Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
Being rather new to “kitchen scrap” composting, I was wondering if you could enlighten us as to how you harvest your finished compost. I’ve used quite a bit of mine and still have about 1/4 of it left. Did you start a completely new one or did you use up all of the finished compost before starting another. And if so, did you not compost scraps while waiting to use up the finished compost?\
-Marianna
Oh, good question! I usually have two compost bins going…one that’s filled up and is just being left to, well, compost, and then another one to which I’m actively adding greens and browns.
I do this mainly because I figure that if I keep adding fresh compost to a bin, I’ll never have a bin that’s full of ready-to-use compost. So, I just keep adding and adding to one bin until it’s full, and then I start the next one.
I don’t know how things are in other climates (compost is probably slower in colder climates and faster in warmer climates), but here, it usually works out that I fill up one bin every six months or so. It never ceases to astound me that six months worth of produce scraps can fit into a single Rubbermaid bin, but they can! It’s almost magical the way they shrink. I haul bucket after bucket after bucket out there, and somehow, it all keeps fitting for months on end.
By the way, any of you that are new to this whole composting thing might find the posts in the Composting category to be helpful.
My question is: What are your frugal tips for finding web hosting? I have always been with godaddy, but I am working on merging some of our family blogs and I will need a new hosting account. I was just curious if you have found a more frugal way to host a site.
-Kristin
I currently host The Frugal Girl, The Frugal Girl 365, and The Frugal Girl’s Reviews with Dreamhost. I’m not sure how much GoDaddy charges, but with Dreamhost you can get unlimited storage and traffic for only $8.95 a month (plus, if you enter the code FRUGAL GIRL you can get $20 off your hosting fees. That brings it down to $7.28/month).
I’ve had some ups and downs with Dreamhost (a few months back, they were having some hardware problems and so we Dreamhost users had some down time), but for the most part, I’ve been happy with them, especially lately. Their customer service people are really helpful and friendly, and they’ve helped me out of jams several times (one time I accidentally activated a buggy theme which totally broke my blog, and they got me all fixed up! Phew.).
One downside to their customer service is that there is a charge if you want phone support. However, they have live chat available and their email team has always been fast and responsive.
I also recently signed up for a BlueHost account, where I’m going to set up my photography blog/site (right now it’s on WordPress.com). Bluehost’s starting price is $6.95 per month, so they’re a little cheaper than Dreamhost. Another bonus is that Bluehost offers telephone support for free.
I will say that if you’re just starting out, Dreamhost seems a little simpler to use. I knew nothing about self-hosting when I started out with Dreamhost, and I managed to get things set up and going without even really knowing what ftp was!
If I end up loving Bluehost, I may eventually switch all my blogs over from Dreamhost, but for now, I’m going to keep my Frugal Girl blogs where they are (quite honestly, the idea of moving three blogs and years’ worth of posts is very overwhelming to me anyways!)
Perhaps in a year or so, I’ll be better able to tell you if Bluehost or Dreamhost is a better hosting company, but for now I’d just say that both are inexpensive, reliable options that offer good customer support, and I think you’d be happy with either choice.
(disclosure: I get a kickback if you sign up with Bluehost or Dreamhost by using the links in this post. Obviously, though, I’m recommending a product that I use and that I spend my own hard-earned money on, so I’m not just shilling a product to make a buck. 
)
How do you organize your coupons? By name? By expiration date?
-Rachel
I don’t have tons of coupons in my coupon box (I used to have a lot more back when stores around here doubled $1 coupons!), but because I’m not entirely anti-coupon, I do always have some in my box. I organize them by category…I have a Dental category, a Baking category, a Cereal category, and so on.
Every now and then I go through my box and take out all the expired coupons, category by category. If I had oodles of coupons, this probably wouldn’t work too well, but this simple system works for me.
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Readers, as always, please feel free to add your advice to mine!
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Thanks for the information on the hosting site. I am new to all of this and love it.
I have joined you as a follower.
Please stop by and visit my site The Recycled Dove. Any comments and joining as a follower would be greatly appreciated.
Dove
I just stick all of my coupons in an envelope that I keep in my purse. I try to keep like coupons together. I’m like Kristen, though, I don’t use a ton of them. I can’t believe there was a store that doubled $1 coupons! That’s great! One time Food lion ran a special where they would triple any coupon up to $.99.
I’ve been with Bluehost for years and have had no problems with them. I’ve only once had to contact their customer support but that was a billing issue – I needed to update an expired credit card. My husband uses them too.
I’ve been reading about compost. Alot of people saying that the bins arn’t necesarry but i am worried about vermin. and I guess people seeing a big pile of rotting garbage in my yard. How long doing it take for you to A) fill a bin up and B) for it to compost?
Ben, you don’t need a bin but they have a number of benefits. Bins keep your stuff in a more compact lump so it composts a bit faster, it’s neater and nicer looking, and easier to shovel stuff out of.
To avoid vermin, don’t add protein. Now nothing’s perfect – any sort of foodstuff will attract some critters but meat/cheese/eggs are the most attractive. (Egg shells and beans don’t attract much vermin.)
How fast you fill a bin depends on how much trash you generate and the size of the bin. I have a small household but love to eat melon and to cook. I guess I generate on average a quart of food trash per day in the summer and less in the winter (no melon or corn). I’ve never filled up my 18 gal bin all at once. My pile is a “cold” pile (meaning the density of decomposing items never gets great enough to cause the pile to heat up from the decomposition) so I give my pile 6-12 months to decompose before using it.
I use two bins. One is “active”, i.e., for tossing kitchen trash layered with an equal amount of shredded paper and leaves. The other is “finishing,” once or twice a year I shovel the contents of the active bin into the finishing bin, and let it sit till the next time I spread compost in my yard. The advantage of shoveling is that the partially-composted stuff gets mixed up, which speeds up the process. Another advantage for me is that my pile usually gets too wet, I can add more browns as I move the stuff to the finishing bin.
Good luck. It’s awfully satisfying to turn trash into black gold.
I was just discussing server issues with my brother, the IT dude. He also recommended Bluehost.