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Do you grow to save money?

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  • #1

    Do you grow to save money?

    I was at a well known DIY store earlier today when a gentleman happened to ask me if I'd seen any runner bean plants. I pointed him to them and we got talking about how rubbish they were (they were really pathetic looking).

    Thinking Id encountered a fellow grower we got chatting only for him to shock me by saying he use to grow allsorts but only grew runner beans these days as everything's so cheap at L1dl and nothing besides runner beans tastes any different!

    I probably do spend more money growing things than I would just buying them at a supermarket but it honestly never occurred to me that the only reason people would grow edibles would be to save money.

    Am I in the minority growing because I enjoy it, like being out in nature and to try different things? just wondering if this attitudes more prevelant than I would have thought.
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  • #2
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^I would think most folks here GYO for a number of reasons, least of which would be to save money.

    For me it's a pleasure, it's the taste, it's trying different varieties that can't be found in shops.
    Potty by name Potty by nature.

    By appointment of VeggieChicken Member of the Nutters club.


    We hang petty thieves and appoint great ones to public office.

    Aesop 620BC-560BC

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    • #3
      I don't spend very much on the allotment, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't save me money even if I work on it for nothing.

      I grow stuff because it's fun and rewarding to try and grow good stuff and occasionally succeed. Eating good fresh food is a bonus!
      My gardening blog: In Spades, last update 30th April 2018.
      Chrysanthemum notes page here.

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      • #4
        Growing costs me more than buying, but what value do you put on knowing where your food comes from, digging is cheaper than gym membership and maybe i am a romantic but i think 90% of the food tastes better

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        • #5
          I grow some things to save money, or rather, enable to me to eat more of it without bankrupting me, such as asparagus. I eat lots of courgettes which I find astonishingly expensive in the shops, considering how prolific they are. Gherkins - they may be cheap to buy even in L1dl but we eat such an amount that making our own allows us to eat without the guilt.

          Some things I definitely grow for the flavour - beetroot and carrot straight out the ground cannot be beaten by the supermarkets, and the seed is cheaper than the vegetable in the shops.

          Now that I don't pay for an allotment I grow less in the ground, but I don't have much overheads either. I spend about £50 per year on feed, compost and slug treatments and that's it really. I have enough seeds to last me a life time.

          Lastly, I grow for freshness. I'm useless at using up bags of salad from the supermarket (you might think my daughter is allergic to the stuff, the frown she puts on when I ask her to eat it) so I grow that, along with other leafy greens, which beats the freshness in the shops and is so easy to grow in weird containers all over the place, so even the dark and dingy alley outside my kitchen gets used for growing stuff

          So in short - it's a combination of the three
          https://nodigadventures.blogspot.com/

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Potstubsdustbins View Post
            For me it's a pleasure, it's the taste, it's trying different varieties that can't be found in shops.
            Same for me.

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            • #7
              Oh I forgot my raspberries! I bought a root stock of raspberries from L1dl when I moved in to my house in 2016. That has spread over the years and I now get up to two Chinese style boxes laden with berries every day for a month and a half every year. I freeze what I can't eat - love it. That'd cost me a fortune if I bought them. It cost me 99 pence to buy
              https://nodigadventures.blogspot.com/

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              • #8
                To buy veggies straight off the plot fresh without the use of pesticides and local would cost me infinitely more than I pay out but I grow for the benefits to my mental health and the environment.

                Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

                Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

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                • #9
                  I have so far spent £286 on my plot this year (growlights, ratchet loppers & nematodes amongst other things...) and my harvest value is just under £45, so this far into the season I am in the red. I need some more treated 8ft stakes and I'd like a damson tree, which will all put me further adrift.

                  But I grow lots of expensive crops (because I love eating them) like kale, rhubarb, globe artichokes, lots of berries and saffron so I'm expecting to finish healthily in the black. I also grow stuff you can't buy, which is going to play merry hell with my harvest value calculator! Price per kilo for achocha, yacon and kiwano anyone??

                  I do do it partly to save money, as well as for the satisfaction. I'm about to be unemployed and living off savings for a while and the plots will really help.
                  http://mudandgluts.com - growing fruit and veg in suburbia

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                  • #10
                    I grow for the pleasure and satisfaction that I get from eating something that I have grown myself, I have tried growing different veg. and not always successfully but that is all part of gardening, what you have success with one year may not happen the next.
                    it may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.

                    Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbers

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                    • #11
                      I grow purely for the pleasure. I'm not even very good at harvesting sometimes, but I just love sowing the seed, the excitement of waiting for it to germinate then watching it grow flower and fruit. I just love having my hands deep in the soil.
                      Dogs have masters, cats have slaves, and horses are just wonderful

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                      • #12
                        I've definitely spent more than I would have done buying veg as a newbie - but I expect my costs to reduce as I now have pretty much everything I need (except fruit trees)

                        I never started to save money though, and whilst I'm impressed with sparrow's calculations, it has never crossed my mind.

                        I grow purely for the enjoyment and the satisfaction of finally eating something that I've nurtured so carefully. And it helps me to eat seasonally, which is near impossible in the supermarkets.

                        For me - I can't put a price on that (and you guys )

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                        • #13
                          I grow veg for several reasons.

                          The joy of being able to harvest something that you have had a hand in growing, from sowing the seed, nurturing the plants and knowing how its been grown gives me a lot of of pleasure.

                          The taste, and variety and no air miles, keeps me fit and is very therapeutic.

                          I don't grow to save money, seeds and seed compost are not cheap, but I love it.

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                          • #14
                            I do grow some things to save money.
                            Actually, that's not quite right..I grow some things because I am often totally shocked at what shops charge. Courgettes are a good example (there are times when I think they should pay US to take them off their hands!).

                            I also have a supremely expensive allotment...council run and £200 a year per plot....so I do try to get my moneys worth in order to justif my expensive hobby. I grow lots of kale and spinach and chard to save money on chicken food and I grow expensive fruit, raspberries, strawberries and cape gooseberries.

                            And it goes the other way too, I don't grow 'proper' onions. They're 2 quid a big bag at the market. So I'll do some shallots, scallions and chives but won't 'waste' a bed for onions. I'll do new potatoes but not maincrop for the same reason.

                            I don't grow just to save money....but it certainly figures in the decisions I make about what to grow.
                            http://goneplotterin.blogspot.co.uk/

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                            • #15
                              I grow because I enjoy it and for covenants because the local shops wouldn't know what fresh veg looked like if it jumped up and bit them! and its definitely not value for money.

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