Today I rolled up the change in my change jar and deposited it in credit union #3. It came to $33.50 and it goes into my new freezer fund, bringing my total to $54.50. Goodness, it is ridiculous how utterly thrilled with myself I am about saving money. It used to be more thrilling to spend it. I still have to make my $10 deposit to credit union #2 this week, but won't do that until Thursday.

I transplanted my snow peas, spinach, chard (bright lights), lettuce and garlic and I have homemade cloches (okay, they are green Sprite bottles with the bottoms cut off and the lids left off, but they work) available if the weather swings too cold again. Today is a balmy 55 degrees F, so I hope this cold business is over now.

I'll wait until the beginning of May to plant my green beans. I don't have enough cloches for those since I try to plant enough green beans to can for at least a six month supply and to eat fresh all summer. I lost some once by planting to soon in April before and then getting hit with a hard freeze. I do learn from my mistakes. I'll plant kohlrabi seeds in another week as they can stand a bit of cold. I adore them and they are so incredibly expensive in the grocery. And they taste much better from my organic garden.

I try to keep my produce budget as low as possible once my garden is producing. I have strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, bush cherries, sweet tree cherries, an apple tree, 2 pear trees and an Italian plum tree, so something is usually bearing fruit all summer and I freeze the excess. Veggies vary yearly, based on what I learned from the year before. It helps a lot, but I am going to be even more aggressive this year and see if I can't can or freeze enough for a whole year. I don't like being at the mercy of store prices.