to think fruit and veg should be cheaper?!

[ButteryBiscuitBase]

This has probably been said before but why is fruit and vegetables so flipping expensive?!

Surely it would be in the governments interest to make it cheaper or not add VAT on it? I find it hard to afford enough fruit and veg to make sure we eat 5 a day everyday and sure others do too. I know some families get healthy vouchers but there must be a lot of families on low incomes who can't afford it.

grow your own?

I don't think it does have vat on it. It is expensive compared to junk food though, yanbu.

VAT is not added to fruit and veg.

It's expensive because it can cost a lot to grow. It's not the farmers who end up rich off the prices, I assure you!

It's because it takes time and man/woman power to grow and harvest it. The basic ranges cost less, they just don't look as pretty as the more expensive fruit and veg.

I find fresh fruit and veg is cheaper. Need to buy seasonal though and not from a supermarket

Its is 0% vat

I don't see why the government shouldn't rid the VAT and massively subsidise them along with mandatory healthy cookery classes in schools and free ones for adults in every community.

It would save a fortune in public healthcare and also in education where many children are suffering behavioural/memory/concentration problems due to bad nutrition.

I don't hav a garden! Was looking into an allotment though. I just think if we can't afford it and we both work there must be people worse off who can't afford hardly any. Maybe it should be subsidised? Not luxury stuff just basics. The other problem I find is its cheaper to buy bigger quantities but it goes off before its used!

Yanbu but as previously stated the people who put the work in earn the least.

If and when you can hit farm shops and markets, markets are fantastic at closing time! One crate of strawberries for £1 once, and I mean crate of about 8 punnets, my ds was 2yo at the time and held it on his lap the walk home, it was great letting him just enjoy them without thinking I can't afford more!

YAB a bit U to think it should.

Are you suggesting a system of subsidies? Or just complaining that it is expensive?

That's where bottling, jams, preserves and other preserving methods come in.

buttery I keep all my veg and excess fruit outside, we luckily have a meter cupboard on the back of our garage that's always cool, it lasts ages then, and don't ever leave it in plastic packaging!

Supermarkets are getting much better at decent offers on friut to be fair. I can get 5 apples or pears for £1, 20p a piece is pretty good value IMO especially when you think chocolate bars are now around 60p

Ds is a fruit bat so it does add up throughout the week!

Also foraging is free to everyone

I think the answer is not to buy from supermarkets. Our local greengrocers always has a shelf of fruit which is just slightly off - got a big bag of bananas from there for 50p today. And sometimes it is just that they over-bought and there is really hardly anything wrong with it. Also, because they go to the local wholesale market they often get bargains which they pass on to customers - I bought a big basket of field mushrooms last week for £2.50.

Think I may have to be a bit more thrifty and creative! My dd has a very exotic taste in fruit she likes berries and recently asked for a dragon fruit for her packed lunch! I must have spoiled her as a toddler when I worked part time and got more tax credits than I do now!

Hmm, I think YABU actually. Some fruit and veg is pretty cheap - carrots, onions, potatoes, cabbage, apples, bananas. Other stuff in season, or on special offer.

Frozrn veg is dead cheap.

Obviously if you want Italian salad leaves, grapes, asparagus, kenyan mange tout and blueberries every week it costs a fortune but it wasn't long ago that no-one had these things - nice, not necessary.

What's foraging?! Sounds a bit rude!

Fruit and veg aren't expensive, it's just that junk food is cheap. It is cheaper to make food in a lab than to grow it over time.

this is a great book and works for bought stuff too

It's the cost of supplying us, the consumer with what we want, which (apparently) is EVERYTHING, regardless of where in the world we live and what season it is, all F&V should be available 12 months of the year otherwise we think we are living through Armageddon.

finding food in the wild. Plenty of apple and crab apple trees around

You never see 'Buy one Get 2 free' in the fruit and veg section. Unlike Easter Eggs/Coco Cola.

Coca Cola.

In the major supermarkets it is really pricey but Aldi and Lidl are much cheaper (and just as good quality imo). This week I got a cucumber for 39p (£1 in Sainsbury's), a big bag of carrots for 39p, six lovely vine tomatoes for 69p, broccoli head for 39p.

YABU, where are you shopping that fruit and vegetables are expensive?