Middle Path Finance

The $100 Christmas?

It's Christmas in July! Okay, not really, but I've been thinking about it ever since I saw the story that retailers were goingt to Grinch out and stop giving deep discounts to lure people in around the holidays.

I was a little distraught, wondering how those on a tight budget were going to manage come holiday shopping season. But then I saw this. A lovely blog post outlining exactly how one family is having a $100 Christmas-- without being Scrooges or going without. It's a very good an interesting read!

Here comes the Grinch-- In July.

Looks like the Grinch is going to try to steal Christmas a little bit earlier this year. Smart Money and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that retailers plan to sell more goodies, but at higher prices this year. Read: Don't count on any of the deep promotions and discounts to help merry up your Christmas and stretch your gift budget this year.

If you loaded up on deals in order to put gifts under the tree last year, it might be time to come up with a new holiday game plan-- whether it be buying less, buying for fewer people, or searching the sales starting, oh, now.

Please, though, steer clear of Christmas club accounts. They usually pay zero interest, so you might be better off socking away a little bit of cash ahead of the holidays in a high-yielding online savings account. Just a thought!

Real life tips for productively working at home with children

I'm always skeptical of any article that claims to have real, useful tips for working mommies, but I stumbled upon this little gem over at WiseBread.com. It has some actual, real useful tips for managing your time and your little ones if you, like me, freelance or do a good bit of your work at home. Finally, tips we can use!

Retailers hit back at couponers

Extreme couponing has grown more popular in recent months, as food prices rise and people look to cut their grocery bills. Then there is the TV show, but we won't go there now. Looks like retailers are trying to put an end to endless good deals by limiting the number and types of coupons that can be used together. This is bad news for super savers.

 

Will this affect you? I'm a newbie super couponer. I suspected the party couldn't last forever, but I am a little sad it's going to get harder to save big.

 

Gas discount hacks

I ran across

This story about how people are getting around the one car fill-up rule

At Kroger recently, in the face of their newly "revamped" fuelperks program. Thoughts? How many of you have gas cans with discounted gallons in your garage?

How long will you keep your children on your health insurance plan?

I ran across this interesting article today about how lukewarm many parents are about keeping their adult children on their health insurance plans. What are your thoughts on the topic?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/08/news/economy/healthcare_uninsured_kids/index.htm?iid=HP_LN

Zucchini: Ally of frugal cooks

My family has long had a love hate relationship with zucchini. My grandparents, mom and I have planted one plant each and every year for as long as I can remember. Until about mid-August every loaf of fresh-baked zucchini bread tastes like it came straight from heaven. But then it happens. At the end of summer, we’re just sick of zucchini. Then it begins: The tooth and nail fight to give away as many zucchini as possible to all unsuspecting bystanders.

Once, when I came home from college, my grandma hid an entire 15 pound box of them in the trunk of my car. That’s what I get for leaving my car unattended for a split second in late August.

This year, as I watched in horror as the last of the tiny fruit on my plant quadrupled in size overnight, I thought “What the hell am I going to do with that?”

So I hit the books and came up with some solutions for those of you who, like me, are cursed with too many zucchini. And, of course, at this point in the summer, you’ve cooked them every way you can think of already. In an era of double-digit price increases at the grocery store, it’s downright criminal to waste perfectly good food. The zucchini is a valuable ally to budget conscious cooks. It’s inexpensive, nutritious, and its mild taste makes it a good recipe stretcher. Anyone who likes to save a buck should revere the zucchini. It’s just a question of figuring out what to do with so darn many of them.

Well, don’t give up and throw them away. After all, zucchini are America’s thriftiest veggie. They selflessly produce and produce enough to feed you many times from just one plant. If we were all starving cave people, we would have really appreciated that, so now is the time to repay that karmic debt and thank the zucchini for keeping our New World ancestors from starving.

First, if you are out of ideas, a trip to the library to pick up a new cookbook may be just what the zucchini ordered. Some of my personal favorites:

The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash, has a dozen or more recipes for the humble squash, including quiche, stews, and spicy breads. 

Another solid choice: Life’s Little Zucchini Cookbook: 101 Zucchini Recipes by Joan Bestwick has recipes for more exotic fare such as zucchini pudding and zucchini lasagna. The Classic Zucchini Cookbook by Nancy Ralston has recipes for zucchini cookies. If your library doesn’t have zucchini-specific books, most vegetarian cookbooks dedicate plenty of space to this hard-working squash.

If you are up to your eyeballs in fruit and can’t spare a trip to the library, here are a couple of examples of new, gourmet zucchini recipes. I’ve tried them and they have made zucchini something to look forward to rather than something to dread.

Zucchini Veggie Burgers

You’ll need

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1/2 shredded jack cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
• 3 tbs. finely chopped onion
• 1/2 tsp each of thyme and dried rosemary
• 1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini
• cooking oil

Beat eggs, and in large bowl, stir in wheat germ, cheese, mushrooms, onion, thyme, rosemary and zucchini. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. On plastic wrap, shape mixture into 4 equal patties, each about 3/4 inch thick. Heat cooking oil in skillet. Cook patties over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until golden brown on bottom. Flip and do the same. Serve on buns like a burger.

(This recipe has been adapted from The Low-Fat Vegetarian Cookbook from Sunset Books.)

Individual patties can be separated with wax paper, bagged and frozen, and they are much cheaper and more yummy per serving than store bought veggie burgers.

Zucchini with Lump Crab Meat

This is quick, easy and gourmet. Shred several medium or one large zucchini, place in a casserole dish. Top with lumps of fresh crab meat, and bake at 375 degrees until crab is warm all the way through.

If You Can’t Cook It, Save It

 

If you are sick of zucchini, shred what you have left and freeze it. I shred and freeze zucchini, putting 2 cups in each bag. That’s how much I need to make two loaves of zucchini bread. I may be sick of that bread now, but in the middle of winter, it will be a nice change. I just take the zucchini out of the freezer, thaw it and make fresh loaves of bread.

Use zucchini as a filler in fresh-made pasta sauce. I turn all of the end of year Roma tomatoes in my garden into sauce, then I freeze it and use it all winter. Zucchini makes a lovely addition to that sauce and freezes well.

And for the three people in America who don’t have a zucchini bread recipe, here is the one my grandma passed down to me. It really is delicious, and once baked freezes well.

Classic Zucchini Bread

 

• 1 cup cooking oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs, creamed
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp soda
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup pecans
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups grated zucchini

Mix it all together, place in two greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 for one hour, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Happy Eating!

Lower your utility bills this summer

Utility bills can hurt this time of year.

It's hot, so chances are the air conditioner is on. And if it hasn't rained in a while, your sprinkler is likely on full tilt, keeping your lawn mean and green.

It doesn't help that after years of steady decline, the percentage of income that U.S. families spent on energy began to rise in 1998.

The cost of natural gas has risen 65 percent since 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Heating oil costs have risen 11 percent, and electricity prices have gone up 26 percent.

Water and sewer rates in Columbus rose 10 percent in 2006 and went up an additional 15 percent this year.

Don't resign yourself to shockingly high bills. There are some simple things you can do to lower your costs without sacrificing comfort.

With a few simple changes, the typical family could save $50 or more a month on their utility bills, said Brad Stroh, founder of Bills.com, a consumer-finance Web site based in San Mateo, Calif.

"Any upgrade in efficiency will pay for itself in savings," said Jeff Deyette, energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

That extra cash is nothing to sneeze at.

"You can use the savings to pay off debt and build wealth," Stroh said.

But being more efficient doesn't mean you have to be uncomfortable or spend a lot of money. A handful of low-cost, money-saving things can be done to lower your utility bills and put more cash in your pocket.

Water

The average quarterly water bill for a family of four in Columbus is between $182 and $219, according to the city public utilities department.

You can significantly reduce your water use -- and your bill -- if you install a few water-saving devices, according to Get Green Columbus, a city conservation program.

Install a low-flow showerhead : A 10-minute shower uses 50 gallons of water. A low-flow showerhead reduces that to only 25 gallons. Low-flow showerheads cost about $12 at home-improvement stores. If you shower 10 minutes a day, the savings would be 750 gallons of water a month, or about $5 a month on your water bill.

For added savings, replace your faucet aerator. Aerators are the round disks at the tip of the faucet that control how much water comes out.

Low-flow aerators cut water use from about 2.5 gallons to as low as half a gallon per minute, and cost about $1 each.

Watch the flush: The typical family of four uses 112 gallons of water a day, or 3,360 gallons a month, to flush toilets, at a cost of about $20 a month.

Replacing older toilets, which use 3.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush, with low-flow toilets using 1.6 gallons could reduce your water use by up to 73 percent. The cost to make a replacement starts at about $100, but you could save up to 2,450 gallons of water and shave about $14 a month off your water bill.

If a new loo is out of your budget, hanging a water displacement bag in the tank can reduce water use by 20 percent, or about 1 gallon per flush. Water displacement bags cost about $2, and could save you up to 672 gallons, or about $4 a month.

Lawn smarts : The average American family uses about 120 gallons a day, or 3,600 gallons a month, watering lawns and washing off driveways and sidewalks. You can reduce that by up to 50 percent by watering in the evening -- when less of the water evaporates because of heat -- and by "making sure you aren't watering your sidewalk instead of the grass," said Rick Tilton, assistant director of the city's division of water and power. Potential savings? About $10 a month.

Electricity

The average U.S. household consumes about 11,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity (kWh) a year, at a cost of about $900, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs : Compact fluorescent bulbs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer, according to Energy Star, a government program that rates products by how much energy they save.

In central Ohio, it costs 95 cents to power one 75-watt standard light bulb for five hours a day for one month, according to AEP Ohio. It costs 25 cents to power a compact fluorescent for that long, a savings of 70 cents a month and $8.40 a year per bulb.

It takes only about 3 months to recoup the extra cost of compact fluorescent bulbs in energy savings, according to Energy Star.

If a houseful of new bulbs isn't in the budget, replace those in the fixtures you use most, such as the kitchen, bathroom and family room lights, Deyette said. Replacing five bulbs will save you about $3.50 a month, or $42 a year, according to AEP Ohio.

Buy a power strip : Many appliances use electricity even when they are turned off. It's called a phantom load, or vampire electricity, and the Ohio Consumers' Council says it accounts for 5 percent to 10 percent of a home's electricity use and costs Ohioans $46 to $93 a year.

Unplugging one small appliance, such as a fax machine, one computer monitor, and one television when you aren't using them will save you about $6 a month, Stroh said.

Plugging electronics such as computers, televisions and DVD players, and small appliances such as coffeemakers and microwaves into a power strip, and then turning the power strips off when you aren't using those items will save you even more money, Deyette said.

Heating, air conditioning and laundry : Heating and cooling account for 47 percent of the average household's annual energy bills, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The easiest way to cut that expense is to adjust your thermostat.

Every degree you raise your thermostat in the summer shaves 2 percent off of your energy bill, Deyette said. Every degree you lower the heat in winter, shaves 3 percent off the bill.

Install a programmable thermostat : This can lower your heating and air-conditioning bills even more, by about 10 percent, said Ronnie Kweller, spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit group in Washington.

Programmable thermostats alter the temperature of your house at different times of the day, allowing you to use less energy when you're sleeping or not home.

"If you're spending $1,000 on A/C in the course of summer, it can save you up to $100," Kweller said. "You can still come home to a comfortable house but not at the cost of running the air all day."

They cost as little as $30 and usually can be installed by the homeowner, Deyette said.

Laundry day is another cost-saving opportunity.

A family that washes seven loans of laundry a week can save about $5.25 a month, or $63 a year, in water-heating bills by washing clothes in cold water, Kweller said.

Old-fashioned line-drying will save you even more.

"A new electric dryer can use 4,500 watts per hour," more than almost any other appliance in your home, Stroh said. Old dryers use even more.

"Hanging your clothes out to dry will knock nearly $10 a month off of your utility bill."

Maximize your savings

You really can save money being more energy efficient, Stroh said.

"It's an easy -- and good for the environment -- way to stash $50 a month with only a few simple changes," Stroh said.

It might not seem like a lot of money, but it can add up to $600 or more each year that families can use to pay down credit card debt, boost their emergency fund, or save in a retirement account or college savings plan, Stroh said.

"Investing $50 a month at 8 percent interest for 30 years produces a nest egg of nearly $75,000," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com. "That will go a long way toward improving retirement security."

Using those savings to boost your monthly credit-card payment from $75 to $125 would allow you to pay off a $3,000 balance at 18 percent interest 2 1/2 years faster and save you $860 in interest charges, he said.

The little bits of money you save here and there really add up.

"People that are successful at building wealth over the long term are the people who watch the smaller expenses just as closely as larger expenses," McBride said.

But the key is to save the money, rather than spending it "on some flashy thing," Stroh said.

Once you've made some changes to reduce your energy bills, the easiest way to make it pay off is to transfer the amount you expect to save each month into a savings or investment account, McBride said.

"You have to pay yourself first."

Denise originally wrote this article for the Columbus Dispatch in 2007.

Fight for your right to line dry

My mom likes to show my friends an embarrassing picture of me. I’m 3 years old, hanging on to my favorite blanket as it’s drying on the line.

Laundry hanging on the line, drying in the breeze, was a frequent part of my childhood, and probably yours too. I didn’t even think about it. It was just something that everyone did.

But when I hung a laundry line in my own backyard this summer, I realized that hanging laundry outside has become a hot button issue, not just in my neighborhood, but all over the country. Two hours after I hung my first load, there was a knock on my door. A neighbor I had only met once was on the porch, arms waving, furious. He was disgusted that we had hung a laundry line. He said we were bringing down property values and that only “poor white trash” would resort to hanging their socks and T-shirts outside in the breeze.

I was flabbergasted. But also confused. I might have believed that I was junking up the neighborhood, except that the line was in my back yard, not visible to the street, and visible to this one neighbor from only one room in his house.

After some research, I realized that many people share his sentiment. Homeowners associations all over the country have banned laundry lines, saying they disturb neighbors and bring down property values. Considering almost 57 million Americans live in a subdivision governed by a homeowners association, it is tantamount to an all-out attack on a staple of frugal living– the laundry line.

It seems the simple laundry line has fallen out of favor, now that more than 80 percent of all Americans think a clothes dryer is a necessity. How far we’ve come from summer afternoons hanging laundry in my grandmother’s backyard. And, from the days when an iron clothesline secured in a concrete foundation was a staple in most backyards.

Simply put, homeowners associations and municipalities that have clothesline restrictions associate laundry lines with poor people. After all, the thinking goes, only the poorest Americans don’t have access to a dryer and if you have a dryer, why wouldn’t you want to use it?

I guess I’m old fashioned. I thought line drying just made my clothes smell nice. Why pay Tide or some other company for dryer sheets that try to mimic the smell of outdoors when you can get the real thing for free?

Plus, in an era when households are loaded with consumer debt and are watching their energy bills spiral upwards, line drying is an eco-friendly, simple way to save money.

If you are like me and love your laundry line, take heart: you aren’t the only one left. Some are taking up the mantle of line drying. The states of Vermont, Connecticut, and New Hampshire have proposed legislation protecting residents’ rights to have and use laundry lines. A nonprofit, LaundryList.org, has sprouted up to fight for those whose right to line dry are under attack.

Even if you live in an homeowners association, you can lobby to have the rules changed. But you have to convince your neighbors that your socks swaying in the breeze won’t bring down their property value, which can be a hard argument to make in a shaky housing market.

I’m lucky that I don’t live in a neighborhood governed by a homeowners association. I just have a neighbor with some very particular ideas about what I should or shouldn’t do on my property. I refused to take down the line and eventually he gave up.

That fight has saved me about $100 a year in energy costs and makes my clothes last longer. Dryers are really hard on fabrics. Where do you think all of that lint comes from?

I am convinced that everyone needs to fight for their and their neighbors’ right to hang their laundry out to dry. Why should you fight for your right to line dry? Because you are also fighting for your right to lead a simpler life, and in most cases, a more frugal and earth-friendly life. How can you afford not to?

Food gardens that pay dividends

 Last August, I drew out a plan of what I wanted the gardens on our not-quite-half-acre lot, surrounding our 1957 ranch house, to be like. I live in the city, on a typical used-to-be-suburbs but now I'm in the city limits lot. I grew up in the country, in wide open spaces with plenty of sunny room for a garden. Not so here, but despite its limitations, I am determined to convert as much of our land to agriculture as possible.

I was discussing this last night with a friend who has never had a yard. He grew up in a condo, with no grass, and said he didn't understand why he felt compelled to grow things. He dreamed often of farming. It makes perfect sense to me. For thousands of years, people grew food. It's only the last two generations or so who have been so far removed from where dinner comes from. You can't breed such an important trait out of a species in only two generations.

So yes, our plan is ambitious. I dug about half of the new beds in September. With a shovel. Every night when hubby would come home, I would hand him the baby and head outside to dig beds. Our first two summers in this house we had only one row of tomatoes on the right side of the house, and a small bed that holds Peonies and sage that is hemmed in by a concrete sidewalk. Considering how many beds I have left to dig, I have made the executive decision to rent a sod cutter in April to clear the rest.

The real question now has become: How do I make the most of the garden? I can only make the beds so big, because I have to consider the neighbors. It has to be pretty and feed us. Our backyard is pure shade, thanks to two beautiful silver maple trees that keep spitting out saplings faster than I can dig them up and post them on freecycle. (Three silver maples have gone to new homes thanks to the local freecyclers.) The backyard garden is out, unless something unfortunate happens to my trees.

Now, with seed catalogs in hand, I must decide what to plant. Our system may help you make the most use out of your limited growing space as well.

My first stop is Bankrate.com. They have a handy article about home gardening and a list of what fruits and veggies cost the most at the grocery store.

This list is quite handy if your primary goal is to lower your grocery bill.Here are the spendy veggies and fruits.

• Mushrooms. • Blackberries.
• Collard greens. • Raspberries.
• Cherry tomatoes. • Cherries.
• Green peas. • Blueberries.
• Okra. • Apricots.
• Turnip greens. • Strawberries.
• Asparagus. • Pineapple.
• Mustard greens. • Grapes.
• Kale. • Plums.
• Cauliflower. • Avocados.

Of course, there is no sense growing foods your family doesn't love, no matter how much they cost in the store. But the list is a handy guideline. Several of the things we'd like to plant this year are on the list, which simply reinforces our decisions.

How do you grow a garden that will pay you dividends?

* Plant the foods that will save you the most money, or will provide you with a food that you like but normally don't purchase because it is too expensive. Growing foods that can be preserved for winter use, such as hot peppers, potatoes and tomatoes, can help you stretch your grocery budget well past the summer season. Plant foods that can be frozen or canned, and don't waste anything that your garden produces. By mid-September, it can be tempting to let those last green Roma tomatoes rot on the vine. That is not the way to make your garden pay off.

If you, like me, are just starting your food garden, remember that some foods take a long time to pay off. For instance, fruit. Raspberries and blackberries can be faithful fruits for small backyards, but generally take at least a year to bear fruit. If you plant a fruit tree, it can take three years or more for you to collect your first juicy dividend.

Asparagus is another patience-tester. Asparagus can take two to three years to produce a decent crop, but once established, that bed will produce for another 20 years. Strawberries take two years to produce a good crop.Fill in the wait by planting a variety of annuals that will provide a good harvest this summer, like peppers and tomatoes.

It is important to remember

* The garden is a work in progress. You probably won't be able to accomplish everything in the first year, nor will you necessarily be happy with the choices you make in the first year. Through the seasons, you will learn what grows best on different parts of your property. For instance, we grow tomatoes on the right side of the house. When we tried green peppers in that spot, they didn't do well. It's almost as if they got too much sun. When we moved them to the less sunny left side of the house, the peppers did very well. The beauty of the home garden is that every spring is a chance to start fresh.
* You must mix instant gratification with long-term production. Annuals can be great if you like replanting your entire garden every year (and paying for plants every year). Me? Not so much. So I am mixing annuals with perennials and longer-term plants like fruit trees, because in 5 years I hope to have a varied harvest, and a garden where something new ripens every couple of weeks.
* Don't spend a fortune on your garden if you plan to move, or if your main goal is to save money. Don't skimp on bargain seeds. Buy good ones, yes. But don't go crazy and spend $500 or more on tools and gizmos. That can get out of hand quickly, and eat up your profits.
* And when you are picking what to plant, don't discount something just because it's very cheap at the store. Cheaper foods like potatoes can be worth growing. Chances are anything you grow at home will taste a lot better and be more nutritious than what you can buy at a grocery store. And, you can choose to grow pesticide-free as well, an added health bonus.It all depends on why you want a garden and what you hope to accomplish.
* Be creative in your use of space. The aforementioned potatoes can be grown in a space saving trash can, if you don't have room for a long row of them.
* If you are going to do this well, you have to visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation web site. If you grow anything that you hope to eat after summer is over, it helps to know how best to preserve it. Freezing isn't always as simple as just tossing stuff in a Ziploc and putting it into the freezer.
* Make room for animals and insects in your habitat. It's always good to plant something for the honey bees, the butterflies, and other denizens of your habitat. The goal should be to tread lightly. You may also want to refrain from using pesticides. You might be surprised at how well your garden does without chemical assistance.

Now that I have said all of that, I'll tell you what I am going to plant on my modest lot, in the flower beds I have reclaimed from lawn.

Asparagus

* Mary Washington asparagus. An heirloom variety, to establish a bed.
* a hot pepper garden, so that we can dry them and use them to flavor our food all year long. We have chosen to grow Kung Pao hybrid, long red slim cayenne, false alarm hybrids and hot lemon heirloom peppers. We'll also plant one or two green pepper plants.
* five each of heritage everbearing red raspberries and royalty standard purple raspberries.
* red pontiac potatoes. We will be 'forcing' these in a trash can, like my grandpa used to do. By stressing the plant you can get great yields without wasting precious space.
* six Roma tomato and six cherry tomato plants. I don't know what variety, as we buy these from my former grade school every year during their plant sale fundraiser. They have always been good producers.
* the herb garden will consist of cilantro,pesto perpetuo basil,and Greek oregano.
* a patch of Ozark beauty everbearing strawberries.
* bloomsdale spinach and nantes carrots, for my raised bed and fall coldframe. I use these to extend the growing season. This will be my first year trying to extend the fall harvest into winter with the coldframe.
* green beans of a yet undetermined variety, at the request of hubby, who could live on these alone.
* the obligatory zucchini plant, also from the school fundraiser. I may get ambitious and plant two, even though I know I'll be up to my neck in zucchini. I have two new recipes for zucchini, and it always makes a great extender for sauces and such, so maybe I can keep up.Echinacea
* A butterfly garden, including five varieties of echinacea, two types of bee balm, and some butterfly weed. I will frame this flowerbed with butterfly-friendly annuals, and maybe with lingonberries, which are delicious on Swedish pancakes, unusual, and look like an ornamental plant.
* Luffa. Yes, the luffa sponge is a squash, not something that is plucked from the ocean. This will be a fun experiment. They grow as a vine, so with staking shouldn't take up too much space in the garden.
* English lavender, for its aromatherapy qualities.

It is overly ambitious, I know, and I haven't even included the two sweet dwarf cherry trees I'd like to plant. But through clever use of space, we hope to grow all of these things in abundance in our small garden, in plain view of the neighbors, without raising their ire. The seedlings for the rest have already sprouted in the sunny window in my kitchen.

No discussion of an economical garden would be complete without suggesting ways to save money in the garden.

* We use rain barrels to collect water for our plants. It saves money and the collected water is better for the plants because it doesn't contain the chemicals in treated water.
* We compost. You don't need an expensive set up, but you do need patience. It can take a year or two to turn waste into rich compost, but when it is ready, your garden will pay you back with lots of love, disease resistance, and delicious fruits.
* Save seeds, or at least let a few veggies and fruits fall into the dirt. This netted us some lovely volunteer cherry tomato plants that sprung up and gave us tomatoes just like the plants we bought every year.
* Skip the pesticides and fertilizer. We have never once used either in our garden. Instead, we try to take good care of our dirt via mulch and compost, and we don't get too upset if a slug eats a tomato or two. There is enough for everyone.
* Don't waste a single veggie or fruit. Last year, I had two marathon sessions turning Roma tomatoes and green peppers into pasta sauce. I froze about a dozen bags of it, which will feed my family all winter. You will have to have some marathons too, whether you are in the mood or not, to get the most pay off from your money-saving garden.

Links to No Spend Month bloggers

Here are the links to the bloggers featured in my recent Bankrate.com article, "Jump-start savings with a no-spend month."

Rachel and her family have a No Spend Month every July, spending just $250 that month on everything that isn't a regular monthly bill, including groceries. Read more about her experience at Small Notebook.

Shannon S. and her family went on a 6-week spending crash diet. Read more about her experience at Nourishing Days.

Joy P. Harkins had a No Spend Month last November.Read more about her experience at Just Plain Joy. 

And don't forget to read about my month of not spending, starting here.

I hope these stories inspire you.

Cheap Charity: Plant a Row for the Hungry

The first warm winds of spring have finally arrived here in Ohio. It's a welcome reprieve from an unusually cold winter. For those of us with green tendencies, it also heralds a new season of outdoor work. Leaves need to be raked, soil needs to be tilled, and mulch needs to be spread. It will be at least another 6 weeks before the seedlings can safely be planted, officially kicking off our season of homegrown vegetables and fruits.But that doesn't mean our thoughts haven't turned to the fruits our gardens can bear. In these tough economic times, your garden could give back even more. If you, like me, are prone to growing edible goodies in your garden, an easy way to turn your efforts into a good deed for your community is to participate in Plant a Row for the Hungry. The program, a project of the Garden Writers Association, has resulted in at least 14 million pounds of homegrown produce being donated to food pantries nationwide. Food banks are in dire straits these days; just as donations have fallen, need has risen. Even in good times, many do not have the money to provide much fresh produce to the people they serve. Your local food bank would love to have some of your fresh veggies and fruits.

Participation is easy. Donate your extra garden-grown produce to your local food bank. If you'd like to multiply your return, ask your neighbors or your neighborhood assocation to participate as well.

Can the $100 house make sense?

The economic downturn has revived the myth of the $100 house. Investors poured millions of dollars into "investment" real estate sight unseen during the boom. Even though the bubble has popped, infomercials and sensationalistic ad campaigns are still touting real estate as an investment, this time using the lure of the $100 house. Or the $1000 house. Whatever the number, it's usually an obscenely low amount of money for a real estate purchase. We're supposed to believe that there are great deals out there, and if we are smart, we can profit when real estate prices recover.

But now that the landscape has changed, does the $100 house exist? And if it does, is it a good investment? The answer, surprisingly, might be yes.

I ran across this intriguing piece in the New York Times.

"Ah, the mythical $100 home. We hear about these low-priced “opportunities” in down-on-their-luck cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland, but we never meet anyone who has taken the plunge. Understandable really, for if they were actually worth anything then they would cost real money, right? Who would do such a preposterous thing?"

That is the million dollar question. Or rather, the $100 question. I don't believe in get rich quick schemes and I certainly don't believe the hype-mongers claiming we can all get rich off of foreclosures. But for the right person, with the right intentions, the current glut of under-priced, damaged homes in economically depressed cities is a once in a lifetime gift.

The article really made me think about who this sort of situation can really work for:

"A local couple, Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert, started the ball rolling. An artist and an architect, they recently became the proud owners of a one-bedroom house in East Detroit for just $1,900. Buying it wasn’t the craziest idea. The neighborhood is almost, sort of, half-decent. Yes, the occasional crack addict still commutes in from the suburbs but a large, stable Bangladeshi community has also been moving in.

So what did $1,900 buy? The run-down bungalow had already been stripped of its appliances and wiring by the city’s voracious scrappers. But for Mitch that only added to its appeal, because he now had the opportunity to renovate it with solar heating, solar electricity and low-cost, high-efficiency appliances."

After this couple moved in, they bought two adjoining lots and turned one into a garden. They bought a house down the street for $500 and sold it to an artist for a $50 profit. One by one, when the opportunity arose, the couple and others like them bought these cheap, damaged homes and have turned it into a real community.

When your intention is to stay, to build a community house by house and block by block, the cheap house is a gift and an opportunity that comes by once in a lifetime. To pass it up, if you have vision and purpose, would be utterly foolish.

Hey thrifty people, This recession is your fault

Everyone knows we're in a recession, and the economic landscape is pretty grim.

In 2008, Americans lost $7 trillion in stock market wealth. We lost another $1.2 trillion thanks to tanking home values. In 2008, 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs, and the Conference Board estimates another 2 million people will lose their jobs by mid-2009.

No wonder people are skipping the mall and saving their money. But the unseemly side effect of a deepening recession in an American economy so dependent on consumer spending is saver bashing. Yes, blaming all of the country's woes on people who don't spend money.

A curious slate of stories has emerged in the news in recent weeks, all bashing people for being frugal and actually using their money to invest, pay off debt, or god forbid, start a savings account.

Here is a round up of my favorite shame-on-you-for-being-thrifty articles that have appeared in recent weeks.

• One of my personal favorites is this one from CNN Money, where the expert says that yes, it's better for the country as a whole if people save more, just not right now and not everybody at once. The author even admits that the U.S. savings rate, although almost 3 percent higher than in recent years, is still paltry by international standards.

"It's not that the savings rate today is high by historic measures, or by comparisons to some other countries. But it has moved sharply higher in recent months -- at a time when what the economy needs most is for consumers to be spending more freely."

• Businessweek does a good job explaining why a savings rate increase is good, just not if people start saving all at once. Just let us remember that we are borrowing money, as a nation, from the countries that do have a higher savings rate. 

"However damaging its short-term impact, there are good reasons for wanting the saving rate to climb over the long term, most importantly the fact that more savings means a bigger pool of capital to finance companies' investment in improved productivity and innovation, says Nicholas S. Souleles, a finance professor at the Wharton School. Without a higher level of savings, innovation and increased productivity would stall, leading to wage stagnation and a lower standard of living in the future. Ideally, savings would build up gradually. The last thing you want to see in the middle of a serious recession is for savings to go up all at once, says Souleles."

• There is also this lovely primer on Keynsian economic theory courtesy of the New York Times. At least this one is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it does raise a good point:

"John Maynard Keynes, the great 20th-century economist, would have appreciated the apparent absurdity in these mixed messages. He coined a phrase, “the paradox of thrift,” to point out that what was rational for an individual during hard times — saving money — could be ruinous for an entire economy. Eventually, many of the savers may end up out of work because everyone else is saving, too."

• If you really want to throw on the guilt, read this Wall Street Journal story about how one family's spending cuts ripple through an entire town. This story, although the intentions were likely good,can't help but leave a "how could you?" taste in your mouth if you so much as dare to cut back on restaurant meals or haircuts. The story follows the layoff of Mr. Smith (his real name.)
  

"Now they realized those carefree spending habits were the first thing that had to go. Mr. Smith stopped perusing the list of new video releases and buying DVDs that would go unwatched for months. Mrs. Smith stopped shopping at Harold's, the upscale clothier that had been a favorite since her days at the University of Oklahoma.

Thousands of other shoppers were making similar decisions to cut back, and the drop in sales sent Harold's, already struggling to compete with larger rivals, underwater. The 60-year-old chain filed for bankruptcy in November, and this month closed all 43 of its stores in 19 states."

The brown bag challenge

Donna Freedman over at MSN Money has proposed a simple, easy money challenge: pack your lunch every day for a month. Then, pay yourself $5 every time you don't go out for coffee or lunch during the workweek. If you transfer that money into an online savings account, you'll have a decent chunk of change at the end of the month. You can use that money to pad your emergency fund or to pay down some debt.

I like this idea because it is a way to cut back without dooming yourself to years and years of no frills drudgery. Food your cook at home is usually healthier than restaurant fare as well.

This does not mean, however, that you are doomed to a month of peanut butter sandwiches. You just have to turn on your noodle and be creative.

Here are some lunch-packing ideas from the Internet:

• For those who love the simple sandwich: what to buy and how to pack it to avoid the mushies.
• RecipeCzar also has some ideas and recipes for exotic, interesting foods that hold up well in a lunchbox
• The Dallas Morning News has a feature, with recipes, to avoid lunchbox blues
• The Dollar Stretcher has some practical, thrifty tips for lunch packers

Here at MPF, we employ a two-pronged strategy to keeping the lunch budget in chec.. First, we stock hubby's desk with ingredients such as peanut butter, crackers, bread, tuna, rice cakes, and other miscellaneous food items every month. That way, if he is caught away from home and forgot his lunch, he still has something to eat.

Second, we try to make large pots of easily-reheated foods several times a week. Since it is winter, we make a lot of big pots of soup such as vegetarian chili, corn chowder, and lentil-mushroom-okra stew. Pot roast with potatoes and carrots, magically made in the crock pot, also do well as weekday lunches. Come summer, hot soup will be replaced with a lot of salad and fruit.

My mother-in-law, who can pinch a nickel until the buffalo poops, claims that packing lunch for her andd her hubby saved them at least $50,000 over the course of their working lives. You may not be able to save that much, but isn't it worth a little extra money in the bank to try it for a month?