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  • Couponing like crazy!
  • Turning Junk into Treasure!
  • Saving Plastic Bottles from Landfills!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Hobbies; How to pay for them??

 I am an avid gardener. It brings me so much joy and peace. With my dad being sick, he has cancer, I have been an emotional disaster this past month. because of that, I have ended up in my flower beds a lot the past few days! It is so therapeutic and helps me to center. The minute the flowers started blooming, I ran outside and grabbed my trowel!
 The only problem is that decorative gardening is very expensive! As with all of my priorities, I find a way to pay for them! Sacrificing or cutting corners elsewhere. Doing without other things that are less important. There is always a way, my friends, to accomplish those things that are important to you! Whether your hobby is scrapbooking, gardening, running organized races, cooking, etc. You can make it happen! It just might take some creativity!
 Let's talk today about how to create a beautiful flower bed when funds are tight. Well, for starters, you can of course use your coupons effectively and save money from groceries and household that you can apply toward your favorite plants and flowers. But it doesn't end there.
 After your initial investment into perennials (which are usually more expensive) you will be reaping the benefits year after year. Not only that, they will usually reproduce and spread, needing to be thinned every few years.
 I am utilizing several existing plants to create new flower beds and potting arrangements. For instance, I was looking for a cascading plant to put around the rims of several pots. As I was doing research on the subject  online, I found that one of the most popular, most often used cascading plants was a ground cover I just happened to have voluminous amounts of in my existing flower beds and was planning to thin anyway as it is taking over!
 What a lucky realization! I have already transferred lots of it to my flower pots. I have several other plants that have reproduced and I am moving them about to other areas of the yard and into my potting arrangements. So, as with lots of other problems we try to resolve, look around the house for creative, cost free solutions!
 Here's yet another idea: Share! Exchange! Get to know your neighbors and find out who the green thumbs are. You'll all be thinning and dividing plants, so why not swap with each other for more variety?? I have done this with many friends and neighbors and it has been so helpful! Talk about a cost effective practice!
 Not only will save money and add variety to your yard, you will develop stronger relationships and be able to share knowledge and experience, learning all kinds of great, helpful tips!
 Maybe you want to form your own plant society within your community. Maybe you want to set it up like a weekly/monthly book club during the warm months. Or like a cookie exchange, with everyone bringing their extras, enough for everyone to get one plant, and all taking home one from each member.
 Get creative and have fun with it!
 Just one more idea: I've talked about this before and will recommend it yet again! It will require patience, which if you are anything like me, is very difficult!
Wait till fall!!! All of the planting materials will go on clearance. You can really make a killing by waiting! Not only that, if you poke around the stores' dumpsters, you will likely find plants that the store has given up on! If you're a real gardener, with a powerful or even moderate green thumb, you will it is totally possible to revive most of the plants they throw out. I have gotten many that way and most of them have survived and flourished.
 Like I said, whatever your hobby or pastime, that activity that brings you peace in the middle of a chaotic world, is worth finding a way to afford!

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