Wow! That is really big -- a beautiful! You will have a lot of work this summer! 😁 What do you use for a weed mat?

Wow!!!

Well, I'm saving my milk jugs and am waiting for my dirt to arrive. I ordered organic Coast of Maine seed starting mix. The lady at the seminar said she uses Coast of Maine, so I thought I would try it. I have not yet, in all my years of gardening, found any kind of purchased dirt that I like, so here's hoping that Coast of Maine will fill the bill. Let us know when your kale and cabbages sprout! 🌱

Thanks for the pictures! What part of the country to you live in? I see that you started pumpkin and cucumbers, and I'm wondering when they will be OK outside on their own. Here I have to worry about freezes until almost the end of April, so I think my first water jug plantings will be herbs, greens and some wild flower seeds they gave out at the library program. Also, what brand/type of soil do you use for seed starting?

I loved this, too. What a great thread!

I went to a very interesting program at our local library on Saturday. The topic was Winter Sowing, and it was about starting seeds outdoors in winter and letting nature decide when they should sprout. The seeds are started in a sort of terrarium made out of milk jugs. (The milk jug is cut around just below the handle, but it is not cut fully, making a hinge. After the seed starting mix is placed in the lower half and fully watered, and then planted, the milk jug is sealed up again with something like painters tape. The lid is left off the top for air, and then these jugs are set outside for the seeds to sprout. This way they are already hardened off and there is no bringing the containers in and out of the house when starting seeds. The lady who gave the lecture said she pretty much leaves the jugs outside on their own, although she'll cover the containers with a blanket if the seeds have sprouted and it goes below 20 degrees. If the seeds have not sprouted there are no worries. Anyhow, I thought it was interesting, and I'm going to try it. I think this method is best for things like herbs and wildflowers that are perennials and/or can self-sow, as well as hardy crops like brassicas and greens.

Pretty dog!

Such a good feeling, isn't it? Well, except for the fact that then you have to buy more to fill it up again. 🤣

This is a good thing! I think when a person is aware of what they're spending, they are less likely to get in financial trouble.

I think those little bits of surprise money are fun!

Ugh. So sorry about your daughter's arm.

I truly think that in many cases, kid stuff means more to moms than to their kids.

Well, it's barely more than half the month, and I've already used the $500 to which I had hoped to limit myself. Although that amount includes reservations for 5 nights of camping in March. I needed to go ahead and make the reservations or there would be no spots left. I'm going to do my best to keep the remaining expenses for the month under $200. I really think that I can do that. We don't need a lot of groceries, although my 22 year old son is at home until he can find a job, and twenty two year old males eat a lot! At least he cooks, too. 😀

HAHAHAHA! I wish that would happen to my son. He is in the job hunt right now (just graduated college in December), and my husband and I are really hoping that he doesn't end up with a lunch interview!

Growing up, I thought the same thing about my parents -- that we just didn't have the money to buy certain things. That was not the case at all -- it was a choice! My mom in particular was extremely frugal, but she grew up in Germany during and after WW II.

Funny how that works. I get it. My kid with table manner issues is like that, too.

Table manners. I have one child who has awful table manners. I suppose when he was young, I was fighting other battles, and table manners could easily slide. But wow. Now I wish I had taken it more seriously.

Our refrigerator died on Tuesday, and the new one is arriving tomorrow afternoon. At the moment, we have all of our cold/frozen groceries spread throughout the house. Some is in the spare fridge in the garage, along with one of my son's dorm fridge. Then other things are in the camper fridge, and my DH has two plug-in coolers in his room. It's been crazy running from room to room to find our food. I can't wait to have it all in one place again! 😀

Unfortunately, border collies are one of the dogs more prone to seizures. My sweet BC had her first seizure at about 4 1/2, and over the years they became more and more frequent. We kept her going for two years with phenobarbital and other medications, but in the end we had to put her down when she had 9 seizures in 36 hours and she never improved in between but kept getting worse. My DH did a lot of research into seizures in dogs, particularly Border Collies, and some can live a long time like Imrich's dog, but ours was not so lucky. From his research, the general thought about BC is if they have their first seizure under 5 years old, their prognosis is not good -- about 2 years tops, which is what happened with ours. However, if the first seizure occurs after the dog is 5 years old, generally they have better odds. After our dog had her first seizure, she didn't have another for several weeks, but she got in a routine of having a seizure every few weeks, and then she had cluster seizures every few weeks, and over time they became more and more frequent. After seizures, dogs can be very disoriented, and not recognize their owners, which might be why your dog was growling. They simply don't recognize you until they fully come around.

Just wanted to mention that I was at Dollar Tree today, and they already have their seeds in -- 4 packets for $1 (not $1.25 🙂) or 25 cents each. The varieties they sell are generally older, open-pollinated varieties, but they have a good selection. Today I bought Giant Noble spinach, Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach, a blend of different radishes, purple top white globe turnips, Little Marvel peas, Sugar Snap peas, Alaska peas, large red cherry tomatoes, and lavender. If you go and they are cleaned out, try again in a couple of weeks. They usually restock several times during the season, and sometimes there are different seeds with each restocking.

I don't have any ideas for you about the peas, but I hope they start flowering soon!

Traveling to my son's college was a huge expense for us, too. We naively thought when he enrolled, that we'd have a great excuse to camp in the mountains, and we'd go up often. HAHAHAHA! Campgrounds in the mountains are generally not cheap, and we'd have to rent a car if we wanted to go sightseeing because we have a motorhome, and the gas to haul the camper up the mountains was a formidable expense as well. When the pandemic hit, many of the small car rental places closed, campground fees shot up, and that was about the end of any fun times in the mountains, except when strictly necessary. We always had to weigh whether it was cheaper to go up there and visit with him or bring him home (two round trips).

Good for you! This is so hard to do when your fridge is stuffed, like ours always seems to be. Although our fridge died last night. 😥I am committed to keeping the new fridge in better order. Although dang, we did not need the fridge to die right now. We were able to save our food by using a smaller outside fridge we have, turning on the camper fridge, using my older son's college fridge and plugging in a couple of coolers. The fridge is 12 years old, so not super old, and DH has fixed it several times already, but this time he can't. The compressor died and it is not easily and affordably replaceable. So we'll be hunting for a new fridge this week. Sometimes it feels like we just can't get ahead.

I ended up spending $32 instead of $22, but I got a 9.3 pound pork butt, a 3 pound chuck roast, 3 jars of pickled banana peppers to cook with the pork, 2 cucumbers and a bag of shredded cabbage for slaw. So not too bad for $32. We will get a ton of meals from all that meat.

I didn't do as well this past week as I had hoped. I have two meat things I want to buy this week, which will cost me about $22 total, and maybe I'll buy another gallon of milk, but mostly I hope not to buy any other groceries. If I'm very careful this week, maybe I can get back on track for this month. I'm trying to keep my expenses for the month to $500.