This is the Final Issue of Shel Horowitz’s Monthly Frugal Fun Tips

As I’ve mentioned in the past several issues, I set a deadline of March, 2010 for this newsletter to be self-supporting through voluntary donations. You’ve voted with your feet. I have been giving of myself every month in this newsletter all the way back to May, 1997. I’ve told you hundreds of ways to save money on travel, dining, entertainment, kid activities, cheap shopping, recreation, and more. 13 years in, I can’t do it for free anymore, and you don’t want to pay for it. So with this issue, I fold my tent. I’ll still send you the notices of upcoming events and offers, since I’ll be doing that for my paid subscribers to other newsletters—but I’m all done writing this monthly tip. Be sure to scroll down for the final tip; it’s a good one.

If you’d like to say thank-you for all these years of service, and get extremely valuable information a the same time, may I suggest that you purchase one or both of my consumer e-books, both designed to save you many times their very small purchase price:

Painless Green: 111 Tips to Help the Environment, Lower Your Carbon Footprint, Cut Your Budget, and Improve Your Quality of Life-With No Negative Impact on Your Lifestyle, which will help you become more Green and save money

The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty With a Peasant’s Pocketbook, which saves you big bucks on travel, dining, entertainment, and other FUN

NOTE: the above links go to the preview pages. If you want to go directly to the order form, use this link instead.

This Month’s Tip: Be Your Own Food Producer

Here in the Northeastern United States, spring is in the air and people are beginning to think about their gardens. If you’ve never had a garden, or even if you don’t have a place for a garden, think about doing so. Consider this:

• Fresh food tastes a LOT better! Once you’ve tasted the real thing, you may never again be able to choke down a cardboard tomato grown 3000 miles away and gas “ripened” to make it turn something resembling red. Even I was astounded at how much flavor the sunflower seeds we grew last year had when we harvested them. I always thought of sunflower seeds as a somewhat tasteless but nutritious food—boy, was I wrong!
• Local organic food has a much lower carbon footprint. Chemical agriculture uses enormous amounts of petroleum products, and so do transportation and storage.
• Local organic food is also healthier. Fruits and vegetables start losing their nutritional value as soon as they’re separated from the plant, so if you pick as you consume, you get more nutrients. And if you’re growing organically, you don’t contaminate your body with as many toxic pesticide residues (though in our polluted world, your produce may not be 100% pesticide-free). And no farmers or gardeners get sick from the chemicals you’re not applying.
• Tending your garden, you’ll get sun, outside time, and even some exercise—not to mention the joy of adding beauty and function to your own life and to the world.
• Growing your own is frugal.If we pay five bucks for a flat of six tomato plants, and those plants yield 1000 fruits (yes, we’ve gotten those kinds of yields, and more), that means each scrumptious tomato costs us half a cent.

If you have a sunny spot outside, so much the better. But even if you don’t, I have a friend who used to live in a basement apartment in densely populated,urban, cold-in-the-winter Providence, Rhode Island. She managed to grow herbs and dwarf tomatoes on her windowsill, despite the very limited amount of sun. If she can do it, you can do it.

I know your time is important, so start small. The first year, maybe all you want to do is something very limited. Try two tomato plants, one or two basils, and some dill. If you’re more ambitious, add a row of green beans. All of these are easy to grow. Other than snipping the flower stalks off the basil (and pulling up weeds every few days), none of these need much maintenance. If you get hooked, try broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and even a couple of rows of corn and one or two sunflowers. We’ve even grown artichokes!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 9:37 am and is filed under Frugal Fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.