Fruit and Veg Spend

pollyanna24

I've overspent this month and was just looking back over my spreadsheets to see where I can cut down. The first thing I noticed is that I spent £46.74 this month on fruit and veg!

How much do other people spend? There is me and my two little girls.

chrisfreelander54

Good Morning Pollyanna.

I've not actually gone this for in depth at looking at where we spend, which may be another way to make more savings, so thank you for bringing this up.

What I can say though is that you could actually spend less by buying frozen veg, which works out better as frozen wont go off and at the same time works out cheaper then buying fresh, but at the same time still has the same amount of goodness as fresh veg.

Another option is to shop at ALDI and LIDL.

HTH
Chris

pollyanna24

Grapes £10.36
Peppers £4.51
Cherry Tomatoes £3.90
Mushrooms £3.30
Lettuce £4.20
Butternut Squash £3.00
Strawberries £2.50
Cucumber £2.47
Carrots £2.39
Pitted Olives £2.25
Chinese Stirfry £1.79
Raspberries £1.50
Beansprouts £1.09
Broccoli £1.00
Picked Onions £0.79
Apricots in Juice £0.65
Dried Cranberries £0.49
Baking Potato £0.32
Onions £0.23
£46.74

Looking at it, it is mainly my veg that I fry up with my dinner in stirfries. Didn't actually have to buy any frozen veg this month. Always have carrots, peas, sweetcorn in the freezer.

I went a market a couple of times this month, but looks like we are all eating too many grapes!

FairyPrincessk

Hi Pollyanna,

I don't have our exact figures for fruit and veg, and I'm not sure the comparison would be helpful. However, I do see quite a bit of fruit on your list that isn't in season which will drive the price up. Even switching to things that are in season in other places and then imported will help keep costs down. I'd also suggest Aldi to keep F&V prices down. Even things that aren't in season seem to be far cheaper there for us than we can get on the market or in the big SM. Aubergines, lettuce, cucumbers and peppers are regularly much cheaper in Aldi.

Could you try switching some of the grapes for bananas, which are easy to eat and almost always better value? You may also want to add in some apples and pears which aren't always the cheapest, but are usually cheaper per serving than grapes. This month I'd also suggest looking at kiwi (slice in half and eat with a spoon instead of peeling), grapefruit and rhubarb if you think you'd use them. Wait for summer for your berries when they'll be much tastier and you'll get more for your money. That said, blueberries usually appear from South America in the late winter--although I think they're just about finishing now.

This list is helpful:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/seasonal-calendar/all

The other thing I'd suggest is look at your waste. Did any of the F&V get thrown away? If your having problems with spoilage or not quite finishing off what you buy see if you can tackle that problem.

cat4772

I'm going to put my fruit and veg through the checkout first and ask for a subtotal each shopping trip for a month; it will be very interesting to see what percentage of my shopping money is on fruit/veg! Especially as I buy a lot each week and we rarely have any wastage, but we are a family of 2 adults and 2 children.

We always use a mix of fresh and frozen fruit and veg. I rarely buy tinned fruit (usually because it is canned in syrup).

Cat.x

davetrousers

pollyanna24 wrote: »

The first thing I noticed is that I spent £46.74 this month on fruit and veg!

While I don't add up my grocery bills, this doesn't seem excessive to me.

s_glover

This doesn't all that much to me, although it obviously depends what you can afford / what your budget it. Much better spending the money on fresh produce than so called junk food. As other posters have said eating fruit and veg out of season will always make it more expensive. Depending on what you are doing with the veg you could by frozen however personally the only veg we use frozen is peas and spinach.


Although I haven't added up the exact figures the majority of our shopping (myself and my boyfriend) is probably spent on fruit and veg. We eat a lot of fresh fruit and veg. At least an apple and banana each a day and often a little orange too. I frequently have tinned grapefuit for breakfast (definitely cheaper and less hassle than fresh) or berries in the summer months when they are in season. We both take packed lunches to work 5 days a week and at least 4 out of 5 of these days is usually a salad in which we put lettuce, mixed leaves, radishes, tomatoes for me, tinned sweetcorn and peppers. We usually have quite a lot of veg with our evening meals too e.g. roasted veg, stir fry, steamed veg, vegetable curry etc. We very rarely throw any veg or fruit out and if we do then it is added to our compost bin along with all peelings etc.


Our typical weekly shop includes the following:


Apples
Bananas
Courgette
Sweet potato
Green veg e.g. sprouts, beans
Carrots
Lettuce
Mixed salad leaves
Tomatoes
Peppers
Radishes


We usually buy a big bag of onions and a sack of potatoes every few weeks which keep very well and work out cheaper than buying in smaller quantities.


In the summer we love growing our own fruit and veg and are lucky we have the space. We have strawberries and raspberries in the garden, along with 2 plum trees and 1 apple tree(although only ever had a couple of apples).


We also grow lettuces, salad leaves, radishes, mangetout, dwarf beans, runner beans courgettes and tomatoes. We've tried many other things over the years but some things are more hassle than they are worth, take up too much space or simply take too long to grow it isn't worth it.


We also forage for blackberries and put these in the freezer to use over the winter.

gayleygoo

I might try adding up my fruit and veg spends this month, out of interest! Though ultimately if your family eats all of that food then the cost is possibly justifiable by the health benefits.

If I went to the market each week (though I rarely remember as it's only on two mornings a week), I'd probably spend around a tenner a time, and that would include potatoes and loads of onions. Grapes seem to be quite a chunk of your spend, but we'd easily eat a package of grapes a week too. I nearly always buy the cheapest tomatoes rather than cherry ones, although my DD is happy to eat whole cherry tomatoes so it's usually worth the extra expense when I do get them. The bulk of our fruit is cheaper ones like bananas, local apples, big oranges etc. Berries, mangoes, pineapples and other exotics are more of a treat or bought when on offer/reduced.

Frozen peppers, sweetcorn and other stir-fry veg might be cheaper than buying them fresh. You could look into sprouting your own beansprouts etc, as it's inexpensive. Needs a little forward planning and daily attention, but I do it occasionally as I don't want to pay for a bag of beansprouts that I'll only use half of before they go slimy

If you can shop in the evenings you might find some things are much cheaper, reduced. I have sometimes got big bags of greens for 10p, berries for 40p, and peaches/plums (still nowhere near ripe) for a fraction of their original price. I also buy a lot of stuff from Lidl, particularly they stuff they'll have on offer for 39p or whatever each week.

The growing season has started too, and lettuce is much cheaper to grow than buy. Some sort of cut-and-come again lettuce will do well. Pea shoots are delicious too!

flea72

As already said, i would be buying cheaper fruits like apples, oranges and bananas. Although having one punnet of strawbs and rasps in a month isn't really excessive. Again, 2 punnets of grapes a week doesnt go far between 3 people, but they are an expensive fruit

Why do you buy prepped stirfry, when you already buy most of the ingredients individually? Buying cabbage, mush, peppers beansprouts is cheaper than bagged

kathrynha

That doesn't seem too excessive to me, but we eat a lot of fruit and veg in my house.

I'll be going shopping tonight, so will see what my total is, but looking at my shopping list of 40 items 18 are fresh fruit and veg, and a further 2 are tinned/frozen.

A quick guestimate would be close to £100 a month on fruit and veg for 2 adults and a 9 year old.

blackandwhitebunny

I spend between £10 and £15 a week for two of us, so yours seems reasonable. I do my main shop at a market stall and only get the odd packet of frozen veg from the supermarket. My husband is a complete fruit bat. He takes salad to work every day but also has a box of cut up fruit and berries as well as three (at least) pieces of fruit