Does growing your own save money?

[glallotments]

Just as an offshoot to http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10101 and Tony's comment that he didn't think growing your own saved money.

I agree that it isn't the main reason to grow your own but for interest we kept a log of our harvesting last year and costed it at shop prices. The total amount was scary.

The fruit that we grew definitely saved money even taking into account buying the bushes some of which have been planted for years - in fact some were inherited with the plot. I guess if we had been buying soft fruit we would have bought far less than we harvested so maybe wouldn't have actually saved financially but we would have eaten far less fruit! We would not have had loads of compotes stored in the freezer for winter use. This saves money on buying ingredients for desserts over winter. And yes I realised the cost of using the freezer needs to be factored in.

As for vegetables the French beans and mangetouts are sold in ridiculously small amount and we certainly wouldn't have bought enough to freeze or had such large helpings of vegetables with meals.

I know we need to also factor in composts, greenhouse etc. A greenhouse may not pay for itself short term but will over time. One of our greenhouses has moved home three times.

Also what would we be doing if we weren't gardening - paying for gym membership or some other hobby perhaps.

To sum up I don't garden to save money but if we bought as much fruit and vegetables as we grow then saving money would be an added bonus.

[oldherbaceous]

Well said, Glallotments, with the prices of vegetables and fruit seeming to be going up daily, it makes gardening even more rewarding.

[Parsons Jack]

It's an interesting thought isn't it. I have always grown stuff because I love the growing aspect of it, and prefer to know how it was grown.
We certainly save money on the food bill each week, but then, if I wasn't growing stuff on the allotment, I probably wouldn't have spent money on a 4 stroke Mantis, or a Big 3 Garland propagator, or more seeds than I will ever need

Regardless of the money saving aspect, I would heartily recommend growing your own, for the pleasure, exercise, and the fact that when I am on the allotment, I'm not as old as most

[Nature's Babe]

I agree cost is just one consideration, quality taste and convenience and freshness are important too
I think it's choice really, one could spend a fortune at the garden centre - or next to nothing. A few examples...

buy composts ...... or make your own
buy root trainers .....or use old loo roll centres
expensive tools ......boot sale or freecycle bargains
buy lots of plants .... or learn to propagate
buy new plant containers .... use recycled / freecycled things
use expensive F1 seeds..... use heritage varieties and save seed
seed swap
grow from food pips and seeds
buy a greenhouse or polytunnel..... construct your own
find one on freecycle
purchase pest control ........ home made remedies,
encourage natural predators
buy fertilisers ..................
or feed the soil with manure, compost, comfrey, green manure, encourage worms wormcasts, natural bacteria and fungi which make non available nutrients and water available to plants

It can be flexible, I still use a few F1 seeds if there are distinct advantages, or I want to try a new variety and compare. I have grown gogi berries from seeds of dried ones, cape gooseberries from seed of supermarket ones, seven different heritage tomatoes from a mixed punnet of jersey heritage tomatoes at 99p, We still enjoyed eating most of them.

[adam-alexander]

Well, yes and no!

I don't grow a lot of stuff, but that which I do grow my dear wife 'buys' from me at approximately the current shop prices. This enables me to purchase seed, bits'n'bobs for the garden and fuel. (You know that golden-brown liquid with the froth on top)

[alan refail]

I don't grow a lot of stuff, but that which I do grow my dear wife 'buys' from me at approximately the current shop prices.

I hope you 'buy' the meals from her at restaurant prices

[adam-alexander]

Hi Alan,

Good point!! - No doubt I will be as soon as 'herself' reads your comments.

[glallotments]

We certainly save money on the food bill each week, but then, if I wasn't growing stuff on the allotment, I probably wouldn't have spent money on a 4 stroke Mantis, or a Big 3 Garland propagator, or more seeds than I will ever need

But maybe you would then spend your money on a different hobby - golf clubs, motorbikes - who knows - and without the extra bonus

[Parsons Jack]

We certainly save money on the food bill each week, but then, if I wasn't growing stuff on the allotment, I probably wouldn't have spent money on a 4 stroke Mantis, or a Big 3 Garland propagator, or more seeds than I will ever need

But maybe you would then spend your money on a different hobby - golf clubs, motorbikes - who knows - and without the extra bonus

I think I'll stick with the allotment

[Geoff]

As I said in the thread this was derived from, I live 5 miles from an expensive vegetable shop or 15 miles from supermarkets so value is a slightly different concept for me. The supermarket people love to hate does deliver at certain times for £2 which is tempting, I can't get the car out for that. To get things as fresh as they are from the garden would cost a fortune in diesel these days. I think overall we do save money if you assume we would eat as well on purchased stuff, but would we? New potatoes in May at goodness knows what price, daily big dishes of Strawberries in season, etc. But as others have said it is also a hobby, gets me fresh air and exercise without any travelling, the wife would probably add that she knows where I am! You can't beat it whatever the cash flow.

[Tony Hague]

the wife would probably add that she knows where I am!

"It keeps 'em out of mischief" and my mother used to say

[Geoff]

Meant to comment on cost of freezing. Since discussing freezers elsewhere I have got a free energy monitor from EON and have added an Individual Appliance Monitor (IAM) from Current Cost, who manufacture the EON device. I have two old 14 cuft freezers and this device suggests they use 2.55 and 2.11 kwh/day or somewhere over £200 per annum.
As an aside, anybody tried energy monitoring? Results are a bit dubious, monitor says I am using 12.85 kwh/day whereas the meter says 9.83 so the above figures might be higher than they really are. I have complained to Current Cost but they haven't responded. Haven't said anything to EON, they might decide it is the meter that is wrong!

[glallotments]

We have two fridge freezers, a small freezer and a tall freezer in the garage and a fridge freezer on the kitchen which can't be costing us as much as that or our bills would be higher. We haven't a monitor though.

[Tony Hague]

The discrepancy is probably down to how they measure power for loads with odd power factors, i.e where watts and VA are different. The meter is what matters I guess.

On the subject of freezing surpluses ... I don't do a lot of this. Some things work well - homemade passata, peas, sweetcorn, broad beans. But so many other things fair less well. For example, French beans, IMHO, are ruined by freezing. The taste changes completely. And courgettes, the most common glut item.

[MikA]

Quote

In our small back garden we have definitely "saved" money over the summer months. we have spent very little money on vegetables for the last 3 months. My wife keeps housekeeping records and she has calculated our average spend at the greengrocers for the period 1st March to 31st May was approx. £90. From 1st June to 31st August the spend was approx. £66.
For the summer months last year the spend was approx. £104.
The biggest part of the summer spending is fruit in season plus items such as bananas. The only vegetables we have been buying are pointy cabbage, occasional large onions and sweet peppers (soon to be replaced by greenhouse grown ones).
If we estimate 5/6 of spend is for fruit in the summer months and 1/2 during the spring months then the saving of summer over spring this year due to growing our own vegetables is approximately £34. A straight comparison of summer this year to last year gives a saving of £38. (Inflation not included)
The money saved may not have been huge but the benefit is significantly increased when you take into account the enjoyment factors mentioned by others. It also doesn't take into account the sheer amount of fresh produce we have been eating which would have cost significantly more if we had bought from a shop. French beans in particular are very expensive if you can find them.
The only gluts we will have are courgettes and green tomatoes but my wife is getting very good at dealing with the courgettes and the various chutneys to come based on tomatoes will last for ages.
We do not have a large vegetable requirement for the 2 of us but when I can go into my small greenhouse and pick 8-10 cherry tomatoes and a cucumber to go with fresh salad leaves and a lump of cheese for tea 2 or 3 times a week then I'm more than happy. (Estimate based on current Waitrose prices about £2.50 a go)

I have been keeping a record of cropping and will be collating these to produce final totals for our first year of the new garden together with successes and failures. I will be happy to post a summary of the results in about a months time if people might be interested.

MikA