price of fruit!!

PasturesNew

I don't buy "what I'd like", if I'm buying something like fruit then I'll be looking at prices first, working out the cheapest fruits available, then choosing from the 2-3 cheapest.

There were six apples on the special weekly at 4ldi the other week for 72p (from memory).

I think in food groups, then check out the price, if there are any contenders left at that point I'll choose one of the cheapest.

moneyistooshorttomention

Some fruit can be dear - but that's dependant on what one buys. I buy everything possible organic - and I do wince at the thought of £2 or £2.50 for a few organic apples. Though I pay it - as I want apples.

Frozen fruit tends to be noticeably cheaper.

Also - I grow as much fruit as I can. I took the view that fruit is noticeably dearer than vegetables - so I major on growing fruit in my garden and one of the first things I did after buying my current house was to put fruit trees and bushes in the garden (so they would come to maturity asap and I could get as much as possible of my fruit from my own garden). So I never have to buy berries or rhubarb now for instance. Apples - well I'm hoping I can manage to keep the pests from there better in future years (not easy when one gardens organically - but I'm working on it).

Poppy1984

I find fruit incredibly expensive since really cutting back and tightening my budget in Feb I have rarely bought fruit in the weekly shop. I always buy veg which I think can be stretched further that fruit by chopping cooking etc combining with meals to freezer etc etc. However most fruit is a single serving that requires eating within a few days and yes it could be used in baking or desserts but then that often involves sugar and kind of defeats the object of its benefit.

I find out of a very tight budget fruit is difficult to buy, also when I've bought a bag of tangerines or apples sometimes they already contain bruised or starting to mould fruit or they start to very quickly so that feels like false economy too.

I love fresh fruit and feel I really do need to include more in my diet but I'm struggling to afford it on my current tight budget.

I cook everything from scratch and batch cook often so it's not because I'm spending my weekly budget on prepped veg or ready meals

JingsMyBucket

@Siebrie I'm in Belgium as well and I find the fruit here expensive compared to the UK. I'm on the Grocery Challenge thread and it took me about a year to not feel envious of other posters' good fruit and veg YS finds. You're right that they don't do YS for fruit and veg here but they do it for meat and some cheeses. I think those are the only categories unfortunately. It makes me wonder if they're either wasting, literally, the fruit and veg or if it's being sold to farms for animal feed or something.

Back to pricing, Belgium's prices are still less expensive than my native New York City though. How quickly our barometers adjust. I have to remind myself that XYZ item is technically $x.00 per pound when I do the €/kg conversion.

Caterina

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Some fruit can be dear - but that's dependant on what one buys. I buy everything possible organic - and I do wince at the thought of £2 or £2.50 for a few organic apples. Though I pay it - as I want apples.

Frozen fruit tends to be noticeably cheaper.

Also - I grow as much fruit as I can. I took the view that fruit is noticeably dearer than vegetables - so I major on growing fruit in my garden and one of the first things I did after buying my current house was to put fruit trees and bushes in the garden (so they would come to maturity asap and I could get as much as possible of my fruit from my own garden). So I never have to buy berries or rhubarb now for instance. Apples - well I'm hoping I can manage to keep the pests from there better in future years (not easy when one gardens organically - but I'm working on it).

One way to keep some of the pests from apple, pear and plum trees is to put a grease band around the trunk before full winter. You're still in time now. Hope this helps.

Mojisola

t14cy_t wrote: »

oh my, just popped out to do a weekly morrisons reduced shop!!! did really well £58 of shopping and paid £3.31!! however, on inspection of apples they were originally £3.98 for 8 bramleys and £2.98 for 8 golden delicious!! wowsers, I paid 5p a bag!! since when did apples get sooooo expensive??

How much do you think they should be - someone has to buy the land, plant the trees, wait years until they come into full production, pay the workers to pick the apples, store the apples in temperature controlled warehouses, pack and transport the apples to the shops - oh, and maybe have some money left to pay themselves a wage.

buildersdaughter

You really do have to think 'seasonal' with fruit. When apples are plentiful (I am usually given them) I store eaters in a cool place, and bottle cookers. I bottle pears as well, and use precious freezer space to freeze blackberries.
Ialso, if I see a cheap batch, bottle peaches.
These will happily see me through the winter, supplemented sometimes by oranges & satsumas if cheap, and occasionally grapes as a treat (afraid that I don't like bananas)
But really, strawberries, kiwis etc. are going to be expensive, out of season, or having to be imported.

candygirl

Bizarrely enough, some of the cheapest n best quality fruit n veg is in Home Bargains. 6 pink lady apples for 99p!!:eek:
Also Asian supermarkets are brill, as well as ALDI super six deals

VfM4meplse

JingsMyBucket wrote: »

Back to pricing, Belgium's prices are still less expensive than my native New York City though. How quickly our barometers adjust. I have to remind myself that XYZ item is technically $x.00 per pound when I do the €/kg conversion.

Food used to be really cheap in the US, but no longer! Portion sizes remain huge though, it's just that prices have caught up.