“Free Stuff” Archive
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I read about a crazy new trend called ‘Urban Sharecropping’ a few months ago. Urban sharecropping is, ‘homeowners who lack free time or gardening skills are teaming up with would-be farmers who lack backyards. Around the country, a new crop of match-makers are helping the two groups find each other and make arrangements that enable both sides to share resources and grow their own food’ according to the Wall Street Journal.
I thought this sounded like a great way to develop my large backyard. I’d look for a farmer needing space and graciously offer my backyard.
The problem?
LOTS of people in San Diego have large yards and we aren’t exactly known for our plethora of farmers – not ones that grow legal plants anyway.
I checked out Urban Garden Share, the site recommended in the Wall Street Journal article, but alas, the closest city with listings is in Washington. The daily commute needed for watering may be a touch too far.
I found another article with more helpful links and it said, ‘Garden-sharing remains relatively new but there are signs that it’s becoming more mainstream. The City of Santa Monica recently set up a municipal garden-sharing site in an attempt to alleviate its 200-person long wait list for community gardens. “I don’t know why every city doesn’t implement something like this,” Botsman told me. “It’s a no brainer. It’s low-cost and you can lay it on to any existing social network.”’
County of San Diego? No dice. Especially in my area of town where most yards are a half an acre.
I might not have found my solution but maybe you can get a farmer, or a plot of land, this spring.
Best of luck!
At 4AM on Saturday morning, my husband’s cell phone blared loudly, shocking me awake from my sleep.
Here’s my deal about middle of the night phone calls, my husband and I both work two jobs and he attends night school on top of it. Unless someone is dead, don’t call at 4AM on a weekend, otherwise, it will be your funeral I’m planning.
Fortunately, no one was dead. It was my in-laws calling to ask my husband for help fixing their water heater that had sprung a leak and flooded their basement. The water had long since been turned off but I’m guessing since they had been up since 2AM cleaning the mess, 4AM seemed like a semi-decent hour.
My husband went over to help fix their pipes and uncovered some other problems with the gas line while he was at it. Having gas line problems while using industrial heaters and fans to dry out a flooded area seemed a bit on the dangerous side, so he fixed those as well. He ended up working on their plumbing until 3PM.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal but we had already promised to move my brother’s father-in-law’s stuff out of his condo in exchange for some much needed furniture. Unable to postpone the move since the property closed on Monday, we worked until 11PM (with some great help from my brother-in-law’s) before finally giving in to sleep.
My husband spent Sunday morning re-piping the neighbor’s bathroom in exchange for helping us finish moving the furniture. The neighbor’s plumbing had problems too (surprise surprise) so we didn’t get started again until about 3PM. We finally finished moving, vacuuming, and sweeping around 8PM and made our way back home. After unloading and rearranging the furniture, we didn’t to sleep until after 10PM.
Monday morning, as our alarm clocks chimed at 4:30AM, my husband whispered, ‘I changed my mind. I don’t want tools for Christmas, I want a weekend of sleep.’
Can’t say I blame him.
But the weekend of hard work paid off with some furniture we could never afford to buy ourselves.
We moved the wonderful, fabulous, awesome, smell good couches this weekend (more on that later) and I love, love, love them.
My parents always told me that people don’t appreciate what they don’t pay for. They especially loved using this when I asked for a car. ‘You’ll treat it better if you pay for it yourself!’ was their mantra for all my teenage years. They said it would build strong character.
Whelp mom and dad, just like you lied about Santa, you lied about appreciation.
I’ve had the free couches for two days. So far, I’ve asked three people how recently they’ve showered and screamed at two more for getting their shoes within 3 inches of the ottoman.
‘Ahh!’ I screamed and ran to cover the couch with a towel when my husband attempted to sit.
He looked at me confused, ‘Honey, I just got out of the shower. I’m clean!’
‘I don’t want soap scum or gel on the couches’ I said sheepishly.
He muttered ‘Dear Lord, I’ve married a whack job.’
Have a little mercy on me. It’s the first time we’ve had nice couches. I’m sure I’ll loosen up after a few months *cough* or years *cough* but until then, guests are welcome… they just can’t sit on the sofa.
If you’re anything like me, your poor family gets one of ten meals over and over… and over… and over again.
After a ten hour day, staring down the eyes of three more hours of late night work, I’ve been unable to plan any sort of decent meal.
Take on the crazy notion that I can last two months without dining out and I set myself up for disaster…
Or did I?
I heard an advertisement for E-mealz and decided to give it a shot the same day I promised my husband to say no to dining out. If you’ve never heard of E-mealz, let me give you the quick run-down. E-mealz is a weekly menu planning resource with over 28 menu options to choose from – including meals for two, meals for four, points system meal plans, and a gluten free menu (hint hint to my sister Lizzy and her gluten free child). Once a week I log on, download my menu and my shopping list, make a 30 minute trip to the grocery store, and never think about dinner again until I’m in the kitchen for 30 minutes making it each night.
The menus rotate beef, chicken, pork, fish, and vegetarian dishes and *gasp* force me to try new things.
My sister-in-law (who works late into the night) frequently comes home, drops her bags on the floor, and calls ‘What’s on the E-mealz menu tonight?!? Smells so yummy!’ as she pulls up a barstool and serves a plate.
Weird. I never heard her say that when I made turkey wraps for the 15th time in a month.
I used to spend $120 a week on food. With E-mealz, I spend around $55. I’m not trying to sound like a walking advertisement but it’s hard not to share when you’ve found something that makes a chore easy and reduces your grocery budget by 50%. Membership is only $1.25 a week!
I approached the folks at E-meals and asked them if they would be willing to donate a one month subscription to one of my readers. Not only did they agree, they donated a 3 month subscription to give away AND offered 10% off for all BloggingAwayDebt readers.
How can you win it? Leave a comment and let me know you are interested (make sure to type your e-mail address in the ‘Mail’ slot). I’ll throw all the comment names into a hat and draw a winner on Wednesday night (August 18th). The winner’s name will be posted on Thursday, August 19th.
If you don’t win but are interested in using E-mealz and want 10% off, click the link/photo below and type in the code: savemoney
Please make sure to click the link/photo so E-mealz knows where the referrals are coming from.
And, the recipe for chicken puffs? It’s an E-mealz dinner! Wrap cooked chicken and cream cheese in a reduced fat crescent roll. Cook as instructed on the crescent roll directions. It’s AMAZING!!
Our organization is short on funds this year (who isn’t?). I expected our annual catered holiday party to be cancelled since feeding 300 or so office staff isn’t exactly cheap – not that the catering has ever been good, but it’s been edible.
We received an e-mail about a month ago proposing a company potluck instead of the catered affair. It sounded like a stupid idea to me. Dry mashed potatoes? Soggy salad? Not my idea of holiday cheer.
As I entered the giant conference room, I was assaulted by the powerful scents of AMAZING food. I was wrong about the culinary talents of my co-workers.
I am fortunate to work with a group of ethnically diverse folks. I filled my plate with lumpia, pancit, spicy dip, Mexican cheese wraps, and other foods I’d never had the opportunity to try before. For two hours, I ate the treasures created by my co-workers and shared my fresh warm bread. We talked and shared recipes. We caught up on recent gossip and for a moment…
forgot that the economy sucks.
It was by far the best company party we’ve ever had.
Try something new this year. It may just be the best thing you’ve ever done.
Maybe this recession isn’t all bad.
I’ve been trying to figure out creative ways to remodel our home for low to no cost. As I watched HGTV this weekend, I thought, ‘I’ll have reality television remodel my home!’
I assumed this wouldn’t be a difficult task. It’s not like there’s a strong filter for reality tv. Come on. I’ve seen Jerry Springer and Tila Tequila.
California’s official nickname is ‘The Golden State’
San Diego calls itself ‘America’s Finest City’
Humility isn’t our strong point.
It only seems obvious that we would point a camera of reality tv at our Southern California city. I went to the HGTV site, Pie Town Productions, and the DIY network. Do you know how many home remodeling shows are based in ‘America’s Finest City’?
Zero.
But, there are two shows that film anywhere, anytime – Extreme Home Makeover and Deserving Design. For Extreme Home Makeover, we lack a compelling unique story. ‘My husband lost his job… just like everyone else’ isn’t nearly as impressive or distinctive as ‘Timmy is allergic to the sun’ or ‘Little Bonnie Sue doesn’t have sweat glands’.
And remarkably, Deserving Design didn’t call me back after I submitted my husband as ‘deserving’ because only once during the last five years of our marriage has he left the toilet seat up. It’s sweet but not as gripping as Jane Doe saving the world over the last 20 years rescuing one sweatshop child at a time.
Bummer. I really needed a new back patio before the toothpicks, dental floss, and tin foil holding it together collapse.
Black Friday is usually about spending, even if that spending is to get some good deals. ING has decided to flip that equation and is offering to deposit $121 (the amount of money that the average consumer spends on banking overdraft fees each year) for signing up for thier Electric Orange checking account.
In order to receive the $121 bonus, you need to sign up today, and you need to use the Reference Code EOSAVE when opening the Electric Orange checking account . You then need to make 3 debit card signature transactions (the ones where you sign) within the first 45 days after opening the ING Electric Orange checking account. On the 50th day, ING will place $121 into your checking account.
Again, hurry. This offer is only good for today! You can sign up here
Thanks to Safari in the forums
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My Debt
- Original Debt: $97,293.06
- Paid: $1,927.89
- Remaining: $95,365.17
- Emergency Fund: $1100
- Broken Down
- Line of Credit 2: $0.00
- Line of Credit 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 1: $0.00
- Credit Card 2: $245.00
- Credit Card 3: $405.00
- Credit Card 6: $1,785.00
- Credit Card 7: $2,381.17
- Consolidation Loan: $11,000.00
- Credit Card 10: $14,519.00
- Auto Loan 1: $16,093.00
- Credit Card 11: $23,873.00
- Auto Loan 2: $25,064.00
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- Free Money Finance
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- Generation X Finance
- GRACEful Retirement
- Grad Money Matters
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- Josephsangl.com
- Kick Debt’s Butt
- Lazy Man and Money
- Low Income Life
- Make Love Not Debt
- Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Money, Matter and More Musings
- My 1st Million at 33
- No Credit Needed
- One Million and Beyond
- Personal Finance Advice
- pfblogs.org
