Yesterday, I harvested a handful of spinach (below), 2 leeks, and a bag of curly kale, and with that came the first savings for the Real Men Sow Veg Savings spreadsheet 2011 – a princely sum of £3.48.
I used MySupermarket to find out the going rate of my veg against its shop-bought equivalent. As I grow without using chemicals, I compared with organic produce.
After weighing my harvest, the spreadsheet told me I’d saved a tidy £2.21 on my leeks, 62p on the spinach, and 64p on the kale.
This means I’m already nearly a fifth of the way to paying back my allotment rent of £18.50 (the 50p was a fine for being a late payer, the buggers).
So without taking into account my forthcoming new season seed order, my current status is -15.02.
I wasn’t sure whether to include the stuff I have in store and in the freezer, such as potatoes, squashes, and French beans. And decided in the end to take that from this year’s sowings when I harvest.
However, I couldn’t resist a little hypothetical calculation on the 1.8kg of crown prince squash I’d used earlier on in the week, and boy am I excited about this.
Against a Tesco organic butternut squash (the nearest I could find to a crown prince), I saved myself a whopping £3.01.
Half a dozen of those this year and the plot’s paid for itself!
If you’d like to download the spreadsheet, click here for info.