Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Chatting on the Plot => Topic started by: rowlandwells on March 13, 2019, 20:02
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having read the topic by Ratstail regarding his allotment rent being increased not sure what he pays for his plot or plots so I thought I would ask the question for those of us that rent our allotments do you think you get value for money for what you rent? and do you agree rent rises are justified do you think there should be rents set for senior citizens at a lower rent :unsure:
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We get our plot at 1/2 price as we are pensioners. We have paid the same since we started in 2011. On the face of it good value.
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There is no question that it is value for money, even if it was double the price I would still pay it.
Put it in context, I pay £40 for our footie ticket at Wigan for lass and I each game we go to. I pay £160 for a 4 day ticket to the punk festival, I will also pay upto £25 for any other gig and I go to a good few, so to have year round enjoyment, excercise, social aspects and of course food that actually tastes how it should do as I say yea its value for money.
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It's ridiculous value for money. I pay £60 odd quid, no concessions, per year for a full plot, with mains water and all major maintenance provided. If I tried to source a private piece of land with equivalent services I'd have to pay massive amounts more.
In terms of councils raising prices, it's inevitable. Worcester City council spend more on allotments than they receive and there are other priorities of spending that affect far more people in the city. I'd happily pay a little more for my plot if required, especially if it helps maintain current concession rates for the OAPs and disabled users. Last year I estimated I harvested and used around £550 of food and my total expenditure for the plot was no more than £160. That's a huge personal saving to our household budget and an enjoyable way to achieve it too!
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it seems everyone is happy with what there paying for there allotments and this includes me we have quite a large allotments and I to believe its money well spent for the reasons mentioned
the only gripe I have is not with our landlords but the inherent lack of interest by people these days not to take up the value of having an allotment that always seems to be something you do when you retire and of cause and when someone packs up there allotments for one reason or another the plots seem to be left abandon never to be done
that's one of the reasons we took on more ground over the years to keep the allotments going but its fast coming that we will be packing up some of our allotments I just hope there are willing takes to keep the allotments going
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We have the same issues regarding empty plot on our site (which is huge) too. I think people take them on imagining a Monty-esque kind of life ...no disrespect intended... without realising the graft required. I wish there was a kind of mentorship approach available for newbies to help them get going and keep going
And as for value, a full plot here (10m by 25/26m) is £79 a year with reductions for people who live in the borough, and further reductions for un-waged or pensioners, meaning I actually pay just over £11 each for my two plots. Value? Well obviously
The year I took on the second plot, buying wood to edge beds, a 3m x6m polytunnel as well as all the usualt stuff, I painstakingly kept track of al expenditure over the two plots, and costed all harvests as "Tesco rate" as that seemed a more reasonable way of doing it than organic veg prices (even though they are) and at the end of the season, there was a theoreticala profit of well over £200. I know I never would have bought that amount of soft fruit, but it just gave a bit of a guide. Felt comfortable then to invest in a second tunnel too!
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This is an interesting thread, and looking at VFM, but have any of you taken into account the cost of your labour :lol: :lol: Mrs Bouquet
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Do you cost your labour when you go shopping/cook your dinner? :D
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Labour costs are balanced out by not having to pay for gym membership ;)
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Labour costs are mitigated by the volume of DIY dodging the plot allows me to do :D
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I really like reading your replies and as for counting time spent on your allotments or cost of my labour well for most its could be said its a labour of love for your allotments or garden but to me labour cost doesn't even come into the equation
I could get a gardening job for a couple of hours a day for a weeks work would I would end up a nice wedge in my pocket but I love my gardening and although our rent cost's us over a hundred pounds a year and last year counting every thing we spent including a new tiller plants seed compost and more it came to over a thousand pound the cost of a good holiday for both of us
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This is an interesting thread, and looking at VFM, but have any of you taken into account the cost of your labour :lol: :lol: Mrs Bouquet
Voluntary labour doesn't have a cost.
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This is an interesting thread, and looking at VFM, but have any of you taken into account the cost of your labour :lol: :lol: Mrs Bouquet
I couldn't afford to employ myself......
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I have a double plot and pay £90 per annum for this. Water is on site, but no maintenance is done.
I still think it is excellent value at less than a couple of pounds a week. What else could you do for that.
I get loads of exercise, people to chat with, and sometimes when I'm feeling very low I can go there in the early hours of a summer morning, have the whole site to myself and sit quietly, listening to the birds sing. It has saved my sanity on more than one occasion, and has even provided me with somewhere to go to have a good cry without causing my family to worry.
Add to this all the fresh veg and fruit, good company and fresh air, and what else could you ask for?