Tag: Worm Castings

Hobbies Need Some Love Too!

If you’ve been around for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of sinking funds. I’ve repeated many, many, many times that money needs to be set aside for the un-glamorous expenses of life, i.e. property taxes and insurance premiums.

Today, I want to remind you that sinking funds should also be used to fund your hobbies. After all, your hobbies are those activities that bring you joy. When you’re doing them, you’re happy. There’s a certain contentment that comes with these activities. And that’s great.

However, hobbies generally cost a little bit of money. So you should have a sinking fund for them. If you haven’t already done so, open an account that’s just for your hobby-money and set up an automatic transfer to contribute money every time you’re paid.

I’ve been an amateur gardener extraordinaire for the past few years. I have a few simple rules. If it’s going in the ground, then it has to be a perennial. Getting down on my knees isn’t as easy as it used to be so I use waist-high planters and various containers for my annuals. Every year, I buy another couple of containers to add to my growing collection. And I like to try different annuals each year too. They’re not cheap. (And I’ve not yet started any seedling projects but I think I will have to put that on my to-do list at some point.)

Annuals are not inexpensive where I live! I routinely spend several hundred dollars every year, but I don’t mind. Those littel flowers bring me joy for several months! I love seeing which ones are more vigorous, which ones have the biggest blooms, which new colour combinations are most pleasing! Then I can spend the long winter months planning the following year’s floral arrangements.

I digress….

Again, buying annuals every year isn’t easy on my wallet. So I have a sinking fund for my flower gardens. Even when I get free plants from family members, I rely on the money in my sinking fund. This year, my cousin gave me many little iris plants. In turn, I bought her a bag of worm castings. Most people might not be thrilled to get a bag of worm poop but gardeners understand just how wonderful a treasure such a bag can be for the garden!

And I don’t buy every single annual from the fancy greenhouses either. Most of my stalwart plants are from the grocery store or the hardware store, where they simply section of part of their parking lots and sell plants. I do buy some stuff at the greenhouse, but only the more tender stuff or the fancier versions of what I can get in the aforementioned parking lots. Even when each plant is only $3.99, that adds up quickly. ‘

On top of the plants, I need the worm castings, the fertilizer, the root booster, and generally some compost. Every few years, I replace my gardener gloves or buy another trowel. Hoses don’t last forever either! And since I prefer container gardening, I treat myself to a couple of new containers each spring… which allows me to buy even more annuals!

Gardening isn’t inexpensive. Yet, flowers make me happy so I use a sinking fund to pay for the expenses that come with my hobby. I shop then I buy, then I withdraw money from my sinking fund to pay my credit card bill.

Whatever your hobby is, you should be doing the same.

After all, once your necessities have been paid, the next best use of your money is spending it on your hobbies. You work too hard for your paycheque to waste it on the things that don’t bring more joy into your life.

Spending Time! Use the Money in the Sinking Fund!

Hooray!!! It’s spending time! Break out the debit or credit card because we are going to use the money in the sinking fund!

One of my sinking funds – and I have many! – is dedicated towards my flower garden. I’m an amateur gardener in every sense of the word. Each year, I devote a few hours to planning what I want to buy and where I want to put it. The tail end of winter in Alberta can get mighty dreary so planning my garden is a good way to remind myself that spring is on its way. Container gardening brings me much joy. My wonky knees don’t allow me to comfortably kneel and work the ground like I see others doing. Containers raise everything up off the ground. And there are so many different styles of containers that I find it a bit overwhelming to choose. They’re not exactly perfect since planting can still be a bit hard on my back, but one of my Christmas presents last year was a gardener’s stool. I can hardly wait to use it this spring!

But I digress. My sinking fund for gardening is supposed to cover all of the following over the next few weeks:

  • compost, fertilizers, potting soil, and worm castings
  • a wide variety of annuals (petunias, marigolds, geraniums, verbena, sweet potato vine, coleus, and whatever else catches my eye while at the greenhouse)
  • new containers for all my annuals
  • new gloves, tools and hoses (if necessary)
  • more perennials and bulbs (lamium, hellebores, hostas, daffodils, tulips, balloon flowers)

Perennials are fabulous! They usually come back bigger and they bring their babies too. Free plants are a good thing as far as I’m concerned! My balloon flowers were transplanted 2 years ago. Last year, they did just okay and I let them go to seed. This year, I’m anxiously awaiting to see if they seeded themselves. Since they’re one of the last things to emerge in the spring, I’ve got another 5-6 weeks before I’ll have an answer to my question.

Bottom line – I’m always happy to see the return of my perennials, and I do what I can to ensure that they continue to love their space. This year, I’m finally going to implement the wisdom I’ve learned from Garden Answer and will add a new layer of compost to all my in-ground plants and containers. It’s supposed to refresh the soil since I don’t change the soil in my containers every year.

I’m just as much a fan of annuals. They have a place in my heart because they offer continuous flowers throughout the spring, summer and early fall. I’m in zone 3. For me, annuals always start small – since I’m too cheap to buy bigger plants! I don’t mind since I love watching their progress in the first 3 weeks. I’m not super-gentle when planting them, so they need a week to recover from transplant shock. Once settled and well-watered, they start to perk up by week three. Within six weeks, they’ve doubled in size and start to fill in the containers nicely. I love watching my annuals blooms! Watering them brings me a sense of peace, and takes away the stress of the day.

In another few weeks, I’ll be able hitting the greenhouses with my friends. And I won’t worry about how I’m going to pay for what I want. My sinking fund will cover the costs.

You should set up sinking funds too, if you haven’t done so already. I talk a lot about having sinking funds for the non-sexy parts of life, like vehicle insurance and property taxes. Maybe I should’ve also encouraged sinking funds for the fun parts of life too! What are your hobbies? Do you want to travel? Are you going to be buying seasons tickets to the theatre or to sporting events? Is there a new crafting skill that you want to master?

Use your sinking fund to pay for the fun aspects of your life too! I know a lady who blissfully spends her money on concerts. She never hesitates to buy the best tickets for whomever she wants to see! She loves going to concerts so saving money to do so is a priority in her budget. I know another lady who goes to writing workshops. One lady I talks about flying to another city for the day just to visit a particular restaurant. Different strokes for different folks, right? The thing they all have in common is that they identified their priorities and they use sinking funds to pay for them.

Let’s face facts. Spending money so, so, so much better when there’s no worry that it will result in debt. There’s no credit card hangover when you rely a sinking fund to pay for your priorities. When spending time rolls around, you can spend with ease knowing that you have the money to get what you want. The purpose of money is make your life better. It’s meant to alleviate stress, not to create it. Use sinking funds to buy what you truly want and to bring your dreams to life. There’s truly no down side to doing so. Happy, happy, joy, joy all around!