Grow Your Own Food!

Other ways to save money is to actually grow your own food. You don't need a farm or even a large back yard. You can start with simple herbs that you can use to cook with or to make teas. You can even grow some fruits and vegetables in pots.

You can grow just about any kind of berries. The best containers for growing fruit are those only slightly larger (2-3 inches) than the existing rootball. A good size for most fruits is 18 inches in diameter and at least 16-18 inches deep. Soft fruits like strawberries can be grown in much smaller pots and work well in hanging baskets or window boxes. Set large pots on casters to make moving them around the yard and in and out of the house easier. http://tiny.cc/hQKZP

But if you want to move beyond small fruit here is a list of all the fruit you can grow in pots:
Tropical Fruits
Citrus Fruits
Avocado
Banana
Key Lime
Kumquat
Lemon
Strawberry
Carambola
Cattley Guava
Guava
Papaya
Passion Fruit
Pineapple

Pretty amazing! for more information on how to grow fruits in pots visit: U of F Fact Page at http://tiny.cc/1vdjl

So far I have planted the following:

drawf lemons (very succesful), mint, spearment (yerba buena), cilantro, drawf oranges, oregano, tomato, guisquil (see picture), bell pepper, lettuce, papaya (only gave one fruit), avocado (will take 4-6 years to bear fruit), casava (yuca-matures in 6 months).

I have had the most success with the drawf lemons. They are delicious. I just love them. The herbs are all very succesful too and I love to add mint to my salads and I have learned to add them to my main courses too.

I have had tomatoes before and there is nothing like a tomato grown in your own backyard. Once you've tasted a tomato that is home grown you don't want to buy them at the store. I had to start my tomato garden again because my dogs got into my garden and destroyed them. I guess they like tomatoes too! This time I invested in cages and I think they will do much better.

Guisquil is not a very tastey vegetable, actually its tastes like water, but it has no calories and takes on the taste of whatever you cook with it. I could not verify it but I have been told it has diuretic properties. So far I have about 5 quisquiles from 1 seed in less then a couple of months.

You don't have to buy plants you can plant seeds from fruits and vegetables you've bought at the store. Not all of them will flourish but some will. Just keep trying or go ahead and buy a plant or two at the store. If you have a friend that is into gardening and has some herbs they may give you a spring and that is all you need. I have a beautiful lush mint plant that was planted from a spring that came with a take out dinner from a vietnamese restaurant!

My brother is also into gardening and he has beautiful pineapples in his garden from left over pineapple tops he bought at the supper market.

So next time you want to save some money, think about growing your own food! Its fun, organic, and cheap.

Coupons, Samples, and Sweepstakes

Coupons can save you money. But you don't have to wait to see them in the newspaper or favorite magazine. You can seek them out on the Internet. Just be very careful not to sign up for Scams! Search out for coupons on well known corporate websites and not from third party websites. Be weary and be safe.

You can also sign up for samples. Sometimes you get the free sample in the mail and other times you get a coupon to go pick it up at the store. But NEVER return a card for a free sample you get in the mail, most likely you are signing up for a free sample plus a monthly order. Return the card and ask them to take you off ALL thier mailing lists.

Sweepstakes are terribly difficult to win, but they are free. You also have to deal with the follow up junk mail you will most likely generate after you sign up. You make up your mind if its worth it. Again, only sign up with large well known reputable companies and be careful because there are copy cats out there.

Here are some places you may look for samples, sweepstakes, and coupons:

http://tinyurl.com/3y3akm Bombay Furniture

http://www.planters.com/sweepstakes1.aspx

http://tinyurl.com/3ydbkb Better Homes and Gardens

http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/cvsmain CVS

Paint your Roof & Get a Rain Barrel with subsidized programs

Since I am a Moneyless Teacher in Miami, FL I found some ways to save money in through special subsidized programs. If you don’t live in Miami, FL your city may have similar programs to save you $$$$.

Florida Power & Light Reflective Roof http://www.fpl.com/business/savings/building_envelope.shtml
They will paint your roof for FREE with a special reflective paint that will help save you money in electricity.

Florida Power & Light Budget Billing
http://www.fpl.com/residential/budget_billing.shtml
Nothing free but at least it helps you budget your bills by allowing you to pay a monthly average.
In addition FP&L has a program where you are offered a monthly discount if you allow them to place you on a special list of addresses where if need be they may temporarily discontinue electricity in case of emergencies. The disconnect time is only hours and it is during non-peak time. It is not on any website, you would have to call 305-442-8770 and explain the program (I guess it’s a secret). I have been on the program for about six years and never had my electricity turned off. You receive a credit of about $9 per month. Do the math.

Miami-Dade County Rain Barrel
Conserve water and save on your bill. Rain barrels usually cost between $190 to $300. You can get one for $45.
http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/environment/documents/RB_May08_000.pdf

You have to keep up with these programs since they come and go. I recently had my entire attic insulated for free with a subsidized program from FP&L. Unfortunately this program is no longer available.

Organizing your Finances/Creating a Financial Profile

Organize your Finances

You may be saving money by cutting coupons and corners, but what good is that for if you don’t know where your financial belly button is?

You know where your real belly button is, well you should know where you are financially as easy as being able to touch your belly button with your eyes closed, but do you? What interest rate do you pay for your mortgage, what is your payoff? What do you pay in taxes? Etc, etc.

Everyone needs to have a financial profile, just like you do on your internet accounts, but this time with the TRUTH. This will serve as a budget for you but will also be a one stop information sheet of all the important business you have to take care of in your life. In other words, in case of fire or hurricane, this sheet goes with you.

Things to remember; keep the financial profile safe where only you can access it and where someone you choose may access it if something may happen to you. Update it at least every 3 months. Here is a nice format you might want to try to begin to input your own information. It is a windows template you can download to excel. http://tinyurl.com/y254ry

Things you may want to include:

Credit cards:
id them with the last 4 numbers only
include the interest rate and balance
phone number

Mortgage:
Phone number
Interest rate
Payoff
Account number

CDs/Bonds/IRA
ID numbers
Rates
Manager phone numbers

Insurance Info (life, car, house, etc):
Contact number
Cost
Id number

Believe it or not you need to include your goals somewhere on your Financial Profile, if not what in the world are you saving for? You need to have them in 3 categories: Immediate goals, Short term goals, and Long Term Goals.

Immediate goals are anything that needs to be done from yesterday to three months. Fixing your car breaks would probably go here.

Short term can be four month to two years. You might place painting the car in this category.
Long term is over two years. And finally you might place buying a new car in this final category which happens to be the

How to Save At Restaurants

The truth of the matter is that everyone enjoys going out to a nice restaurant every now and then. But who can afford to? One entry can cost anywhere between $12 to $17 dollars depending on the type of restaurant you go to and if you are enticed to savor the appetizing appetizers you are out at least another $6 to $9 dollars. We haven’t even mentioned drinks, dessert and coffee.

Well here is one trick you might want to try which will save you some money and allow you to savor the “taste” of the restaurant. First of all many restaurants have a special price menu for “Early Birds”. The first thing you should do is go during this time period and save a couple of bucks right off the top.

Then go with some friends and try ordering lots of appetizers and split one entre, or skip the entre all together. Restaurant servings are so large that usually appetizers are large enough to represent a meal, specially if you top it off with a simple side salad or soup. If you look closely at the menu you might even realize that the appetizers are very similar to the main entre, so why pay more?

And finally, why are you paying $2 dollars for a soda when you can get a full liter for one? And $4 dollars for coffee is insane. Drink water!!!! Many times I finish my dinner and then go out to a cheap dinner to top off my meal with coffee with my friends. It makes the even longer and more fun. Plus we feel like we’ve gotten away with something. You can also plan to have coffee and ice cream ahead of time at someone’s house, toss a coin to figure out who’s house it will be at. Even if the person has to buy the coffee bag and ice cream carton it will probably be cheaper to buy it at the supermarket than to pay for one serving. Make it a game, enjoy it and save more money.

My own personal tip is to go on a week day if you can so you can enjoy better service and avoid being seating next to that proverbial loud customer that seems to always pop up even in the nicest restaurants. You know the one; the one that is shouting on the cell phone, or brings the children that are running up and down the restaurant, or is talking at the top of his lungs as if cheering at football team. Ah, nice, quiet, and saving a buck…..sounds like heaven to me!

Free website to create tests, eportfolios, and more!

Yacapaca for Teachers is a free website where you can:
Create quizzes, surveys, tests, eportfolios and more
Discover modify and share assessments
Set work for the whole class with a few mouseclicks.
Mark automatically
Analyse with tools that improve your teaching

This information was contributed by Judy Herrell, a teacher in Miami, FL

Florida Property Tax Amendment

This post is pretty much for Florida. It seems as if the official position of the union in Miami, FL is to vote against the Property Tax Amendment. I am not speaking on behalf of the union. I am only speaking on my own personal position. I NEED MONEY!

I filled out my absentee ballot today. I felt no guilt when I voted YES for the Property Tax Amendment. I have heard people say that $240 dollars will not produce any economical relief for individuals and cause havoc at public service levels. It will help offset the amount I will now have to pay for health insurance. And as for public service, they have never been very accessible so I don’t think I will notice any difference.

On the School District level I certainly am not naïve enough to believe that if there was more funding available for our District we would automatically have a better salary and better benefits. This is obvious when I see the way the District chooses to use our tax dollars and salary/benefit funds towards capricious items. Our funds go into $40,000 office remodeling and security that is not needed, sending principals to Harvard, expensive luncheons at Parrot Jungle, replacing perfectly working computer monitors with high end flat screens, etc. Only strong arm negotiations can change the manner in which employees get paid, and only vigilant Board Members can change the manner in which the Budget gets distributed. We can have endless funds and still get pennies on the dollar unless the two things I mention above happen.

I am asked by some to fund with my taxes these unnecessary expenditures while my benefits are cut and while I have to work double to survive economically. I will not do that.

I have also signed the Fair Property Tax for All, Inc in hopes of being able to get even more tax relief in the future. I am sick and tired of funding irresponsible public entities and watching them splurge my money while I count pennies.

So since this is a Blog to provide tips on how to save money, I am providing the tip on the vote for the property tax amendment in order to save the approximate $240. You can also sign the petition at Fair Property Tax for All in order to save even more!