How much I saved by growing my own - September 2017

Each month I’ll be reporting on how much money we’re saving by growing our own organic produce. You can read about our previous months here.

Why am I doing this?

Well as a young family currently on a single income we are really starting to watch where our money goes.

How I am doing this?

We’re often sharing produce between the family as well. I am including what we’re gifted, the way I see it, the more you can encourage your extended family or friends to grow their own food the more you can save just by sharing. Pricing wise I am comparing to current local organic prices, or if I can’t find organic I just find the regular price.

How much space do we have?

We don’t have acreage, this is an average suburban block (approx 600sqm) that we rent so we can’t even rip up the lawn to make space for more garden so we’re growing with temporary raised garden beds and aquaponics systems which consists of the following amount of space:

• 6sqm of raised garden beds (4 beds)
• 3.6sqm of aquaponics grow beds (3 beds)

and loads of pots! We also have 2 chickens that help with eggs and also free fertiliser. You can find our awesome chicken coop here.

What we produced this month

What we were gifted

An entire lamb for the freezer! My folks have a farm and we get the majority of our meat off them which is incredible. I have no idea what the value of this is so I won't include it in the final figures. We did give away eggs, loads and loads of spring onions and some celery but I haven't included these in our figures.

What we spent

Things that we’ve sourced for the garden for free

We didn't get any freebies this month.

Total amount we saved by growing our own

We spent a bit on prepping our garden beds this month plus getting supplies for the Chickens which should last a while, but for the month of September we're still ahead by $56.78 Looking to get an abundant harvest this spring? Grab by free growers guide for sub tropical climates.