Does growing your own save money?

[Geoff]

Just strung up 8 Kgs of Eschalions Cuisses de Poulet du Poitou (French long Shallots) from £1.60 worth of seed. Seems like value for money.

[The Mouse]

I think I save quite a bit of money by growing my own fruit and veg, but would be quite happy just to break even, as I (usually) enjoy doing it.

As economy was a big factor in getting me started in the first place, I would definitely have to think twice about it if my "hobby" was actually costing me money.

Apart from saving money, growing my own has had other unexpected benefits: I used to have numerous colds throughout the year, but that dropped to one or possibly two a year when I started growing. I started to eat far larger quantities of fruit and veg than I had previously, and a greater variety too, and as nothing else in my lifestyle changed around that time, I can only put my improved resistance to colds down to this!

Gardening on a budget does have its difficulties - I have to do all the work manually, as spending money on such things as rotivators is out of the question. My only machine is a cheap line strimmer for keeping the grass/weeds down on the paths. And although the work keeps me fit in general, I have suffered some long-term damage to my back since I started twelve years ago! However, despite this, I still think that the gains outway the pains!

[Nature's Babe]

Hello Andria, welcome to the forum. Like you, my extras get given to friends and neighbours too.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've been trying to be more economical with my gardening by not buying anything that I can make myself, or can do just as well with a tool I already have.

I'm sure I save huge amounts of money by eating home grown produce. You've just to check the prices in the supermarket and tot up how much a garlic bulb, or a few leeks, or raspberries and blueberries cost to name a few. Last year we were eating our own apples from the end of August until the beginning of May, and if you freeze fruit for puddings and make enough soup to freeze a few portions too you've always got a quick meal.

Also if you avoid f1 hybrids you can save your own seed and keep your favourite varieties going for years. Peas, beans, and tomatoes are particularly easy. I always save ten of each of my favourite potato varieties for next years seed and only buy new if the yield starts to fall. Shallots and garlic are another easy one to save to plant next year. If you choose good sized healthy bulbs you probably won't have to buy them ever again.

[snooky]

I read somewhere that a saving of £1100 could be made by a family of four growing their own vegetables and fruit in a 10-perch plot over a year,not taking into account the cost of seed,fertilisers,etc

That's a lot of savings,and the way in which food prices are on the rise this estimate doesn't surprise me.

[Marigold]

As penniless pensioners; we eat as much from the garden as we can. We moved last year and our new landlord cleared around 1/4 acre for us.

We save seed and spend little this. Cheap seed from LIDL is good, but it is the seed saving that makes a difference. About ten years ago we joined Irish Seedsavers for a year and we still have Carlin peas each year.
People have been kind here and one garden centre lets us have anything we like from their reject section... And we are keen on seed exhange IF we have any to spare this year. Another place turned out their seed cupboard and that yielded most interesting eating. The greatest find there was and is New Zealand Spinach.
LIDL also had very cheap seed potatoes and the crop is amazing.
The only vegetables we have bought are carrots as we did nto get seed in early enough.
We are market traders for charity work so any excess is sold; we are also also selling cut flowers so our garden is well in profit. And we spend nothing on tools etc.

[peter]

Marigold, if you click on "User control panel" above and alter you information under Location, advice can be focused on the climate and daylight available in you general location.

Someting vague like the county or nearest big town or city is best.

[Marigold]

Marigold, if you click on "User control panel" above and alter you information under Location, advice can be focused on the climate and daylight available in you general location.

Someting vague like the county or nearest big town or city is best.

OK: we are in South West Ireland.

[Geoff]

Welcome - perhaps you are near Gerry memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=342 or even my mate near Killorglin?

[alan refail]

Grow your own food and chop £1,300 from the grocery bill

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/savi ... ds-newsxml

Can this really be true or are these just figures plucked from the air?

£25 per week buys quite a lot of fruit and veg that can be grown on an allotment or in a garden.

Still to buy would be imported fruit etc., out-of-season produce, items bought when home produce runs out.

[Parsons Jack]

Hi Alan,

I love this bit in the article;
Susi Dunn, 43, of Clapham, south London, got an allotment plot in nearby Wandsworth after waiting five years. She and stockbroker husband James, 42, spend at least a couple of hours a week tending the £16.50-a-year plot with children Elizabeth, ten, Charlotte, eight, and Henry, one.

I think I must be doing something wrong

[FelixLeiter]

Can this really be true or are these just figures plucked from the air?
£25 per week buys quite a lot of fruit and veg that can be grown on an allotment or in a garden.

I think they are figures plucked from the air. I buy most of my fruit and veg from the outdoor market and when I shop I often ask myself "Could I grow it cheaper?". Often the answer is no. I bought a cauliflower the other day, a huge one, beautiful, for 80p; carrots I can't remember how much, but I bought over a kilo for less than a pound, and the quality is mostly better than I can produce for maincrops. Potatoes you can buy 25kg of wares for £3.20. Onions also cheap, beetroot also. On the other hand, Bobbie beans £4.80 a kilo, runner beans similar, courgettes pricey, and yet I still have these coming out of my ears, even this late in the season. So it's the fancy veg that you can make genuine savings on growing yourself, the staples are just not economical to produce at home.
Some allotment holders don't seem to have much of an eye on economy, from what I've seen. Many will buy plug plants from their gardening centre, fruit bushes the same (they're much cheaper by mail order). My neighbour took on her allotment a year ago and inherited with it a huge pile of ancient compost. It is covered in a thicket of nettles, but underneath it is almost pure humus. Rather than remove the nettles (quite a bit of work, granted) and use this bounty, she's *bought* sacks of (what looks to me to be rather long) manure.
Still and all, for many people it's the gym or it's the allotment. I know which I'd choose. If the economy really does "do a Greece", though, victory will be ours and we'll have dug for it.

[glallotments]

So it's the fancy veg that you can make genuine savings on growing yourself, the staples are just not economical to produce at home.

And the soft fruit!

[Westi]

I personally think I do save but then I don't go for perfect!

Westi

[thetangoman]

Its the process not the product that keeps my lottie going...some veg we grow and some veg we buy..thats life.The lottie is an enjoyable theraputic extra in a hectic and sometimes unpleasant world..if we priced up everything it would be loosing money..but everything else , the outdoorlife, the pleasure of home grown veg, the exercise, the fun when the grandchildren arrive ready to work..makes everything just so worthwhile.