Keeping your family out of harm’s way is your top priority. But what we consider to be a haven of safety, our home, can be dangerous place.

According to the National Safety Council, preventable injuries and deaths continue to rise in homes and communities.

Here are five things that you can do today to make your home a safer place for your most precious asset – your family.

1. Smoke Alarms – According to the Nation Fire Protection Association (NFPA), two-thirds of all home fire deaths occurred in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. Install smoke alarms on every level of your house including the basement and garage/workshop. Also consider placing one in every bedroom for extra protection. Test the batteries every month and be diligent about replacing batteries every six months.

2. Carbon Monoxide Detectors – Because carbon monoxide (CO) is colorless and odorless it often goes undetected. But it can be found near any fuel burning device. A person can be poisoned by a small amount of CO over a longer period of time or by a large amount of CO over a shorter amount of time. To guard against this silent killer install carbon monoxide detectors in a central location near all sleeping areas and on every level of the home.

3. Fire Extinguishers – Fire extinguishers are effective at putting out small, contained fires. Make sure all home occupants know how to properly use the fire extinguisher. Install them near exits and keep your back to a clear exit when attempting to put out the fire. If the room fills with smoke exit immediately.

4. Flashlights – Keep flashlights readily accessible near bedsides and in living areas and check the batteries regularly.

5. Emergency Plan – You should make your plan now, before you need it. Cover all emergencies such as fire, carbon monoxide alarm triggering, and extreme weather events such as floods and tornadoes. Establish at least two exits from every room and rehearse the plan regularly with all home occupants.

Most of these items you already have in your home, you simply need to perform regular checks to ensure they function properly. And the items you don’t have can easily and inexpensively be purchased at your local hardware store or online.

Have you dreamt of starting a business but lack capital? Or do you fear getting a loan and starting off a new venture in debt?

Here are five businesses that you can start today with little or no capital.

And most of these businesses can be started in your spare time so there’s no need to abandon the security of your steady paycheck.

eBay Store

The benefit of starting an online retail store with eBay is the established traffic that comes to eBay looking for anything and everything  to buy. Whether you start out selling things around the house, crafts that you make yourself or find a dropshipper to supply the products you sell, you’re sure to find a audience with eBay which is the biggest hurdle in becoming an online retailer.

Freelance Writer

If you are a good writer and enjoy doing it, you can readily find freelance projects on sites like eLance and oDesk.

Pet Sitter

If you love pets, one way to turn your passion into a career is to start a pet sitting business. Often people working long hours or travelling out of town need to care for their pets but don’t want to leave them at a kennel where they may spend long hours in a confined space. If you have the expertise with animals and the proper space in your home, or are willing to perform in home visits, a Pet Sitting Business can be a fun and low cost business. However, especially if you are hosting pets in your home , check with your insurance professional to determine what type of commercial insurance is required to cover your liabilities.

Pet Waste Removal

Not for the squeamish or easily grossed out, pet waste removal is a growing market that simply requires transportation, a shovel and attention to detail.

Personal Assistant

If you’re organized and excel at getting things done and have the time to “get it done now”, consider becoming a personal assistant for busy professionals that need help with the details of their hectic lives. There’s no cost of entry to become a Personal Assistant and in some markets they can easily earn $15-$30/hour. If you do go down this path consider creating a website outlining your expertise and experience along with some testimonials.

These are just a few businesses that require little or no out-of-pocket expenses. Pick one or let them inspire you to think outside of the box and follow your dream!

For some people, money is no object.  For the rest of us, money isn’t as available as we’d like.  We look for ways to make every dollar count, especially during times when the economic outlook isn’t particularly rosy.  By not spending unnecessarily and, when we shop, by spending wisely, we do what we can to stretch the purchasing power of our money (This applies as well to those who simply enjoy living frugally even if they don’t have any financial concerns).

One very popular and, if done with some creativity and intelligence, effective way to save money is to shop at warehouse stores or “big box retailers” such as Costco, Sam’s Club and the like.  Merely shopping at these places will not, however, save you money.  If you’re not mindful of a few things, you may fall into the trap of being, as the saying goes, “penny wise and pound foolish”.

So how does one really save money at Costco, Sam’s Club and merchants like them?  By simply following 8 tips each time you go.  With a little preparation and a little discipline, you can save a bundle.  And the good news is that these tips don’t require any special skills, tools or insider knowledge.   You don’t even have to download an app!  All you need is enough of a desire to save money to use our 8 suggestions each time you shop.

Before we start, remember that saving money is relative.  Buying things you don’t really need at less cost isn’t really “saving”, it’s simply buying less expensive items.  In order to truly “save” money, you should know how much you have to spend, what you are prepared to spend and on what and, finally, what you are prepared to do to spend less than you have available.  That is what we mean by saving money.

What you need, first and foremost, is a real line-item budget for groceries, sundries, fuel, auto care, utilities, clothing, rent/mortgage, etc.   Once you’ve come up with a detailed budget suited to your household’s reality, you will need to the discipline to live according to that budget.

1.  Make a list.  As obvious as this may sound, making a list is fundamental to saving money, especially when shopping in stores like Costco that have such an incredible variety of products and in such large quantities.  Know what you want before you go.  List it all.  And stick to the list!  With some willpower you’ll be able to resist the temptation of that wide-screen HD prominently displayed when you first walk in or that computer game your kids have been clamoring for.  If you don’t resist that temptation, no budget you design can help you save money.

2.  Don’t shop hungry.  No matter where you do your grocery shopping, you’ll end up buying more food if you are hungry.  So eat before you go.  Or, if you’re rushed for time, eat when you get there.  Costco, for example, has great meal deals if you don’t mind eating something like pizza or a hot dog.  If you’re bringing the kids with you, this is an inexpensive way to feed the family and takes a bit of the boredom out of shopping for your young ones (Gentle suggestion:  If you can swing it, leave the kids at home.  They’ll see plenty of things they “need” in the aisles and you’ll either be distracted by continually managing their expectations or end up spending money on things that seem like a good idea at the time).

3.  Understand the science of unit pricing.  Ok, maybe it’s not a science.  But it is math.  And you should try to become comfortable with figuring out whether buying products in bulk actually gives you a better price than if you were to buy them individually at the grocery store.  We’ve seen many a case (so to speak) where that isn’t so.  So be sure to bring your calculator with you (whenever you go grocery shopping, no matter whether it’s at a big box store, a big chain grocer or the corner market).

4.  Plan your attack by knowing your store.   As we mentioned above, wide-screen HD television will be prominently displayed near the entrance.  So will the latest video game consoles and high-tech gadgets.  And you can’t avoid them.  But you can walk right past them.

In fact, there are a number of areas within the store you should walk right past such as the middle aisles.  If you think about it, you’ll recall that the meats, bakery items, frozen foods and sundries are all displayed at or near the perimeter of the big box stores.  The center aisles, the area of least congestion and highest visibility, are where books, movies, clothing, games, holiday decorations and seasonal furniture are displayed.  People like to go to big box stores because they see it as some sort of excursion, excited to see what’s being featured this trip.  If your intention is to save money, this is doom because you are tempting that ugly monster we call compulsive buying.  However, if you’ve made the list we’ve suggested, you wouldn’t think of navigating the center section of the store anyway, would you?

5.  Buy your household necessities in bulk.  Toilet paper, paper towels, detergent and food items with a long shelf life.  However, sometimes the best deals are for food in such amounts that you couldn’t possibly use it all (e.g., meats).  Simply invest in some freezer storage bags and split the packages into meal size portions.

6.  Use the buddy system.  If your food storage space is limited but you simply can’t pass up the bargains on meats or other highly perishable items, arrange to split the purchase with a friend or relative.  You’ll likely find a willing participant in this plan, especially in someone who doesn’t have the necessary store membership.

7.  Don’t experiment.  We all like to try new things.  However, whenever you’re buying a new breakfast cereal, now is probably not the right time buy a case of 6 boxes if no one in your family even knows if they like it.  If they don’t you haven’t saved any money, you’ve wasted it.

Oh yes, we neglected to mention an 8^th tip:  Pay with cash.  Studies have shown that people buy more when they use credit cards to purchase things.  Not only that, but if they don’t pay the entire balance on those purchases when the bill comes, whatever “savings” they’ve received is wiped out by the interest rate on the unpaid balance of those purchases on the card.  You don’t save 10% on an item if you’re paying 15% interest on the credit card.  If, however, you are certain that you will pay the entire balance on any credit card purchases, you may want to consider the TrueEarnings®Card from Costco and American Express.  This card allows you to earn 1% cash back rewards on your Costco/Sam’s Club purchases and there is no annual fee with your paid Costco Membership.

It’s easy to save at Costco, Sam’s Club and their brethren.  All you need is some planning and to keep your focus on what you’re there to do.

This is a guest contribution from Bill Hazelton, CEO and Founder of Credit Card Assist where he provides tips, advice and recommendations on the very best cash back credit cards as well as all things credit-related.

If you have or are a young adult who recently left for college, your last advice to her may have included a caution to take good care of her credit rating. You’ve stressed how important it is to develop financial responsibility and maintain a good credit rating. You may have helped her apply for her first credit card and gotten a little misty with pride when you saw that slice of plastic spending power in her hand.

Credit is easy for college students to get. Many companies have a policy of handing credit cards early to anyone who is enrolled as a full-time student. It’s just as easy to use credit, with everything from bars to vending machines on and off campus accepting plastic as readily as cash. In fact, at some schools, students get a nice discount by swiping their student identification cards instead of inserting cash. The cards are linked to an account that can be filled easily using a credit card.

Not long ago, overspending resulted in the need for a humiliating call home for a bailout. Today, a student can create her own bailout using credit cards as emergency funding. Often, the result is graduates with good credit scores and high credit card debt. Sometimes, the result is graduates with wrecked credit scores. According to Sallie Mae, eighty-four percent of students population have credit cards and only two percent of college undergraduates were without any credit history at all.

Increasingly, critics are charging that credit is too readily available to college students and that many young people don’t realize what is at stake when they use them. Most of the criticism centers on the amount of credit college students have and their irresponsible use of it. Few people question the premise that a college student needs credit. Conventional wisdom would have it that everyone needs to get credit and use it.

Perhaps it is time to begin to question the assumption that maintaining credit is a necessary part of financial management. Certainly, most people want to take out a mortgage on a home, eventually, and many people want to use credit to achieve other goals. Credit is so common, and so accepted in today’s world, that people forget that credit is expensive. When you accept a loan, what you are doing is renting money.

Rental is usually only cost-effective when it is used on a short-term basis. It’s better to rent a jackhammer than to buy one if you don’t think you’ll ever need it again. Renting a pillow would be insane. Nearly everyone would agree that you would be better off to make do with a rolled up sweater until you could save the cash to buy an inexpensive pillow, then make do with that until you could afford a nice down model.

Hardly anyone ever suggests that you take the bus until you save enough to buy a “clunker” and then drive that until you have enough for a late-model sedan, but the reasoning is just as sound. For three generations, Americans have accepted the questionable wisdom of living beyond their means. Perhaps it’s time for the next generation to rebel against the credit-loving lifestyle of their parents.

Sara Woods, of ppiclaims.org.uk, is the author of this article. Are you a victim of being mis-sold payment protection insurance on your credit card? Visit us for more information regarding your legal rights.

Everyone knows that  the year you have a baby, you typically see a generous tax refund, but it doesn’t stop there. It is unfortunate that many parents are not aware that being a parent means that certain things can be deducted, year-after-year.

Childcare Credit

Most don’t realize that there is a difference between a deduction and a credit, but there certainly is. A credit is significantly better, because it actually reduces tax bills to the exact dollar. Therefore, if you miss one of these, it’s quite painful compared to missing a deductible that only reduces the income amount that is subject to tax.

Between 20 and 35 percent of what you actually pay for your childcare while you are working is what you can qualify for. Keep in mind though that if a childcare reimbursement account is offered where you work, this may be the better way to go. Quite often, these programs are more attractive than the tax credit. You can only do one or the other; no double-dipping is permitted !

Nanny

If you employ a nanny on your own, you can take one of two options when you file your taxes. Keep in mind that if you are the hiring party and don’t go through a nanny agency, which may handle everything for you, then you have to report the nanny’s earnings, and pay taxes on their wages for you to be eligible for either of the two following tax breaks:

• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account – This has to be offered by your employer for you to be eligible. The amounts are actually shielded from most state income taxes and all federal incomes taxes.

• Child Dependent Care Tax Credit – Under this credit, you are able to apply the initial $3,000 of expenses that you paid for a qualified dependent for nanny care so that you could work. If you have two or more children, this amount increases to $6,000.

Medical and Dental Expenses

Parents can deduce any paid medical expenses of children under 27. Yes, 27! Few parents realize that the age limit is so generous, so it’s rarely taken advantage of. Even if the child is no longer considered a dependent and not under your health coverage, if you pay for an expense, it is tax deductible.

Learning Disabilities

Very few parents take advantage of this tax deductible, which is unfortunate because after all, a learning disability is considered a medical condition. This includes ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, etc. Costs that are able to be deducted up to 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income include:

• Special schooling or tutoring

• Aides that are required in order for a child to benefit from special or regular education

• Continued diagnostic evaluations

• Exercise programs recommended by medical professionals, which can include yoga, swimming, dance, horseback riding, etc.

• Transportation costs to and from therapy sessions, special schools, parking fees and airfare

• Diapers, if demanded by the condition

• Special safety home improvement, such as lead paint removal

• Parent conferences related to the disability

Understanding the Child Tax Credit

• Available for children under the age of 17

• Child must be son, daughter, stepchild, sister, brother, stepsister, stepbrother, foster child or descendent from any of the above

• Child must be claimed on federal tax return

• Child must be a U.S citizen, national or resident alien

• Child must have lived with you for at least half of the year

The Child Tax Credit is a really important credit because it can provide up to $1,000, depending on the qualifying child. This is certainly something you want to take advantage of.

Start your nanny career today or hire one!  Visit Nanny.net for details.

Hardly anyone in their twenties thinks about retirement, much less plans for it. Who has time to plan for something that’s forty or fifty years away (especially if bills or student loans are due right now?) Retirement could hardly feel more remote, but this feeling is an illusion. Delaying retirement planning forces you to play catch-up later in life, making painful sacrifices in your thirties and forties that can be totally avoided with a little foresight today.

Run Some Numbers

Write this down: there is no such thing as “retirement.” Not in the abstract. In order for you to retire and support yourself from savings, you will need a specific amount of money. Unless you save on a fairly set-in-stone schedule (the same amount every month until retirement age) you wont have it. Sorry to be so bleak, but unless you plan on winning the lottery, it’s quite true. Sticking your head in the sand and trusting that it’ll all work out is not a strategy.

You can’t get too specific, of course – no one in their twenties knows exactly what lifestyle they’ll want fifty years from now or how much it will cost. But you can make intelligent projections. MSN Money’s retirement calculator asks you for relevant numbers (planned retirement age, target yearly income, how many years you expect retirement to last) and tells you whether you’re saving enough. Save what it tells you to and you’ll be in much better shape.

Your Desired Retirement Lifestyle

These calculations are a starting point, not the end. Now it’s time to think long and hard about the kind of retirement lifestyle you might want. Again: it’s impossible to nail this with pinpoint accuracy at 24 years old. The point is simply to begin thinking about these important questions so they don’t sneak up on you later:

• Where in the country will you want to live?
• What will your hobbies include?
• Will you want to travel or just enjoy simple “around the house” leisure?
• Will you own your home? Will it be paid off before or after retirement age?

All of these things are interrelated. By keeping them in mind, you will always be analyzing how different retirement scenarios and opportunities could affect your preferences in those areas.

Consider Your Career

With your preferred retirement lifestyle in mind, consider your career. Your income is probably the biggest factor in retirement planning. It dictates how much you can save, how frequently you can save it and how quickly you can reach your goal. Do you earn enough money to get there? If you don’t currently make enough, will you? How? When?

Remember: denial isn’t a strategy. Retirement planning is all a numbers game, and if the numbers don’t add up, you’re only fooling yourself. Unthinkable as it may seem right now, your current career might be a poor match for your retirement goals. If you truly want the retirement lifestyle in your head, your income needs to support it. Two choices remain if it doesn’t: change your career or change your retirement goals. Changing your career is never a breeze, but it’ll never be easier than it is now.

Revise The Plan Over Time

As you get older, your goals, priorities and preferences are bound to change. The wild, travel-heavy retirement you thought you wanted as a 25 year old may seem excessive by the time you’re 35. Or, the tame, hobby-centric retirement you wanted might seem boring by that age. The point is, you are unlikely to move from your twenties to your sixties with the exact same retirement goals.

Be mindful of your changing preferences and adjust your actions accordingly. If a new wrinkle in your plan calls for more money, start saving more. If it calls for less, start saving less (although it’s always smart to save a little more than you anticipate needing.)

Track Progress

Would a ship’s captain point the boat toward home, assume all was well and fall asleep at the wheel? Of course not. Any number of changes (rocks, storms, choppy waters) could ruin the original plan. Until the captain reacts and changes course, the boat just drifts further and further away.

The same is true of retirement planning. Although we encourage you to automate 401(k) or IRA savings, don’t take a total set-it-and-forget-it approach. Make a point of looking at your accounts and comparing them to your overall plans. If things don’t look right, investigate what’s going on and make the needed changes. Forewarned is forearmed.

Seek Help If Necessary

Retirement planning isn’t rocket science, but if you’re a busy professional, it might feel that way. Not everyone has time to devise, implement and diligently execute a comprehensive retirement plan. It doesn’t mean your ignorant or lazy – just busy. Luckily for you, there are professional retirement planners whose job it is to help people in your predicament.

Schedule an appointment with one as soon as you realize you’re in over your head. Your retirement planner will clearly lay out your options, help you establish goals and (with your help) put together a specific road map for getting there. Then, your job will simply be to follow it.

Colin Anderson is a freelance writer for Noomii which is an online directory for coaches where people can find coaches in various cities such as a life coach in Houston.  Colin lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and 4 children.

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No one comes out of the womb being financially responsible. It is a trait that is learned over time. The great thing about teaching others how to handle finances is there is no age limit for those who can learn. Parents who want their kids to grow up to be financially responsible adults should allow their kids to handle money at a young age. Putting the principles learned into action will help kids understand how to handle finances in a responsible manner.

The Importance of Saving Money

One of the first financial planning lessons that many parents teach their kids is the importance of saving money because it is the cornerstone of financial planning. As a parent, you have the ability to open a savings account in your child’s name. If you give your child an allowance, require that they save 10 to 20 percent of the money they earn. If you are not ready to open a savings account yet, buy your child a piggy bank to encourage saving.

Finding Additional Savings

Although putting money away on a regular basis is a great thing, it is also a good idea to teach kids about how to find additional savings. An easy way to accomplish this is if you clip coupons for grocery shopping. You can give your children a small food budget every month and encourage them to use coupons to save money and buy more food within their budget.

Investing Your Money

Many people include investing in stocks, bonds and similar securities as a part of their financial plans. A good way to teach your kids about financial planning is to explain stock ownership. Investing in stocks is a complex subject, so you want to keep your explanations as simple as possible. You can buy stocks in your child’s name, which teaches them important principles about ownership and growing money over the long-term.

Creating a Budget

Very few kids understand the concept of a budget, but learning how money flows in and out can teach kids about financial planning. Budgets show your revenue and expenses, and help you track exactly where your money in going. The best way to teach kids about budgeting is to create one to show them the bills that need to be paid compared to the money that is earned. You do not need to reveal your entire financial situation, just a few examples that will demonstrate the point. Creating a budget can also teach them how to cut unnecessary expenses to save more money.

Making Mistakes

Learning how to handle finances properly is a process. Your children are bound to make a few mistakes when you are teaching them about financial planning. Mistakes do not have to be a bad thing when there are lessons to be learned. For example, letting your child make a spending decision that they may later regret can be a good way for them to learn how to take time when deciding how to spend their money.

To learn more about financial planning please visit LifeCover.ca. It is a website about life insurance and has information about companies such as Great West Life.

As far as being frugal goes, nothing stings quite like a major loss. Whether home foreclosure, vehicle repossession, stock market losses, business flop or bankruptcy, financial trauma in the form of a monumental investment loss or debt surrender can obliterate your frugal efforts going back decades or more. While the final hour is certainly not the time to act in order to prevent financial catastrophe, if indeed you’ve waited that long to make your move, the following may come in handy. With that said, nothing can be for certain in a hectic personal finance scenario.

When on the verge of losing your home: It’s critical to see whether or not you qualify for a mortgage payment reduction. Your mortgage payment shouldn’t exceed 31% of your gross monthly earnings. If it does, you may be entitled to a reduced monthly payment.

When on the verge of losing your car: Contact your lender immediately. According to the Better Business Bureau the average cost of a vehicle repossession is about $8000, so unless your car is worth significantly more than that, your lender will be willing to work something out either through deferment or refinancing.

When on the verge of losing stock portfolio strength: Seek the assistance of a financial consultant or analyst company such as Cavalry Portfolio Services. While dumping smelly stocks may mean less taxes owed, a quick fix through the eyes of an outsider can salvage seemingly hopeless investments.

When on the verge of losing your business: Get creative. Now is not the time to shrink up and give up. If business is slow, devise an inexpensive marketing strategy courtesy of social media. If funds are running out, visit as many financial institutions as it takes to secure another business loan. With that said, you should do the former before attempting the latter, as banks want to see potential before giving you the money to stay afloat.

When on the verge of filing for bankruptcy: Think long and hard about what you’re setting yourself up for. Essentially the next decade of your life will be credit free. While comforting to some, ten years is a long time to be denied the ability to borrow. Seek help from friends and relatives if you must, but make bankruptcy the absolute last thing you pull out of your bag of tricks.

The eleventh hour is the worst possible time to be making moves to prevent major money loss. But if that’s the time crunch you find yourself in, it’s either now or never. While the aforementioned possibilities to prevent a personal finance meltdown aren’t bulletproof, they’re about as good as it’s going to get in such a short amount of time.

It’s a fairly common belief that growing your own fruits and vegetables can save you time and money over going to the grocery store to buy produce that isn’t even nearly as fresh. I mean, a packet of seeds will cost you, what, $1.99? While a pound of that same vegetable will cost the same in the store?

It sounds like a no-brainer – buy the seeds to grow your own if you want to save money (I won’t argue with the freshness of veggies straight from the garden over store-bought – I’m here to talk money right now). In some cases, yes, that’s true. But in others – not so much.

There are rumors and myths out there about what’s cheaper to grow and what’s cheaper to buy. Let me clear up the mysteries for you right now.

Fruit Trees = Cheaper to Grow

If you live in a good region and are willing to invest some patience into your money-saving plan, planting a fruit tree as part of your garden isn’t a bad idea. A semi-dwarf tree that grows between about 10 to 15 feet will suffice, and will produce an average of 40 pounds of fruit per year (keep in mind, though, that a free tree usually produces more fruit every other year).

Though a fruit tree takes about 5 years to grow and bear fruit to its fullest capacity, it might be worth the wait. Say you plant an apple tree – with apple prices varying constantly at the grocery store, it’s hard to say exactly how much you’ll save, but it could be up to 10% of your total grocery bill for a family of 4.

And if you refrigerate or even freeze the fruit that you pick, it will last your family way longer. Or, to further extend your fruit supply, you can make jams, jellies and preserves that will last even longer.

Potatoes = Cheaper to Buy

Seriously, how cheap are potatoes at the grocery store? Ridiculously. Considering the time and effort it would take to grow your own crop of potatoes (although it is considered to be fairly easy), your gross savings wouldn’t be enough to counteract the amount of time you put into it.

You’re better off buying potatoes at the grocery store simply because they are so cheap.

Lettuce = Cheaper to Grow

Lettuce is an easy vegetable to plant, it doesn’t take up much space and it grows in abundance. Plus, it’s cheap to buy and grow and takes very little effort to maintain once it’s growing in your garden. And it grows quickly – generally within 2 to 3 weeks after planting, you’ll be able to put fresh garden lettuce on your plates to enjoy.

Store-bought lettuce tends to go bad more quickly, so you end up running back to the grocery store every few days to get “fresh” lettuce. Save yourself the trips, and the extra money, by growing it in your own garden.

Celery = Cheaper to Buy

Celery is tough to grow because it requires a lot of close attention, and averages around a 5 month growing period.

In fact, celery is widely considered to be one of the most expensive vegetables that a farmer could grow due to its demand for costly fertilization, the large amounts of labor required to maintain a proper crop and the equipment necessary for blanching the stalks. Add to this a higher cost for seeds and you have a fairly expensive vegetable to sow.

Celery is still one of the most expensive vegetables even in the grocery store, but that’s only because it is so expensive to farm. You’ll save yourself time and money by just grabbing some at the store.

Herbs = Cheaper to Grow

Growing an herb garden is probably one of the most simple things you could grow, and the beauty of it is that you can do it anywhere, even if you don’t have a yard. A simple window sill herb garden is all that’s necessary.

Fresh herbs are rather expensive to buy in the grocery store, and they’re so easy to grow that there’s really no reason not to. A packet of seeds usually costs less than $1 and you will get several plants out of it. Herbs can also be bought in seedlings, which are slightly more expensive, but will be ready to harvest sooner.

Carrots = Cheaper to Buy

Many growers think carrots would be cheap to grow, which they are, for the most part, but the difficulty comes in keeping flies and bugs away from your carrot crop.

One simple case of carrot fly can and will decimate your entire crop, forcing you to start over again. So unless you’re a farmer by trade, leave the carrot growing to the pros and buy yours from the grocery store to avoid the excess money and hassle.

Vine Veggies = Cheaper to Grow

Not only will vine vegetables add a bit of visual appeal to your garden with the way they wind up and around fences and decorative posts, but they’ll be easy for you to grow and harvest.

For whatever reason, the price of vegetables like tomatoes and bell peppers has skyrocketed in grocery stores. Growing your own doesn’t require any actual “space” in your garden – just some sort of upright for these veggies to grow on, and you’ll save as much as $10 per square foot of vine veggies grown in your own garden over the prices in the stores.

Asparagus = Cheaper to Buy

To start growing your asparagus, you first have to invest an average of $2.60 per crown (expensive for a veggie that’s not even grown yet) to start the growing process. Then it takes at least a year to cultivate, and from there it’s daily maintenance to hand cut them once they are grown.

The growing process, by the way, takes up to another whole year after the crowns have been cultivated. And considering the 2 years that they take to fully grow, the crowns are only ready to be cut for 7 weeks out of the year, usually around early summertime. Then each one is individually harvested by hand.

If you wanted to put forth the time and effort to grow an asparagus crop in your garden, be my guest, but it’s easier and ends up being cheaper to just buy them at the grocery store.

Ann Michaels is a freelance writer who loves to grow her own vegetables. Her garden is an extension of her home, decked out in dog statues (she’s an animal lover, too!), garden gnomes and other garden decor. She says there’s nothing quite like the taste of fresh vegetables.

Successfully feeding your family on a budget is all about eating better and spending less doing it.  It’s about having to monitor or cut your weekly grocery bill and getting the most out of every meal.  Feeding your family on a budget involves meal planning and buying the best produce that you can afford as well as finding bargains that enable you to feed your family healthy and satisfying meals.  Shopping on a restricted budget can be a challenge but is it also a great way to improve your cooking skills and becoming more imaginative in the kitchen.

Meal Planning

It’s not always easy to plan a selection of healthy and satisfying meals for the whole week.  We tend to think about what we want to eat on an evening when we are hungry and end up rummaging around in cupboards looking for something to make a fast meal out of.  Yet it doesn’t have to be like this, a simple meal plan can see you sitting down to a good home cooked meal every night of the week if you choose.

This is not about having a plan that is set in stone, but about planning your shopping so you know that you have everything you need when you go to the cupboards to look for ingredients for your meals.  By spending time thinking about the meals for the week ahead and doing a little planning you can end up saving money on grocery bills and end up cutting down on waste too.

Taking Food for Granted

With our supermarkets piled high with foods from all corners of the earth, it’s no wonder that we have started taking food for granted.  There was a time when the meat was bought for the Sunday roast, there would be nothing thrown away, even the carcass would be used to make stock for soups and casseroles; now we quite happily throw food away without thinking about whether it can be used for anything else.

We have become complacent about the food that we eat, eager to accept the convenience of highly processed ready meals and the take away delivery services, and we have forgotten what really good food actually is.  By sticking to a budget there is no room for expensive pre-prepared foods or last minute takeaways as, the budget simply won’t allow for it.  Instead you can get back to basics and cook real food into good honest family meals.

Timeless Recipes

Dig out your cook books that haven’t seen the light of day for a while, and look for easy recipes that will make a dish that can be used as a foundation dish for a couple of other meals.  Something like a basic tomato sauce that can be used for pasta, and in stews and casseroles, even a single good sized roast chicken can be used for at least three different meals.  This is a chance for you to get creative, and an opportunity for the family to sit and eat together instead of everyone going off to do different things and expecting different meals.

Not only is your budget, forced or otherwise, making you look at food differently but by cooking family meals from scratch again you will be gaining the opportunity to reconnect with all of your family members over the dinner table.

If you want to ditch the microwave meals and learn how to cook health food for your family on a budget, enrolling in a cooking school is a good idea.  Cooking schools can teach you how to cook fantastic meals for a fraction of the price of ready meals.