Frugal Living Ideas for Summer
One of the best ways to celebrate frugal living in 2023 is to grow some of your food. You can do this with a container garden, a raised bed garden or a traditional garden plot in your backyard. You can accomplish this on a small scale even if you do not live on several acres. There are a number of vegetables that can grow in small spaces.
Currently we have a larger garden, but there was a time a few years ago when we planted seeds in our flower beds off our front porch. We had beautiful tomatoes and green peppers that year and we didn't have to go far to pick them! The flower bed tomatoes grew well enough to allow me to preserve small amounts of tomatoes that year.
I loved the look of the overflowing tomatoes and vines so much that we still plant tomatoes in the flowerbeds located just off our front porch. The green vines with the multi-colored tomatoes peeking through provide a calming backdrop when relaxing on a Summer afternoon.
There are many advantages to growing at least a portion of your food. The cost savings can be significant. Consumer costs for many essentials have been increasing. Food is an area that has seen huge increases. Groceries are not an optional purchase. There are many ways to save on food purchases, but the one I want to discuss today is gardening.
Growing your own food allows more control over food safety. You can choose to use or not use chemicals on your produce. Pesticides and herbicides can manage pests in your garden, but there are ways to garden without the application of chemicals. It requires more patience and time. There will be more weeds and more pests. We use composted material to keep our garden soil in good growing condition.
Garden Produce
Our family lives in the mid-west and our growing season is coming to a close. Our garden has provided us with fresh produce for the last few months and opportunities to preserve some of our harvest. Many of our garden plants are started inside during the snowy winter months. They are started in trays purchased online from a garden store and placed in a sunny window. When the weather warms enough, my husband transplants the starts into the outside garden plot.
If you are a careful shopper and only purchase what is on sale each week, you can find good prices on produce all year around at your grocery store. Even if the price is right, there is often a difference in the taste of a tomato that might have been in the produce section of your grocery store for days or even weeks and one freshly picked from the vine. There is something very satisfying about picking a tomato straight out of the garden and popping it into your mouth.
We prefer to use heirloom seeds which means we do not have to purchase seeds every year. Seeds are preserved and used the next year. We prefer heirloom seeds over hybrid seeds or GMO seeds. This offers a cost savings and the ability to save and re-use seeds. We share seeds with others and purchase seeds when needed from a few reliable online businesses that sell heirloom seeds.
Food Preservation
Food preservation is another frugal living concept. We have preserved tomatoes, onions, green peppers, corn, and green beans for use over the next few months until Spring arrives. We use a variety of methods to preserve our food. One way we preserve food for the winter is by freezing.
Corn is easy to freeze and tastes great during the colder months. We have also canned corn. Canned corn tastes great, but it takes longer to process. Freezing our corn off the cob allows us to use the corn in recipes or as a side dish.
Tomatoes are by far our most abundant crop. They grow easily for us and provide a huge amount of produce. We end up with the most amazing colors and sizes of tomatoes. I use the fresh tomatoes in cooking and just for snacking. Cherry tomatoes are portable, do not require refrigeration, and taste great as an afternoon snack.
Years ago we canned tomatoes, tomato juice, spaghetti sauce, and tomato sauce. It took a lot of time. Today we can the tomatoes and use the canned tomatoes to create tomato sauce, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and tomato soup. I will share how we do that in another post.
We have tried our hand at dehydrating in the past. I hope to try this again in the future. Dehydrated food can last for a long period of time and dehydrated food takes up less space than some other types of food preservation.
Sharing our Fresh Produce
Gardening is a cost saving measure, is more fresh, and tastes better than store bought produce. However, one of the best parts of gardening is sharing. We share with our family and friends. It's a small gesture for us, but can mean so much to those we share with.
My husband will often pick the produce we share at church early Sunday morning before services. From garden to table in the space of a few hours. That is fresh from the garden produce.
We send family members home with extra produce when they come to visit. Routinely we take extra vegetables to our church and share with our church family. We know that not everyone has the ability to garden even if they have the space.
We often plant larger amounts of seeds to allow plenty for sharing. If you do not have your own garden you are especially happy to pick up some garden fresh cucumbers and zucchini at church on Sunday morning.
I hope these ideas will help you consider gardening as a cost-saving measure to counter soaring food costs across the country. Gardening can begin with little money in a small space. Saving seeds help decrease seed costs in the future. Gardening allows you to have fresh food, control the safety of your food, preserve your harvest, save money, and share with others.
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