Cheap fast food. The best, the worst.

I fully admit that over the summer I may have indulged a little more than I should have regarding eating out, specifically fast food. I know there are health and quality concerns that need to be considered, but I consider it one of my precious few luxuries. Even while indulging, I tried my very best to stick to a reasonable budget. When I was with the missus this was difficult, as when we eat out we tend to make it a full meal. But after a number of hard mornings at the office I became quite adept at satisfying my hunger with minimal damage to my budget.

There are certain places to eat for certain things and while sometimes you have a craving you just can't shake, most often than not you can have a filling lunch for two dollars or so, if you pick your poison wisely.

Some places are better to eat at than others when it comes to a limited budget, as I'll explain below.

• Subway: This popular chain has released a new ad campaign, selling $5 foot long subs. This seems fairly reasonable at first glance and it is in the end of things. But in comparison to a lot of other fast food franchises, it isn't terribly great. You're restricted to a set number of sandwiches, and Subway isn't known for piling on the ingredients. After tax you are probably ringing up a fair bit above the advertised $5, especially if you buy a bag of chips and a fountain drink.
  
  Healthier than most other fast food chains, but by far not the cheapest.
  
  
• Dunkin Donuts: Dunkin's has entered the realm of fast food not terribly long ago with their flat bread sandwiches and personal pizzas. But in comparison to other chains they're neither cheap or filling per dollar spent. Delicious? Perhaps. Worth it? Not really.
  
  Money is best spent here with a Munchkin, Small Coffee Combo. Stay far, far away from the budget breaking Coolattas.
  
  
• McDonalds: The double cheese burger reigns king at McDonalds when you're looking for the cheapest, best thing on the menu. Typically selling for $1 it's a pretty good deal. Before you unwrap it and sink your teeth into it's greasy, condiment flavored interior. Any given bite of this baby will either taste like beef-like-substance bread or ketchup.
  
  The four piece nugget is quite delicious, but for a $1 you'll need two or three just to satisfy mild hunger.
  
  
• Burger King: In my opinion Burger King is superior to McDonalds in all ways. This includes their value menu. The best item for your dollar? Undisputedly the Whopper Jr, of course. This tiny version of the whopper actually contains more than condiments, with the full lettuce, pickle, onion and tomato you'd expect on a cheese burger.
  
  Besides that the value menu is pretty lacking. You have the standard chicken sandwich, fries and onion rings, but they're neither substantial or worth the money in a tight lunch budget.
  
  
• Wendy's: Wendy's brings a lot to the table for the cheap grease seeker. It is typically my cheap meal ticket of choice in most situations. Wendy's bread and butter value menu product is the Junior Bacon Cheese Burger. While relatively small, two easily make a filling meal for just over $2.
  
  Several new items to the value menu include a double cheese burger that is fairly decent in comparison to McDonalds and a Crispy Chicken sandwich that is best not discussed.
  
  A small chili without cheese is likely the best value, ringing in at around $1.20.
  
  
• Taco Bell: My holy grail for fast, greasy food on the go. The only reason why I'm not constantly shoveling this down my gullet is the lack of establishments in my area. The food is delicious, dirt cheap (likely because the contents are items that are essentially the cheapest on the planet) and quickly prepared.
  
  The undisputed king of Taco Bell's value menu is the simple taco. Soft flour or crunchy corn you're not spending a cent more than $0.89 for this simple cheap meal. The Taco Bell menu is highly modular, so coupling a single taco with say, the $1.00 double beef burrito is quite easy.
  
  That being said it's quite easy to be side tracked into purchasing one of the more expensive items, such as a Crunchwrap (up to $3) or a Gordita (up to $2.50).

Are there regional favorites like Jack in the Box, Sonic, Chipotle Grill, Checkers and their ilk? Absolutely. But I really can't offer an opinion on many others, despite their regional existence and lack of nearby locations.

Of course I'm in no way suggesting you eat at any of these establishments frequently. I typically limit myself to one excursion a week. Usually to Taco Bell. Used in conjunction with adequate exercise and a bit of self control the value menu at any of these establishments can be a welcome treat to the financially challenged individual.

How to successfully raid a farmer's market

Spring is here and now we find ourselves flirting with the gorgeous girl that summer is, however fleeting she may be. Eerily pale New Englanders are beginning to stumble into the daylight, only to discover their chalky white skin will offer absolutely no protection against the growing day light. Floridians are slathering on the SPF 9,000 and Californians are now switching from red to white wines and from blue tinted sun glasses to the more stylish green.

I can say from first hand experience that last winter was hard and brutal. I thought I'd lose my mind on the fourth or fifth midnight furnace watch when the mercury started to dip below -15 F and our kerosene tank started to freeze. But if one thing kept be going through the long, hard winter it was the promise of one thing and one thing only.

Food.

In the frozen wasteland that is New Hampshire during the deep freeze of winter everything is either canned, frozen or imported from third world countries below the equator. Which is fine. I like being able to eat, even if it has to either taste like salty mush or come from Brazil with a price tag that'd put hard liquor to shame. But summer offers something different.

Summer offers a taste of local foods. Corn that hasn't traveled more than two zip codes and peaches that you might be able to see growing from the roof of your house. The recent Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kick off for summer.

So when it's time to honor our veterans farmer's markets and fruit stands begin to set up shop. But this year is different. This year we're finding prices a bit higher than the previous. And with it some yankee traders may attempt to take advantage of fresh food starved, over zealous folk looking to sink their teeth into an affordable habanero pepper.

Some "local" farmers markets may very well be hocking the exact same imported wares that your mega mart was pushing on you during the winter months. Some may provide you with honest locally grown fruits and vegetables, but will put even the most conservative grocer to shame with crazy mark up and substandard quality.

Which is not to say that you should steer clear of the enigmatic farmer's market or roadside fruit stand. You should absolutely support locally owned businesses and reap the benefits of the fleeting summer months, so long as you follow a couple of guidelines.

• Make sure you know what's in season: There's a reason why apples are dirt cheap in fall. That's when they're harvested in most areas, the market is flooded. The same goes for spring. Spring apples are imported from all over the world, so you may very well be paying more on shipping costs (and spent cargo plane fuel) than the actual fruit itself.
  
  So do yourself a favor and look for items that are in peak season and stick to them. Do you desperately want an ear of corn in North Dakota, but it's only June 2nd? Chances are your product was flown it from Florida a month prior. Will it be edible? Sure. Will it be cheap? Not a chance.
  
  
• Examine your surroundings: Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Are you shopping from a single lonely stand on the highway? Or are you shopping from a group of merchants set up in an empty lot, packed with customers? If business seems steady, the place seems clean and there are multiple vendors to choose from you've almost always found a winning market.
  
  
• Stay away from heavily processed foods: I'm hardly a freegan. But there seems to be something wrong with buying a meat pie from the back of some guy's truck. Plus, buying processed foods takes the point away from the whole concept of shopping at a local market. Who's to say the potatoes and carrots in it weren't canned? Isn't it kind of self defeating?
  
  That being said there's nothing wrong with buying some maple syrup candy for the kids or a couple of simple bread loaves, so long as they are not outrageously priced. Just remember, the more heavily an item is processed the higher price tag it's going to have.
  
  
• Remember your normal budget: How much would you think a pound of peaches goes for at your local mega mart? Is it comparable to the price at your local fruit stand? If yes, it may very well be the same product that's been imported from who knows where.
  
  
• Talk to those selling you your dinner: It'll do wonders. The Farmer's Market is supposed to be a friendly, casual atmosphere usually held out doors. More often than not the people manning the stands are the same people who grew the plum tomatoes you're looking to stuff.
  
  Ask questions. What would they take home today? Where did this head of lettuce come from? How has the harvest been so far? You might make a couple of friends. And as a great man once said, "Friend's don't let friend's buy junk."
  
  
• Come prepared: You're not exactly dealing with a Wal-Mart super center and the stand you're shopping from may not even have an electrical outlet to proces your fancy and likely unnecessary American Express card. So bring a fair amount of cash in small denominations.
  
  And don't forget something to haul away all of your loot. Reusable canvas bags, backpacks and coolers with ice packs are all excellent items to bring to a farmer's market. Always bring more than you think you're going to need, you may very well find a great deal.
  
  
• Steel yourself against things you might not really want: Just because you bring more storage space than you need does not mean you have to leave with sixteen pounds of ruby red grapefruit and four dozen years of corn. If the food is fresh and you find yourself wanting to overbuy, take a break. Buy a small quantity, have a snack and see if it's really worth it. You might find that you were a bit greedy. Or not greedy enough.
  

Just remember to make it an experience worth remembering. Make the trip an enjoyable experience with friends and family. Try not to quibble too much over price. You only live once, and winter is right around the corner. So get your fill while you can.

The dreaded homelunch

There was a time when I used to work in an office environment for nine hours a day, five days a week, fifty one weeks a year. It was a pretty grueling experience to say in the least. My days were made up of high pressure deadlines, keyboarding and a fair amount of incompetent technophobes yelling at me because they couldn't exactly wrap their heads around the whole purpose of having secure passwords and anti-virus software.

Needless to say the best part of my day was almost always the lunch hour. Sixty sweet minutes of peace and quiet to do with what I please and enjoy a nice meal. And with the missus in the next office over we could take a leisurely break together. And maybe vent at one another as to why, exactly our boss felt the need to be such an arrogant waste of skin.

Because it was a busy office environment in an area populated by office buildings, real estate brokerages and banks there was a dangerous temptation. It was called "the strip" and it was glorious. A mere sixth of a mile down the busy seven lane artery that could have passed for a major highway were more places to eat than stars in the sky. Everything from the usual fast food garbage to upscale twenty dollar sandwiches. If you felt like anything at all on any particular day of the week, you could find it, order it and consume it in less than an hour.

And man, oh man. Would that seven lane motorway clog like a low flow toilet at 11:55 every weekday, without fail.

I'm pretty ashamed to admit that we'd waste a good $60 every week on lunch. That's more than half of our current food budget for two full weeks, breakfast lunch and dinner included. We did this for more than half of a year. Our rough estimates put this at around $1,500 of pure excess. Sure, the food was marvelous and the stress relief was great. But not only were we wasting an extraordinary amount of money, our waistlines were also exponentially increasing. I gained 30 pounds at that job, due to eating out and sitting on my ass all day, typing.

Now that I work from home for the vast majority of my work week I have full access to every household appliance in my home in addition to my fridge and pantry. Lunch is no longer a problem. There's no temptation to go out, as I live in the boonies.

But I did start to get serious about being frugal before I left the office grind. While there was still a little bit of excess involved, it was far more manageable. Here are some of the tips and tricks I experimented with.

• Don't change your life style all of a sudden
  If you're used to eating out, you're going to get withdrawals it you all of a sudden stop and switch to the loathed Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich at your desk. Going out for Thai with your work buddies is far more appealing.
  
  So continue to do it, but work on scaling yourself down. Form a rough budget and evaluate your performance on a week to week basis. But don't get depressed if you go over budget once in awhile.
  
  Start bringing your lunch on your less stressful days and enjoy a nice time out on the more head grinding days. Eventually over time whittle it down so you only go out one or two days a week.
  
  
• Remove temptation
  It's depressing to see a group of your coworkers go out to your favorite lunch canteen. It's downright torture to see (and smell) them get delivery. Curb your potential torture by taking your lunch break earlier than most of your peers, if possible. Leaving the building altogether works well if you don't mind being a little antisocial. I used to bring a good book to my car and read in the spring and summer months.
  
  
• Snack
  Okay. Not all of us can be antisocial nerds and read under a tree when the clock strikes 12. Let's say you need to go out on a daily basis, if only to chat with your friends and coworkers and get a little bit of socializing in.
  
  Have a snack about an hour before lunch time and order something relatively small when you do go out. Since you won't be famished, you'll be less likely to order something off the menu that could feed a cow.
  
  
• Don't drink soda
  Soft drinks like Pepsi and Mountain Dew are mostly carbonated water. Which is essentially tap water with a bit of gas dissolved into it. I once knew a woman who managed a restaurant for a number of years. She informed me that soft drinks have an enormous third party markup. It costs the average restaurant about $0.03 to provide you with a frosty cold Pepsi. Which is why most establishments tend to offer free refills. Likely because they're charging you about $2.00 for something that costs them three cents. The same is more or less true for coffee.
  
  So if you find yourself as a fast food joint or elsewhere, simply drink water. You'll be cutting down on empty calories and saving yourself a bit of money.
  
  
• Utilize the microwave
  Microwaves are more common than toilets nowadays. There was a time when I lived off of Hot Pockets. Granted, they were still incredibly unhealthy and still cost me $2.50 a box, but that sure as heck beat going to McDonalds and buying a $6.50 double quarter pounder.
  
  You don't even have to buy microwavable convenience meals. Microwaves in the work place allow you to bring pretty much anything you can fancy for lunch, be it left overs from the night before or something you whipped up that morning.
  
  
• Utilize icepacks
  Say you're on the run more often than not and a microwave is not always an option. There's nothing chaining you down to just sandwiches. So long as you have a lunch bag and an icepack there are a number of things you can eat cold and on the run.
  
  Some ideas include:
  
  
  • Pasta Salad
    
  • Chicken Salad (Maybe with left over chicken from the night before?)
    
  • Gazpacho
  • Waldorf
  • Veggie Wraps
  • Fruit Salad
  • Left over pizza (I prefer it cold, honestly.)
  • Left over fried chicken (Fried chicken is excellent cold, that's way it makes excellent picnic fodder.)
  • Potato Salad
  • Tortilla chips and salsa (or Spinach dip)
    
  
  So long as you can dice it and shove it inside of a tortilla or a tupperware container, you can bring it and eat it cold.
  
  
• Set aside dinner portions
  Regardless of what I'm having for dinner on any given night I try to put an extra portion into a piece of tupperware before I sit down to eat. This could be anything from mashed potatoes of taco filling. This stops us from eating it and it gives me something to work with for the next day's lunch.
  
  There's no rule saying you have the have an exact duplicate of your previous night's dinner. Roast chicken can be diced up and put into a salad. Taco filling can be mixed with rice and corn. Roast beef can be sliced thinly and placed into a wrap. Mashed potatoes can be mixed with cheese and sour cream, et cetera.
  
  
• Don't underestimate the power of carbs
  I love carbohydrates. They're tasty and extremely filling. Whenever I work outside of my home for a long period of time, I always bring some seasonal fruit and a slice of breakfast bread with me. The breakfast bread will keep me filled for a long time while I bust my hump. The same is true for any complex carb, be it pasta, potatoes or a big hunk of pumpernickel.
  

So long as you make an honest effort to try to curb your unhealthy and wasteful lunch habits you'll succeed, if only a little bit at first. But it's not incredibly difficult.

Top 5 best herbs for the frugal family

Fresh herbs are by far the most expensive piece of produce pound for pound that you'll ever likely buy on a semi-regular basis. With good reason, too. They're capable of turning just about any bland and mediocre meal into one that you're going to remember for quite sometime. Which is a very important, especially when you're on a tight food budget.

A lot of people buy their herbs dried, or worse yet, in the produce aisle at their local mega mart. This is a shame. Sure, dried herbs are great. But a lot of their essential oils have evaporated in the drying process, and even more lost during their journey to the store and a potentially long stay on the grocer's shelf. And fresh herbs are expensive. They should be. A lot of time and energy went into keeping them alive all this time just so you could pluck them up on a Sunday afternoon for your pasta sauce.

So the solution is simple. Grow your own. Seeds are cheap and herbs require very little maintenance once started. The only thing you need to worry about is getting the biggest bang for your buck. These can of course be grown outside should you have that privilege, but most herbs are quite content to sit in a sunny windowsill inside.

So I've compiled a short list as to the top 10 you should be concerned about if you find yourself with a new green thumb and on a tighter budget.

1. Basil
   Description: Basil is a dark leafy green plant. The plant itself is flowering, producing tiny, sweet smelling white flowers. It's seeds are tiny and dark green to black in coloring.
   Dishes: Pasta sauce, pesto, zucchini, salad and pizza
   Tips: Needs a very sunny area to grow properly. Like most herbs, the cultivated product can be a little bigger than bite size. Clip only as needed from the plant and mince the leaves very finely. Add toward the end of the cooking process as basil itself is pretty delicate and may lose its flavor if too much heat is applied. Basil is crammed full of antioxidants!
   
   
2. Chives
   Description: Chives are actually part of the onion family. They appear when fully mature as hardy and tall grass with a light to medium green color. They are a flowering plant and produce small purple flowers.
   Dishes: Roasted, mashed and baked potatoes, salad, dip, salsa and pasta sauce
   Tips: Needs a very sunny area to grow properly. When using, snip one stalk off as close to the base as you can and mince it. If you need more, repeat the process with a second stalk. You'll get a surprising amount for very little of the plant, so don't be over zealous when it comes to using.
   
   
3. Bay
   Description: Bay is grown from woody stalks. The actual leaves themselves are large and pale green, with a lighter underside.
   Dishes: Soups, stews, stock, and sauces
   Tips: The bay plant doesn't need so much sun as it needs air. Make sure it's in a well ventilated area. When cooking, bruise the leaf and add it in the beginning of the cooking process whole. Fish it out before serving, as biting into a mouthful of foliage may not be the best experience. Bay itself is aromatic and slightly bitter.
   
   
4. Rosemary
   Description: A small, woody plant that produces small evergreen like needles when fully mature. The plant itself produces tiny periwinkle colored flowers.
   Dishes: Cornish hens, steak, fresh water fish, brisket, lamb, soups, stews and stocks.
   Tips: The essential oils in rosemary can irritate the skin. So be ginger when you clip what you need from the plant. The plant itself needs a moderate amount of sun. Before cooking, bruise the clipping and add at the start. Like basil it should be fished out before serving.
   
   
5. Sage
   Description: Pale to medium green, long and wide leaves. Flowers with large, bell shaped purple flowers. The plant itself is woody.
   Dishes: Pork, chicken, goose, turkey, stuffing
   Tips: This plant's name literally means "to heal" and has been known to treat a large variety of ailments such as digestion and depression. The plant itself tolerates dry air very well, but needs plenty of sunlight to thrive. Like rosemary and bay, sage leaves should be bruised, added during the start of cooking and fished out prior to serving.
   

Of course there are plenty of other herbs and varieties out there that you can try yourself. But whether it's thyme, tarragon or flat leaf parsley they'll go a long way to stretching your food budget just a little bit more.

Stretching food

Most people like routine and schedules, especially when it comes to their food. I for one love trying new and different things, but nine times out of ten I typically gravitate toward the dishes I've grown to love. These include tacos, chicken cheese and broccoli, roast chicken, calzones and chicken stew. So when the going gets tough people tend to start to get nervous, thinking they don't have anything to eat in the whole household.

Say it's the end of the month. You pantry and fridge are pretty barren. There's really nothing you can throw together that'd form something you're used to. A lot of people at this point, if their budget was not set completely in stone, would go out to the corner store and buy a couple of things. Or they'd order take out. Or, heaven forbid, they'd go out to eat. Situations like these seep into budgets and crack them wide open.

When someone cries that they have nothing to eat in their household they're usually far from the truth. Even the most impoverished family is going to have some essentials that can make a surprisingly satisfying meal. Sure. It may be completely true that there isn't a lot of particularly anything, but that can always be remedied by some basics every household is usually going to have.

• Canned soup
  Need to feed three or more with a single can of soup? Easy. Add 1/3 more water to in your pot than recommended before adding one or more of the following: White rice, noodles, broken spaghetti, beans, lentils, canned veggies (peas, corn, et cetera), diced carrots, diced potatoes or left over meat. Season with a little extra salt, herbs and spices to combat a watered down taste.
  
  
• Chicken
  Have a single frozen drumstick and you're looking to make a dinner for two out of it? No problem. Cut the meat off of the bone and stir fry it with: Canned, frozen or fresh vegetables, canned water chestnuts, canned bean sprouts. Add spices and soy sauce and serve over rice or noodles.
  
  
• Beef
  Have some left over pot roast or a steak you're looking to make a big meal of? Skewer medium sized chunks between large cut vegetables like bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini and squash. Marinade in an acid liquid (citrus works great) and grill. Serve with a side of rice and beans.
  
  
• Sandwiches
  Have all the ingredients for a nice round of sandwiches, no only two slices of bread? Toast the bread lightly, cut it into cubes and toss it into a bowl with all the ingredients, diced finely. Serve it like a salad.
  
  
• Fruit
  Not enough fruit to make a decent snack? Throw it into the blender any or all of the following: Ice cubes, yogurt (single servings work just fine), ice cream, orange juice, tofu, carrots (you read me right), oatmeal (yes), and milk. If you still don't have enough you can always serve it over ice cream with nuts.
  
  
• Potatoes
  Planning on baked potatoes for dinner, only have one left in the whole house? Dice it and roast it with olive oil and vegetables. Add cheese to make it something special. Parmesan works great.
  
  
• Eggs
  By far the easiest to stretch. Looking to make breakfast for the family, only to find out you have half the eggs you need? Scramble them with half as much milk. Add anything under the sun. Left over chicken, cheese, vegetables, mushrooms, bacon bits, potatoes. You name it, it'll taste awesome inside of an omelet.
  
  
• Tortilla chips
  Mix a small amount of melted cheese, beans and salsa together to form a satisfying queso. Add left over meat. Want more of a dinner out of it? Add shredded lettuce and you'll have a fully balanced meal.
  

Have your own ways to stretch your food dollar just a little bit in the face of a sudden crisis or guest invasion? Post in the comments and I'll link back to your blog in my next post.

Spring is coming: DIY Countertop Greenhouse

March is right around the corner and the days are getting warmer and warmer. And while even as I speak snow is falling outside my home office window, I know that soon all of this dreary white weather is going the way of falling leaves and foliage. People who are serious about gardening in my neighborhood typically gear up this time of year, starting their seedlings in front of sunny windowsills and cleaning out the potting sheds.

I've had some conversations with my neighbors. We're all more or less in the same boat of being financially strapped. I've heard time and time again that they're planning on really getting serious with a garden this year to reduce their bills.

A lot of frugal folk like to promote the idea that growing a lot of your own food can help reduce your over all grocery bill at the end of the month. I don't exactly subscribe to this ideal quite yet, but I think it's an interesting premise. The main problem I see with it is I believe a lot of people see the costs of seeds, the cost of produce at the mega-mart and draw the obvious cost connections in their heads. A single seed packet may cost $1.00 and contain enough for 50 tomato plants!

But I think far too many people neglect to take into consideration the other costs of growing your own produce. A short list includes:

• Tools (spades, hoes, rakes, watering cans, et cetera)
  
• Water (especially if you live in a drought prone region)
• Soil and nutrients (especially if you live in less than ideal growing conditions such as the middle of Arizona or northern New England)
• Pestic
  
• Potting accessories (Pots, seedling pots, trellises, et cetera)
  
• Time (time is money, after all)
• Seeds / Seedlings
  

At this moment in time I think that growing your own produce costs pound for pound the equivalent of buying it at your local produce stand or mega-mart. Which is not to say that I'm against home gardening to shore up one's food budget. I'm just saying that one has to enter the situation realistically without expectations of a greatly reduced grocery bill.

If you're planning on gardening this coming spring, I don't think frugality should be at the front of your mind. I think the gardener should be more concerned with the experience and the ability to control the quality of the food than anything. Not to mention that you're decreasing your carbon footprint a considerable amount if you're not buying as many food stuffs that come in via gas guzzling tractor trailers.

Plus, if you're one of those organic nuts you can assure yourself that your tomato, even if it might not look terribly pretty, was grown with as little impact on your garden space as possible.

The growing season is tricky, however. Especially in the northern United States, the time when you should have seedlings ready to go into the ground, there's still a couple of inches of snow covering the ground. So what I've found it that a lot of people set their future meals in front of drafty window sills and hope for the best. Which gives them a head start on the season, sure. But not nearly as much as they should be given.

Which is why I began to research small, compact greenhouses. I'm not talking about the variety that I'll construct in the backyard with lumber and sheets of very expensive glass, but small, self contained units that would only hold one or two plants. Something that I can easily carry out onto my deck on sunny, warmer days and take in at night. Or put in front of a sunny windowsill on especially cold days. And since a greenhouse is by definition an enclosed space, I won't have to worry about my cats getting a little hungry.

My logic is it'll be far more economical to construct several of these versus one large unit. And since it won't be exposed to the elements, I won't have to worry about weather proofing it. Which would add a hefty price tag to just about anything. Sealant is expensive. Once the fear of frost has completely left the picture, a small unit can be easily stored for next year and the plants transplanted to a proper garden.

In my travels I found this lovely little creation. Made out of a small amount of lumber, some Plexiglas and a couple of screws it hardly disrupts a tight budget at all, costing less than $20 to construct from start to finish. And if you're the type of household who typically has stuff from excessive years laying around, you might not need anything at all. Off the top of my head I can confirm that the only thing I likely need to construct one of these beauties this instant is a couple of sheets of Plexiglas and maybe a couple of hours to myself to get started.

Maybe some heavy duty band aids for when I invariably injure myself. And apology flowers to the neighbors, for the loud swearing that would likely ensue immediately afterward. Which can be grown in the thing that caused the swearing in the first place. See? It's a lovely cycle.

So will I be growing things this year? Yes. Our garden already has a large number of bulbs, chives, strawberries and flat leaf parsley ready to resprout. And I will be growing some one shot stuff like tomatoes and peppers. But I'm not expecting miracle yields to put me on the fast track to easy street. I'd be happy if I break even. I think that's good enough.