To spend 50 quid a week on fruit and veg

[Lalunya85]

Two adults and two kids under 3 in our house. It seems that 50 pounds is waaaay too much just for fruit and and veg and I wonder how much others spend?

I get a weekly veg box which is about 30 pounds. That sees us through the week but there isn't anything left over by the end of it. Except maybe the red cabbage.

Then I spend around 20 pounds on fruit at the local market once a week (regular, not a farmers market or anything like that). I buy around
12 apples (some for crumble),
6 pears,
10 Mandarines,
6 bananas
6 Oranges
6 plums
Maybe some grapes, a pineapple, or some other exotic fruit
I don't buy things that are overpriced and out of season (punnets of blueberries on December anyone?).

I then spend another probably 60 quid on all other groceries: some meat (we eat meat once a week), fresh fish every other week, pasta, rice, bread, dairy and eggs, baking ingredients, chocolate, breakfast cereal (unbranded) etc... I buy all of that at Morrisons (no Waitrose or ocado ever in his house). Don't buy ready meals or frozen stuff (like fish fingers or pizzas which would be expensive) and we always cook from scratch so no takeaways or restaurant meals ever.

How does all of that compare to others? It sounds ridiculously much to me!

I'm interested in this. We eat identically to you (in every way including non branded cereals) but our veg large seasonal box is 20. Which box do you get?

I never look on line to find out which seasonal veg is coming and just have a nice surprise every Thursday afternoon. The veg box is always my starting point recipe wise and Im always experimenting on the kids. They like trying new foods.

I buy fruit daily but only get what's on offer cheaply. As a result we've only just started eating apples again as they were too expensive. We also buy frozen forest fruit type berries because it's much cheaper.

We probably have meat twice a week. Fish twice.

I get a little veg box from a local farmer every other week, costs £15 and lasts a couple of weeks, but I'm just one person. It's a mixture of whatever happens to have come out of the ground that week. I sometimes cook enough for two in the evening though and have the extra portion for a lunch.

Veg box is riverford by the way. There's a huge amount in there. Think 5 leeks, bag if kale, two types of salad, two boxes of tomatoe, cucumber, Peppers, Potatoes, carrots, onions...

baking you think it could be that much cheaper if I didn't buy at the market?? It's 1.80 for six apples etc. I thought that was better than supermarket prices. But maybe this would be an area to cut down a bit. I like buying local apples when they are in season, but could buy bananas at lidl etc.

The thing is OP, if you can afford it and (like me and DP) you aren't doing much else, you might as well spunk on your food - it's important to eat well right?

Our market often does a bowl of 8 avos for £1, but they are not Hass, they are whatever the less nice ones are and so not worth even £1.

I love the market when I am making chilli jam. If I time it right I can get enough peppers and chilis to make 8 jars for about £2, and the nice man usually throws in a tiny bit of ginger root free.

cucumber that does sound similar to us! My kids enjoy trying all the new veg and Iike experimenting.
I do check online what's coming though and then do my meal plan for the next week and my online supermarket shop based on what's going to arrive in my veg box.
OK, didn't think this was too relevant in my OP so sorry if this is drop feedy: we technically get the two veg boxes, one large one and an additional salad box (otherwise we would have run out of lettuce and tomatoes by the end of three days). Hence the 30 quid.

I can see why the local veg box might cost £30, especially if there's a lot. I can also see how a family for whom fruit and veg is a larger part of their diet than average might spend £50 a week on the stuff. What I can't see is how that's £20 worth of fruit. Ours would be closer to half that. Granted, it's pretty cheap as markets go, but yours sounds hugely expensive.

Also I would say if you're getting pineapples or other exotic fruit, you pretty much are getting things that are overpriced and out of season. Which is fine, it's worth the cost if you enjoy it and can afford it, but I'd have put pineapple in the December blueberries category myself.

more I definitely am not doing much else! I'm too stingy to even buy sandwiches for lunch in the office, plus I need a warm homemade meal.
All of my colleagues go out for lunch or bring in M&S ready meals. That must even out my veg box/market combo!

If it gets eaten I think it's reasonable

You need to get down to Lidl or Aldi - great fruit and veg at a great price

If you can afford it then it's not a problem. Have you tried the market just before packing up time? There's a lovely stall in a Naice town near us that sells off the fruit and veg cheaply in the last half hour.

I used to love our veg box. But the cost just wasn't sustainable for us once we got past being DINKYs. So now it is Lidl fruit & veg, or any other supermarket we happen to be passing. Don't manage to get to the market, though I'm sure I should.

Every now and then I think to myself we'll start it again, as I really value the principles of locally grown & in season, and I also found it stopped the "we always buy spinach & broccoli mentality" so we got more variety as had to be adventurous (celeriac & Jerusalem artichoke, looking at you), but ultimately the cost stops me. There are more things we need the extra £20 weekly to cover, alas.

hesterton you can bake avocados, I've had them they are yummy, (Google baked avocados i think Argentinians do them) also on toast sliced or mashed with pepper and lemon juice.

Would you have time to keep an allotment or veg patch OP? Could you have an apple tree? My mum when younger used to pick our apples from our tree and freeze or put in kilner jars for use in apple pies and crumbles etc...

She also used to grow and rotate peas, beans, lettuce, tomato etc. you can store a certain amount of that or make chutney etc.

Seems reasonable to me, have 2 dds who eat their own weight in fruit and a veg box - I stopped it, because of the cost, and found the variety and quality of our veg intake went down. Still hard to find a nice variety of quality organic root veg in the supermarket.

The stall I go to splits all the veg that's left between a few cardboard boxes and charges £7 a box. You get a bag of onions, bag of potatoes, bag of carrots and then a selection of whatever is in season. They are very literal with their dividing up the veg so I have had half a mooli once!

The prices at our local market stalls used to be reasonable and better value than the supermarkets, but they aren't any more, they are about double. Next time you are in Lidl, write down the prices and work out how much your regular weekly fruit and veg shop would cost in there, and compare that with what you are currently paying.

Incidentally, in our local supermarket I bought a bag of 6 apples the other day - 89p. There were various other varieties which were dearer, but they were all cheaper than your market ones.

I have a Riverford box. It isn't the cheapest, but it is good quality, and I can taste the difference with some fruit. Aldi grapes don't taste the same any more.

It is cheaper than the equivalent organic food from a supermarket, although I haven't checked Aldi for their organic options.

You are also paying for the fair treatment of producers and local sourcing where possible.

I tend to think of it the way I do buying milk from the milkman. This is a service I want to support, so I will suck up the extra cost, take the quality, and save elsewhere.

Have you tried the mince pies, OP? Voted no 1 in UK in one taste test.

Your market sounds expensive, about double my local one, but your fruit and veg intake sounds amazing so I wouldn't really chamge anything apart from seeing if you can get cheaper fruit of equal quality from other local sources. I tried a veg box scheme and stopped as it was crazy expensive for the amount received but if you are shopping without a car and want organic it is probably still the best way.

Sounds fine to me. Depends what you're doing with it but all veg isn't necessarily equal - got a couple of carrots from M&S and had carrot sticks as a snack, then did the same with Tesco ones in a bag for 35p or something and they were bitter and nasty. If you're cooking them it probably doesn't matter but I'm beginning to appreciate the nicer stuff. (And I'm not saying more expensive necessarily = nicer!)

I spend £35-£40 a week on the veg stall at the market, I generally get

2lb red grapes, 6 golden delicious, 6 red delicious, 6 pears, 3 large oranges, box of clementines, 8 bananas. Potatoes and new potatoes, cucumber, plum tomatoes, 3 lemons, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, heritage carrots, onions, ginger, garlic, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, celery couple of leeks.

I think that is about it, strawberries/other berries and seasonal veg. Lovely stall, selling fairly local stuff or stuff from Europe rather than anywhere too far flung.

Three of us, I consider it a bargain. Sometimes I have to make soup at the end of the week but we usually use it all. We have to top up apples most weeks.

So I think your spend is fine. We eat meat half the week.

I buy all organic and fit five of us spend probably 50-60 per week. I just looked at my order and per week we buy a minimum of 36 apples!! Yes, 6x bags of six apples, and 30 bananas I kind of know that I bit lots but when you add them up as individual pieces of fruit it's a bit shocking. Also buy 2x bags of ten oranges, grapes and kiwis here and there. Berries I buy on sale or at pick your own and then freeze them in bags. Potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, butternut squash, beetroot etc etc.... I don't think it's a waste of money at all. My kids graze on fruit constantly, never eat junk or refuse anything, and that to me is worth paying for - a good relationship with healthy eating

Fuck. We spend £300+ per week on food to eat at home. We clearly need to get organised!!

That's a lot.
I don't do organic, it's a waste of money, ALDI is my friend. I buy what's in season and on special offer. We eat loads of fruit and veg, but spend half of what you do OP.

Oh, man. This thread is really making me miss the 'any bowl a pahhhnd' stalls at Lewisham Market. I once bought so many Hass avocados for £2 that I had to make avocado ice cream to use them all up.

I don't live in Lewisham any more, and my new town doesn't have a market