Ellwood Financials

Here is a snapshot/estimate of my monthly expenses and income for May.  Many of the expense items I order in bulk at the beginning of the season so I divided by 12 to get a monthly average.

Expenses:

Rent: $200

Water: $35 (this number will increase as we get deeper into our summer weather pattern)

Bathroom: $30 ( I split the cost of a port a potty with other tenants on the property)

Electricity:  $50 (I share a shipping container cooled by an ac unit that runs off electricity.)

Seeds/transplants: $130

Fertilizer:  $100 (2 gallons of emulsion (applied through my driptape with a venturi injector), 2 ounces of maxicrop (kelp),

50 pounds of bat guano and bone meal (added to seedling soil mixes and side dressed on certain crops)

Irrigation supplies: $65 (I spent $800 for irrigation so far this year which is enough to last at least until next season)

Compost:  $40 (I spent $500 this year on a bulk order of compost)

Labor: $240 (I am currently paying one employee $10 an hour for 6 hours of harvest labor every Monday morning)

Fuel: $100 (tractor, driving to market, deliveries)

Miscellaneous materials: $150 (there is something every month that comes up, this number varies greatly)

Total May Expenses: $1140

Income:

CSA:  $1,300 (13 members and growing)

Farmers Market: $480 (I’ve been averaging just of around $120 per market)

Farm tours: $120 ( I had a UCSB and a City College Class come out and tour the farm this month,  each time I got $60)

Wholesale Deliveries: $100 (when I have enough volume of certain crops I box and sell to local produce markets)

Total May Income: $2000

So at the end of May I am left with $860 to pay for all my living expenses.  My budget living is Santa Barbara is around 2,000 so I have a long way to go before I am actually making any money.  There were also many months this winter/spring with no income and similar expenses.  So far I have spent $7,000 of money that I had saved over the last few years and taken a $10,000 loan from my father.  As with starting any business it takes some initial investment and a lot of time and work to see any profit.  This year I will be in the red but I feel confident that in the near future I will start to see some payoff.

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