Surprisingly, it often costs more to grow your own vegatables than it would to buy them. My dad, who is a compulsive gardener, pointed out that the vegatables in the supermarkets are at their cheapest just about the same time the garden veggies are harvested, so you are not saving the $2.39 per pound that the good tomatoes cost most of the year, you are saving the $.59 per pound that they cost the week yours are ready.

When you average out the cost of seeds and seedlings, fertilizer and pest treatments, the wire, the string, and the various things you need to keep the rabbits and woodchucks out, against what you actually used or gave away(no fair counting the stuff that rots on the vine, doesn't ripen before the frost, or is eaten by creatures), you pay about the same as you would if you ordered the food in a good quality restaurant--No problem, though, it is the home grown taste that we do it for, and the spiritual connection with ancient farmers--