Howdy

[reptile411]

ITs been a while sence I read all the threads. Its good to see so many trying to save some money. I spent most of mine. We are in that scary Grey area of entrepreneurship right now. I came up with an idea, wrote up the plan, was very happy when I realized I could fund the idea myself with no outside investors and took the plunge. The bad news is it sucked up about 80% of what I had put away but its already profitable so far so that's good. I basically donated most of the money to the cause. The only debt the business has now is I needed to buy one last thing but didn't want to completely screw myself so I underwrote the business a loan payable over 3 years at 10% I thought this was a very good idea. This way I get to put the money back in savings and on top of that get 10% to boot. I am not sure of the legalities of this but I am sure I will find out come tax time. I am a little disappointed that we worked so hard to save all we had but that's ok. I am sure it will be there again. Thus far our revenue has paid off both credit cards that the business ran up, purchased a new truck and lots of other things that were necessary.

Other than that we found another great way to save. Urban farming. We have all this land right smack dab in the city and don't even use it short for the boy riding his quad all over it so we decided to make our land pay us back. I have 7 Chickens that give us more than enough eggs, All extra eggs are donated to our local food bank. We have a small orchard consisting of Orange, Lemon, Avocado and peach trees. A special corner for Blue berries and Grapes. The actual veggy part of our little urban farm is only about 1/4 acre but is way more than enough for our family. Out there we have Cucumbers, tomatoes, Watermelon, Bell peppers, Canalope and radishes so far. We got a lot of other seads to put out there but unfortunately its to late in the year so we are using our energy to get the land ready for an early season next year. I can honestly say if you have a little patch of dirt somewhere doing this is a great idea to save some extra money and its great fun for you and the family. Even if you don't have any dirt I saw one Urban Farm that attached rain gutters to the back outside walls of the house, filled them with dirt and grew quite a bit of food.

[GREENBACK]

ITs been a while sence I read all the threads. Its good to see so many trying to save some money. I spent most of mine. We are in that scary Grey area of entrepreneurship right now. I came up with an idea, wrote up the plan, was very happy when I realized I could fund the idea myself with no outside investors and took the plunge. The bad news is it sucked up about 80% of what I had put away but its already profitable so far so that's good. I basically donated most of the money to the cause. The only debt the business has now is I needed to buy one last thing but didn't want to completely screw myself so I underwrote the business a loan payable over 3 years at 10% I thought this was a very good idea. This way I get to put the money back in savings and on top of that get 10% to boot. I am not sure of the legalities of this but I am sure I will find out come tax time. I am a little disappointed that we worked so hard to save all we had but that's ok. I am sure it will be there again. Thus far our revenue has paid off both credit cards that the business ran up, purchased a new truck and lots of other things that were necessary.

Other than that we found another great way to save. Urban farming. We have all this land right smack dab in the city and don't even use it short for the boy riding his quad all over it so we decided to make our land pay us back. I have 7 Chickens that give us more than enough eggs, All extra eggs are donated to our local food bank. We have a small orchard consisting of Orange, Lemon, Avocado and peach trees. A special corner for Blue berries and Grapes. The actual veggy part of our little urban farm is only about 1/4 acre but is way more than enough for our family. Out there we have Cucumbers, tomatoes, Watermelon, Bell peppers, Canalope and radishes so far. We got a lot of other seads to put out there but unfortunately its to late in the year so we are using our energy to get the land ready for an early season next year. I can honestly say if you have a little patch of dirt somewhere doing this is a great idea to save some extra money and its great fun for you and the family. Even if you don't have any dirt I saw one Urban Farm that attached rain gutters to the back outside walls of the house, filled them with dirt and grew quite a bit of food.

Sounds like you're on the right track. Good luck.

[reptile411]

Thanks we hope so. This is not our first rodeo so this Grey area is nothing new to us. Just need to motor right through it and come out on top.

[tmvijai]

Wow! You seems to help our lot of people (earth, local foodbank, more) and even helped me encourage to push forward on my business idea. Always business is tough to get start and makes it even tough during these days.

I hope you through and come out top..

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Oh, hi! I don't know about the personal loan to your own business. Sounds like something you should get advice on.

The urban farm made me smile. Just yesterday I picked 59.6 pounds of Chinese long beans, Armenian cucumbers, Roma beans, zucchini, heirloom tomatoes, purslane, and cabbage. I took a bag full over to my friend who taught me about Armenian cukes and how to use purslane. I took two boxes down to a homeless shelter. Next door to that there is a little "farm" and I was invited in to look. They, too, have chickens. Then I went driving around that neighborhood a bit because I used to live there and like to see how things have changed. There is so much vacant land now. In my own mind, I was turning them all into garden as I drove. I was greedy: I wanted it all. I wanted to grow good things on it. I was cheered whenever I did see a garden already there!

Actually once when I lived there I had a split second hallucination of a nearby vacant lot turned into the most lush walled garden with a huge brick arch facing the street! Ever since then, I have kept my eye on that vacant lot. It is still vacant even though brand new homes have recently been built right up to the lot line. I don't know why the development stopped right at "my" vacant lot. I had two gardens on other lots in that neighborhood, after houses were torn down. One now has a new house on it. The other is still empty, and boy was that a tough spot to garden!

Now in another, less bombed-out looking neighborhood, I have my own yard so garden there. A neighbor this year also let me plant a corner lot she owns. That's where I grew those Armenian cukes, purslane, and the long beans. A few other things are planted there, including winter squashes and cantalope (don't seem to be getting any pollination.) I'm starting peaches from pits to place on that lot, too. Like you, though, mostly I am concentrating on getting the soil ready for next year. I have neighbors dropping off their grass trimmings to sheet compost where my news beds will be next year. I noticed one guy stopped bringing his trimmings. (He cuts grass for a few other neighbors.) I don't really know him and he lives on the opposite end of the block from me, so I hadn't heard from him about why he stopped. But a week or so ago, I had to smile to see that he was now depositing the trimmings in his own back yard to do the same thing I am doing. So next year I believe he will have a little garden! So happy to see that.

Now when my vegetables were first coming in, some friends from Mexico were visiting. (I am repeatedly impressed by how much more enterprising people from other countries are than I am.) They asked me why don't I grow flowers for market. I told them I didn't think I could compete with the imported flowers. Why not vegetables, then? Well, I kind of thoughtlessly just said, "mmm, maybe." A little time has gone by and I'm starting to think, there could be real possibility in doing that. Me a commercial "farmer"?

In the mean time, we do eat well. I was so happy the other night when my meal was fish from the river plus vegetables and herbs from the garden-- nothing purchased except the salt! Last night we had my DH's famous cabbage soup. This morning for breakfast, tomato sandwiches. Lunch, shelled mature long beans with garden onion and carrots and some more tomato.....I just wish it could go on like this all year.