The days are longer, the trees are budding, and we have eggs coming out of our ears. Spring has officially sprung! March 2021 on the homestead means it’s nearly time to begin planting the garden outside for this year’s round of food preservation. Inside the house, we have been tending cute little sprouts in the spare room. Which means the summer garden and bountiful harvest are on the horizon!
If you’re anything like us, you may still be trying to eat your way through our freezer and now have random bags of frozen vegetables and canned goods. We pulled out one of our favorite “clean-out-the-fridge” soup recipes to free up some freezer space. So if you’re in the same boat, try out this spicy bloody mary soup base that can handle a multitude of vegetables and possibly sneak past those picky eaters. 😉
Chickens
We just thought our ladies were back in action last month. This month? This month we have eggs coming out of our ears! Even with a mysterious egg smashing hen on the loose, we have been able to sell dozens of eggs. The flock is truly earning their keep and then some this month. Definitely makes up for the slow winter season.
Farm fresh eggs around here go from $3-7 per dozen depending on raising practices. We’re fairly middle of the road, so we price ours right in the middle at $5/dozen.
Egg Totals
- Brown Eggs: 83
- Green Eggs: 47
- Blue Eggs: 44
- Total Eggs: 174
- Total value: $72.50
Chicken Expenses
- Bedding: $7
- Feed: $24 (our usual feed was out-of-stock, so we had to spend a bit more)
- Total: $31
- Chicken Net: $41.50
Homestead Kitchen
We ventured to the grocery store a bit more in March, but mostly out of convenience. It was a busy season with my sister-in-law’s wedding, looking at possible farmland, and all sorts of home improvement projects now that the weather is nicer outside! That being said we still ate a fair amount of our preserved food this month. What is not included in this calculation is frozen soups we made with ingredients from prior months. So while we still ate mostly from our freezer, we aren’t double counting the cost savings of previous months. We’re hoping to continue emptying out the freezer in April as planting season is upon us!
Total grocery savings: $63.24
Flowers
While I enjoy bouquets of flowers around the house, I don’t love spending money on something that is going to die and go into the compost pile in a week. Growing your own flowers is quite cheap (especially from seed!), so we are hoping to grow plenty of flowers to fill vases from spring to fall this year. Flowers around here run about a dollar per stem, so that’s how I’m calculating the cost savings for this category. Currently we have our late daffodils and camellia bushes blooming. They have made some gorgeous bouquets on my work desk, the dining room table, and even the bathroom counter!
- 37 daffodils
- 13 camellias
- 6 edible flowers* (add in 60 cents)
- Flowers Totals: 50 x $1 + .60 = $50.60
*Edible flowers go for about 10 cents around here.
Wrap up
In summary here’s how we did March 2021 on the homestead:
- Chicken Net: $41.50
- Grocery Savings: $63.24
- Flower Savings: $50.60
- March Totals: $155.34
Want daily homesteading and gardening inspiration and tips? Follow us on Pinterest, YouTube, or Instagram.