As a single mom, the budget bottom line dictates a lot in my home, including my ability to garden.  For the first time I actually have some space to garden, but not so much financing to start a garden.  Part of the process of my garden project this year is to do it as close to free as I can.  To that end I am using, reusing, recycling, repurposing whatever I can to make my garden dream a reality.

Here are some regular household items I am using to help realize my garden dream.

1.  Egg shells-I have been saving all my eggshells for a few months in preparation for starting my seedlings.  The trick is to just tap the top of the small end of your egg when cracking to save the most of the bottom of the egg to be a seed cup.  Plus, these are FREE seed starters.  You are already buying eggs, right?

2.  Seeds-I am using seeds from a seed saving workshop my CSA held last year.  These are organic seeds that were harvested and saved appropriately to use for planting this year.  This is another ‘freebie’ since it was just an added bonus to my CSA membership.

3.  Containers-I am using all sorts of containers I already have on hand to repurpose for seed starting and gardening.  Some I am using are juice bottles, two liter bottles, Styrofoam containers, reusable shopping bags and whatever else I come up with this season.

4.  Compost-Some items you normally compost like pineapple tops, avocado pits, green onion bottoms, or celery root cores, can be planted to produce more pineapples and celery.  So even though you bought this produce from the store, there is value in what you normally discard.  Essentially you can grow some more for free.

I have purchased a few seeds and organic seed starting soil so far.  I am going to keep a tally so I know what the bottom line is when all is said and done.  But for right now my total spent so far is approximately $28.

Enjoy the experiment with me as I attempt to grow a low cost, almost zero waste, and organic garden.

Anyone else starting seeds indoors yet?

Have I said lately how much I LOVE Publix Italian Days?!?!  I always stock up on canned beans and a few other surprises they have available.  This time around I got to stock up on V8, my FAVE!  And another surprise item my Publix had was Glade candles for 2/$3.49.  I used the 2/$2 coupons in the paper a few weeks ago to get them for .75/each.  These are going to be a few Christmas gifts next year.

I used all of my $10 gift cards I got with the promo a few weeks ago to further maximize my savings and capitalize on the deals.  I may try to do one more trip by tomorrow because you can never have too many canned beans.

For all my coupon clipping needs I use Coupon Beat and My Coupon Hunter.  Crystal and Virginia are great ladies who are very easy to work with and have great customer service.  If you use more than one service you have a better chance of finding the hot coupons other regions received that yours did not.  Crystal also has a coupon auction site, Coupon Beat Auctions, where you can find hot coupons every day.  If you are looking for a particular coupon or coupons, check out these great sites.

I wanted to share this recipe with you quickly this morning because of how fabulous it turned out to be.  Do you ever just go to the kitchen to fix something for lunch but really don’t want the same old thing?  I do that sometimes.  The  other day when I made this up was one of those days.  I had some red potatoes and feta cheese that needed to be used so I thought let’s make some sort of Greek salad.  It ended up being a ‘kitchen sink’ Greek salad.  I used drained, diced tomatoes, green beans, grilled chicken chunks, Almond Accents almond slivers, and Greek vinaigrette.  I put some extra oregano in, because that’s a typical Greek ingredient.  And it ended up delicious!

What’s your favorite spur of the moment salad recipe?

Most of you know I am on a mission to eat healthy AND affordably.  This dish did not disappoint.  I was excited when Armor meatballs were on the mega event a few weeks ago at Kroger and got 6 bags of them.  We were wanting something Italian one day and this is what I threw together.  The meatballs were .99, carrots were .25, onions were .22, tomatoes were .90, pasta was free, cheese was $1.90, and the kale (not shown below) was .30.

All the ingredients made three casserole dishes full!  I cut the meatballs in half to make the go further.

Here is a pretty up close shot.  Doesn’t it look delicious and juicy?!?!  I chopped the mozzarella in small cubes instead of shredding it, and then mixed the cubes in so you would get gooey cheesy bites throughout as we ate the pasta.

As a final touch, I added what was left in the bottom of a garlic & butter crouton bag to the top as a bread crumb topping.  Then I baked it on 350 until hot and bubbly.

The total cost for this dish is approximately $4.56 for 12 servings or .38/serving.  After we ate dinner I portioned up all the leftovers into appropriate containers to freeze for another day.  I froze six servings and left four in the refrigerator for the next few days to have for quick meals.  We just loved it and didn’t get tired of it before it was all gone!

Do you have any good meatball recipes?

Some of you may already know that Crystal at Coupon Beat is my buddy.  I was helping her out one day and she told me about Virginia and My Coupon Hunter.  Even though she owns a coupon clipping site herself, Crystal recommends using a couple different sites.  Because the nature of coupons being regional and different means you need varying sources to find the best coupons for products you need.  So, if you need some cut coupons, check out her My Coupon Hunter.

What are some other coupon clipping sites you guys use?

Aldi’s great produce deals just keep coming this week!  Pictured above is 2 bunches of celery, 3 mangos, 1 avocado, 3lbs of apples, 8 lbs of navel oranges, 3 pineapples, 3lbs pears, 3 pints grape toatoes, 1qt strawberries, 10 button mushrooms, 1lb bananas, 1 Italian seasoning grinder.  I paid $33 for everything!

Do you have a local Aldi store to take advantage of these deals?

I was loving the fact that I had a few rainchecks, and several items I could stack manufacturer coupons and Publix coupons with to get a great deal today.  I spent $46.44 and saved $192.02 or 81%.  PLUS I got the $10 gift card back, too!  This is everything I brought home:

10 Pepperidge Farm Baked Crakers-.75/each

1 Arnold Bread-FREE

2 Cascadian Farms Granola Bars-$1.40/each

22 Birdseye Chef’s Favorites-$4.40 MONEY MAKER

10 Sargento Cheeses-.70/each for 6 and $1.20/each for 4

2 Sambazon Juice-FREE

8 Crunchmaster Crackers-.60/each

3 Avocado-.65/each

10 Barilla Whole Grain Pasta-.16/each

8 Mt Olive Pickles-.50/each

8 Muir Glen Tomatoes-.65/each

8 Beech Nut Stage 2 Food-FREE

4 Newman’s Own-$1/each

2-4pk Campbell’s Chicken Noodle-$2.20 Total

What kind of deals did you work up for your $10 gift cards?

For all my coupon clipping needs I use Coupon Beat and My Coupon Hunter.  Crystal and Virginia are great ladies who are very easy to work with and have great customer service.  If you use more than one service you have a better chance of finding the hot coupons other regions received that yours did not.  Crystal also has a coupon auction site, Coupon Beat Auctions, where you can find hot coupons every day.  If you are looking for a particular coupon or coupons, check out these great sites.

Well here is my second post about the Kroger Mega Event going on this week.  This is several transactions.  I’m sorry I just don’t have the time to do the breakdown of everything for you.  But, I will say the total spent was $80.21 and the total saved was $253.49 or 76%!  By the time I finished I had enough fuel points to get a .70/gallon discount on my gas.  So I even filled up my van, which normally takes about $60, for $49!    Here is everything I brought home:

21 Kleenex Cool Touch Tissues-$6.00 MONEY MAKER

114 Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes-.29/can

20 Red Gold Tomatoes-FREE

4 Armor Meatballs-.99/each

13 Chi Chi’s Tortillas-$1/each

2 Honey Bunches of Oats-$1.50/each

2 Kid Cuisine Meals-.90/each

1 Melitta Coffee Filters-FREE

1/2 Gallon Milk-$1.25

2 Skintimate Shaving Cream-.94/each

1 Kroger Buttermilk-$1.29

1 Heluva Dip-FREE

2 French’s Spicy Brown Mustard-.80/each

2 French’s Mustard-.70/each

2 Frank’s Red Hot-.50/each

2 Frank’s Sweet Chili Sauce-.60/each

2 Chi Chi’s Salsa-.50/each

6 Rosarita Refried Beans-.19/each

11 Suave Deodorant-.06/each

9 Philadelphia Cream Cheese-.88/each

How did you guys do at the Kroger Mega Event?

For all my coupon clipping needs I use Coupon Beat and My Coupon Hunter.  Crystal and Virginia are great ladies who are very easy to work with and have great customer service.  If you use more than one service you have a better chance of finding the hot coupons other regions received that yours did not.  Crystal also has a coupon auction site, Coupon Beat Auctions, where you can find hot coupons every day.  If you are looking for a particular coupon or coupons, check out these great sites.

Thanks to my sister in law and her BFF, their blog is Recycled Soup, I had a pre-researched and pre-tested recipe to start making my own homemade liquid and dry laundry detergent, fabric softener, stain remover and dishwasher detergent.  I have been looking into doing this for a while through Pinterest and other blogs I follow.  But I just hadn’t actually gotten up the gumption to do it.  Well, I ran out of dishwasher detergent.  It wasn’t on sale anywhere.  And I was being cheap.  So, I thought now is as good a time as any to start making my own.

I followed all their recipes linked to above and learned a few things in the process.

1. It’s not that hard to make your own.  If I recall correctly, the longest part of the process was waiting for the soap to melt into the water of our soap pot.  The other thing is, to make the powdered laundry detergent you have to grate the soap bar.  That takes a minute and some muscle.
2. It works!  I washed a blanket I had left at a relatives house that was a smoker.  This blanket was soaked to the core with stale smoke smell.  I put it in the wash with my new homemade liquid laundry detergent and presto-NO SMELL.  The smoke was replaced by a clean, soap scent and the blanket was clean.  As was my next load of white with very dirty socks thanks to the 15 year old.
3. The best thing I learned, IT’S SO CHEAP!  Here is a breakdown of the cost:

• borax-$4.09
• vinegar-$.65
• citric acid-$4.29
• fels naptha bar-$1.29
• washing soda-$3.15
• baking soda-$.50
• kosher salt-$2.00
• one large soap pot-$5.00 at Goodwill

Ingredients for liquid laundry detergent

I agree with the Recycled Soup girls in that the dry laundry detergent is a little more cost effective and less time consuming to make since you don’t have to melt the soap.  After I finish using all my liquid detergent I will be making a bucket of the dry with my leftover ingredients.  We made a total of 2 gallons of liquid laundry detergent, one batch of dishwasher detergent, and 2 pints of stain remover.  We spent $22.91 for everything, no coupons were used on ingredients.  You CAN buy some of these products with coupons to make your initial investment cheaper.  We have enough products left to make lots more of everything!

Liquid laundry detergent after adding Borax and washing soda

My cost breakdown boils down to this:  $0.33/batch for 1 pint of stain remover-not sure how long it lasts yet, $0.78/batch for 192 loads of laundry-liquid recipe (0.004 cents per load), and $3.38/batch for 12 loads of dishwashing detergent (0.28 cents per load).  I’m pretty sure I can find a cheaper, online source for the citric acid to make this more cost effective in the future.  But, all in all, I will NEVER go back to store bought laundry products again.  Because even on my BEST coupon deal I have never been able to score free laundry detergent and stain remover.  And as cheap as this is, it’s practically free!

Has anyone else tried making their own homemade products?

Have any recipes or tips to share from your experience?

Shared on the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop.

Raise your hand if you are an absolute NUT over soup.  Yeah, me too!  I regularly eat soup for breakfast I love it so much.  When I make a pot, I have it three times a day the first day and sometimes the second day, too.  After that I will freeze what’s left in individual servings to enjoy later.

This is my split pea and lentil soup.  Most split pea soup is a little bit thinner than I like.  So I put less broth and add lentils to make it more hearty and thick.  A friend of mine invited us over for a family dinner and the main dish was a baked ham.  When we were cleaning up for the night, she took all the meat off the ham bone and was going to toss the bone.  I politely interjected and asked if she minded if I take it home.  There was still a TON of meat on the bone and I knew that if I made stock with the bone, the rest of that meat would tenderize and fall off plus flavor the stock.

I used my regular bowl of vegetable trimmings in the bottom of the fridge and the ham bone to make a very rich homemade stock.  I drained the stock and let it set overnight in the fridge to skim and defat the pot.  I used my hands to go through and pull out all the largest ham chunks that were cooked off the bone.  Then I put a half a bag of dried split peas and a half a bag of lentils in the stock.  I check for the salt and pepper to make sure it’s seasoned well.

My favorite way to eat split pea soup is to add a teaspoon of sour cream and some fried onion pieces to the bowl.  But I am trying to behave and keep it as  healthy as I can so I kept my craving in check.  The great thing about split pea soup is it’s a wonder food on the glycemic food index.

What is your favorite soup recipe?

Shared on Hearth and Soul Blog Hop.