How much fruit & veg do you buy per week?

[Heythereorangehead]

And have you had to cut back?
Sort of related to a thread on here already.
Our food shop has gone up around €30/40 per week (live abroad) we both work and have one Dd and a dog. I used to buy lots of veg, salad, fruits etc.
This week I got brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, 1 avocado, tangerines & apples. Dd eats nearly all the fruit and has one fruit for school dinners, I don’t tend to get any fruit now. We used to have fruit for breakfast and after lunch/dinner and lunches & dinners filled with veg, I really feel I’m not getting enough.
How much do you buy and how can I get more fruit/veg in without spending even more?

That may be true but it's in season for that country. It's not supposed be flown miles just because you fancy a strawberry or whatever in January. Far better for your budget and the planet to wait until it's in season here in the UK.

I buy a lot of vegetables but very little fruit apart from lemons, frozen raspberries and maybe one other fruit. I try hard to buy fruit and veg that is in season so it has been a restricted offering for the last few weeks but is just starting to improve. When the soft fruit and stone fruit are in season here I do buy a lot more. I am not rigid about it so if we have a celebration meal or I just fancy a treat I might buy an avocado or bananas but I wouldn't buy fresh berries or green beans or avocado out of season.

Am happy to pay the price to get fruit I want, when I want. Don’t live in the uk.

No, I meant which shop. They are horrible out of British season everywhere I've tried.

Oh, maybe they are better elsewhere then. I'm in the UK and out of season strawberries aren't worth buying.

Roughly this per week:

Two punnets of strawberries
Bunch of bananas
Punnet of either blueberries or raspberries
Broccoli or tenderstem broccoli
Couple of avocados
Few bags of pea shoots/spinach leaves
Bag of satsumas
Maybe 5 or 6 apples
Few onions
Chilli peppers
Garlic
Couple of potatoes if doing baked potatoes or carrots etc if doing a pot of soup

Then we always have tins of sweetcorn/various beans and chickpeas/ frozen peas/mixed veg and things like that in. Added to the list above is anything specific we need that week for certain recipes.

That's for 2 adults and a toddler. I don't know how to get by on less!

Just me except for lunch on Sundays - this is my shopping this week:

For Sunday lunch
Potatoes
Leeks (from garden)
Carrots
Parsnips
Red onions
Cabbage
Cooking apples (from garden) and blackberries (picked and frozen) for pie

For myself (in addition to the above)
Peppers
Courgettes
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Watercress (I generally prefer it to lettuce in winter and it keeps better)
Avocado
Frozen edamame beans
Tinned sweetcorn

Apples (6 pack)
Frozen berries for breakfasts with yoghurt (I buy fresh in season)
Lemons and limes

Typical week:
6 cucumbers
2 punnets if strawberries
1 punnet grapes
6pk apples
6pk bananas
2 tubs of watermelon

2 broccoli
1 cabbage
1-2 peppers
1-2pk green beans
bag of carrots
bag sprouts
pack of fresh corn on cobs
sometimes asparagus/green olives
3 of us at home. 2 children and me.

It's just me and DP in my house, so we're not buying for kids, but in a typical 'big' shop I think we'd probably buy:

• Apples
• Bananas
• Maybe some other fruit that's looking nice/is on special offer
• Some green veg (probably two types, eg yesterday we bought Brussels sprouts and broccoli)
• Potatoes
• Carrots and potentially another root veg like parsnips or swede
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Bagged salad veg (either mixed or maybe a bag of baby spinach or something)
• Sometimes tomatoes
• Sometimes peppers

That would be the fresh stuff we regularly buy.

However, we also always have frozen peas in the freezer, frozen mixed berries and/or frozen cherries and a bag of frozen sweetcorn, and in the cupboard we always have tins of cannellini/kidney/borlotti beans, tinned chopped tomatoes, dried red lentils, and dried fruit like raisins, apricots and prunes.

What does one do with 6 cucumbers????

Frozen peas are a good one. Other versatile veg - Courgette, sugar snaps, celery, mushrooms.

I also roast up sweet potatoes, slice them and freeze them, then take them out, defrost and mash them in wraps with beans, protein.

I try and eat nuts and seeds daily, esp. Walnuts, almonds, pumpkin. Frozen berries are great, i don't even bother defrosting just chuck them with oats or in yoghurt. Carrots very cheap. I also make up a tray of crudites for a weeks worth of snacks.

My current challenge is to try and eat brocolli evey day. I do kind of prefer tender stem but can't afford it. I try and eat beans daily, some chick peas, lentils etc.

I would eat more veg but agree cost of living is hard.

I also fry up a massive bag of onions and freeze portions, take that out and have it in my lunch wraps.

There's 2 adults in my house and today we bought: cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, mange tout, sprouts, parsnips.
Lettuce, cue, toms, radish, beetroot, watercress and rocket.
Strawberries, blueberries, 6 bananas, 6 apples, 12 clementines, grapes.
Dried apricots and figs.
That'll last us until Tuesday/Wednesday so we'll do a top up in Asda. We do eat a lot of fruit and veg looking at it written down! 😂

Fruit wise I usually buy apples, satsumas and bananas for packed lunches and breakfast.
This week I have very unusually bought a punnet of red grapes as a treat instead of the apples.

Veg for this week are onions, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, sugar snaps, 3 peppers, leeks, one courgette, runner beans and a butternut squash.

I keep frozen peas in the freezer, and tend to use tinned fruit for things like crumbles, pies etc. Dd has raisins on her porridge as cheaper than berries.

Mine eat a bowl of berries each every night before bed. I’m not sure they would go for apples and oranges instead (although they do eat them during the day)

Don't give them the choice?
Where we live you can't get out ot season fruit and nobody would buy it.
Kids by the age of 6 know what is in season.

Looks almost identical to our shopping although this week I bought extra raspberries and blackberries- gorgeous!

By that logic, nobody should be eating bananas or oranges in the winter then, as they generally don't grow in the UK and need to be imported or grown in artificial environments?

Or lamb outside of spring...

You are not wrong. I only eat berries in season because they can be grown here whilst bananas, oranges can never be grown here and as much as I love berries they are expensive. Also home grown in season berries usually taste better.

Why spring? The lambs are being born now at farms around here, not sent for slaughter now. There is lamb for Christmas too.

Indeed, uk farmers will lamb dec-may and lambs generally finish in 4-6mo but will be slaughtered as needed up to 18mo so lamb is in season all year. There will be a peak around august-oct though

In a week we get through:

1 x broccoli
1 x beans
1 x mange tout
1/2 pack frozen sweetcorn
1/2 pack frozen peas
1 bag of sweet potatoes
4 x onions
4 x peppers

2 x tubs raspberries
1 x tub blueberries
2 x tubs cherry tomatoes
1 x pack big tomatoes
1 x cucumber
1 x tub pomegranate seeds
6 x apples

Or lamb outside of spring...

Most lambs killed for meat are over six months old - the ones being born now aren't the ones we eat at Easter.

Lamb can be available at any time - sheep don't only get in lamb at particular times of the year! It is just British farmers prefer to arrange things so the weather is nice enough for young lambs to be reared out side. It is cheaper and easier.

One of the reasons New Zealand lamb is cheaper is lambs can be reared outside all year round.