Gardening the easy way.

Don’t have time to work in the soil or a place for a garden.  Here is a great idea its called container gardening.  And it can be accomplished in few easy steps:

1. Find containers, these can be old pots, buckets or anything that will hold dirt you can put holes in the bottom of.  We found these ones at a greenhouse for cheap and garage sell, we spent less than 5 dollars on 25 containers.
2. Get some dirt.  If you do several containers you can buy it in bulk or if your garden is smaller they have bags at the greenhouse.  I would recommend spending a little extra and get dirt that is desined for pots.  This type of soil is much better at holding water, so you water less (saving money and time) and your garden does better.
3. Plant your plants, tomatos do really well and we have had luck with squash zucchini, peppers and cucumber.                                                                                                                                         We tried watermelon last year and got one watermelon, but it was not as good as we hoped.  This year we are growing some herbs. Enjoy your fresh produce at cost of pennies on the dollar.

T.P.

Being a cheapskate doesn’t mean you need to go without, it just means we need to look for ways of saving money on things that don’t really matter.  Here is a great example.  

Having good toilet paper is important, but I always get sticker shock when I buy it.  I can’t believe we pay so much to clean so little.  So here is a great idea, step on the roll making it no longer round but more oval shaped and this will make is so it doesn’t come out as fast, this well help you, and maybe the less conservative in your house hold, use less per stop by making you think about each square.   Not being able to pull it out by the yard will make you think about how much this is costing you. 

Home-made cards

Love sending gift cards but have a hard time paying 5 bucks! Me too.  My sister loves to make cards for all occasions. The biggest cost of the card is the paper, but if you look for sales that can save you money.  The best way is to go to your local thrift store to the book collection, find a old book with interesting pages, now for about 25 cents you have 200 pages of card material.   Here is a cool card I found in a quick google search where they used an old piece of music.  Compare that to the one bellow.

LOOKS LIKE A 4 DOLLAR RIP OFF NOW!

Are you a real cheapskate? Take this quiz

How much of a cheapskate are you?  Here is a fun quiz to see if you’re a supper cheapskate.  Mark as many as apply to you on each question.

1. When you visit a hotel, which of the following do you do?
1. Name your own price asking for ½ off the original cost
2. Each night put away the shampoo bottles so they cleaners will leave more
3. Have an all you can eat free breakfast, saving some fruit for a snack later
4. You have never stayed at a hotel, you always stay at the KOA
5. Rather than staying at a hotel you own a 1972 pop up tent, and any piece of grass will do for a great place to stay
2. When you want to buy the most recent electronic gizmo you?
1. Search online for the best deal
2. Look for one used on craigslist
3. Find a fake one out of china on ebay
4. Wait 6 months and watch 100 dollars come off the price
5. You use cardboard to make a similar looking item and then show it off to your friends, saving your self the total cost.
3. When you go to grocery shopping you
1. Have a list of what food is cheapest where
2. Cut out 10,000s of coupons
3. You buy in bulk or from warehouse stores on products you use often
4. You buy dried beans rather than canned saving ½ the cost.
5. You buy off the day old rack and then freeze the product to save it for later

How many did you mark:

0-5 your may not be a cheapskate

5-10 your doing ok, and are a self respecting cheapskate

10-15 salute to the cheapskate master!

Save water in the bathroom without taking a shorter shower!

Why is it when we talk about anything we waste, it all goes down the drain?  Especially water, it all goes down the drain?  Here is an old tip to save water.  Next time you have an empty carton of milk hold on to it. Then fill it up with water and put it in the toilet tank.  If a gallon is too big try a smaller bottle. This keeps from flushing all that water down the drain every time you flush.  

This idea works best when you’re a renter because you can’t replace the toilets hardware to the more efficient type.  When you own a home its a wise idea to invest in efficient toilets that have enough thrust but save the water.

Easy fire starters

Do you like camping but want an easier and cheaper way to get your fires started?  Fire starting logs can cost 5-7 dollars for a small pack.  There is a better way.  Save an old egg carton and sweep up the saw dust from your last wood working product.  Put the saw dust in the egg carton and then pour melted wax or paraffin over the dust filling each cup about ½ full.  Let set and then cut up into pieces.  Next time you camping simple light one of these eggs and you have a good 15 minuets of flame.  This makes starting a fire a snap, even when the wood may be wet.  This additionally works with lint form 

When life gives you lemons, which happens at just about every restaurant, make lemonade with their free sugar!

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This is a simple math equations lemon + sugar + water = Lemonade.  How can you get free lemonade in almost any restaurant?  It is simple order a glass of water to drink and ask for them to bring you lemons.  I have never been charged for this.  

Squeeze a few lemons into your glass and then grab the free sugar packets at the end of the table, add on and stir.  You now have free fresh squeezed lightly sweetened lemonade.