As I stood in the garden working out what we would eat this week I realised that it was leeks or leeks,and maybe silverbeet.

So we will eat one leek, still worth a $1.00, the last of our butternut pumpkins $2.50 and spring onions, $1.50 a bunch. I saved $5.00!!

I bought a cauli, which are really cheep at the moment, $1.50, a lettuce $1.50, 500g of brussel sprouts also $1.50 and a small chinese cabbage $1.00 and mushrooms which were not cheep 400g cost $4.00. That’s a total of $9.50 which is about what I spent on fruit -$9.60.

I think that I will spend more than I save over the next few weeks.

I leave with a cheerful photo. Thanks to my wonderful heat mat I am able to raise seedlings of heat loving plants easily. This is a zucchini Zephyr. It took 5 days to germinate, roll on warm weather!

A home grown zucchini sounds like a marvellous thing at the moment, will it still be in February?

This week at the market I bought 3kg bag of carrots, $2.80 and large, beautiful, cauliflower for $1.50 and that’s all the veges I bought, a total of $4.30. I did also spend $10.80 on fruit.

Does this small amount spent on vegetables mean there is a lot to eat out of the homely wife garden?

The short answer is no. I had to pick the last cabbage. I didn’t take a photo because it has split and it is not a pretty sight. But even an ugly cabbage is worth $1.50. We still have broccoli to eat. We have some left from last week, so even thought I plan to serve broccoli twice, I will only need one, about $1.00. There still the garlic,saving $1.00 and spring onions. A bunch is worth $1.50, we’ll be using them in salads as we ate the last of the red onions last week.

So I saved $5.00! at least I saved more than I spent.

The lack of money spent on veges this week has left me wondering if we are not going to eat many vegetables this week. I think the difference is I plan to use some frozen vegetables.

I’m not sure how to price these. I brought a large bag of ‘second’ red peppers in March which I froze.I plan to use at least 3 halves of these. I also want to use up last years frozen broad beans before this years plants start producing. No one wants to eat the frozen version when the fresh is available. So I guess I have saved money but I’m just not sure how much.

I bought 1/2 a celery, which cost $1.00, a small bag of brussel sprouts, $1.50, a bag of yams $1.50, a large grey pumpkin to make soup, $2.50 and the killer, a 10kg bag of spuds, $7.98. A total of $14.48. I spent $14 on fruit.

On the positive side I saved by eating out of the garden. My mesclun is still going strong, although this will be the last week I can cut it for awhile. So I saved $3.00 on a bag of salad greens. This week we will eat 3 leeks, that’s $3.00 and 2 broccoli worth $1.50 each. There is still the garlic and red onions, saving about $1.50.

We will also eat one of our butternut pumpkins.These are my favourite type of pumpkin and they are more expensive to buy than grey pumpkins. I think it is worth about $2.50.

So I saved $13.00!