Cheap seed starting: egg cartons & a freezer

A bit over a week ago I was feeling a little cooped up in the house, and I decided that I would start some seeds. I began by getting some onion seeds ready to check their germination rates. I had previously cut up some old egg cartons into plant-specific groups and labeled them. The picture shows the cartons cut up for some of my peppers and tomatoes.

Then I put some dirt in old egg cartons and I put one pepper seed in each cup. Last year I had a very hard time thinning my pepper plants, and so to avoid that this year, I planted only one seed in each cup, and just planted more cups than I wanted plants, so that instead of snipping any extra plants later on, I could give extras away, or trade them for different varieties (not that I will have room for them, but...)

I covered the seed, moistened the soil, and put the complete carton in a plastic grocery bag, then I set the wrapped carton on the old carton's lid, which I hadn't cut into plant-specific sections. This way the old lid is a base keeping the cut up carton together, but because it is outside of the bag it doesn't get wet. Cost - free! The soil isn't the greatest, but I decided to spend my money on seeds this year, and use mixed garden soil and sand instead of buying potting or seed starting soil.

 Next I put the egg carton on the top of my freezer, and let the freezer be the gentle bottom heat the pepper seed packets recommended. Yesterday I noticed that some of the seeds are poking their newly germinated heads above ground, so I moved the carton out to the sunporch where I have my grow light set up. I'll keep monitoring them, since it is colder on the sunporch than I would really like, but until I get a heating pad to put under the seeds, that's the best I can do. If I notice them not doing well, I can always start moving them in to the dining room table every night, time consuming as that will be!