Best possible thing you can do to save your money is give up the fancy drinks. Soda (soft drinks) are by far the worst way to pour money down the drain, and if you or your kids drink lots of soft drinks you are just pouring money down the drain (plus they aren’t healthy!).

A family of 4 who have 1 soft drink a day are burning through up to $15 a week, and many have much much more than that. Its not uncommon for a family to churn through 4+ drinks of soda a day each which can really add up, here it would be upwards of $60 a week!! Soda and soft drinks do nothing for you, and are essentially just water and sugar with virtually no nutritional value, so giving up the soft drink is going to save you a lot of money you could be spending on other things (and you might just lose a few pounds to boot!).

Generally in most places a litre of soft drink or soda costs at least $1. If you are in the us its probably more like $.50. Heres a little exercise, have a jar, and for each time you empty a bottle of soft drink put $1 for 1 litre or $2 for 2 litres into a jar. At the end of the month count how much is in the jar, and you might be surprised… that was all wasted money you didn’t need to spend.

Food for thought!

Its not as hard as you think, and even having a few pots with herbs or veges in them can mean you not only don’t have to buy them, but they stay fresh for when you need them! Having herbs especially can take a lot of pressure of meal planning because you can essentially pick them all year round and they won’t go off.

Anyone serious about saving money on their cooking should have at least a small herb garden even some herbs in pots. Some herbs you may want to consider that go in a huge number of dishes are : Coriander, Basil, Parsley. Oregano, rosemary, Sage, Thyme .. all very easy to grow, and can easily be potted.

A quick little tip if buying pots is to look on your local online auction site whether it’s ebay or a local version .. you will probably get all the pots you need for a fraction of the price you will pay in a garden store.

Your choice of vegetables will be greatly influenced by whether you are growing in pots or have a garden, and how much space you have, also what the weather is like where you live. Vegetables are also largely seasonal, and knowing what to plant and when, plus also knowing when to pick your veges and use them is something you will need to research. A small bit of work, but homegrown vegetables and fruits not only taste better, but in the long run are much cheaper!

If getting seedlings instead of starting from seeds then check out your local farmers market, the seedlings are usually much cheaper. I will try to bring you some more advice about starting your garden in future posts, but for now check out what you may like and think about starting your garden or at least a few herbs in some pots!

Oh and its fun!