I’ve been redecorating my bedroom this past week and in the process I have been hunting for rugs, bookshelves, paint, and much more. Here are 10 places to look for frugal or free items.
1. Your garage. Chances are you have a few half-full cans of paint or a funky old lamp that would add personality to your room. Perhaps you can transform a boring old piece into something new and exciting with a coat of paint.
2. Join your local Freecycle Network to get rid of your trash and collect other people’s treasure. Plus, you’ll feel good keeping items out of landfills.
3. Craigslist free pages. It’s amazing what people will give away. Their for-sale prices can be great, too!
4. Home Depot. I spent $9 building a bookshelf out of cinderblocks, above. Now to secure it to my wall. UPDATE: A friend helped me drill two brackets into each shelf, making the bookshelf much more sturdy.
5. IKEA. Some of the best deals at IKEA are on the ground floor and not heavily advertised. They sell sturdy planks of wood for $15 each and the wall mounts are a few bucks each (about $3). This allows you to customize storage space for very cheap!
6. Borrow or rent tools. Surely you know another home owner who’s itching to loan their tile saw in hopes they’ll never see it again!
7. Garage sales. Head to sales in upscale neighborhoods and the hipster parts of town for the best and most unique selection.
8. Thrift shops like Goodwill, Out of the Closet, and Salvation Army do not lack for furniture and furnishings. Just make sure to thoroughly check out the items as they are not usually returnable.
9. eBay. Review seller ratings and return policies carefully.
10. Recycling centers/reuse groups. These can be harder to find, but major metro areas usually have a handful of organizations that re-sell used windows, doors, and other building materials.
Here’s the update about what’s happened to my recession garden in the past month.
- My zucchini and green bean seeds, above, have taken off! The growth is visible each day, which makes it very fun to inspect them every morning. I’ve already had to pick off a few small yellow eggs clustering underneath the leaves, however.
- This weekend I hope to hang twine from the top of the fence for the green beans to attach to and begin climbing!
- Caterpillars are still pillaging my mint, below. The plant’s growth has slowed and many, many leaves have holes. I fixed a solution of water and cayenne pepper,
as reader Jennifer suggested, and prepared to spray it all over the leaves. Except that hardly any came out because the cayenne clogged the sprayer! So I ended up pouring the reddish solution over all the visible caterpillar eggs. A lot ended up in the dirt. I’m crossing my fingers that this will do the caterpillars in while not killing the plant. If the mint survives and I harvest the leaves for mojitos, I can just imagine my guests saying, “This is the spiciest mint I’ve ever tasted!” - My sage and rosemary are growing fine. The new sage leaves are not bug-eaten, which makes me hope the caterpillars are leaving them alone. The rosemary is big enough to harvest a sprig.
Related:
My recession garden: attack of the caterpillars
Growing food instead of grass: recession garden
All hopes resting on…vegetables
A recession garden may NOT save you money
Reader tips on recession gardens
One month after planting my recession garden
One of my favorite online TV “channels” is SpendLessTV, which currently has a great video interview with Pam Ruch, an editor at Organic Gardening Magazine. Pam shares a few tips on starting your own organic garden that I found helpful.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnQHZvsHUbU
Thanks, Hubby!
I hesitated to expand my recession garden because holey leaves and small black dots began appearing on my otherwise healthy mint plant. If I couldn’t take care of mint, which some consider a weed, what luck would I have with anything else? But I needed a ceiling hook to hang an indoor plant so I picked up two packets of seeds at Home Depot. (Total cost: $2.25.)
What to plant? Readers suggested I plant tomatoes, artichokes and snap peas, among others. But I chose two of my favorite vegetables that I remember growing well in my parent’s garden as a child: zucchini and green beans. I put a few seeds in each of five pots. (I’d show you a picture but it’s pretty boring.)
While planting these seeds I took a closer look at my suffering mint plant. Yesterday I shook all the black dots off the leaves, but they had 
reappeared already. Who was to blame? I shook the leaves again because a gardener told me that dislodging aphids was often enough to kill them. Maybe that would work on this pest, too.
Then I spotted a bright green squiring caterpillar. Aha! I scooped it into a glass dish and quickly found 9 more – including two clinging to the underside of my mint plant. Darn you, caterpillars!
I will keep a sharp eye out for any more. As for these guys, they met a watery end. Flush!
Related posts:
Growing food instead of grass: recession garden
All hopes resting on…vegetables
A recession garden may NOT save you money
Reader tips on recession gardens
One month after planting my recession garden
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<— FOUR WEEKS
AFTER PLANTING
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FIRST DAY
IN THE SOIL —>
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It’s been exactly four weeks since I planted my recession herb garden and I’m pleased to report that my mint, sage and rosemary, are getting much bigger. The mint is starting to take over, as readers cautioned it would, so tonight I may pluck a few leaves to make mojitos!
I water the herbs every 3-4 days and they get a good dose of sun on our deck. I took the picture on the left this morning. The one on the right is the day I planted them. How the little guys have grown!
Since my first attempt at recession gardening is going well I’d like to expand. What do you suggest I plant?
I’d like something that grows well in pots (I don’t have a yard, sadly) and that is edible, of course. Thanks for your suggestions!
Another garden tip:
It’s time to plant eggplant, which requires a long warm season, says Lowe’s Learn2Grow newsletter. “No matter what type you choose, eggplant requires a long warm season – and now is the time to plant!”
Get free tomato seeds from Campbells Soup. Warning: the page takes several minutes to load.
A few weeks ago my friend started a recession garden to calm her fears about the recession. If she got laid off and couldn’t find a job, at least she had food. Now “sprouties” are appearing in her tiny patch of dirt and she is ecstatic. Green beans! Radishes! Lettuce! She has never enjoyed eating lettuce so much.
“Now the seeds are all sown and, like a miracle, food is growing in my yard,” my friend wrote in the LA Daily News, where she works. “Along with the green things, I regrew some sense of purpose. ”
If you are interested in gardening and/or coping with economic stress, I highly recommend reading her story.
I live in an apartment so I’m starting my recession garden small: a single planter box of mint, sage, and rosemary (from top to bottom).
My three plants cost me $7.77 at OSH, which has a very lenient plant return policy. I kicked myself after I bought them because I remembered I still have $50 on a Home Depot gift card. Drat!
Buying herbs at the grocery store costs $1 to $1.50, which means I need to harvest five to eight batches of herbs to break even. I already had the dirt and the planter, so I am not taking into account those costs. I hope the mint does especially well because I love to make mojitos.
How is your recession garden growing? Email me a picture of yours with a comment about the plants and I will post the best on the blog!
More recession garden resources:
Growing food instead of grass: recession gardening
How a garden can save you $500
A recession garden may NOT save you money
Reader tips on recession gardens
A reader named Carrie claimed the second and final $25 Starbucks gift card, which I gave out to celebrate Bargain Babe’s one month anniversary. The contest ran over the past month so now the site is two months old. Congrats, Carrie!
You can still sign up for my free email updates, even though the contest has ended.
Carrie was sweet enough to share some of her favorite deals when claiming her prize. She writes:
Just thought I would take this opportunity to thank you for all the information you have passed on to me and the other “bargain hunters” out there. I especially appreciate the Amazon “Subscribe and Save” information you mentioned in a Bargain Hunter blog. I wasn’t sure if you wanted ideas for other bargains, so I’m passing these ideas to you for consideration.
Freedom Gardens – My husband and I have been working on a “Victory Garden” since last year, slowly converting our garden into edible landscape. I have found an amazing resource through freedomgardens.org (kind of a facebook for gardeners all over the world). It has allowed us to connect with like-minded local urban homesteaders. Once you join FreedomGardens.org (for free), you select the groups you want to participate in. Our local “SoCal Gardeners” group on that site hosts a monthly vegetarian potluck, swap, movie, and chance to connect with like-minded locals for $10 per person.
Path to Freedom – The creators of Freedom Gardens.org are an inspiration in themselves. Check out pathtofreedom.com to learn more about their “Little Homestead in the City”, or see them on You Tube “Homegrown Revolution — Radical Change Taking Root: http://www.youtube.com/user/dervaes. Positive answers to how to live more green, and be more self-sufficient one-step-at-a-time.
Oh Fancy That! – I hate that our economy is making things tough on little shops around our country, and would encourage customers to support those shops — the ones you don’t want to disappear. One of my favorite shops is Oh Fancy That! a fantastic source for British imports. Jean Karasek’s shop carries an assortment of British foods, knickknacks, greeting cards, china and teas including PG Tips (my favorite). Quite a few people get their British “comfort” foods there—many things you can’t find in local stores — and seasonal merchandise like crackers (those popper-things that have treats inside). I got a children’s tea set in a carrying case for about $20 around Christmas. Oh Fancy That! is located at 18399 Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana. 818-996-4405.
Readers left so many great comments on my recession garden post last week that I wanted to point out some of the best. If you don’t already read the comments, click on the comments link at the bottom of each post. Bargain Babe readers have a lot of info to share!
FrugalDad said:
Tomato plants need lost of sun and water. They are suscpetable to a yellowing fungus disease; if you see this, cut off the diseased part immediately. Improve your soil by composting kitchen and yard waste.
WWillowbeth suggested taking a Master Gardner class, which are offered at state universities:
Katie said she had good luck growing herbs, which can be expensive to buy:
You can buy these for fairly cheap and already started from places like Lowes, Osh, Home Depot, etc. It’s great because when you buy them already started (but young) you can use them right away and more will still grow. It saves so much money vs. buying fresh herbs from the grocery store or farmers market because you just cut off what you need (less waste!). Also, several different kinds of herbs can be planted together in a large pot. Wonderful for patios and small spaces!
Patricia has a tip for buying plants in LA:
For Bargain Hunters…the healthiest and most economic seedlings can be purchased at some local Farmer’s Markets from “Peter” (Culver City, Torrance Wilson Park). Vegetables seedlings are 6 for $5.00.
Sarahliz recommended two books that have greened her thumb:
For someone who’s serious about getting into vegetable gardening I’d highly recommend two books: Steve Solomon’s Gardening when it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times and Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. They present two completely different philosophies on gardening but I think the information from both is really solid and useful. Taken together they give a lot of solid information that can help you develop your own gardening philosophy.
Find your County Extention Service! http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/
Every county in the US has one, all associated with a State University. The have Master Gardener programs that can help you get started, give free advice, offer you free classes on gardening, water use and composting. They can tell you what to plant and when. You will have a green thumb in no time.