Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's reducing one of your core expenses by starting a garden. Hosted by Frances Cook.

When it comes to cutting down your budget, the biggest bang for your buck comes from three core areas: housing, transport, and food.

This is where stats show we spend the most of our money, and so it’s where we have the biggest potential for savings.

So starting a garden is a great way to become more self-reliant, and reduce your food budget.

But it’s not easy, with many of us living in urban areas now, or just having the proverbial black thumbs.

Don’t sweat it – everyone has to start somewhere.

For the latest Cooking the Books podcast I talked to Elien Lewis from Homegrown Happiness.

We discussed how she got started gardening on a small urban section, the easiest and cheapest gardening methods, and what to do if you're a renter.

If you have a question you'd like answered in a future podcast, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook

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