I Was Spending $800 a Month on Groceries.
Then I Planted a Tomato.
I still remember standing in the grocery store on a Thursday afternoon in 2021, watching the total climb at the checkout. $187. For one week. For our family of four. And that wasn't steak and lobster — that was chicken, pasta, vegetables, and a few basics.
I drove home frustrated. Not just at the prices — at the feeling of being completely at the mercy of a system I had no control over. I couldn't negotiate the price of tomatoes. I couldn't decide what pesticides were used. I couldn't do anything except pay and leave.
That weekend, I bought a $3 tomato seedling and a $7 bag of potting soil. I put it in a five-gallon bucket on my patio. I felt slightly ridiculous. By August, that one plant had given us over 14 pounds of tomatoes — more than we'd bought from a store all summer.
That was the beginning of everything. The next season, I expanded. I started preserving. I learned succession planting. I started saving seeds. Within two growing seasons, our grocery bill had dropped by over $500 a year — and we were eating better food than we'd ever bought from a store.
I built these two guides to give you everything I learned — without the years of trial and error. Whether you're planting your very first seed or you're ready to build a year-round food system, these books have what you need.
