If you have a bigger garden like we do, one of your big yearly expenses will be seed. Even if your like me and try to save all the seed you can, you will still have a substantial seed bill most years.
That can be for a number of reasons, from changing what you grow, crop failure, low seed viability, to difficulty in saving seed, or easily crossed seed like corn, melons, etc. Whatever the reason, if you know your expense is going to be large, it's best to have some rules in buying seed, to get the best deals and keep the bill as reasonable as can be.
To get the best price is a matter of following a few rules. A good starting point is to work off a spreadsheet that you can input the data and ultimately sort into lists for each company you're buying from.
The first column is the variety. The next three columns are the best price/quantity for each company in order from best to worst. Next is quantity, and last price, which can be summed and then shipping, handling, tax input for a final total. It will look something like this:
Best way to start is by using your favorite search engine. Put in the variety name with the search term 'seed' and start comparing the results that come up for the various seed companies. I generally go back no more than a few pages. Enter them on the spreadsheet along with the best quantity and price.
When the list is complete, sort it by the business with the best pricing. After that, you can tweak your list with a basic set of rules:
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1. Look at the companies that were only best price on one item. By the time you add shipping, it's no longer the best price. If Company A is selling a pound of peas for $5.00, and shipping is $4.00, it's not a better price that Company B who sells for $6.00 and you are buying 10 other items with, and shipping is $5.00. Eliminate Company A and buy from Company B, and save $2.50.
2. In some situations, you may have a company on your list that sells an item that no one else carries. Since you can't avoid buying from them, see how comparable they are in price/quantity to other companies for items on your list. Buy as much as you can to spread the shipping cost around.
3. Keep an eye out for clearance, specials, sales and discounts. One company gave 20% off for subscribing to their newsletter. Since I was already a subscriber, I used an old defunct email I still had to get the discount. You can even recalculate the new price/quantity of the seed, and may find a number of varieties that are suddenly more affordable with that company.
4. Some companies will give free shipping for orders over a certain dollar amount. If you're one packet away from free shipping, spending a couple of bucks to save $5 or $6 is worth your time.
5. Some companies have higher shipping, for whatever reason. Sometimes it's so high that buying just a couple of items aren't worth it. Either try buying somewhere else or giving that company as many items as possible. Two companies I bought from this year had higher shipping, but had such great prices it more than offset buying from somewhere else.
6. Always look at the next higher up quantity. They might be selling 50 seeds for $3, and a 500 for $6. Since most seeds last for years of properly stored, spend a couple of extra bucks and you won't have to buy that item for a few years.
7. Watch closely for out of stock or backordered items. The worst thing is an out-of-stock item slipping by you, yet have already ordered from the second best priced company. Backordered items can be a dice roll, most times they come in, sometimes they don't, or they don't come in time to plant.
8. If you are ordering from a number of companies, order from as many as you can at once. Spreading it out for more than even a week can mean that item is now out-of-stock, and you've already bought from the second best priced company.
9. Most seed companies offer the current year seed starting January 1st, sometimes even before that. Order as early as possible to get what you want.
10. Look at alternative varieties. Unless your partial to Burpee Golden beets, you might find that Golden Detroit is far cheaper for the same amount. Sometimes only the best will do, so find the best price you can.
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Following these rules, I cut out about 15% off my total seed cost this year, with only a couple of minor errors that will definitely be correct next year. Easy money.
