Category Archives: Saving Money

Savings: 5 Ways to Get Fruit Trees For Cheap!

Posted on May 10, 2017 | 3 comments

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Here’s a collection of 9 fruit trees we purchased for less than $120 on Craigslist

We are always looking for opportunities to expand our orchard. We’ve got a few resources to share in helping you save money!

Here’s our top 5 best places to find cheap fruit trees:

5) Your local newspaper classified ads – Print newspaper is dying but people still use the classified ads. This is an easy way to find those with established nurseries and plants to move.

4) Nextdoor.com – Nextdoor.com is a social media site for neighbor. You can post a wanted ad for trees or you can check their classifieds section and see what you can find.

3) Local Garden Clubs – Garden clubs hosting frequent plant sales. A lot of the time they are cheaper and your contribution is tax-deductible which is a win – win.

2) Freecycle – This one is a long shot but when you find the right deal you’ll hit it big and for FREE!

And our number one BEST CHOICE for cheap fruit trees is Craigslist.org!

Ironically, we’ve had found Craigslist.org to be an incredible source for finding affordable one or year old fruit trees. There’s a lot of moving sale ads and that’s the number one reason people sell potted fruit trees. These trees are usually listed for $10-20 a piece which is half of nursery or store-bought prices. Plus these are usually much older and better established than the new store-bought fruit trees. So if you’re looking for your own trees, Craigslist is the best.

We purchased 9 fruit trees on Craigslist for $120! (See top image) That’s only $13.30 per tree! This included one olive, one pomegranate, one orange tree, two tangerine, one lemon, one apple, one mandarin tree and one thorn less blackberry bush. With the fresh fruit these beauties have already produced for us, they’ve already paid for themselves! Now that’s awesome and sustainable!

We will be selling some of the produce from them this year and save the profits for the next batch of cheap fruit trees! Invest and reinvest. Repeat!

Happy Hunting!

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Posted in Fruit Trees & Orchards, Saving Money

Get Pounds of Homegrown Tomatoes For Pennies!

Posted on April 4, 2017 | Leave a comment

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.

Best Homemade Shower Cleaner – $.10 Per Bottle!

Posted on February 22, 2017 | Leave a comment

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One of the ways I save money is by not buying cleaning products and homemaking them instead. It’s not only less expensive, but often it’s better for your family and the environment to avoid harsh chemicals. Best of all, this recipe only has 2 ingredients: vinegar and Dawn dish detergent.

In a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup, microwave 4 cups of vinegar for 30 seconds. Let cool and pour it into a clean, empty spray bottle. You’ll need a bigger spray bottle than the one pictured or cut the recipe in half for smaller bottles. Next pour 1 cup of Blue Dawn Dish Soap. Shake the bottle to mix ingredients and spray generously on your shower, tub or bathroom surfaces. This mixture will be thick and will stick to the surfaces. Let it sit for as long as you can stand it.

Just as a heads up; DO NOT forget to wash it off good. As a soap base cleaner it’s incredibly slippery even after a good wash down. Secondly, it smells like vinegar, lots and lots of vinegar. If you have a bathroom fan, you may want use it!

For long-term or heavy dirt stains, it may need some scrubbing. I have had a lot of success with spraying down, waiting 20 minutes, doing a quick scrub down with a green scouring pad, water and a quick rinse. I repeat the process if it calls for it and it did when I started using it. Now that I have used it regularly, the grime doesn’t build up enough to require scrubbing. 🙂

You can use the mixture until it’s gone, there is no need to make a batch each time you clean as it stores nicely. Just reshake before using.

This is one of the cheapest cleaners available! My secrets to keeping the cost down is use a recycled bottle instead of purchasing one. Also contact the companies of these products and ask for coupons. I waited until the products were on sale and had a coupon for both making it a very, very affordable option at a whooping .10 cents per bottle! Wow!

Have you ever tried it? Did it work? Try it and let me know how it worked for you!!! Comment below!

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Gather Healthy Fruit For Your Family For Free

Posted on February 8, 2017 | Leave a comment

Every time I go out I’m reminded of the massive amount of food that goes to waste in lawns and yards across America. We see it all the time. Fruit trees with fruit rotting on the ground because no one was there to pick it. Well, I do. I am an urban forager.

The concept is simple. Occasionally my friends, family, neighbors and even strangers will grant me access to their homegrown unwanted fruits and vegetables. Other times I find fruit trees or wild berries on public property. More often than not people have much more growing fruit than they can use and that’s where I come in.

I offer to come harvest whatever they give me permission for and bag it up. I provide my own bags, fruit picker and woman power. I even clean up all the fruit that’s uneatable on the ground and give it to my chickens. They are more than happy to do their part and don’t mind bruised or buggy fruit.

Sometimes people will do the heavy lifting for you! Often people will offer to bag up their fruit and leaving it on their porch for easy pick up. Others will be so willing to pass the fruit along that they will bag it up and drop it off themselves. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to get massive hauls a few times a week like the ones pictured here.

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Note: Be prepared and plan according. Processing fruit can be time consuming and homegrown food goes bad more quickly than store bought.

The benefits of doing this are endless! Since I don’t have a traditional career, this is one of the many ways I contribute to my family’s household. Fruit is expensive and the nutritional benefits speak for themselves. As you can see below it’s very easy to collect large quantities of quality foods for free!

To make the most out of my hauls, I preserve or process the fruit using various methods including baking, juicing or canning. See my yearly canning list for more details!

If you get way more fruit than your family can use; barter or give it to your friends or family. Also remember that ALL local food pantries accept homegrown foods. Search here to find a food pantry or soup kitchen near you!

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To get started, I recommend following these 3 guidelines:

If it’s on private property ask permission! Most people will say “yes” and if you do get a “no” move on there’s plenty of trees out there and people that will give you the green light. Post a request on social media, Craigslist, or NextDoor.com. If it’s public property, go for it!
Only take what you can use! There’s plenty of fruit out there! There’s no use in saving fruit from rotting on the ground only to have it rot in your kitchen. Be courtesy and leave some for others. If you get more than you can use, share it with your friends, family or donate it to the local food bank!
Have fun! It can be hard work, but it’s also very rewarding! Plus you’re getting a work out. Bring a friend or two to help ease the load, and split the rewards. Keep an eye out for public fruit trees on your walks or next trip to the park.

Check out my foraging expeditions here. Hopefully they will inspire you to make some of your own. The potential is limitless.