I had grand plans to share a pie chart with you, but apparently Google Docs is acting wonky. You’ll have to imagine the pie chart in your own mind.
The parameters I set for this year-long running total was if something was grown/sold local, it was considered “local”. So, veggies and eggs from the farmer’s market or friend’s home that I actually paid $$ for the item are “local”. If it is+ 100 miles, that was stuff I bought at the grocery store that is not grown locally. The third parameter I set was local owned, but grown greater than 100 miles. Examples of this is Blue Plate Mayo, which is a company in New Orleans, but it’s more than 100 miles from me and I’m sure the soybean oil is not manufactured in New Orleans. Community Coffee is another example as coffee beans do not grow in Louisiana, but CC’s is a locally owned company in New Orleans. We live almost 100 miles from New Orleans, so while not technically “local”, it’s close enough.
Here’s the breakdown:
Total Local Purchases: $1446.49
Homegrown: $388.15
Total + 100 Miles: $3415.46
Total local < 100 miles: $306.98
Total Grocery: $5555.18
26% was locally grown and purchased, 7% homegrown, 61% was grown/shipped/made +100 miles, and 6% was < 100 miles.
I’m actually disappointed in how small the percentage of locally grown/purchased/homegrown is. I really go out of my way to buy things locally, and it’s not even half of my grocery spending.
I read all the time on blogs and homesteading articles of people “who grow everything they eat”. Wow, looking at my totals, I’m actually more awed than I already was by the particular comment. Only 7% of my food total came from homegrown. Adding up the pounds grown, I came out with a total of 240.5 pounds. Either I need to get my garden more efficent, or we need to cut down on our consumption of things grown out of the 100 mile radius.
I guess I can cosole myself with the fact that I’m doing more than most.
I shocked by how much I spent on groceries! Jeeze, $5,555.18? Really? It sure didn’t seem like that much!
I’m debating on next year whether or not I should include animal feed in grocery costs. I feed the animals for them to feed me. What do you all think?
I’m submitting this to Simple Lives Thursdays.
Dec 30, 2010 @ 11:28:06
Oooh! I love this! Are you using software to track all this? I routinely use MSMoney as my checkbook, so could group the local payees (farmers’ markets/CSA’s) and the grocery store purchases (Kroger/HEB/etc) to divvy up local and non-local. .hmmm. . some friends and I were discussing how much is reasonable to spend per person/month on food (grocery store only), and our average was $100/person/month, so if you have 4 in your family $4800/year is about average, I’m thinking. .buying organic would generally be more, of course. .
I try to pay my chicken expenses (feed/litter/scratch) from egg “donations” from neighbors. .(I’m really bad about this, tho, coz they pay me in cash and I tend to spend it on Diet Cokes with vanilla from Sonic). . my birds are enclosed, so I throw the yard clippings and food scraps in to them. . maybe I could grow some of the feed (not counting the broccoli I had to throw to them this week after we had 70 degree temps and they bolted, sigh!). .
Thanks for the food for thought,
Melinda in Houston
Dec 30, 2010 @ 11:29:31
I believe your numbers. I don’t believe some others, like some authors who own a renewable energy bed and breakfast and claim to grow 90% of their own food, but still consume organic cappuccinos and Ben& Jerry’s ice cream. Good work. Very impressive.
Dec 30, 2010 @ 11:34:40
What a great post! You have encouraged me to start taking a tally to really see how much I’m growing, buying locally and over 100 miles. I love this! I think it should really help with a budget as well. I’m kind of disappointed at my own harvest this year. After preserving session, I was stocked with cans. I felt I had a good lead, however, we’re barely coming on January and it’s diminishing fast! Hopefully 2011 will be a better year! Thanks for linking up Paula
Dec 30, 2010 @ 13:02:42
Way to go! You did a great job. I’m really thinking about weighing my produce that I grow next year, but you’ve taken it to a new level and breaking down purchases as well! Have pride in a job well done and better luck for next year.
Dec 30, 2010 @ 15:44:57
I’m totally blushing at your kind words! Melinda, I just used Google documents and my grocery store receipts. I typically keep the receipts for a week till I get unlazy and enter them into my check book register. I write how much I spend @ the farmer’s market on the grocery store receipt to be sure not to forget.
Diana, I know what you mean about the dwindling supply. I so very obviously did not can enough tomatoes to last all year. I had blossom end rot and I didn’t feel good about canning them, so I did freeze some, but ended up having to purchase tomatoes for canning. I also have realized that the 4 gallon bags of whole strawberries & 4 gallon bags of blueberries plus 2 gallon bags of honeydew are not enough to keep me in smoothies for a year. Next year I will put up way more honeydew & cantaloupes because that is my favorite tasting smoothie. Gotta put away what you really enjoy.
Laurie, I don’t know who you might be referring to
I think I read Countyside a little to much for my own good. I certainly have no ambitions to live “off-grid” though it would be wonderful to at least be able to grow more than 50% of our veggie products. I’ve got to get better at growing the brassicas.
Thanks so much Citysister (love that tag name btw!)
I’m hoping to sell some of my excess eggs in the spring, so I think I’ll count that against my feed by adding it into the grocery budget and taking the feed stuff out of the grocery budget. Also, I think next year I”m going to keep track of how much we spend eating out. This is going to be a scary total, I’m almost afraid to do it.
Dec 30, 2010 @ 16:29:12
Great post! I tracked our groceries for a year a couple of years ago and I too was surprised by how much was spent even though we eat homemade meals, garden, and preserve a lot of food from the garden. However, groceries have really gone up in price and I’m sure I would have spent much more if we ate prepared, packaged foods and I did not can and freeze our garden produce.
-Brenda
Dec 30, 2010 @ 23:28:24
Great to actually track your groceries this way–quite eye-opening, and I imagine I’d be surprised to see how much of our grocery money is actually not local (even with big garden, greenhouse, local farm milk, preserving). Anyway, to respond to your comment about adding in animal feed, we do consider chicken feed part of our grocery budget because we consume their eggs and also raise meat birds. Thanks for sharing!
Jan 04, 2011 @ 19:01:06
With two growing boys, I think you did well to only spend that much on groceries. One thing, though, is that I believe eating out expenses should be included in the food costs. If you didn’t eat out, you’d eat in.
Okay, I’m going to play mean.
If the point of raising animals and growing a garden is to save grocery money, most of us really aren’t saving much, if any. If one kept track of all costs of acquiring animals, loss, feed, water, electricity/fuel, medicine, vet bills, containment, shelter, butchering/processing of animals that will be consumed, seeds, plants, fertilizer, dirt (if needed) and water (here, we have to irrigate at least part of the summer and the city jacks the water and sewer fee up about 50 percent in the summer) and garden prep (if hired), equipment (rototiller/plow/tractor and/or misc. items), canning equipment, deep freeze, containers, shelving, maintenance, etc., it would really scare you. The costs add up fast. AND, this doesn’t even count the value of your time or the cost of the floor space to store all this equipment and the harvest. Yes, some of the equipment can be used for several years, but then one needs to figure in the replacement cost. UGH (Told you I was going to be mean…)
As to the percentage of local goods you purchased – please go easy on yourself. Realize that you live in an area where many things won’t grow – the southern version of our northern area. Be thankful that we in the United States have access to a variety of affordable shipped in goods. (Remember how sick of okra you were?)
Jan 04, 2011 @ 19:01:48
OH – Happy New Year!
Jan 10, 2011 @ 13:39:15
Heh, Packie, I’m still sick of okra! LOL. Except now it’s in the form of gumbos, since we smothered all of that down for use in the winter.
You’re right about all those cost. I think in the long run, you would come out ahead, but how many of us are going to stick with all that hard work, year after year after year? After butchering those roosters, I’m not sure I want to do it again. Not that it made me sad, but it was pretty time consuming and we got so little to show for it.
I also realize that buying/canning tomatoes is not cost effective, but it’s nice to know what’s actually in the food I’m canning. I think I’m going to try to do more freezing rather than canning this summer. I have a big enough feezer and it won’t take nearly as much time as canning does.
Jan 10, 2011 @ 21:24:34
Well, I just had to “argue”.
There usually isn’t a substitute for home grown (or locally grown) foods. The taste alone is worth the extra money and work. I also like knowing what is on the food, but here we have to “doctor” our soil because it is impossible to work up as is. So while I can control what is on the food, I can’t control what is in the food.
As to freezing, I’m all for it. Food in our old freezer will keep “forever”, but burns within weeks in the new freezer. Grrrrr.