Saving on the Grocery Bill

One of my newest projects that will help save our family money is GARDENING!  Now, I live in a quiet neighborhood in a rented house.  Therefore, I cannot go out in my backyard with a tiller and make me a traditional garden.  I started exploring and researching other ways to grow stuff!  Many of the fruits, veggies, and herbs we consume can be grown in containers.  That's so exciting to me!!  I thought I would share with you what I have so far and how we will use this to save money as well as teach my children a few things about saving money and planting and growing things.          



Of course the very first thing I wanted was herbs!  These things cost a fortune in the grocery stores.  Also, you buy a bottle for that new recipe you want to try out and never use it again.  More money down the drain...  So, here is the beginning of my very first herb garden.  By the way, I bought one of the little kits at Wal-Mart for $5.97 that had everything I needed in it instead of purchasing the individual plants which would have cost me over $40 for everything needed.






The next thing I did was start researching and talking to my BFF (she is gardening too!) about all the things that I would like to have that we would actually eat!  That list is growing every day and I don't know where in the world I will put all these plants!  One thing that we use a lot of is potatoes.  We use regular russets, sweet potatoes, and several other varieties.  I found an article online that tells you how to grow a sweet potato from one purchased in the grocery store.  I plan on trying this with a russet as well, but I found another great video tutorial on how to plant potatoes in containers or bags.  I found "seed potatoes" in the Garden Center at Wal-Mart so I will be using those.  You can plant them in any container you want to!  I'm excited to try it. 

Here is what you will need to sprout your sweet potato:

2 small bowls or glasses of water
1 sweet potato
8 toothpicks

Insert the toothpicks, as shown, into the sweet potato to hold it above the bottom of the bowl and place containers with potatoes in them under a lamp.  Soon, you will see the "eyes" sprout into plants and roots begin to grow from the bottom!


More info to come as my potato grows!  I will let you know if this works the way I anticipate and if it also works the same way with a russett potato.  Wish me luck!! :)