Spring is the perfect time to get back on track with your finances and start living frugally again after a long winter.
I don’t know about you, but despite our best efforts to live frugally in the winter, it is by far the most expensive time of year. Our most expensive time of year is actually from November through April, starting with the expense of the holiday season, and ending with tax season. All of our other major expenses (including business expenses and insurance costs, among other things) fall in between.
Not to mention, our grocery and energy bills tend to be higher throughout the winter months, despite the fact that we burn wood for heat and try to eat from the pantry and from our food storage in the winter months. By mid-spring I am more than ready to top haemorrhaging money.
Here are some of the ways I save money while making the most of spring:
1. Spring Clean
It really wouldn’t be spring without a little spring cleaning. Spring is the best time to open the windows, clear out the dust, and deep clean your house after months spent indoors dirtying up the space. (Plus, if you burn wood, a good scrub with a magic eraser will do wonders for our walls).
Of course, you’ll want to steer clear of chemicals and toxic cleaners purchased from big-box stores if you’re going to be as frugal (and safe and healthy) as possible. Luckily, making your own all-natural cleaners couldn’t be easier, and it’s a great frugal habit to adopt throughout the entire year. All you need is a spray bottle with a little white vinegar and a rag to clean most surfaces.
Check out this post for all of my favourite spring cleaning recipes, all made with natural ingredients and essential oils.
Just as important as actually cleaning your home, organizing and purging is a great way to clear out clutter and refresh your space. Spend an afternoon or two decluttering each room in your house.
You may even be able to make a few bucks off of unwanted items, and nothing is more exciting to a frugal person than making extra money! Facebook Marketplace is another great place to sell unwanted items. Children’s clothing and other name-brand clothing can often be sold to consignment shops, or try posting them for sale on Poshmark. Or go old-school and have a garage sale if the weather’s nice enough and you have a lot of things to sell!
Anything you can’t sell, donate. Don’t second-guess it. If it doesn’t bring you joy and you haven’t used it in months, just get rid of it. I know this is easier said than done, but it’s the truth. The space and peace of mind you’ll gain from decluttering will be well worth getting rid of some stuff that you may or may not use someday.
2. Start Seeds/Plant a Garden
One of the most frugal things you can do in the spring is to start a garden and grow some of your own food. Even if you don’t have a lot of garden space, a balcony or even a window box is all you need to grow a little herb garden.
Not only is gardening a fun and frugal activity (when you grow food from seeds anyway), but the savings on groceries and the return on investment when it comes time to harvest makes it literally feel like you’re growing your own money (because you kind of are).
I’ve also taken up growing flowers in recent years. While the main focus of our garden is still food production, I love creating a beautiful outdoor space that brings me and my family joy, and this also saves us money over the spring and summer months as we are more inclined to stay home and enjoy our space rather than going out. I also love growing cut flowers and gathering up bouquets from the garden all season long. This way I can enjoy fresh bouquets every week without having to spend a fortune!
3. Swap Seeds
If you’ve been gardening and seed-saving for any length of time, find a local seed bank or seed savers exchange and swap some of your own seeds with other people for free instead of having to buy new seed varieties. Or if you live in a community where many people have gardens, talk to your neighbours and organize your own seed swap.
You can swap seeds for free at a local level or you can buy them from other gardeners on The Seed Exchange website where you can also sell your own seeds and make a little profit off of the seeds you save.
4. Harvest Compost and Fertilizer From Your Homestead
Clean out your compost pile and chicken coop to create free fertilizer for your spring garden. Even ashes from your wood stove (in moderation) can be used to amend soil (wood ash is high in phosphorous and potassium, which is great for establishing strong roots and encouraging flowering). There’s no need to buy fancy soil amendments when you’ve been making them all winter!
5. Find Free Plants and Garden Materials
If you want to up your frugal garden game, look to your local community to find free cuttings, seedlings, plants and garden materials.
Often you can find free garden materials around this time of year on local buy, sell and swap sites and farm & garden groups (check Facebook Marketplace and local gardening groups). Sometimes people will offer up cuttings from plants they already have, extra seedlings, plants they have dug up and no longer want or any variety of other garden materials like plastic pots, compost or manure, soil, tarps or landscape fabric or even fencing materials for cheap or free if they have extra they don’t need.
If you’re looking for mulch, ChipDrop connects you with local aborists that will drop off large amounts of fresh tree mulch for free! (In our case, we bribed our local arborists with a case of beer, and in return we got ___ yards of mulch dropped on our property!)
6. Hatch or Raise Chicks
If you’re planning to raise chickens, ducks, or even meat birds this year, spring is the most economical time to get started. Raising chicks yourself from fertile eggs or day-olds is cheaper than buying pullets later, and you’ll be stocked with homegrown eggs or meat by summer or fall. Plus, if you have kids, there’s nothing quite like the free entertainment that baby chicks provide! Watching baby chicks hatch is lots of fun too (not to mention educational!)
We hatched our first batch of chicks this year using this egg incubator from ChickCozy. It makes hatching super easy by automatically turning the eggs for you, tracking the days until hatching, and even offering a built-in candling light so you can check the growth inside the egg as the chick develops! Use code THEHOUSEANDHOMESTEAD at checkout for an additional 5% off your order.
7. Build or Repair Infrastructure Before Summer
Now’s the time to mend fences, patch roofs, clean gutters, and build garden beds or animal pens before the busy summer season sets in. Doing it yourself (especially with repurposed or salvaged materials) can save a small fortune compared to paying for repairs later under pressure.
8. Collect Rainwater
Spring is a rainy season in many areas, so setting up a simple rainwater catchment system can help reduce your water usage and bills during the drier months. Even using collected rainwater for garden irrigation or washing tools can make a noticeable difference. Plus, you can make your own rain barrel for cheap or free! Here’s how we built a super frugal rain barrel out of a garbage can.
9. Go Foraging
Depending on where you live, you might be able to find all sorts of wild edible and medicinal plants to forage. Spring is the perfect time to forage wild greens and weeds like stinging nettles, fiddleheads, chickweed and dandelions. Try this recipe for dandelion healing salve made with dandelions foraged from your own backyard! (Or someone else’s;))
Morel mushrooms are a great edible mushroom variety to forage in spring too. Pine tree tips (the fresh, soft, bright green growth on the end of pine trees) are also an excellent springtime wild edible to forage. They’re packed with vitamin c and have a citrusy flavour, so they make a nice tea or you can turn them into a delicious Tree Tip Syrup.
And of course if you live by the coast you might also be able to forage for seaweed and shellfish local to your area. Just be sure to check regulations and health warnings to make sure they are safe to forage and eat in your area at this time of year.
Pick up a local field guide to wild edibles in your region to get a better idea of what’s available to forage in your area.
10. Use Less Electricity
As the weather warms up, it’s a great time to cut back on electricity use and utilities in general as you turn down the heat and get outside more.
Reset your thermostat to reflect spring weather, save on energy use by turning lights off as the days get longer, and turn the television off as you spend more time outdoors. You can even try line drying your clothes instead of running the dryer.
While you’re at it, try making your own laundry detergent at home for less than the cost of store-bought!
11. Have a Picnic or Potluck
Wanna save on eating out but also bored with the same old dinner around your dining table? Have a picnic or host a potluck to spice things up without breaking the bank! Picnics are a great way to change up the scenery over and over again during the warm-weather months, and potlucks are a great way to gather together wth friends and family for a fun afternoon or evening together, without spending a fortune.
12. Barter With Neighbours
Spring is a natural time for swapping and bartering—whether it’s eggs for garden starts, homemade bread for composted manure, or lending tools in exchange for a few hours of help. If you’re part of a local homesteading or farming network, start asking around. Bartering not only saves money but strengthens relationships too, and helps to build self-reliance within your local community.
Got any other other frugal living tips to share this season? Leave them in the comments below and let’s keep adding to the list!
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What a great list! In my area we also go and cut wild asparagus, it grows along the roads in old ditches. It is the absolute best I’ve ever had!
Ooh, I wish we had that close by! Lucky you!