I am often asked via email on my YouTube videos how much time I spend on my allotment.
Here are the times over the last 12 months put in Month order
January 8.5
February 8.5
March 33.5
April 36.0
May 40.0
June 46.0
July 46.0
August 19.0
Sept 23.5
October 25.0
November 10.0
December 5.0
Total 301 hours.
That does not include trips to garden centres, B&Q, or the stables.
http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage
If you cost yourself out at £10 and hour, and add in the cost of seeds etc your veggies are costing you at least £60 a week.
On the other hand, the same amount of exercise at a gym would cost several hundred a year, and be a lot less fun.
... and the same amount of time being entertained in any way / hobby would have a cost too!
... and add to all this the extra "quality of life"...
Not counting working in the lottie shop, I dare not even try to add up my lottie hours. Does that include seed sowing and potting on at home?
Saw a lady on TV the other day who said that all she spent on growing vegetables was about an hour a week.
It seems to take me a great deal longer.
Certainly the allotment is proving expensive at the moment. Fertilizer, canes, fleece, seeds, water butt, compost bin, spade, 99p cloche, piping, more seeds, more space more seeds, seed compost, soil improver, plants. Etc etc, but I am enjoying every minute.
I has been hard work digging, I do not think £10 per hours is very good. Please can I have a pay rise? ;D ;D
I'm at my lottie five or six days a week from 7:00 to 5:30 everyday, I still don't seem to get everything done ::)
How does one price a hobby?
I am a GP and assuming that I could get the work, then at a going rate of £50 per hour then 300 hours equates to £15,000 pa.
The problem is that, like this morning when I went to the allotment between 6am and 7am, it is impossible to get work at those times.
The pleasure of being down by the Mersey at that time, surrounded by wildlife and enjoying the early sunshine cannot be counted in money.
That £15,000 lost has also cost Mr Brown £6000 in tax but I do not seem to lose any sleep over that fact.
My cholesterol is 3.5 and my blood pressure is 120/80 and requires no medication to achieve that. I have fresh vegetables from the allotment every day of the year and look forward to retirement when I can really put the hours in.
When I first got the allotment I wrote down everything I spent, and we recorded in a diary everything we did and how long etc. That lasted less than a month. To be honest, it is a hobby where we get the benefit of fresh veg, we get to try unusual varieties, the exercise is excellent, satisfaction is high (usually), wouldn't get that from taking photographs of trains or birds, now would we??? ??? ??? ???
allaboutliverpool ,
I'm missing the point here.
As a doctor 'if I could get the work'.
Is there a problem there!!!!!!!!!!!!1
As a pair we probably put that amount of time in... :)
Yes Telboy, you have missed the point.
Work is available in shifts, a few hours at a time.
I slot my visits to the plot into free time, for example as mentioned, one our this morning, and hopefully another hour tomorrow at 6am.
It helps to be 5mins walk fronm the allotment and 10minutes walk from the surgery which means that I can slot another hour in tomorrow lunchtime as well.
Result- I enjoy work because I can enjoy the rest of my time.
we would find it too difficult to count our actual work hours at the lottie,so much time is spent eating meals,drinking tea,chatting to friends,welcoming family visits etc etc,we would rather be there than stuck indoors,esp at this time of year!
allabout,we can just see a glimpse of the mersey from our plot!
£10.00 a hour - I have never worked for that amount in my life. The most I have ever worked for was £80.00 for a 40 hour week
DOC why don,t you set up a surgery at the garden then you can slot a patent in, inbetween gardening.
Take a seat till i get this row of spuds in.
That is a good idea davyw1 ;D
Quote from: powerspade on May 08, 2009, 06:55:25
£10.00 a hour - I have never worked for that amount in my life. The most I have ever worked for was £80.00 for a 40 hour week
You can not be serious? :)
ha!betula-perhaps powerspades an arist like me-i aspire to £2 an hour-but i dont compain because i wouldnt swap my job for anything-i live very cheaply and the lotties a great source of food and inspiration.
having a lot of money doesnt equal happiness(as you know i'm sure ;D)and so long as i dont owe anyone any money and can pay my bills i'm as happy as a pig in poo-i dont seem to go without anything-well,apart from holidays i spose-but then-i got the lottie! ;D ;D ;D
i think western cilvilisation would be a lot 'richer' if it took no more than it needed -from wages to food.....and the first people on the list for downsizing would be m.p's.......
think allaboutliverpools got his priorities right....
kitty#xx
One is never bored if one has an allotment. Went up today at 12 am for a short walk, and couldn't believe it was 7.30 pm on the way home. Time flies when one is enjoying it. Meant to clean bathroom but will do tomorrow, unless the allotment beckons. Wish my blood pressure was as good as yours, but you are a doctor, I had better keep taking the pills, which seem to work. I save loads of money because I hardly ever go shopping, apart from food, and don't buy new clothes, and luckily seeds are hardly that expensive.
Kitty You have sussed me out I`m a musican low money but high in pleasure,
There is no way that my lottie saves me money on veg! However that is probably the last reason that I have the lottie. Fresh air, exercise and just general fun are my motivators!! ;D
Roll on the summer holidays.
ha!powerspade-we're lucky to do something we love-moneys no compensation is it?(i aint stupid tho,i know its quite useful!!)
power to us arteests!
best wishes
kitty
Quote from: kitty on May 16, 2009, 20:59:27
ha!betula-perhaps powerspades an arist like me-i aspire to £2 an hour-but i dont compain because i wouldnt swap my job for anything-i live very cheaply and the lotties a great source of food and inspiration.
having a lot of money doesnt equal happiness(as you know i'm sure ;D)and so long as i dont owe anyone any money and can pay my bills i'm as happy as a pig in poo-i dont seem to go without anything-well,apart from holidays i spose-but then-i got the lottie! ;D ;D ;D
i think western cilvilisation would be a lot 'richer' if it took no more than it needed -from wages to food.....and the first people on the list for downsizing would be m.p's.......
think allaboutliverpools got his priorities right....
kitty#xx
Only just read this.
What a lovely idea to only earn £2 an hour and be able to pay all your bills. ;D
I am still trying to work out how you pay rent or mortgage.What about fuel bills?
Council tax?
I do not cost my lottie out.To begin with it cost more but not spending so much as time goes on.
Fresh air,veggies,exercise all make up a great hobby. ;D
all about im an a and e nurse and one of the most important parts of gardening for me (dont have a lottie) it gives me chance to work out any stress and also think things over that have gone either well or badly
I didn't do much growing last year for various reasons, and probably left it a bit late this year too before I got going again. But when I started sowing, potting on, etc. I wondered why on earth I'd stopped doing it. It's very therapeutic mentally, and hours can pass peacefully in your own little green world.
Have to say though that it hasn't cured me of any shopping habit. Just redirected it slightly. ;D
I don't know how much time I spend in the garden - I do know there are lots of other things that need doing, that aren't getting done at the moment! I love having the time outdoors and noticing all the wildlife, whether it's the birds (red kites, robins, magpies, starlings) or the micro-wildlife that is really fascinating me lately - damsel flies, beetles, spiders - so much of it there when you look. Plus I'm stronger and fitter than I was before I started the garden. As for money - this year will be relatively expensive, as I'm starting out; had to buy tools, lots of compost, seeds, etc etc. But even there I did it cheaply; got a water butt via a Freecycling friend, a fork for £3 from a house clearance shop; used reclaimed wood to edge my beds, acquired plastic for nothing, to use for my cloches; and got lots of seeds via swaps here! :)
In terms of costing food - everything I grow is organic, I know there isn't any chemical residue on it (other than whatever is in the air, generally, in Reading!) - so I'd be comparing against fancy-schmancy organic grocery prices. We eat a LOT of greens, and spinach is expensive to buy. Some of what we're eating now, you probably can't buy even if you wanted to - eg Red Mustard Leaf and chard.
There are so many good points - the only bad one, as I said, is that I'm neglecting other things in life which have rather been pushed to the back. I'm creating this garden from scratch, so that's my excuse. Next year will be much easier, I won't have to dig beds from couch grass. :)
Allaboutliverpool,
Tour allotment video has been an immeasurable inspiration to me and probably others which should be included in your list of benefits- a benefit with
global impact. ;D