When we lived in Oklahoma, I had over 20 pots that I loaded up with flowers every year. This was what Rick bought me for Mother's Day and I usually spent around $300 or more. It was a lot of work, and cost a lot, but I loved how pretty it made our porches and driveway. I did the majority of my shopping at Lowe's.
This year, now that we have moved, we have scaled down quite a bit, but I still have a lot of pots to fill. Yesterday my mom and I headed out to one of the Amish greenhouses. We live in the middle of a thriving Amish community. I was blown away with all the Amish had to offer, and the prices were fantastic! I came out with enough flowers to fill several of my pots, and even got some pepper plants, jalapeno plants, and red onions for my garden. I only spent $35! Now, I still have ferns to purchase, and will replace my pansies with other annuals in the next several weeks. But, I got a great start for a fraction of the cost!
And, they also have lots of other landscaping perennials for when Rick and I get ready to do our landscaping. They have crepe myrtles, hydrangeas, peonies, phlox, knock out roses, strawberries, blueberries and many other things, all of which are on my list. And, they are CHEAP! You can bet I will be getting my tomato plants from there in the next week or so when I finally get them planted.
This year I decided to try to invest in our local businesses as much as possible. Although the prices at the mom and pop grocery store are higher, there is much less variety and no real impulse purchases, so I have found that I spend TONS less than when I meticulously made my list to go to Aldi and Walmart every two weeks. I buy as many of my baking goods, apples, applesauce, peaches, pickles, grains, peanut butter, essential oils and soaps, and eggs at the other Amish store.
At the end of the day, I feel so GOOD about investing in the businesses of those who are local because, frankly, they need the business! Without customers, our grocery store would close (as have many of our local businesses) and the Amish community would need to move away.
I challenge you to look around and see what you can find at your local businesses and invest in them!
As always, linking up with Marcy at Ben and Me.
We are working on this too- our local farmers markets are one place we do this and when we eat out we try to frequent locally owned restaurants. I'd hate to see more small businesses go down- so many have.
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