The Dirt

Save Money By Growing Your Own

Just how much can you save by growing your own?
Photo/Illustration: Brittany Leandra

If the locavore movement hasn’t persuaded you to start your own veggie patch, maybe economic incentives will. Find out how growing the above four crops at home can save you some coin.

Lettuce:

1. Say one packet of head lettuce seed holds 500 seeds and costs $4.95.

2. Assume you get a 75% germination rate and thin to half. You’ll have 187 heads of lettuce.

3. If the average head of lettuce weighs 6.5 ounces, that means your 187 heads weigh a total of 1,218.75 ounces, or 76 pounds. (That’s a lot of lettuce!)

4. The USDA recorded the average market retail price of lettuce at $1.95 per pound in 2008. To buy the 76 pounds of lettuce that cost you about $5 in seeds, you’d spend $148.20. That means you save $143.25 by growing your own.

Tomato:

1. Say one packet of globe tomato seed holds 30 seeds and costs $3.95.

2. Assume you get a 75% germination rate and get two fruits per plant. That’s 45 tomatoes.

3. If the average globe tomato weighs 13 ounces, you’ll have 572 ounces of tomato on hand, or 35.75 pounds.

4. The USDA recorded the average market retail price of round fresh tomatoes at $2.94 per pound in 2008. To buy the 35.75 pounds of tomato that cost you about $4 in seeds, you’d spend $105.11. That means you save $101.16 growing your own.

Carrot:

1. One packet of carrot seed holds 2,000 seeds and costs $3.95.

2. Assume you get a 75% germination rate and thin to half. You’ll have 750 carrots.

3. If the average carrot wieghs 72 grams, that means you have 119 pounds of carrots.

4. The USDA recorded the average market retail price of carrots at $0.77 per pound in 2008. To buy the 119 pounds of carrot that cost you about $4 in seeds, you’d spend $91.63. That means you save $87.68 growing your own.

Summer squash:

1. One packet of summer squash seed holds 25 seeds and costs $3.95.

2. Assume you get a 75% germination rate, and two fruits per plant. That’s about 37 squashes.

3. If the average summer squash weighs 8.5 ounces, that means you have 19.13 pounds of squash on hand.

4. The USDA recorded the average market retail price of squash at $1.85 per pound in 2008. To buy the 19.13 pounds of squash that cost you about $4 in seeds, you’d spend $35.58. That means you save $31.63.

Now, we realize that our figures are based on a make-believe garden where pests are not present, water costs nothing, and we had to swipe no credit cards to buy tools, soil amendments, or fertilizers. There are a great deal of assumptions woven into these figures. Nonetheless, it is clear that growing your own food is healthy and rewarding, both economically and emotionally.

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Jessie_Keith 05/07/2013
This is fun, but the math needs considerable tweaking. Two fruits per tomato plant? No way. For an indeterminate vines, 20 to 30 is more like it. The same goes for two fruits per summer squash. Bush produce around 10-15 fruits, and vines will produce twice that in an average year. Vegetable gardeners can expect much greater savings.
user-7006916 05/07/2013
Yes, Jessie_Keith, I see your point. We just wanted to keep expectations as low as possible and see the outcome. I *love* that the savings have the potential to be even greater than what we see here!
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