How much I spent growing my own in March.
As we welcome in April its time to look at what I spent throughout March. Part of an ongoing study in how cost effective it really is to grow your own.
Quail.
As the quail eggs have been building, storage was an issue. After all, eggs rolling around and breaking is not very good. I managed to buy some plastic quail egg containers. These containers hold 12 eggs each and seal up to provide a secure housing. At a price of £7.99 for 100 boxes, I felt they where pretty cheap and will last a while.
Fertilizers and compost.
My normal plant food is homemade from my wormery but this year I have decided to add a bit extra. I bought a pack of q4 fertilizer for £7.99 of which I have heard some great things about. I will be interested to see the results of this plant food.
I also bought a large pot of chicken manure pellets for £5.99. This pot is for the allotment and I have used these a lot in the past.
As we are sowing seeds and pricking out seedlings we inevitable need decent compost. I have bought 2 bags of seed compost and 2 bags of John Innes number 2 compost. This cost £3.99 a bag so all together cost £15.96.
We also bought a bag of perlite at £4.99 and a bag of vermiculite at 99p.
The total cost of fertilizers and compost is £35.92.
Seeds and plants.
I mentioned in a podcast that I saw some chilli plug plants that I couldn't resist. I bought these for £3.99.
I also bought seeds that I didn't have wanted to grow. There was a few packets and these cost £26.93 altogether.
Due to my potatoes falling over I bought a few more packets. These cost me £4.50
The total cost for seeds and plants was £36.42
Total costs for March.
- Quail expenditure £7.99.
- Fertilizers and compost expenditure £35.92
- Seeds and plants expenditure £36.42
- Total for March is £80.33
Analysis
In previous expenditure reports, it has been suggested to compare the cost of eggs to how much I spent. I worked out that I spend on average &3 a month on the chickens. This is a rough sum but at the end of the year, I plan to tally up the whole year spend and work it out correctly. Throughout March we have harvested 53 chicken eggs. Based on the estimated chicken costs of £7 a month and harvested eggs being worth £13.25 this leaves a profit of £6.25.
I haven't been keeping quail for long enough to work out how much they cost each month but they are certainly cheaper than the chickens and the eggs are a premium. They will certainly be a large profit.
All the food harvested in March totalled up to £46.42 which means that I spent £33.91 more then what was harvested. I am not to worried by this as it is still early in the season and we have the major harvests yet to come in.
How about you what did you spend growing your own in March. Let me know in the comments below or Email me here.
As you say Richard, the season is only just starting, great things to come I’m sure! So far this year we’ve harvested £271 of veg and we’ve spent £1140, the vast majority of which relates to the polytunnel and lots of associated bits and pieces like guttering and double sided tape. : All the best – Steve
That’s a good return already Steve. But once the season really starts the value will increase which should return a profit. The expenses at the moment go towards the future returns. Thanx Steve all the best.