Thrifty & Frugal Gardening

Gardening and landscaping can add value to your home, curb appeal, and work as a great stress reliever. It can also be expensive - unless you follow some thrfty guidelines!

Like all budgeting tasks, it takes organization and planning. You can have a perfectly landscaped yard and a garden full of vegetables that you can place on your table at a low cost.

1. Learn the basics. Use your local library, internet, and the local nursery.
2. Keep it fun. Don't go overboard and create a flower or vegetable garden that will take all your free time. Start with a small spot in your yard and make it a pleasure - not a chore.
3. Save - Don't Spend. For vegetable gardens, you should harvest more in savings than your spend in making the garden. Again, this requires proper planning.
4. In your yard, use plants that serve more than one purpose such as shrubs that are green all year and flower sometime during the year or trees that show off early spring blossoms and provide shade during the summer.
5. Grow flowers that seed themselves such as poppies, violas, sweet peas, sweet alyssum, and larkspur.

Top Ways to Save on Wedding Expenses

Weddings, like so many other things today can cost a bundle... But with planning and doing some work yourself, it can be affordable and beautiful!

Here are some wedding money savings tips from Thrifty411:

• Start with a budget!


• Limit the number of attendants.


• Have a more intimate wedding with close friends and family.


• Buy clear Christmas lights at after-Christmas sales and use them for decorations.


• Make what you can. Craft stores have great selections and ideas for decorations, gifts, the wedding veil, and other necessities.


• Use a couple long stemmed flowers with ribbons instead of bouquets for bridesmaids. Sometimes simple is more elegant!


• Comparison shop for invitations. There are many online providers or you can purchase invitation paper and do them yourself!


• If you plan to serve food at the reception, make it a buffet instead of a sit down dinner.


• Decorate the reception area with pictures of the bride and groom.


• Use some balloons at the reception instead of all flowers.


• Plan your wedding during "off-season" or on a day other than Saturday. Most weddings happen between May and October. The off season times may provide you discounts from vendors and locations.


• Opt for a non-alcoholic reception.

One last note - comparison shop for a professional photographer. This is one area where friends and family may not be your best bet.

Check out http://www.thrifty411.com/ for more on being thrifty and frugal.

Thrifty411 Tips for Your Credit

• Beware of scams. There are a lot of scams that deal with credit. Debt suspension offers, paying fees in advance, buying credit protection, and rebuilding credit usually sound too good to be true. There's a reason for this: they are.


• Don't use your credit card for cash advances. It will harm your credit score and the interest rates are outrageous.


• Consolidate your loans. Especially those student loans. With a student consolidation loan, you can lock in several loans at a fixed interest rate and have just one lender to pay each month.


• Avoid payday loans. Bottom line: they're scammy and they charge high interest rates. If you do need an emergency cash loan, just be aware of the risk of high interest rates.


• Be cautious with home equity loans. If you can't make a payment toward a home equity loan, you could lose your house.


• Pay off your credit card debt. Credit card debt is usually the debt with the most interest. So pay it off first. Better yet, don't accumulate it in the first place.

Check out http://www.thrifty411.com/ for more on being thrifty and frugal.