenge, Budget Savvy Diva and Stretching your Budget.

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1) Follow our hosts. Be sure to comment so that we can follow back!
2) Post our button in a post or sidebar!-- THATS IT!

For more followers- Grab the linky code and post this on your blog for your followers!

Be SURE to leave a comment so that we can return the follow.

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Frugal Friday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Frugal Friday Blog Hop 2/4/11 hosted by Living on Love and Cents, Mom On Dealz, Madame Deals, The Coupon Challenge, Budget Savvy Diva and Stretching your Budget.

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We ask that you please follow these steps.

1) Follow our hosts. Be sure to comment so that we can follow back!
2) Post our button in a post or sidebar!-- THAT'S IT!

For more followers- Grab the linky code and post this on your blog for your followers!

Be SURE to leave a comment so that we can return the follow.

get the InLinkz code

Frugal Friday!

So, here's an easy way to create storage for all of the small things in your house! You only need one supply: an empty wipes container! I love to save all of my empty baby wipes containers and I use them for my daughters art supplies, markers, crayons, etc!! It's super inexpensive (since you can get wipes for really cheap) and it doesn't matter if they break it or color on it, because you can always get a new one! Well, I thought I would google some other things things that you could store in your wipes containers. Here's what I found:

1. Storage for bathroom supplies like cotton balls, q-tips, hair clips, nail polish, etc

2. CD storage
3. Kitchen storage like small utensils, medicine cups, batteries, those little corn holder things!!
4. Toys: legos, small trucks, small books, etc.
5. Drawer dividers

6. Re-use for a baby shower gift: it you're really crafty with paint you could paint a really cute design, fill it with wipes, then give it as a gift! Or if you find a cute pattern in fabric you could glue it on and put a nice trim around the edge!

I hope some of these ideas will help you become frugal around your house this week! What do you do with your empty wipes containers???

Frugal Friday!

Welcome to the Frugal Friday Blog Hop 1/7/11 hosted by Living on Love and Cents, Mom On Dealz, Madame Deals, The Coupon Challenge and Stretching Your Budget. We are moms on a mission to save!

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