There has been a lot of talk of people buying veg seeds to beat the crunch, but little evidence that it actually saves money. Here is my attempt.
I started my allotment in Jan 2007 as a gardening virgin and spent £176 during the year on seeds, netting, greenhouse (ebay bargain), manure, allotment rent, etc.
Based where possible on the prices of seasonal organic veg on Tesco online I grew £355-worth of veg. Subtracting £176 costs this gives a "profit" of £179.
This year my crops should be worth more as brocolli and other spring crops planted in 2007 will be counted - and even one year's experience counts for a lot. I reckon it will be closer to £250 if I'm lucky.
Of course, these numbers are not true "in the pocket" savings: we gave a fair bit of this produce away, especially the stuff that all comes at once (planted fewer beans and courgettes this year!) and Tesco online prices are not the cheapest, so absolute savings are hard to estimate - and if you factor in labour you are defintely out of pocket! On the other hand, I have not included all the herbs I grew, gifts from generous fellow allotmenteers or petrol and parking for extra shopping trips in these calculations.
Anyway, before you all think I am some sort of obsessive accountant type, the enjoyment of the learning process, the experimentation and the superior is definitely the best reason for growing your own. A saving of £179 over a year is not going to make a lot of difference to most people, but it's definitely better than the other way round!
Has anyone else attempted to calculate money saved by their allotment?
Vegetable, Variety, Price / kg, Yield (kg), Value
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Beetroot, Boro F1 Hybrid, £2, 2.05, £4.10
Beetroot, Boltardy, £2, 3.15, £6.30
Broad Beans, Aguadulce Supersimonia, £3.98, 2.2, £8.76
Brocolli, Romanescu, £3.04, 0.65, £1.98
Carrott, Gigante Flakkee, £1.18, 10.5, £12.39
Courgette, Courgette, £1.98, 21.15, £41.88
French Bean, Trionfo V, £4.88, 8.24, £40.21
Kale, Borecole, £3.40, 6.45, £21.93
Lettuce, Little Gem, £3, 1.13, £3.39
Pea, Oregon Sugar Pod Mangetout, £5.97, 1.8, £10.75
Potato, Charlotte, £1.49, 32.8, £48.87
Rhubarb, Rhubarb, £5, 3.8, £19
Ruby Chard, Rhubarb Chard, £7, 1.4, £9.80
Runner Bean, White Lady, £3.50, 14.09, £49.32
Shallotts, Shallotts, £3.49, 1.2, £4.19
Tomato, Harbinger, £4.92, 14.6, £71.83