Paid for WDW trip by growing my own food

[magicmomms]

We are smack dab in the middle of Kansas, so we definitely get all 4 seasons fully here. Thanks so much for the book suggestions, I will definitely check those out! Also, I think it would be great to start one and have my 2 older kids help out (they are 7 and 4) and teach them more responsibility and throw in a science/life lesson in it, the baby will be turning 1 soon, so I'm hoping he would enjoy being out helping too (as long as he is with me (mom), he is happy!)

Good luck with it! My little girl loves it. Some of her favorites are digging up potatoes and carrots. Watching the pumpkins grow big and change color. Looking for the biggest tomato. Seeing all the animals, bugs, birds. I make most things a competition so she gets into it. Whoever digs up the biggest potato gets to pick dessert- that sort of thing.

We have a lot of deer that wreck gardens here. We have been kicking around the idea of a greenhouse. Yes, it's 1K, but if we grew more expensive organic items like strawberries, pear tomatoes, herbs, and lettuce, I feel like it would pay for itself that first year.

We have deer too- but with the fence and dog they stay out, and eat from the meadow. Do you have a fence? A fancy greenhouse is a nice luxury, but you could do a coldframe. Look them up and get ideas. People around here make theirs out of old windows or new building supplies on the cheap. Mother Earth News has an article on building your own green house from old windows and they look nice. You won't need a heated greenhouse which is so expensive. We also have row covers- look into them. They keep a lot out. Good luck

 

[kymom99]

We have a lot of deer that wreck gardens here. We have been kicking around the idea of a greenhouse. Yes, it's 1K, but if we grew more expensive organic items like strawberries, pear tomatoes, herbs, and lettuce, I feel like it would pay for itself that first year.

We get a lot of deer, too. A couple years ago we started doing the garden in the old pony pasture. (No more ponies.) It has a wooden fence around it. The deer could probably jump over it, but they haven't tried so far. Last year my husband caught a possum in a humane trap. It was ruining our tomatoes.

 

[Colleen27]

We have had success with the Square Foot Gardening method ( http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ there is plenty of info to get one started). It does not use your existing soil. Actually, you could do it on concrete if you wanted to... It uses raised beds with a "soil" mixture that you mix yourself (or you can buy if in the US).

I use that method as my starting point too and have had great success. I'm gardening a 1/4 acre city lot, so for me the space-saving growing methods and succession planting tips are a huge help in getting the most out of the space I do have.

 

[teller80]

this has brought my food bills from (so embarrased to say this) 1,200-1,700 dollars a month to $250-$500 a month.

So you went from spending between $14,000/$20,000 a year to $3000/$6000 a year? No wonder you didn't have money for a vacation.

 

[magicmomms]

I know! Its really embarrassing!

 

[magicmomms]

What a waste that was, wish I caught on sooner.

 

[pjlla]

So you went from spending between $14,000/$20,000 a year to $3000/$6000 a year? No wonder you didn't have money for a vacation.

Honestly??? $1,200 a month for groceries doesn't sound that extreme to me. Especially if, like me and my family, it is literally 3 meals a day, 7 days a week (no eating out, no school lunches, no Dunkin Donuts stops for coffee, no take-out).

My grocery bill tends to be all over the charts, depending on the growing season (we also garden and get free produce from my parents occasionally as well), how many I am feeding (DD is a full-time college student, but I still buy her groceries occasionally and of course, feed her when she is here), whether there was a holiday in the month (where I may have fed company or where we may have eaten away from home), how carefully I am shopping prices (sometimes I just feel too busy to bother to track every sale and coupon), etc..... but I would say for my family of 3/4 adults (depending on who is home), I would say I average $1,000 - $1,200 a month EASILY.

That being said, we eat a very healthy diet here, full of fresh produce year round (but try to stick with what is in season.... no strawberries in January, thank you).... but we also eat meatless several days a week.... beans are cheap, but premade veggie burgers are not so we do both (lentil soup today!!). And I have a 17 y/o DS with a good appetite and some food allergies, so I do a bit of "special" shopping for him. And lastely, I buy a LOT of organics (milk, produce, some meats).

Just chiming in.................P

 

[magicmomms]

You make good points. We buy organic meat and dairy too. We don't eat a lot of meat, but do eat a ton of eggs. This is the reason we got chickens this year. We have two adults and a toddler who somehow lives on air. lol When I first started cutting down my food bill I thought I couldn't possible cut down the price. But each month it got easier. I don't coupon much at all, we don't eat a lot from the middle aisles, and when I do shop there I like to buy my organic brands which is costly. But what I found was being better about wasting food helped fix my bill, also doing things myself. I don't buy two loaves of bread from the bakery each week- I make it for a few quarters. I make my yogurt (which saves a ton). I make our ice-cream, popsicles and waffles now (as opposed to the frozen ones). I make our own juices from bulk fruit and we drink a lot less. I make the bagels and cookies and the soup stock. We cut back on beer. (I can hear all the men cringing and gasping for air!) I stopped buying the herbs/seasonings for the most part. I buy oils/nuts/grains in bulk which cuts down some cents. All that sort of stuff saves us a little, but all those little savings adds up. I am a SAHM, so it's no problem for me to do these things- I just have to stay organized and on top of everything. I bought a planner/agenda lol. This lifestyle would be hard for a full-time worker- but it would be doable, just more exhausting.

 

[queenbetsey]

we love to garden too. I would love to learn how to make my own pasta sauces and learn how to can them. any tips?

 

[magicmomms]

we love to garden too. I would love to learn how to make my own pasta sauces and learn how to can them. any tips?

Well, we use a canner so we just can tomatoes instead of a sauce. If you want to can tomato-pasta sauce then you will need a pressure canner. The reason is onions/garlics/seasonings effect the processing ph and I don't have a pressure canner so I don't do that one. I blanch the tomatoes in boiling water to remove the skins first. I use Ball's Blue book on recipe/processing times for canning tomatoes in a water bath- then when I open a can of tomatoes I crush them and add garlic/onion/seasoning the day I need it to make sauce. It's not a perfect system, but I dont have a pressure canner yet- so it has to do.

If you are starting out there is a much easier process. I learned about it from Martha Stewart. Put fresh tomatoes in a ziplock bag and remove as much air as you can. Then pop in the freezer. Easy done. Then when you need them take them out (they are like frozen marbles at this point) defrost them or run them under water- the skin peels right off! The flavor/quality declines after 6 months, but we still eat them like that after 6 months and they are fine. We use frozen tomatoes to add in to soup or stews, as a base for chili, or pasta sauce. It's a bit of work but its worth it. The flavor is much better than anything that can be bought.

 

[kymom99]

we love to garden too. I would love to learn how to make my own pasta sauces and learn how to can them. any tips?

Our secret is Mrs. Wage's packets. Great pickles, pasta sauce, and salsa. so so pizza sauce

 

[scrapquitler]

I just thought I'd share how I financed my family's first WDW trip by growing a lot of food in our backyard. I grew $2,000 worth of food in a year ( I suspect this year will be the same or more as I am learning and expanding the garden.) And those two years of work, have freed up 4 grand we can use on vacation.

I have been wanting to take my child and husband (since they haven't been), but money is tight. So I got proactive and set up an excell chart to show how much food I grow and what it's market value is worth, tilled up a plot of soil and got started growing. I grew about 1500# of food in my 2,000 square foot garden. I really could have done more, but I love to have a big pumpkin patch for Halloween decorating. Once I showed DH the numbers he was impressed and we started working out the WDW trip. It will be our first family vacation ever, and everyone is so excited! We are splurging, got a DVC rental at Animal Kingdom with a Savannah view and plan on eating really well with lots of character meals for DD4.

I learned so much about the booking process from this site, I thought I would give back a bit and help anyone who wants to start growing- or learn from what I did. Some other things that saved me huge amounts of money without gardening is tracking our food expenses each month. I keep a notebook with (for example) how much I spend on yogurt a month..It was crazy Ya'll! $80 a month on yogurt cups. So I nixed that cost and now make it for $10 a month. Thats a savings of $840 for the year and some months we were spending $150 a month on yogurt. That is crazy. We switched on a lot of things like that. SO my savings have really been more than $4,000. Lucky for me I have a nerdy personality and like tracking everything. lol

The biggest garden savings besides growing all my tomatoes for the year with canning and drying (which is work), is herbs/seasonings and lettuce.

With herbs if you do the math for a little container of dried oregano or whatever it comes out to like $85 a pound! Crazy!!! So while those foods aren't essential, I was buying them. A few dollars here and there don't seem like much, but added up, are a lot. I grow all of my own green herbs in bulk for really very little effort and then hang dry them in the house and store them in mason jars. I never have to run to the store either.

Spices- I grow all my own chili powders, pepper flakes, paprikas and the likes for pennies. Dry them and grind them up in a coffee grinder (reserved for this purpose) and store in mason jars. My spices are much better too.

Lettuce is a few dollars at the store but we never can eat it all before it wilts/rots. A packet of 1,000 lettuce seeds is $2 and it's easy to grow with minimal attention. I plant thousands of seeds and pull off the outer leaves of the lettuce as I need them, that way there is no waste and the plant keeps growing more lettuce, as opposed to cut once and be done. I let it keep growing all season. My toddler will eat our lettuce, but not the grocery store- the taste and texture are very different.

Green beans are very easy to grow and put out so much food, I imagine I will always grow these.

Onions have saved me a good deal of money, because I was always making runs to the store when I ran out, but having a few hundred to a thousand at home, eliminates the extra trip. Probably saves me from impulse buys as well.

This year we added a chicken coop, and our raising chickens for eggs. They are a lot of fun too.

I grow everything you can think of from okra, beans, squash, tomatoes, greens, melons, cole crops, potatoes, roots, fruits...everything! I just don't grow grains, because they need a lot of space to be worth it. I save my own seed from most things so I have lots of seed to grow the next year with. It was a process at first but has been really worth it.

Some other benefits are my daughter eats fruits and vegetables, none of us our deficient in vit d anymore, and my husband and I lost 40# together. All these changes after 1 year...and don't forget...I get my Disney trip!

I hope this has helped someone...my fingers are cramping! lol

This is fabulous! Great job!

 

[DizMe]

We have not had much success with our garden. We always put in beans, tomatoes, cukes, squash, and that kind of easy-to-grow stuff. We have not had great luck with other things. My dh has spent a small fortune trying to make our garden nice and I finally told him it was a whole lot cheaper just to buy organic veggies from the local farmer's market. He has invested in worm castings, special soil, mulch, drip system, deer fence, etc etc not to mention the plants and seeds. We're on a well so it adds to the high cost of electricity in the summer. Now, of course, we also have the drought (we're in the central valley in California). Where we live, there is lots of fresh fruits and vegetables for not much money so it isn't as cost effective to grow our own, especially since we don't seem to be very good at it! The birds and squirrels eat the majority of our tree crops (almonds, apples, peaches, pears, cherries, and apricots). It's embarrassing how bad we are at gardening. We get a lot of lemons, though

 

[queenbetsey]

thanks guys, yeah we freeze a lot of tomatoes and zucchini, for the zucchini I grate a bunch of it up and grate an apple into it and package it up in 2 cup packages for zucchini bread all year. I have a friend who has a granny smith tree that goes crazy every year and make up apple sauce and freeze it also. my inlaws got us a really good sized chest freezer when we bought our house way back when so I am very lucky to have the ability to do that. I will try to freeze the tomatoes whole this year. (I have been dicing them) I have made sauces and frozen those but would like to can some this year. I also found a new squash to try called blue hubbard looking forward to trying those next fall. from what I have read about them they have a really long shelf life too. groceries are expensive and when all the kids were at home my bill was really high too. like a thousand bucks and this was back 10 plus years ago so your numbers sound about right especially since you eat at home all the time like we did and still do for the most part.

 

[holycow]

This is so great! Thanks for sharing all of your info. I'm wondering what seeds you use. I'd like to find heirloom varieties but I'm not much of a gardener yet!
In the past I've killed everything I've planted or a wind storm comes through and blows everything away.

Also, I took a class on canning 2 years ago to be inspired. They recommended dehydrating the peppers and garlic then canning it. (make sure you dehydrate outside she said. Stinks up the whole house)

 

[magicmomms]

I also found a new squash to try called blue hubbard looking forward to trying those next fall. from what I have read about them they have a really long shelf life too. groceries are expensive and when all the kids were at home my bill was really high too. like a thousand bucks and this was back 10 plus years ago so your numbers sound about right especially since you eat at home all the time like we did and still do for the most part.

That's great- just keep trying new things and adding to what you do. We grow blue hubbard and it does last a very long time. Up to three years. That's only if you let it fully mature on the vine..a lot of people pick theirs too early- those ones won't last long before rotting. Blue hubbard needs a LOT of water so don't be stingy...and the blue colored squash need a lot of sun and heat (I think most of the blue colored squash come from Australia region where its hot for a long time). So replicate that as best you can. They will need even more time than orange pumpkins.

 

[magicmomms]

This is so great! Thanks for sharing all of your info. I'm wondering what seeds you use. I'd like to find heirloom varieties but I'm not much of a gardener yet!
In the past I've killed everything I've planted or a wind storm comes through and blows everything away.

Also, I took a class on canning 2 years ago to be inspired. They recommended dehydrating the peppers and garlic then canning it. (make sure you dehydrate outside she said. Stinks up the whole house)

Wow! That's great I have never heard about dehydrating the peppers and garlic first. Thanks! I buy seeds from many vendors, I swap seeds with friends across the country and I grow out my own. Some places you can trust:

Baker Creek
Seed Savers Exchange
Territorial Seeds
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Sandhill Preservation
Johnny's seeds

These are my go to places, although I order from other places too. Most of these places give free catalogues- so check them out online and order one. You can get seeds the cheapest at Sandhill, then Baker Creek. The most expensive is Territorial- their shipping is ridiculous expensive.

 

[rnorwo1]

This would be a great ongoing thread where we could all learn from one another, share tips, etc!

I grew up gardening and raising animals for food, and I hated it so much I swore I would never do it. Well, between the high prices of organic, free range eggs and my growing sense of unease about how little my kids know about "doing" things, we got a few chicks about 6 months ago. That has been the best thing for us! My kids have new, meaningful chores, they're responsible for lives, it is so much fun collecting eggs, etc. We have tons of land (and coyotes, bobcats, etc), so DH built a chicken tractor. It's like a fort, so they're definitely secure at night, and we can move it around so they have fresh ground every day, so it's just like free ranging. But, when we are home and can keep an eye on them, they do free range. They just seem so happy, and I feel terrible when they're cooped up. DH built a very nice tractor out of scrap wood, so all it cost us was about $60 for the hardware cloth (chicken wire would allow raccoon hands to grab them) and the hardware, and since they free range a good bit, they don't eat much feed. We also feed them scraps such as apples that are too mushy for our tastes. They really could live off of just scraps, but I believe their eggs will be healthiest when they're eating a natural diet, so I don't give them a big variety of leftovers. We did lose one to some stray dogs who wandered by, and that was devastating. Yes, we love our chickens! We have 3 gold sex-linked and 2 black sex-linked, and we pretty much get an egg a day from each. I've loved being able to bring friends and family a dozen eggs occasionally! Warning: chickens can be addictive! I really would like to get many more, but we are getting plenty of eggs and DH is keeping me in check.

Now, I want to move on to gardening, but I've been too intimidated to start. I'm going to get herbs this week and get started with that. I also want to start a compost pile/bin, but I'm confused... I thought people just dumped everything in there, but I've been reading about percentages of greens to brown, and now I'm scared to make toxic compost!

Anyway, thanks for posting, and I hope we can keep this going so I'll stay motivated to start my garden and learn how to do it!

 

[magicmomms]

Anyway, thanks for posting, and I hope we can keep this going so I'll stay motivated to start my garden and learn how to do it!

Chickens are addicting! I want more too! I love their personalities. My hubby didn't want to do the chx thing, but he's totally into it now- he wants more chickens too. lol We have Easter Eggers (that lay blue green eggs), Plymouth Rocks, and Orpingtons. I wouldn't get the Rocks again- they are pretty skittish. No free ranging here, but jealous how much better your eggs probably taste. Too many animals in the woods waiting. Bobcats? Wow! And I thought our bear was scary.

If it were me buying herbs for the first time to try and grow I would buy a few in seed form and a few as plants.

Seeds-basil, cilantro
plants- mint (spreads, plant somewhere that is ok), oregano, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, parsley..ect

Buying basil and cilantro in plant form is a waste of money because they go to seed so quickly. A pack of seed cost a few dollars and you can sprinkle the seed out and get hundreds of plants. A half pack of basil seed grows me 8 grocery bags of basil leaves- maybe more if you put fish fertilizer on the picked plants and let them grow more. Cilantro goes to seed so quick- I plant cilantro in succession every week- so every week I have fresh cilantro to use (and don't forget to eat the stems they are wonderful).

The rest buy in plant form. They will come back for years. If you want them to really grow add chicken manure to the soil or fish fertilizer to the leaves.

Leave your best plants untouched- let it go to seed, and when it dries collect the seed and you will never have to buy more seed again. You get a lot of seed too. Save seed from many plants though- to get the best variety of genetics for future plants.

 

[kymom99]

I wish you had posted this last spring! I bought basil and cilantro plants and the cilantro was "done" in a couple weeks! The basil lasted longer, but still....wasted money, just like you said! Do you plant your herbs in containers or in the garden with everything else?