One great way to save some money is to grow your own fruits and veggies.  Now you may not have the room to go crazy but you can grow a few things even in pots to help off set your grocery bills.  So you ask how does your garden grow well mine grows pretty good when I remember to water it, but being in central FL means my gardening season is almost done until mid August since it’s starting to get too hot. 

Contrary to what you’ve heard you can grow everything in pots you just have to water it alot and get a big enough pot.  So I thought I’d take some pictures to encourage you to get out there and garden.

This is a new addition this year, it’s a cherry tomato with lots and lots of baby tomatoes on it.  I can’t wait to have fresh salsa.

This is several strawberry plants growing crazy.  With this many plants I might actually get to eat a few of my strawberries instead of the boy stealing them all.  LOL

This pic has grapes on the far left, last year I bought this off the Walmart tried to kill it rack for a couple bucks and look it now.  In the middle is one sorry tiny little strawberry plant that has produced 2 berries this year and on the other end is another tomato plant.  The strawberry and tomato will likely be getting evicted soon as they aren’t producing and I can grow beans in the heat without problems.

This little pepper plant refuses to die, I bought it last year and didn’t bother to cover it through our multiple hard freezes through the winter since I didn’t think it would be coming back this year and it has lived to amaze me and has several small hot peppers on it.

This is the last pic for now.  I should be a mint farmer at the beginning of last year this was a small single mint plant that has attempted to take over the world or at least every pot it’s close to.  Behind the mint you can see a large pineapple plant that is the one that is fruiting for me!!!!

At least I think it’s exciting.

That my friends is the start of a baby pineapple growing inside my oldest pineapple plant.  You know how much it cost me????  Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zero, Zilch!!!  That’s right I grabbed this particular plant out of the trash at my grandparents hotel room when they were here a few years ago.  They had bought a pineapple to enjoy while visiting and were going to throw away the top but I happily took it did some research planted it and have been loving it and it’s friends for a few years now and voila a baby has been born.  Now lets see if I can get it to grow to an edible fruit.  LOL

Would you like to try and grow your own pineapple plant?  I can’t speak for different regions but in Central FL it’s pretty easy.

1. Buy a pineapple!
2. Twist the top off, don’t cut it off it just makes more work for yourself.  If don’t want to do step one find someone that has bought one or check farmer’s markets.  At a few of the nicer farmer’s markets the pineapple sellers have the machine that cores and peels the pineapples and they usually will give you the tops for free.
3. Peel off a few layers of leaves off the bottom until you see those brown nubs.  Those nubs are your roots.
4. Stick it in some dirt.  Yup it’s that easy, I usually start them in a really small pot and keep them in the house until they are rooted and then transplant outdoors but the last two I just stuck outside in some pots.

Let me know how it works out for you.  Once you get a plant growing you can force them to fruit just swagbucks it and you’ll find out how.  I have been growing these because I like the way they look and they are very tropical but having the fruit coming in might encourage me to force my next few.

There is a great deal on Capri Sun 10ct boxes at Kmart this week.  They are on sale (unadvertised) for $2 each and in the ad on the back there is a coupon for Buy One Get One Free making them $1 a box.  The best price I get these for on sale is usually about .15 a pouch so .10 a pouch was a stock up price for me.

Please be aware that you do have to sign up for their stupid rewards card to be able to use the coupon.  I have no problem with rewards cards really but I hate having one more stinking card to remember especially since I don’t shop Kmart very often.

Go here and print a .50/2 Starburst or Skittles coupon and then head to Walgreen’s.  Pick up the April Coupon Book that has $1/2 Skittles or Starburst coupon in it and go find yourself 2 eggs with skittles or starburst they are on sale for .75.

Using your coupons you should only be stuck paying taxes and walk out with up to 4 little eggs for your baskets this year.

Thanks goes to WildforWags for the photo and the heads up on this great deal.

I have little to no interest in watching the new TLC program “Extreme Couponing” but I can see where it would appeal to people.  In the current economy with the prices of everything except our paychecks on the rise people are trying to figure out how to save.  The show lures you in with get mountains of stuff for almost no money.

And it’s true you can get mountains of stuff for almost nothing, you can also not be welcomed back into a store for abusing their coupons, you can be shot down because you are clearing their shelves and you can be given a really hard time in line trying to check out.  Please lets all remember that this isn’t reality of course a clerk/store is going to be courteous to these women they do afterall have a TV crew for national station with them. 

But when these women get home and unload their bags what are they going to make for dinner?  As I said I’m not watching this show and didn’t watch the previous one so I can’t claim for sure but I know the sales and the items that you can get for free don’t always equal balanced meals.  I’ve been couponing long enough to know that canned veggies go on a great sale at my stores only twice a year, frozen veggie sales are more frequent but not as good, fresh?!? well forget about it you aren’t buying all your fruits and veggies for free.  How about meat you ask well there are deals to be had on meat (on occasion) but if want real fresh meat it’s not free either at least not in large quantities or frequently.

If you’d like to learn about real life couponing, you know the kind that actually feeds your family I invite you to stick around.  My family eats healthy balanced meals most of the time we are a real family, I have days where I don’t feel like cooking and I make mac and cheese or chicken nuggets.  I’m not going to preach healthy living to you since we don’t always conform either, but I will encourage you to maximize your savings while feeding your family real meals (sometimes they are out of a box and sometimes from scratch).

If you are fairly new to couponing I have to warn you this show is not going to make things any easier.  I experienced the rath of this stupid program after the first one aired when I was asked multiple times if I was “one of those shoppers” and each time I had to explain that most of us don’t clear shelves or hoard our freebies.  When I do go a little overboard buying something it’s something that we have a real use for.  Yes a few weeks ago I bought 12 jars of peanut butter but I make at least 12 PB&J sandwiches a week and yes this week I bought 12 containers of Smart Balance milk but with 2-4 bowls of cereal, 1 mocha latte, and at least 1 glass of milk drank a day it unfortunately won’t take us long to go through that much milk.  A few weeks ago I purchased 6-8 boxes of dog treats but my dog only goes through a box every 6-9 months however the people at the animal shelter must have thanked me a hundred times for the donation.  So please buy what you’ll use before it expires (food thrown away is not money saved!!!!) or buy items you intend on donating, from what I’ve heard the next logical step for some of these people is to go to TLC’s other program “Hoarding”

So have you watched this program?  Are you new to couponing?  Please feel free to chime in and if you are looking to cut your bill down and have a pantry/freezer full of food you can actually eat stick around you can also like me over on Facebook for easier access to all my posts.