Extreme couponing isn’t only for toiletries and frozen pizzas, it can also be apply to the gardening world! Unlike most processed foods; it’s very rare to find coupons for fresh, healthy produce. By applying extreme couponing methods to food producing plants; you can save tons of money on pounds and pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to feed your family.
For example, last year I acquired 6 – 6 packs of strawberry plants totally FREE just for signing up to our local garden store newsletter. Each plant produced approximately 2 lbs of strawberries which I was able to make into jars jars of delicious homemade strawberry jam. With a little love and a lot of water, I’m hoping these tomato plants will produce lots of ripe, delicious tomatoes that I can turn into homemade pasta, marinara and pizza sauces. When combined with canning techniques; these sauces can be canned and will last us all year long! Win – win!
Here’s the math:
First, I signed up for a Kmart – Shop Your Way account and received $5 in points just for signing up! Their tomato plants were on sale for $1.79 per container. While looking for the largest and healthiest looking plants, I noticed quite a few had two plants per container. So even tho I only purchased two containers, I brought home four individual tomato plants.
As you can see, I chose to redeem some of my shop your way points, which took off $2.75 from the transaction total. This made my out of pocket expense for four – one foot tall tomato plants $0.61! Plus I gave one plant to my mom so for the 3 I planted, I only paid $0.45.
Since I already had the planters and the soil I won’t be calculating that into the equation. Craigslist.org has been as wonderful resource to find free and cheap gardening supplies, planters and even plants! The heavy duty colored tomato cages (pictured above) that retail for $9.99 each at Kmart, I picked up on Craigslist for FREE last year. That’s a $30 savings right there!
My grand total out of pocket expense for these 3 tomato plants & set up was only $0.45! That’s $.15 per plant! Love & water not included. When it’s time to harvest, I will weigh out what I collect and compare prices to similar store bought tomatoes and see how much I actually got for my tiny investment!
I LOVE extreme couponing and saving money! Stay tuned for more articles on Gardening on the Cheap, Budgeting for Groceries & How to Get Fantastic Freebies.
The Homestead Wife 