cost of OS. Not always worth it. Maths only here

charliee_3

it is really hard to put a monetary value on it.. i suppose you could even say that working on the allotment is EARNING money rather than costing money as you are adding value to your investment of seeds by doing it and if you sold your whole crop you would make money!!

i think the labour aspect is looking it it from the perspective of what you would have to pay to have someone else do it for you.. like you can spend 2 hours cleaning your house, or you can pay someone £10 to do it for you, so is your time not worth the same as the person who is doing it as a job? is your time worth more than your money, or is your money worth more than your time..

if money is more important and time is not an issue then growing your own, taking time to make jams, pickles, etc and store for the winter, doing good housekeeping and cooking from scratch is going to to be the best way every time

if your time is more important and you have unlimited money then paying for services, buying everything and convenience foods or eating out are going to be an easier option and free up maximum time

the problem occurs when you don't have time OR the money... welcome to old style!!!!

nitr02007

If you spend 2 hours on the allotment that you would have otherwise spent watching TV then its all gain..

I think saying that an hour of your time is worth £5 is just an excuse to be lazy.

Justamum

charliee wrote: »

you can grow all your own veg and spend 6,7,8,9, 10 hours a week tending it and buy your seeds for pennies and get crops worth pounds, but if your time is more valuable to you and you hate the hassle of it all and you dont see it as a relaxing pursuit for your free time, then buying all your veg is better value for you even if it looks more expensive on paper... and basically £5 an hour is what you might be able to pay someone to tend your allotment for you to get the same investment to yield without the work...

But if you didn't think it was an enjoyable pastime you wouldn't be bothering to grow them in the first place. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone paying someone to tend their allotment for them - surely people get an allotment because they want to grow their own veg? I don't think £5 an hour would cover a gardener anyway would it?

geordie_joe

thriftlady wrote: »

They are the bean used in baked beans. They are small white beans. Most beans taste more or less the same so use them in any bean recipe -salads, soups, stews, casseroles with pork, bacon or sausages.

They are sometimes called navy beans.

Hi thriftlady, could you help me out a bit more please?

I looked in Morrisons, where they sell lentils and pearl barley etc, expecting haricot beans to be dried in packets. I've just logged on to the Tesco site and the only ones on there come in tins? Should I be looking for dried beans or tinned?




Tesco Haricot Beans In Water 410g

Justamum

charliee wrote: »

like you can spend 2 hours cleaning your house, or you can pay someone £10 to do it for you,

You wouldn't get someone to clean your house for 2 hours and only pay them a tenner for it - I've seen people advertising themselves as cleaners for £10 an hour!!! My husband is a qualified electrician and doesn't get much more than that!

Zazen999

geordie_joe wrote: »

Hi thriftlady, could you help me out a bit more please?

I looked in Morrisons, where they sell lentils and pearl barley etc, expecting haricot beans to be dried in packets. I've just logged on to the Tesco site and the only ones on there come in tins? Should I be looking for dried beans or tinned?




Tesco Haricot Beans In Water 410g

Either, depends on whether you want to soak and cook them or not.....

I find one tin will do a meal for 2, whereas one 500g packet will do 2 months of chilies once a week [we use pinto beans, or used to until I grew them myself].....now I am growing about 15 different types and they are lovely!

charliee_3

Justamum wrote: »

You wouldn't get someone to clean your house for 2 hours and only pay them a tenner for it - I've seen people advertising themselves as cleaners for £10 an hour!!! My husband is a qualified electrician and doesn't get much more than that!

i did suspect it would be more like £10 an hour, but would never assume my standard of cleaning would be worth that!! lol

that seems a lot... but if i had the money i'd pay it!!

greenbee

geordie_joe wrote: »

But you did not pay that cost, so it can't be a cost. If you did you would have an income equal to that cost, as you would be paying yourself. You would need to deduct the income from the result, so one just cancels out the other.

Or to put it another way, if you would have to pay someone £5 per hour to do the labour for you, but you do it yourself, you have SAVED £5 per hour. So you would need to deduct the saving too.

I guess your time is only worth what someone else will pay for it (my employers charge my time out at silly money, but sadly won't pay me that much for it!), so your time growing veg only costs you money if you make the choice to do that instead of increasing the number of hours that you are earning for. So if, for example, you could earn £10/hour and could pay someone £5/hour to look after your veg plot, then it would make sense (but hopefully growing veg is something people do because they enjoy it most of the time...)

Justamum wrote: »

You wouldn't get someone to clean your house for 2 hours and only pay them a tenner for it - I've seen people advertising themselves as cleaners for £10 an hour!!! My husband is a qualified electrician and doesn't get much more than that!

You'd be lucky to get a cleaner for a tenner an hour round here...

charliee_3

Justamum wrote: »

But if you didn't think it was an enjoyable pastime you wouldn't be bothering to grow them in the first place.

well.. yes and no.. i am planning to grow some of my own veg, but i am not a gardener and i dont find much pleasure in it (hoping this will increase as i get better at it), but i want to do it for the pleasure of the finished product... my own veg to cook and eat.. like i hate housework, but i like a habitable house so i force myself... if there were an easier way of doing it and if i could find someone to come and grow what i wanted in my garden for £5 an hour and i had the money i would probably pay them and then id just do the 'fun' stuff and the harvesting!!

geordie_joe

Zazen999 wrote: »

Either, depends on whether you want to soak and cook them or not.....

I find one tin will do a meal for 2, whereas one 500g packet will do 2 months of chilies once a week [we use pinto beans, or used to until I grew them myself].....now I am growing about 15 different types and they are lovely!

Thanks, so you can get both.

I was expecting them to come in a packet where I could use a few at a time, so that is what I will look out for.