Cheapest Way to Five a Day.

imogen-p

I buy more veg than fruit, with the main ones each week being, potatoes, onions, carrots, peppers, frozen peas, green beans, sweet potato, mushrooms and leeks. I'm growing my own lettuce at the moment so not having to buy that.

I also buy up anything that has been reduced and I know I can use - like a 750g bag of asparagus for 19p currently frozen to be turned into soup.

Mainly get apples and bananas as fruit as they are the main ones DH and DS will eat, that and raisins and semi-dried mango.
Hoping that the allotment will provide a good amount this summer, currently have raspberries, peas, sorrel and runner beans growing, with some butternut squash plant waiting to go in later this month.

I usually buy from the market, although if the supermarket has got offers on I'll go there instead.

Pazu

Hi
Like you I used to buy everything but since January I've been living on my own and have had a huge drop in income. Fortunately we have wild plum, blackberry, walnut and chestnut trees near us. I foraged for as much as possible knowing I was going to be broke and stored it all in the freezer. I also made preserves with sloes, elderberries and crab apples. I have rhubarb, goosberries and currents in the garden. I have just emptied the last of the stuff from the freezer and have put in some rhubarb. I am waiting on elderflower for wine and cordial.

HTH

Gillyx

Weekly, potatoes, carrots, onions, turnip, broccoli, cauliflower.

Fruit, apples, bananas and clementines.

Will buy other bits from time to time, berries in summer etc.

sharloid

I buy bananas and that's about it for fruit. Lately I've discovered that my local Morrison's do good mark downs on fruit such as bags of apples, pears and punnets of strawberries for 15p!

As for veg, I buy carrots and onions fresh, have tinned peas and frozen green beans, broccoli and sweetcorn.

Lily-Lu

All our fruit and veg comes from the local greengrocer with the exception of bagged spinach and bunched herbs, which I buy from the local fishmonger.

Like a few posters here, we eat mostly veg with probably about a 1/5 to a 1/4 of the whole shop being fruit.

We eat loads of onions; brown, red, spring, small pickling. shallots, leeks, carrots, peppers (chili and sweet), asparagus, aubergines, cucumber, tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage (white and dark green), mushrooms, old potatoes, new potatoes, peas (in the pod, when avaliable), courgette, spinach, green beans, swede, lemons, bananas and possibly a few others that I just can't think of at the moment.
All these we eat regularly at least once a week; apart from onions which are eaten more or less every day at some point, so I always make sure we have a supply of all of them.

I've never taken the time to reckon-up how much it costs on a weekly basis, but suspect it's somewhere between £15 and £20 for the three of us. That might sound like a lot of money to some, but we all love fresh veg and I suspect it makes up for at least a 1/3 of our diet, so it's money well spent in my view, and I'd much prefer to spend money on them rather than living out of pre-prepared boxes and packets from a supermarket / freezer shop.

EstherH

I buy apples, oranges, bananas, carrots and onions fresh as a weekly buy. Also frozen peas, sweetcorn and broccoli. Sometimes buy frozen peppers, leeks and mushrooms. Also buy grapes when on offer and melons on offer. Peaches, necterines strawberries in summer. Frozen berries sometimes to make smoothies.

tesuhoha

Lots of ideas here. I would add that tinned fruit in juice is quite relatively cheap and I sometimes buy that. I do buy frozen veg at times and will look for frozen berries. However, the strawberry season will soon be upon us when they become quite cheap.

I absolutely love gooseberries but never seem to see them in the shops. My favourite veg are peas in the pod.

GreyQueen

I have an allotment so am self-sufficient for spuds 12 months of the year and have still got the last of the peas and broad beans which I froze when they glutted last summer.

I want to have fruit bushes up there eventually but this is a longer-term goal based on clearing an extra bit of land and might not be producing fruit for 2-3 years.

I have an independant greengrocer 10 mins walk away who has a "whoopsies" box which is 3 bagfuls for £1 although he'll often let you have 4 for £1 if there's a lot of stuff and it's late in the day. Couple of days ago my £1 got me a bag of 8 apples and 2 bags of grapes, so that's me sorted for a few days. I virtually live off that and my lottie......love my greengrocer to pieces.

I keep my eyes peeled whenever I'm in a supermarket for a bargain and was pleased to snaffle 3 mixed peppers for £1 in ASDA last week, not a store I normally frequent but I'd gone in as far as Customer Services to recharge my mobile credit and there they were!

Plus I also forage in the city; know where to get wild plums, blackberries, sloes and walnuts in season. Have just checked on the wild plum trees; the fruit is set and looking like it'll be a bumper crop this summer.....

raphanius

we have a weekly veg box from riverford and a fruit box once every 3/4 weeks. we love potatoes of course, courgettes, onions, garlic, asparagus, peas, sweetcorn, carrots, raw cabbage and any salad veg. i am growing som beans this year aswell. fruitwise we eat a fair amount of apples, oranges, bananas and grapes. we eat more veg than fruit.

Elmo1985

We are a Aldi super 6 eaters lol - depending what is on and buy most of our veg frozen from Iceland or SP from ASDA