Alright, as part of my urban farming goals this year, I wanted to write down all of the expenses we’ve accrued since we began our little adventure a few years ago. We’re calling this our Urban Farm Economics. Little did I know how greatly it would stress me out to see the actual numbers in black and white. Holy hell, we have spent a lot of money on our veggies, chickens and bees!
How much? Well, here’s the honest answer: $4,686.52
Now, this number includes just about everything! It includes the lumber and hardware for all the raised beds, the soil, the straw, the seeds, the berries, the lumber for the coop(s) and top-bar hive, the actual bees, the chickens…everything we have put into our little farm except for the fence (which we would have built anyway) and the plants we put in on the outside of our fence (drought resistant perennials that we planted to “make nice” with the neighbors after putting up the first fence in the neighborhood). Oh, it also doesn’t count our garden chairs, but I think that’s OK 🙂
Also, and this is very important…we believe that everything we’ve purchased, is an investment in our future. Not only are we eating better, but we’re learning so many tools that will help us not only now, but way into the future and eventually on an actual farm of our own!
OK…So, how does this all break down? Well, given that we’ve been at this for a couple of years without keeping perfect track of everything, here are our best guess-timates of all our investments to date…
Fruits & Veggies:
- Raised beds = $310
- Soil = $700
- Grow Light set up = $225
- Mulch = $200
- Grass = $50
- Weed cloth = $150
- Edging = $100
- Fruit trees = $500
- Berries = $50
- Hoses and garden tools = $200
- Seeds = $200
Chickens:
- Coop = $350
- Light & Feeders = $150
- Chicks = $60
- Organic Feed = $840*
- Straw/bedding = $120
Bees:
- Top Bar Hive = $75
- Bees & Queen = $125
- Hats, gloves & basic supplies = $100
Crazy, right? Now, you have to remember that there was nothing in our yard when we moved in but rocks, weed cloth, half dead junipers and completely dead soil. We did our best to purchase things on sale or on craigslist, but that doesn’t account for everything. Also, I won’t pretend that we’re done adding things to the yard…we’d like to invest in some more perennial fruits and veggies…but this is definitely the majority of the spending…I mean, how many berries could we possibly fit in our remaining space? 😉
Alright, now…So, how do we pay back our investment?
Well, I’ve done some more calculations about the “income” we’ve made and will continue to make from our farm productions in the form of fruit, veggies, eggs, honey and the occasional chicken (when culling is necessary) we won’t have to purchase from a grocery store and have figured that:
- With the chickens now paying for their feed in eggs…
- With our seed saving and our veggies producing wonderfully in the warm months and nicely throughout most of the rest of the year…
- With our bees producing a bit of honey from time to time for our (happy) consumption…
- With amortizing the costs starting in 2010 and running through the end of 2014…
…we can do it!!!
By using this tool, I’ve created a spreadsheet that has allowed me to estimate how much we saved/made in income from our garden last year (2011) in veggies, chickens and honey ($1032.90) and I gave us a credit of $100 for 2010 (a few tomatoes, blueberries and squash…I’m totally low-balling this number, but I really didn’t track anything at all so it doesn’t feel right to say it’s more).
What does this give us to “earn” this year? $1427.70. Yeah…I know…that’s a lot of eggs and beans and butternut squash, but I really think it’s doable! Especially since we almost hit that mark last year, we’ve learned so much from the past couple of years and we’re smarter about using our growing space now!
As of right now, we’ve earned $177.49 in over-wintered veggies and eggs. As we go, I’ll track all our “income” and any new expenses, adding them to our spreadsheet and the new little spot on my sidebar. If we don’t make our mark, I’ll roll over any remaining balance onto next years amortized total. If we surpass our total…well…I’m not sure yet, but I’ll probably credit the amount to the next years amortized total 🙂
Now, it’s your turn! I’d love to hear about your garden, urban farm or regular farm economics! Please share your stories, ideas and tools so we can learn from each other!
xoxo,
M
P.S. I’m way overdue to post an update on how we’re doing in paying this back. As of Spring 2014, I’m working on it, promise 🙂 Stay tuned!!!
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I am interested in the expenses, I guess we do it a little differently ? We get cuttings of fruit trees from friends, neighbours and side of the road (sometimes giving them excess produce eg yesterday Blackerry Jam for 2 Tamarillo Tree cuttings). We make our own mulch, an ancient mulching lawn mower runs over raked up leaves etc (uses perhaps 250mm of gasoline to make 3 months worth of mulch) then stored for use in the garden & used around fruit trees etc. Horse manure is collected by the truck load by us “free” from local horse owners. We use raked up lawn clippings for the chickens nesting boxes etc etc I could go on but you get the idea.
As to fencing 🙂 we are letting our pre existing fence deteriorate deliberately to allow native wildlife to cross our land. Our chickens free range most of the time, albeit we do supplement with a small amount of grain from time to time. The hens raise their own chickens, to replace the aging layers as well as to be killed for food, stock etc. We similarly do Guinea Pigs, rabbits BURROW 🙂 “Pigs” can free range in our enclosed mini orchard with no work on our part aside from the occasional introduction of new genetic stock, similarly the chickens.
Some of it can occur because we deliberately moved to an area that supported us living like that. The choice was a conscious decision to support that of a simplistic low enviro impact lifestyle, especially with the concerns of anthropogenic climate change and our impact front of mind for us.
I guess my point was to those considering a simpler, partly self sustaining lifestyle to perhaps place an emphasis on geography and community ?
PS Love what you guys are doing, different to us, but wonderful none the less.
menuchanechona.blogspot.com
Ah, see now, what you’re doing, that’s our dream! To have land enough to sustain ourselves with enough to share…to have wildlife walking through our property…to have neighbors and community members we can trade and barter with…to be able to use all that we have on our property in every way possible…Yes, that’s our dream. We will, eventually, get there. Until then, there are strangers to keep from trampling our veggies, traffic to contend with and dead soil to enliven 🙂 Such a process…and all part of the journey! I have great appreciation for what you are doing and am inspired by all you have accomplished!
I really enjoy the numbers aspect of gardening economics as well. 🙂 Its the only reason I am bothering to tally everything.
Oh, it’s SO fulfilling to see it all in black and white! Especially when harvests are just trickling in but the numbers (in saving/income) keep adding up! Wonderful 🙂
I need to catch up on my expenses tab, that got shuffled to the other side of the desk during tax time and right now I’m busy outside. But I will soon. But I track harvests and give the approximate value based on what I would have bought at the grocery store or the nearest equivalent product. And I have watched the grocery budget going down every month, which is great. I’ll have a surplus of a few things this summer which I will sell at our new little farmer’s market. If that goes off well I’ll plan for bigger and better for next year.
I kept records like this when I lived in TX; I raised rabbits for meat and show; sales of breeding stock and dressed fryers paid all the expenses and the meat we ate was free. Egg sales paid all the chicken expenses and the eggs we ate were free. A huge garden supplied all our veg, selling started tomato, pepper and herb plants paid my seed bill in the spring. The only thing that wasn’t cost effective were the dairy goats and then mostly because I didn’t have enough space for them to browse and had to buy in all their hay and grain. But with BBQ’d kid to their credit they were breaking even.
Sorry for the late response, Mary! Your comment must’ve gotten lost in my spring madness!
It sounds like you have figured everything out very well and know exactly what works and what doesn’t! How incredibly inspiring 🙂
I’d love to hear about your experience with meat rabbits! I’ll investigate your blog further to see if I’ve missed anything…but I’d love to hear any tips/ideas/warnings, etc you might have about the process. We’re thinking about taking the plunge but still have much more research to do!
What a great post. I’ve cringed at adding everything up, particularly since the coop was a big expense. We definitely could have done something much simpler. But we’re in the same boat as you where the girls are now paying for themselves with the eggs that we sell. Since we’re expanding the garden, I think I’ll follow your lead and try to put some dollar figures to what we’re saving. Great idea!
Thanks! It’s definitely a hard thing to see it all in black and white, but I think it’s a good perspective to gain 🙂 Enjoy the crunching of numbers!!!
There are a few more ways to spread your investment. You can take cuttings of all your fruit trees and berry bushes and root them. With the new fruit trees you can create an espaliered orchard with a very small footprint. Because you can take so many new cuttings from each tree and berry bush from April -June (maybe longer where you are)you can root those cuttings also and sell the new fruit trees.
We have spent over $3025 so far on fruit trees and berry bushes. At this point, unless I see a new and unusual fruit tree, we’re done buying fruit trees. We will be experimenting with citrus, avocados and olive trees, but what we have right now will make lots of cuttings. We’re shooting for over 100 more fruit trees from cuttings in this next month. The average tree costs us around $25.00, so this year we will have saved $2500 on fruit trees. I’ll be rooting another 100 cuttings to grow and keep in pots for next year’s farmers market.
Here are some estimates off the top of my head for our homestead over the last year. It doesn’t include improvements to the house…just the gardens and animals:
rabbit cages and small chicken coop: $1000
Fruit trees and berry bushes: $3025
Compost, mulch and gravel: $1950
Straw bales for animals and garden: $240
30 ducks: $220
Chickens: free
Rooster: $10
feed equipment: $140
feed: $720 per year
Weeper hoses and fittings: $800
Greenhouse: $700
Greenhouse disaster repair: $300
Pond supplies: $2,000
2012 organic seeds: $300
Farmers Market supplies: $300
Total: $11,705 over the last year. We’ve been in our house for almost two years, but the first year was spent rehabbing the house. We didn’t start outdoor projects until 2011.
As of now, the ducks and chickens aren’t paying for their feed. When they do start paying for their own feed and operational costs, we’ll have money left over to pay a bill. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a start. We may also convert our shed into a large chicken coop (our original idea) and get 50 Salmon Faverolles to bump up egg and meat production. From the research I’ve done, Salmon Faverolles are winter layers as well as being meat birds. (They look pretty too)
Our ducklings are a 50/50 mix of males to females. In September we’ll have 7 dozen duck eggs to sell each week. Low ball estimates for duck eggs is $6.00 per dozen or $42.00 per week or $168.00 per month. I have 22 duck eggs in the incubator right now and hopefully we’ll have more ducklings this month.
Okay, I’m done with my long ass comment. I’ll be writing a blog about all this as well, but not until we start to break even.
WOW! Thank you for all the information! The tree cutting idea is brilliant! I wish we had some more space!!! I know I’ve said it before, but it truly is incredible what you all are accomplishing!!! I can’t wait until you’re all set up and everything’s rolling as smoothly as possible! 🙂
Now, can you tell me a little about rabbit? Or point me in a direction? I think our next investment *might* be rabbits…in the year or so…but there’s so much information out there, it’s a little overwhelming!
Right now we have angora rabbits for fibers, but do want to invest in meat rabbits. When we do get our meat rabbit cages set up, we’ll be one step closer.
We’ll be investing in a few Californians or New Zealand meat rabbits.
The most helpful and straight forward information we have comes from the book “Country Wisdom and Know-How Everything You Need to Know to Live Off the Land.” The section on rabbits is only a few pages long, but its detailed from care of rabbits to building cages and how to check the health of the rabbits.
Thanks Angela! I’ll definitely be checking out that book! We’re not ready yet…but maybe someday soon-ish 🙂
I’ve started calculating how much I’vd saved by growing my own for the first time this year and the thing I’ve fond most surprising is actually how much the little harvest actually add up to moneywise. So far for this calendar year I am $100 in the black so I’m very excited (I amortised estimated establishment costs over 5 years). Recording the costs has also made me more careful about what money I’m actually spending too which can only be a good thing.
Oh, how nice that your in the black this year! That’s very hopeful for me! It really is amazing how quickly it adds up once it’s coming back in the door 🙂 And you’re right, now that we’ve added it up, we’re much more intentional with even spending a couple of dollars here and there on the garden!
Oosh… I’d hate to try to add up everything we’ve spent here. But I do think that the first couple of years in any new place- especially on a homestead- have such a high outlay. But they next few years will totally pay off.
When we moved into our acreage- we had a barn but there were NO fruit trees or any other plantings so we, like you, were starting from scratch. I’m starting on my 4th gardening year here so I feel that things are finally starting to fall together.
Judy
It’s definitely hard to add it all up…I cringe a little thinking about the black and white of it…but it’s definitely an investment and I know it will all come together in a couple of years 🙂
Hi Melissa–Wow that is a big inital investment! But from your forecast it looks like you will recoup (re-coop? haha) your $ within 3-4 yrs. Business 101 says any business must go from the red to black within 5 yrs. Good job!
Do you sell your eggs and extra veggies? Co-op or do you have farm stand. Sorry if you talk about it in another post and I missed it.
Sweet! I didn’t know about about the 5 year plan, but that makes sense! Thank you!
We do sell our eggs occasionally…mostly to co-workers. I should start tracking that, too. I’m also considering adding in the chickens feed and then accounting for egg income instead of thinking it’s a wash just because they pay for themselves 🙂
Thanks for checking out so many past posts! Now I need to catch up with your comments 😉