Free Garden Seeds From Inside a Store-Bought Pepper

I've done this the last 2 winters, bought a red sweet pepper at the grocery store and saved some of the seeds for planting that spring. 

There are actually a few fruits and vegetables you can grow from produce purchases. I began my garlic with grocery store garlic, planting all the cloves from one head and multiplying over the years. I've planted sprouted potatoes, harvesting many times over what I planted. I've grown green onions in a cup of water on the windowsill from the leftover root end of purchased green onions. I've heard you can regrow Romaine lettuce and celery from their bases. Pumpkin, winter squash, and tomato seeds can be dried and saved to replant. And of course, there's always the avocado pit suspended with toothpicks partway in a bowl of water. My mother grew an avocado plant/tree for several years. It never grew large enough to be a tree. I knew someone who grew a pineapple plant from the crown of a fresh pineapple. She lived on Kauai and had the right climate to actually grow new pineapples on her pineapple plant grown from a crown.

With some of these plants, the variety you harvest might not look like the parent from which you took the seeds. I've found this to be true of winter squash seeds from market squash. Most of the peppers I grow from scavenged red pepper seeds are green or yellow at the time of my harvest. But I'm satisfied with the green or yellow ones.

Growing a garden dirt cheap is possible if you have a sunny spot in your yard and you're not terribly choosy about what you grow. Seeds and plant starts can be free -- remnants reclaimed from your trash or compost bucket.

Anyway, we've enjoyed our purchased red pepper for the winter months and now I've set aside my sweet pepper seeds for this summer's garden.

February Grocery Shopping 2023

February 3. We needed milk and a few other items. One daughter wanted to pick up some of her own foods, so the two of us headed down to WinCo. I bought 1 gallon whole milk ($3.17), 10-lb bag of carrots ($5.98), 1 head cabbage (88 cents/lb), 3.5 lbs gala apples (85 cents/lb), bananas (58 cents/lb), 3 avocados (48 cents ea), turkey breakfast sausage ($5.90/large bag), boneless skinless chicken breasts ($1.99/lb), white rice flour (53 cents), brown rice flour (51 cents), and wheat germ (38 cents). I spent $34.40.

The apples were in a 3-lb bag, priced at $2.98. However, I weighed the bag and it was 3.5 lbs, bringing my cost per pound down from 99 cents/lb to 85 cents/lb. The wheat germ was for making peanut butter energy balls, and the rice flours were for making myself some bread products that I could eat. I'll likely make pancakes, using the rice flour, an egg, soy milk, and the rest of usual pancake ingredients. The boneless skinless chicken is for lunch meat. I'll either cook and dice the chicken for chicken salad or cook and slice the chicken for sandwiches.

February 9. Several of us going to WinCo in the morning. My shopping included about a pound of grind-yourself coffee from the bulk bins as a Valentine gift to my husband (he prefers brewed coffee), $8.06, some truffles for daughters and son/daughter-in-law from bulk bins, $2.80, 8-lb bag (actually weighed 8.5 lbs) of oranges, $5.98, 3.5-lb bag of apples, $3.48, 8-oz mushrooms, $1.98, and more dates for me $2.95. total spent -- $25.25

spent so far this month --$59.65

February 14. Fred Meyer for our Valentine's lunch at home. I found chicken salad and broccoli salad marked down ($3.19 and $2.45), curried chicken salad in deli case (daughter's request) for $2.17, bacon-potato salad in deli case for $2.22, tub of melon cubes for $5, marked down bananas (49 cents/lb), a gallon of milk marked down to $2.89, frozen peas (VD dinner) for $1.25, rice-a-roni (VD dinner) for $1, jar instant decaf coffee, $4.99. Spent -- $25.77

While these deli items for a lunch were much more expensive than homemade lunch foods, I like to think that Valentine's Day is a holiday for me, too. So I took shortcuts. Our at-home lunch cost $15.03. Our Valentine's dinner also used shortcuts, the frozen peas and boxed rice side dish. For the rest of our Valentine's dinner, I made marinated teriyaki steak (steak cut from a roast bought in January), chili-lime chicken breast, scratch dinner rolls (from refrigerator dough I made over the weekend), sautéed mushrooms, and a plate of cookies (and plain rice for me). I guesstimate our Valentine's dinner cost just under $10 -- pretty reasonable for a special dinner.

My daughters spoiled me with gifts of fresh fruit, candy and snacks for Valentine's Day. These food items helped stretch our grocery budget for the month.

spent for the month so far -- $85.42

February 25. One daughter had been in the hospital for a few days and was discharged this day. The hospital is near WinCo. I would be needing a quick and easy dinner for that night to throw together once home. I decided on sandwiches and a large salad. I also needed produce, fresh and frozen. I bought 3 16-oz bags frozen green beans (98 cents each), 4 16-oz bags frozen peas ($1.28 each), 1 12-oz bag frozen broccoli (98 cents), 2 16-oz bags frozen corn (98 cents ea), 1 head cabbage (98 cents/lb), 4 avocados (48 cents ea), 2 bunches bananas (54 cents/lb), pint grape tomatoes ($1.48), 10-lb bag carrots, 6 lbs butter ($2.88 ea), 16-oz ham sandwich meat ($3.99), 14-oz turkey sandwich meat ($3.99), large red pepper (78 cents), 3-pack Romaine hearts ($2.48). Spent $53.33

One of the days my daughter was in the hospital I missed lunch and was growing very hungry and thirsty. I ended up buying myself a sandwich and bottle of water at the hospital. Spent $10.95

Total for the month of February -- $149.70

I got a few good deals this month and splurged a couple of times. I mostly cooked from scratch for almost all of our meals. And you know my family by now, we have simple food tastes.

What I bought

2 gallons milk

6 lbs butter

20 lbs carrots

2 heads of cabbage

7 lbs apples

5 bunches bananas

7 avocados

8.5 lbs oranges

pint grape tomatoes

1 red pepper

3-pack Romaine hearts

8-oz mushrooms (Valentine's dinner)

large bag turkey breakfast sausage

family pack boneless, skinless chicken breasts

16 oz sliced ham

14 oz sliced turkey

small amounts of brown and white rice flour from bulk bins

1/2 cup wheat germ from bulk bin

1 lb + fresh ground coffee (gift)

several individual Lindt truffles (gift)

dates from bulk bins

Rice-a-Roni (Valentine's dinner)

1 jar instant decaf coffee

5 bags frozen peas

3 bags frozen green beans

2 bags frozen corn

1 bag frozen broccoli

4 small containers deli salads, 1 cut melon bowl (Valentine's lunch)

How we managed on this month's groceries

Items we baked or made for snacks and desserts this month:

Valentine cut-out sugar cookies

pumpkin pie (from home-cooked pumpkin and scratch crust)

scratch brownies

roasted pumpkin seeds

scratch nut bars

peanut butter energy balls

whole wheat bread

scratch refrigerator dinner rolls

baked rice custard

scratch caramel sauce for apple dipping

stove-top popcorn

scratch pancakes and waffles

applesauce snack cake, using crabapple sauce made from our crabapples

scratch chocolate cornstarch pudding, adding in some sweet leftovers that had been lingering in the fridge (frosting and pancake syrup)

We used whole chicken, chicken thighs, boneless chicken breasts, turkey bacon, ground beef, and beef roast from the freezer (previous month purchases), as our meats this month. We continue to use grains, beans, butter, oil, baking supplies, peanut butter, nuts, and canned fruits, veggies, and tomatoes/tomato paste from our storage. And we have been using our frozen fruit (mostly foraged blackberries, but some dried rhubarb and dried cherries from our trees) and frozen garden veggies throughout the month. Our supplies are beginning to dwindle. I can tell because I have more empty spaces in the freezers and back-up pantry.

Going forward

I've kept our grocery spending low for several months now, in order to make up for the overspending in late summer and early fall to stock-up. I can now allow our grocery budget to creep back up to around $275 per month and feel pretty good about that amount.