Struggling to be able to afford to eat as healthily

[Needtodrinkmorewater]

Is anyone else now?
Used to fairly easily be able to include lots of fruit and veg in our diets. I’m not finding that I’m just making sure that it’s enough for Dd, 4, fruit at least. For example if I buy apples, berries and kiwis one week, they’re generally all eaten by her 🙈which is great but I’m getting really conscious of the fact I don’t eat well anymore, the food shop is ideally like to do, full of seeds, fruit, veg etc just isn’t affordable anymore

*I’m finding that…not I’m not finding that

*I’d

Sorry for the typos!

Similar, OP. I make sure DD doesn’t go without, but I’m definitely eating less fruit and more biscuits myself, purely because of the cost.

Same :( Normally a healthy eater but been eating a bit crap the last 3-6 months UGH

All the good stuff seems so expensive now, I used to have around 8 portions of fruit and veg a day, I’m barely eating fruit now

Yep! No fish/seafood anymore which was always plentiful. Chicken breast swapped for higher calorie chicken thigh, strawberries/raspberries and blueberries a thing of the past… hate the way we are eating at the minute!

Could you use frozen fruit? Much cheaper than fresh and doesn’t go off. Ok not great just defrosted but it’s lovely stirred into porridge or yoghurt etc.

@Pippa12 Exactly, especially with summer coming up, we love salmon, prawns, even chicken pricier. All those lovely summer fruits like strawberries and melons etc. I buy a packet of berries for Dds oats and don’t have any now, she eats loads of the fruit and I’m not going to hold her back from that
Tired of filling the trolley with pasta, instead of making some lovely dishes or only having those at the weekend as a *Treat

I was going to suggest frozen fruit and veg too. I stir raspberries, blueberries or summer fruits from Lidl freezer section into my porridge every morning. Also have bags of mixed veg on the freezer. I buy big bags of fresh carrots from our local farm along with sacks of potatoes which is definitely cheaper than buying from the supermarket ( as long as you can afford the initial outlay and have somewhere cool and dark to keep them).

If you are buying fresh berries out of season of course it will be expensive.
You can switch some things to frozen as pps said and buy more seasonal and offers. I do it like this because I do like my fruit

Please understand that it's always been this way for the less well off in society. This is why poorer people are after overweight. They can't afford the healthy food.
Tinned fruit is good as well as frozen. My granddaughters are delighting in tinned halved peaches from Lidl!

I've done a food shop today with my last £20 for the next 2 weeks. Apples and oranges still seem cheap enough if you pick the dirt cheap ones. Everything else was a no go fruit wise. Rest was pasta and noodles. Didn't get much healthy stuff for what I did on that 6 months ago.

If you aren't fussy, carrots and frozen veg (spinach, peas and sweetcorn freeze well) are cheap and provide plenty of nutrition. Berries and kiwis are lovely but not at all necessary.

Can you swap fresh berries for frozen - they are horrendously expensive out of season.

For fresh have you tried markets? Usually that’s always the cheapest place for produce.

If u r reducing ur fruit intake, maximise on the cost/benefit. Select bananas and blueberries for their nutrition value and cost

I think it's more expensive to eat a lot of fruit than a lot of veg. Fortunately we're a family who prefer fruit to veg so ok. I think the difference for me is that here, fruit we tend to have 'straight' just eat it on its own or maybe on porridge. Whereas veg we tend to make into other dishes, curries, tray bakes, stir fries, casseroles etc which gives a bit more leeway to use frozen, imperfect, slightly tired veg or to enhance the flavour with herbs, spices, sauces etc. If you want to prioritise your daughters fruit consumption perhaps you could look at switching your own fruit to veg?

Apples bananas are still not badly priced op

Berries are always more expensive and to be honest we've not bought them for a long time.

Grapes have gone up loads but kiwis are still alright and I shop around for veg.

The Aldi super 6 is still a good price and it varies what we eat every week

Fruit is quite expensive unless you stick to in season. Berries and things like kiwis are expensive anyway I find

Im not a massive fruit person and then you have to be choosey about the veg to pick the cheapest, most in season ones too

Theres only so many times you can use beans and peas and not want something else like a nice piece of salmon but its expensive.

I’ll definitely go for the frozen berries, she just likes them so much, as do I

Best to eat what's in season, out of season fruit and veg is going to be expensive. Frozen is cheaper, though not as nice.

I've had great success in slicing up a load of apples, carrots and even peppers (Aldi mixed pepper bags can have a decent number in for less than £1.50!) and bunging them in the fridge and bringing them out for after school snacks, it's been great for varying our veg intake.
Bananas and grapes are non-negotiable for us, but things like raspberries/strawberries/blueberries are a blue moon treat.

Here's what's in season now some ideas

What others said about seasonality. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect fresh berries and kiwi fruit in England in March, sorry. Apples, pears, bananas, clementines all much cheaper.

Frozen fruits in porridge are lovely. Especially cherries- yum!
I've always stirred in frozen fruit though so that's nothing new. Frozen fruit for things like fruit crumbles too.
I made chana masala today which was cheap (onions sweated, garam masala added, can of budget tomatoes, cook for 5 mins then add chickpeas). That was cheap and lovely. I think we are going to do more dhal and things like that as I do like it, and you can make loads and freeze it. Only issue is my DCs do not, but for me and DH at least it's a cheap and nutritious meal
I do get COL crisis sucks though, plus fuel prices- it's grim. But if you are "just" having to cut down on out of season berries you probably do have quite a few other options for eating well and reasonably cheaply.
Sorry that sounds patronising and I don't mean it to, I am in that kind of position where we can think a bit creatively about eating well for less rather than absolutely desperate like many, and I am just trying to make the point that it doesn't have to be awful, it's quite possible with frozen/tinned etc. and some tweaks.

Another vote for seasonal fruit and veg.
Apples, pears, easy peeler oranges and bananas. Don’t forget too much fruit is not great for teeth as it is high in acid and sugar. Isn’t the recommendation to have a portion of veg for every portion of fruit eaten ?
Try seasonal veg cut up and kept in the fridge. Carrots, celery, and some hummus is a great snack. Make your own from mashed chickpeas and a bit of garlic and some oil.

Lentils, chick peas and other pulses are cheap and just as high in protein as meat and fish
Liver is a marmite food, but so cheap and so full of iron