cheapest way to buy fresh fruit and veg?

elliebear15

Firstly sorry if there is already a thread about this somewhere - if so, I couldn't find it.
I currently buy my fresh fruit and veg - we eat A LOT each week - from Tesco. I go to Tesco because 1) it is by far the closest 2) its a big one and I can get everything I need in one hit. But we also have Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Aldi fairly close.
But I seem to spend an awful lot.
A few years ago I tried going to my local market stall in the town nearby. I persisted with this for a good 6 months but was consistently disappointed. Firstly, local and in season fruit and veg was undoubtedly cheaper but was frequently in poor condition. Tomatoes very ripe and therefore didn't keep long; potatoes which looked fine but turned out to be covered in black bruises inside; etc. The exotic non-native items, ie: avocado; banana; oranges; etc were more expensive than the supermarket.
Overall not a positive experience, I ended up going back to Tesco because although the price was higher at least I knew the quality was good so there would be less wastage.
I don't have the facility currently to grow my own on a worthwhile scale although we are hoping to move house soon so who knows.
The only useful tip I have found so far is to buy frozen for things like broccoli etc, as that is cheaper, but we don't have a lot of freezer space.
Please can anyone suggest alternatives to save money?
Think our new mortgage will be much higher so desparately need to save money!!!

Katy24_2

I too had the same problem with the local market, mouldy fruit, rotten veg, most went in the bin.

I don't know whether any of this will be useful, but this is what I do to save money.
My local supermarket is Waitrose and they reduce things heavily at their use by date, so I try not to be fussy and go for either what's on offer or what's been reduced. This also means we try things which we wouldn't normally have.

Occasionally they seem to have a glut of one particular thing which will be reduced to a few pence, which can be good for making soups. I once made a huge pot of leek and potato soup for about £2.

I compare the price/weight between pre-packed and loose and also the multi buy offers. This does take time, but if you can save £5 faffing around for say 30 mins, that's the equivalent of earning £10 per hour. And as a full time Mum and, saving money is part of my job.

If there are no bargains to be had, I work on a price per potion basis. eg. a £2 bag of apples gives you usually 6 portions, but a £2 punnet of grapes or strawberries would be 3 or 4 so apples and bananas are staples and berries a treat.

Don't be taken in by the supposedly 1/2 price offers, think, "what would I pay for it?" and lastly tinned tomatoes are great for bulking out meals such as pasta sauces, stews, soups, etc (I aim for 30 - 40p a tin, when supposedly "on offer").

Hope that helps.;)

p.s some lettuce/salad leaves (the speedy kind) can grow within 3 weeks, have them in small containers(an old washing up bowl will do), sewn at intervals, throughout the summer.

Coopdivi

Keep an eye on the Aldi Super 6 offers.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/product-range/fresh-bakery/super-6/

Compare supermarket prices with your local greengrocer shops. Often the local independents will be cheaper. Fruit and veg won't usually be pre-wrapped so you can pick and choose what you want.

As an example Sainbury's sell a 20g pack of bird eye chillis for 75p. In my local grocers I can get more than three times as much for that price.

margy

why not grow your own for next year its very easy to do, i never buy satsumas , apples strawberry gooseberry, or blackberrys plums and never buy veg either and its so much better than shop bought

MysteryMe

I would check out Aldi for their super 6 offers and general fruit and veg prices which will usually be cheaper than Tesco.

I've read on here that some people have trouble with the quality at their local store so depends on what your local one is like. Mine is fine and I rarely have quality issues.

Again it depends on your location but you may have people selling their excess garden produce from the front of their house. It's obviously not something you can rely on but bargains are there to be had.

WantToBeSE

I posted this question last week, and the main answers i was given were to buy from Aldi, and get the YS (Yellow Sticker, i.e. reduced) at the end of the day from your local supermarket.

I dont want to get the YS all the time, as they wont last long (and i dont want to go into the supermarket that regularly), so i think Aldi is my best bet.

I know that there must be sellers on the side of the road in the laybys, near me somewhere, but i cant find them!

alinwales

I also gasp in horror at the prices at our local market. for instance, bananas £1.10/kg, when just around the corner in Waitrose they are ~70p. That's 50% more expensive in the market, and much much poorer quality.
The M-I-L has befriended the market guy though and gets stuff cheap at the end of the day. However, the stuff she gives is is half inedible. We don't know how much she pays for this stuff, but chances are she's being ripped off.

I also heard from work colleage that Aldi/Lidl veg is cheap, but mostly good for same or next day consumption.

The biggest problem is that Uk veg all comes from teh same areas no matter which shop you buy it from, and chances are if it's significantly cheaper in one place than another, there's a good reason for it (i.e. freshness), but if you get through it fast enough and the cost of popping out every other day is less than that saved by getting shorter-life stuff, then it may be the way to go.

*zippy*

We are vegetarian so get through a lot of fruit and veg, it is getting so expensive we tried Aldi yesterday and I don't think the savings were worth a special trip. Only 1p difference on a lot of things compared to Asda and of their super 6, the tomatoes and grapes were just small packs. Lettuce and cucumber a good price though.

We are going to try a local food co-op next week week that is run from our community centre once a week, £3 per bag of fruit and veg so hopefully they are good value, anyone know if families can have 2 bags? There seem to be a lot of then around now so might be worth investigating.

mon37

*zippy* wrote: »

We are vegetarian so get through a lot of fruit and veg, it is getting so expensive we tried Aldi yesterday and I don't think the savings were worth a special trip. Only 1p difference on a lot of things compared to Asda and of their super 6, the tomatoes and grapes were just small packs. Lettuce and cucumber a good price though.

We are going to try a local food co-op next week week that is run from our community centre once a week, £3 per bag of fruit and veg so hopefully they are good value, anyone know if families can have 2 bags? There seem to be a lot of then around now so might be worth investigating.

Thank you for your reply. I am glad that it not just me who think Aldi is not cheap and prices are the same as in big 4. Yes, may be 1p cheaper!

*zippy*

mon37 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. I am glad that it not just me who think Aldi is not cheap and prices are the same as in big 4. Yes, may be 1p cheaper!

Yes just checked and asda cucumbers and lettuce are 50p this week so only a 1p saving there too.

Florasaurus

For fruit and veg, I swear by Aldi. It's a lot cheaper (especially if you get the super 6 offers), it lasts for longer than the fruit and veg in the other "big" supermarkets and I actually think it tastes a lot nicer.

Same for meat and milk, I'll always choose Aldi over the others Hope this helps!!