Balance Sheet 2012

[Kaiya]

My local Wyevale has half price on seeds so I picked up £24 worth of seeds for £12 - I hadn't understood the sale signs so this was very pleasing! Those plus some free ones my Mum got from a man in a pub (I have no idea how she does these things) and leftovers from last year. I bought myself a hand hoe from Amazon as I seem to work better crawling on the ground but that was with a Christmas voucher. Oh and two new 220l daleks are on the way from the council - £27 for the pair including delivery.

This week I think I'm going to blow more on a new mini greenhouse as they too are half price at Wyevale - assuming they have any left. Plus seed potatoes. And then I may cut up my credit card and hide my purse to stop me buying anything else!

[gardenpassion]

Has anyone worked out how much is saved by growing your own?

[singleseeder]

I think it is different for everyone... and how you calculate the value of your crops. You can only work this out for yourself.

Valuing rhubarb at £1 a stick at the beginning of the season for example. Sainsbugs might charge that whilst I am using my own rhubarb, but I wouldn't buy armfuls of it at that price.

I just know that there are weeks in the summer when I buy very little to supplement my crops and in the winter my food bill is supplemented by stored food.

[Strawberry delight]

Last year before i got my allotment (start of this year) i saved about £150 by growing my own in a (very) small area of the garden. That doesnt mean to say that i would buy lbs and lbs of rasps....

[Helgalush]

Do you count flower seeds in your costs at all? I tend to order them at the same time as my veg/herb seeds - some are veg-related ie to attract beneficial wildlife or companion planting - but some are purely for prettiness or for the front garden.

Just wondered what everyone else does, whether you include this with your veg costs or leave it off your veg balance sheet.

[Andromeda]

Has anyone worked out how much is saved by growing your own?

What I eat isn't really changed by what I grow, I grow what I otherwise would buy.

In the 2011 - 2012 year I worked out that on average I had saved just under £25/week on fruit and veg - I still bought some things (I don't grow potatoes or melons for example) but it was still a saving of just under £1300 for the year. I also make sure my excess goes to somewhere it will be eaten, family and friends take some of it (and despite my objections insist on paying me a nominal amount - which added up to ~£200 last year) and the rest goes to a homeless shelter for them to use.