Kitchen Garden Forum

With Runner Beans priced at £1.25 for 400 grams my poor showing this year due to Moles still produced a small fortunes worth.
I no longer grow Onions so these I buy and the odd pointed Cabbage
(Sweetheart) to fill the gaps when mine are not quite ready.
Apart from those I buy very few vegetables throughout the year I live off what I grow. I have been eating Autumn Raspberries until the frost earlier on in the week pounds and pounds of them. Sadly when everybody has had a wonderful Apple and Pear year we have not had even one. The frosts came just at the wrong time and did for them all.
It is not really possible to put on a price on what I grow but my bill for bought vegetables will be no more than £30.00. a year.
Would you believe I have ordered my Turkey and Beef for Christmas today!
JB.

We priced up what we grew last year - granted at supermarket prices and we were amazed at how much our produce was worth. We were quids in. That didn't include diesel to drive to the shops etc.

I don't think this equates to what we saved as we just wouldn't have bought the amount of fruit and vegetables that we grew. We wouldn't have bought kilos of soft fruit for a start! As JB said we certainly wouldn't have had large helpings of runner and French beans.

Seems my greenhouse heater packed up whilst stored in the shed over summer. That's another £40 of produce I need to grow to break even ...

"The lottie is an enjoyable theraputic extra in a hectic and sometimes unpleasant world.."

I agree with tangoman. I enjoy gardening and still get that childish joy from getting seeds to sprout and grow. My day job involves lots of technology (which I also love). But the allotment is a welcome low tech alternative. It is also cheaper than gym membership - getting at the bindweed roots has been difficult - but the digging has burnt off quite a few calories.

Does it save me money? probably not.

Does it keep me sane, healthy and happy - definitely - and who can put a price on that

Christina

I have never tried to check the sums.
Like others it is a hobby (and much cheaper than my two cars) fresh air and it's pretty sociable too.

So can i take it from this topic, if you were to sell produce off your allotment, that there wouldn't be much money to be made!

Somehow i feel like i might have organised my own stoning.

Is that the Dignitas economy package?

Having grown our own vegetables (and just very little fruit) for many, many years without ever actually having totted up the financial gains/losses, I would say that we have certainly gained overall. We rarely buy any vegetables - usually just potatoes between April and July, probably onions in late spring, carrots from about December to June and tomatoes during the winter. For the rest of the stuff we are self-sufficient with fresh or frozen vegetables (our large chest freezer is filled to the brim this year with frozen peas, broad beans, French beans, runner beans, mangetout peas, broccoli, sweet peppers, cooked red cabbage, ratatouille, vegetable soup etc) and, of course, on the allotment there are still all the winter brassicas and in the garage the onions, shallots and garlic. I hate to think what all this would cost in the shops! Against this are, of course, the cost of allotment rent (£30 p.a.), seeds, manure (£40 p.a. for a trailer load delivered over the fence from the neighbouring field), fleece, netting, although the latter two will last several seasons.

Monika wrote: Against this are, of course, the cost of allotment rent (£30 p.a.), seeds, manure (£40 p.a. for a trailer load delivered over the fence from the neighbouring field), fleece, netting, although the latter two will last several seasons.

...and the cost of running the freezer

But we would have a freezer anyway. We had one before we grew our own! We maybe wouldn't freeze as much because we wouldn't actually buy all the soft fruit so would eat less healthily. The gain is just really when you assume that you would actually buy what you grow which we wouldn't so the gain is really to our bodies rather than our pocket!

I have just calculated my yields from the greenhouse for this year and am staggered how much we have grown. 16Kgm of tomatoes and 5 Kgm of small tasty cucumbers. (see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10232)

The question "does growing your own save you money is probably quite irrelevant as there is no way without the greenhouse and growing our own we would ever use this amount of produce. Growing our own has cost us a considerable amount in capital outlay for the redone garden and greenhouse not to mention pots, composts etc.
We have however enjoyed the fresh produce and the process of producing it and these are worth considerably more than the mere monetary cost.

MikA

I've just been thinking again on this one - I guess we should take into account things like jams, pickles etc. that would probably cost more than those made from your own ingredients other than spices, sugar and vinegars etc.

Thinking about this topic. To sit down to a good Sunday lunch with meat and four vegetables and the meat is the only thing you haven't produced is a feeling worth a fortune!
JB.

Johnboy wrote:Thinking about this topic. To sit down to a good Sunday lunch with meat and four vegetables and the meat is the only thing you haven't produced is a feeling worth a fortune!
JB.

Very true Johnboy, although I must admit to far more than just four vegetables with Sunday lunch

Hi PJ,
So do I mostly but didn't want to seem to be boasting!
JB.