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

As above eat seasonally, it will start DC off eating a variety aswell for when they move out.

@MintJulia - not to be picky, but apples, pears, satsumas and carrots are not in season. You are eating imported too.

the point is imported berries used to be affordable to lots more people, food prices have gone up and disposable incomes hit by everything else going up, and a lot of people suddenly aren’t able to eat a range of fruit and veg.

yes our great grandparents only ate a limited diet unless they were rich, and funnily enough, poor people often had malnutrition issues and suffered from conditions caused by/made worse by various vitamin deficiencies.

let’s not pretend this isn’t a massive step back for wide swathes of the UK population.

I really blame wellness influencers for making people think that heathly eating means snacking on lots of expensive nuts, seeds, berries and salad items.

We aren't in California or Australia, cheap all year round soft fruit and salad isn't a thing.

This time of year I cook a lot of pulse and tinned veg heavy soups, stews and pasta sauces. So tonight we are having spanish style cod (it works with any firm fleshed white fish,) - fish steamed on top of a stew made from onions, carrots, celery, a few diced bits of chorizo, peppers, tinned chickpeas and tinned tomatoes.

Another inexpensive meal that my ds loves and is healthy.

Cut the tops off two red or yellow peppers. Stuff them with inexpensive sausagemeat (or strip the skins off some economy sausages). You can add some herbs or crushed garlic.

Put the tops back on the peppers and bake for 30 mins. Then I put a frozen garlic baguette in the oven and bake for another 15 mins. Serve together.

There is a considerable loss. I looked into it because one would think i wouldn't need supplments with very varied and mostly fresh stuff diet, yet one needed them....

Especially leafy greens like spinach loose a lot in forst 24 hours. Hence why it is in my garden and freezer.

I buy unprocessed food because I have a milk allergy and my shop hasn’t increased since last year.

I eat a lot of frozen fruit and frozen veg.

Carrot and celery sticks are cheaper for a snack and probably more healthy

@LimeCheesecake plenty of over wintered Britush apples and pears still in the shops. I bought two bags of British Cox apples yesterday.

Oranges are in season in Southern Europe so will be cheaper than berries.

I just but whichever fruit/veg is on offer. Tesco have bags of pears for 69p packs of apples the same. They usually have a few items of fruit in their fresh five offers, recently a large mango 49p for example. Bananas are not expensive. If you're eating strawberries in February you're going to pay through the nose

Strawberries this time of year also have the taste and consistency of turnips.

We budget on 1 piece of fruit per person per day and buy seasonally and/or frozen. Then the rest of our 5 (or 7) a day are "vegetables" (Inc peppers, aubergines etc so some are technically fruit).

I wouldn't keep my children on luxury tropical fruit and berries whilst I ate biscuits, that's mad.

@LimeCheesecake The apples I buy are from Kent. The pears I admit are from Portugal, and the oranges are from Morocco. The aubergine was from Spain.

But the carrots, onions, potatoes, beetroot, parsnips, rhubarb, leeks, broccoli, sprouts and celeriac are all British. Cooking apples, peas and french beans are British & frozen.

The point is there is plenty of variety in British food if you look for it. 30 a week is not easy but it isn't impossible. I normally manage 25-27.

Second frozen and some tinned is really nice too and doesn’t seem to have increased too much. Just discovered whole, tinned cherry tomatoes in Aldi. Delicious.

I wouldn't keep my children on luxury tropical fruit and berries whilst I ate biscuits, that's mad.

I agree.

This exactly and likely to the nutritional value of a piece of plastic

I’m currently weaning DS and bought a load of the fruit frozen as it was so much cheaper!

id look to cut down on meat, or bulk out meat meals with lentils, beans and pulses.m and veg. Eg if I made a chilli I’d put in 2 tins of mixed beans, carrots, pepper and courgette.

My winter/early spring snack to go to is grated apples and carrots with bit of sugar and lemon juice.
We grew our own that time

I always wonder why fish isn't cheaper in the uk, seeing as we're an island.
I barely buy fish as it's too expensive. I get tinned tuna or some frozen fillets and use it in pasta or coconut curry based dishes to stretch it.
Soups, stews, curries and pasta sauces are a good way to make filling meals that stretch a small amount of meat. Add lots of fresh or frozen veg.
I've stopped buying crisps and biscuits and buy extra fruit and baking ingredients. Not sure if the cost is more or less but it's definitely healthier. Mini pancakes work out quite cheap and probably better than biscuits.
Tinned fruit is also nice.

Tinned fruit is also nice.

Served wth tinned rice pudding, a filling and tasty dessert or snack.

If anyone is into preserves (which are meant for late winter, early spring before fresh stuff starts coming in), check out "foreign" shops. Eastern european shops have lovely compotes, asian/arabic/african shops have some REALLY good preserved veg. And usually cheap.

Sorry! I was half asleep, up too late on my phone and I thought it was leading into an argument for some reason. Waitrose show what's in season on their website, including imported tropical fruits that we can't grow here anytime of year but that are in season where we are getting them from.https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/browse/groceries/fresh_and_chilled/in_season_fruit_and_vegetablesI can't afford to shop in waitrose, except to pick up the occasional thing I can't get elsewhere, I just find their website useful!

@Dracuuule I am finding that meat and fish is better quality and value than what they are selling for in supermarkets. Previously supermarkets were selling some things for a lot less but independent retailers seem to be less greedy with price increases

green grocers often do a deal on apples

• better quality and value in butchers and fishmongers

I just buy whatever fruit is cheapest. I don't eat fruit at all! But dd and dh do. So ATM we have apples, bananas and a melon. Frozen berries for dds porridge and smoothies. I eat a lot of veg instead.