Vegetables are expensive

organic_wanabe

Agutka, I know exactly what you mean and feel the same. Why are vegetables so expensive? Especially those that are not organic and grown in this country. It certainly didn't used to be the case. I live in Edinburgh and, yes, we do have a weekly farmer's market but that is expensive. There is a weekly market in Bonnyrigg - about 15 miles away - and it is reasonable but then you have petrol costs, etc. to take into account. I have thought about a box scheme but suspect that I would not use everything in it.

taplady

Agutka - love your avatar and signature :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

culpepper

Are you talking about organic fruit and veg?
Bananas and Mangoes are always pricey.
Buying loose rather than prepacked is usually cheaper as you're not paying for someone to wrap it all up.
You just have to buy what is in season as it's often cheaper and only buy what fits your budget. Apples are still cheap for instance because they are ready in the autumn in the uk .
If you want really cheap , you may be getting poorer quality or flavour. The really cheap apples and pears are sometimes tasteless or unripe. Cheapest potatoes sometimes have frost damage or are not an all round variety (good for chips but rubbish for baked pots for example).

blackcateddie

Try the local allotments, it's much better to grow your own and then you know what pesticides have been used. Nowadays there a a number of allotments going free usually and the benefits of eating fresh and getting fit by digging the land far outway the ease of buying at the supermarket.
once you see the carrot water turning orange when you cook fresh, you'll realise how little vitamins those supermarket veg really have. Not expensive either, our allotment is £15 per year and the packets of seeds cost approx £30, manage to feed two families 90% of the year.

whatatwit

I think a lot depends upon whereabouts in the UK that you live.

I am fortunate to have a Lidl fairly close and they have some good offers.
I visit a very small farmers market, more of a farmyard really and there the veg is so fresh and very reasonable, I also get some great fresh meat from there, but it is about 8 miles away.

Every so often mum & I go to Blackburn market. There is a brilliant fruit & veg stall, last week I got about 20 small bananas for £1. A box of flat mushrooms for £1.50. 5 aubergines for £1.
I ended up with 3 huge bags of fruit & veg for less than £10.

We also visit a good meat stall and I stock up for the freezer.
Whilst it is about 25-30 miles away, with two of us sharing the travel costs, it's not too bad.

jojo3_2

I have no idea what is going on in Stokes's today but i got a bag of about ten mixed peppers for 60p, 3 sweet red peppers for 50p, avocado - 28p, sprouts 12p, mangoes 3 for £1.00, aubergine 50p. It was all so lovely looking - and cheap!

HappyIdiotTalk

From my local asian supermarket I can get 6 lemons and 10 oranges for £2. And they are juicier and tastier than the supermarket. Its so cheap in there that I dont even bother noting the price of fruit and veg. I can only remember that you can get 6 lemons for a £1 and 10 oranges for a £1. If I remember I'll make a mental note of prices tomorrow as I'm taking DD1 down to get some stuff. But at the end of the day I can walk out of there with bags full of fruit and veg and still have loads of chang out of a tenner.

Agutka

I have a little plot in the garden for growing veggies, but that really is not enough. I had some sugar snap peas, carrots, leeks, beetroot and lettuces this year.
I have been on the allotment waiting list for three years now. Very popular round here, probably due to the lack of farms. I honestly only see supermarkets round here. There is a butcher in town, but it smells really unpleasantly - and not at all of raw meat. His displays are of dirty plastic items and tins of BBQ sauces. He sells pre-packed erm bits of meat which he keeps on a table outside the door. I've never been tempted...

JillD_2

I get mine at Asda and they do seem cheqaper than what you meniotned but then I am shopping for 4, so I guess shopping for onei tmay nt be so easy ?

For example today I bought:
Value bag bananas, about 9 - 78p
Value bag pears , about 8 - 68p
5 satsumas - actually can't find these on receipt, think checkout person forgot to add them :j
Value tomatos , about 10 - 46p
3 onions - 27p
lettuce - 27p
cucumber - 64p

I thought courgettes at 78p for 3 was dear, as were peaches (8 for 3.42 :eek: which I boiught to do a dinner party dessert forgetting I had changed my mind - doh - must make sure to eat them).
I also thought value peppers were dear at 7 for £1.36 but Ineeded them for the stuffed pepper course of the dinner party (peppers are somewhat essential ingredient for stuffed peppers lol).
I thinkthe dear stuff is the stuff that has flown a long way and isn't in season here ?

It will be intersting to see if you can buy stuff any cheaper.
jill

Root veggies, peppers and cabbage keep a couple weeks in the fridge so you could buy them and plan mealsover a few weeks. Or bulk cooks stews etc and freeze.
You could just buy a value bag of fruit a week and eat the same thing for a week (dull I know) or make puddings to freeze.

domestic_goddess

JillD wrote:

I get mine at Asda and they do seem cheqaper than what you meniotned but then I am shopping for 4, so I guess shopping for onei tmay nt be so easy ?

For example today I bought:
Value bag bananas, about 9 - 78p
Value bag pears , about 8 - 68p
5 satsumas - actually can't find these on receipt, think checkout person forgot to add them :j
Value tomatos , about 10 - 46p
3 onions - 27p
lettuce - 27p
cucumber - 64p

I shop at tescos and their value range is about the same price as above. I also got a bag of about 10 value apples for 98p so works out about 10p each. Also the morrisons near here also has some good prices, they do carrots in a bag for about 30p.

I think its like most things in supermarkets there is the value range, the middle of the range and then the finest stuff. All of it tastes the same to me though with fruit and veg.