How I Avoid Spending Time and Money on Fruit and Vegetables

Anyone who reads my posts will know how important I value my time and money. Every penny or cent that I save buys me time to do whatever I want to do, it all boils down to freedom. There are three members in our household; me, my wife and my soon to be 4 year old son. My wife and I believe quite strongly that healthy eating should be a primary concern in our way of living, as a consequence we consume large amounts of fruit and vegetables.

This consumption comes at a price and we could easily spend over £150 per month buying organic vegetables and organic fruits. After brainstorming some ideas to save money and time we decided to rent out our garden for free to gardeners who wanted more space, any produce that was produced was shared equally. This single trick has helped save us £100 to £150 per month and we are eating fresher fruits and vegetables. We've developed an excellent relationship with an expert gardener and our garden looks amazing. If you're interested in doing something similar then I've outlined some of the steps that helped me achieve this.

1. Place an Advertisement on Your Local Paper

When we first decided to rent out our garden we put an advertisement on our local community paper. We wanted an experienced gardener who could use our space for free so long as we shared the produce. At the time of placing the ad we thought the level of interest would be non existent - how wrong we were! We actually got 37 applicants all of whom had a request for an allotment.

2. Do Your Due Diligence

Once we picked a few gardeners who were up to the job we requested character references, we also checked the police database and sex offenders database just to make sure the person was sane. We also asked members of the local community who knew everything about everybody and one gardener in particular stood out so we picked him.

3. Expectations

As we were renting the garden out for free we had some expectations towards the gardener. The gardened needed to be kept well. Only fresh fruit and vegetables were allowed. The gardener could come between 7am and 6pm. We wanted fresh produce all year round. As the gardener was very knowledgeable we knew that he was up to the job.

A few months after we appointed the gardener we are getting fresh fruit and vegetables on a weekly basis. We already had an apple and pear tree but it seems like were producing more than usual. We are getting fresh spinach, potatoes, tomatoes and we are expecting cauliflowers and broccoli during the winter.

We now spend zero time in the garden, we also spend 70% less on our fruit and vegetable needs. We are actually getting more vegetables than we can consume which is why we are freezing them for a later date. During the last seven months we had a budget of £700 to spend on fresh organic fruits and vegetables however we've only spend £200, the remaining £500 has been banked into our savings account. As we spend zero time gardening and up-keeping on the weekends we are free to go on excursions like museums and landmarks which helps us spend more time together as a family.

If you're thinking about giving this method a go then please leave a comment, If you've got an alternative method of saving money on fruits and vegetables I'd love to hear from you.

Love this idea- it's always great when you can maximize your finances AND do something that is a bit environmentally friendly and healthy. It does seem like it takes some effort, but if you really value your health and the quality of the ingredients you put in your body, then I think this is a terrific way to do it.

You can actually make your own bug spray if you'd like too- another forum we have has a thread where a member gave a recipe for homemade insecticide if anyone wants to give it a try- http://forum.nerdywithchildren.com/threads/starting-a-garden.17/page-2#post-1125