Do you grow to save money?

[Potstubsdustbins]

Just a thought last time I saw runners for sale in a shop they were 90p a pound. The beans I grow themselves would yield a profit on what I spend.

But as I said before its for pleasure not for money, If I factored in the hours I spend in the garden and not at work that would make a big difference.

[MarkPelican]

I grow entirely for the fun of it. However, I have stopped growing some things because they are so cheap and don't taste different (onions spring to mind - but then my plot has got whiterot). Direct prcing (food for costs) has got to be negative but, the exercise is cheaper than going to the gym and far more interesting.

[Snoop Puss]

I recently calculated that averaged out I spend between 250 and 300 euros (about 225 pounds) a year on my veg patches. So we're talking 5 or 6 euros a week. Not much really given that we are pretty well self-sufficient in veg (I buy courgettes and canned and sundried toms in winter, not much else). One thing I don't have to spend on which lots of you do is the cost of renting an allotment because my veg patches are on our own land.

The main reason I started growing food is because sooner or later we will both give up work and will have to be very careful with cash. So I'm learning/practising for when I need to be able to grow stuff reliably.

We also get snowed in fairly regularly (not so often these last couple of years), sometimes for two or three weeks at a time, and it is great to be able to go out and get fresh veg rather than have to live off tinned stuff.

But to tell the truth, I do it for pleasure and because of the quality of the food we eat. So what if potatoes are cheaper in the shops? I can't buy first earlies, I can't buy Pink Fir Apples and I can't buy Red Emmalies. I can't buy fresh sweetcorn full stop, let alone stuff that's in boiling water a minute after being picked. Our local market is great in summer but in winter it's exactly the same as the stuff sold in Tescos and the like, so very expensive and not great quality.

All told, in fact, I reckon our veg patches are more productive/profitable in winter than in the summer.

Edited to add: I think I've clicked "Like" on every post in this thread.

[Bill Door]

I started the allotment for relaxation. My space to forget work and enjoy the silence around me (well ok around dawn on a weekend the wild life is noisy). But I also found pleasure in handing a few selected neighbours excess from the allotment. One (suffering from dementia) always called me the "rhubarb man". It was never too much but enough to enjoy the freshness. I worked out that last year we eat and gave away so much rhubarb that would have covered the allotment rent for three years.

The pickled shallots at christmas were received with thanks and later followed up with "can you do me a few more for next year".

So for me the "costs" of the allotment are not the main "thing", it is just the little things that go with it that make it all worth while. We, like others, buy veges as and when we can't take them from the allotment.

So enjoy life, be happy and look after your "friends".

Bill

[Snadger]

Its amazing how times have changed. A full size allotment was deemed to be of sufficient size to feed a family of four.Peppercorm rents meant that this was not only do-able but necessary, in times of depression.

Very few allotment holders these days would starve if they didn't have there allotment.

I could rhyme of a long list of benefits but to me personally the three main benefits of having an allotment are camaraderie, taste and freshness of produce.

Saving money would probably be bottom of my list!