It’s increasingly unaffordable to eat 5 a day

[HappySnake]

Is anyone else struggling with this currently? I know some veg is not too expensive, but I just find with fruit it’s so expensive now. My kids particularly like blueberries and strawberries - I’m spending about a fiver a day. I feel like others who are less well off financially must be finding it even more difficult.

Any tips on affordable fruit etc and how you ensure you get 5 a day would be welcome!

Frozen blueberries are very nice.

Apples and pears are relatively cheap.

Just because they like them they don’t need to get them regularly

it’s a bad time of year for fruit - tinned and frozen can help

We're down to apples and bananas.

This is probably a very stupid question. I’ve never had frozen fruit - how do you defrost? Or do you bother defrosting it at all

I don't know anyone who spends £35 a week on blueberries and strawberries. I'd be offering them other fruit or providing them with more veg in their diet to make up the 5 a day.

Berries have always been expensive, you can usually get packs of apples, oranges, pears and bananas in the aimed at kids ranges in the supermarkets for around a pound.

Carrots are around 50p a bag, it is possible to do, but berries have always been a luxury at the end of the day.

Apples- you can get a big bag of them for a couple of pounds at Tesco. Frozen berries instead of fresh. Lots of veg is much cheaper than fruit - carrot sticks, tomatoes, cucumber sticks etc.

I particularly like strawberries - but I don’t eat them very often because they are expensive.

apples, bananas are staples plus oranges and grapes.

I do also eat carrots like fruit and just chew at them. They’re surprisingly filling and nice and crunchy.

We only buy berries as a treat, it’s apples bananas oranges and limited grapes here. And most veg is much cheaper than fruit!

I think your 5 a day is meant to be mostly veg anyway isn’t it?

Buy the biggest watermelon you can find. I got a monster from Tesco yesterday for £3.50 which is pretty much what a punnet of strawberries goes for these days. It’ll last my son several days.

I only buy bananas, apples and satsumas fresh.

We get frozen berries and mango for having with yoghurt or in smoothies.

Tinned peaches, pears and pineapple.

Buy fruit in season, frozen or tinned. That’s what people have done for the last hundred years, Besides, strawberries taste like frozen cardboard unless British and in season.

Try and buying UK seasonal fruit and veg, which will be cheaper. You can google charts telling u this info. Fresh strawberries will be cheapest in the summer months for example. Frozen fruit is good alternative.

If you can't afford strawberries and blueberries every day they need to be an occasional treat. Meanwhile encourage them to eat cheaper fruit such as apples, bananas, satsumas etc. Tinned or frozen fruit isn't always cheaper but sometimes is. I guess the best advice is try to eat fruit seasonally as it's cheaper then. End of summer into autumn get in the habit of blackberrying -free fruit! If you're in permanent accommodation with a garden, a few raspberry bushes are a good investment. Mine spread and grow back every year so we get raspberries which I only buy as a treat normally. Re veg, carrots are super cheap, will they eat carrot sticks as a snack instead of fruit?

5 a day doesn't have to include fruit, and if it does include fruit apples and bananas are much cheaper than berries. Why are you spending £5 a day on berries?

Offer a wider range of fruits & have a look for any local markets/farm shop type places.

In our aldi shop we usually get:

Pack of oranges 95p
Pack of 5 bananas 78p
Pack of 6 apples £1.49
Pack of plums £2ish
Pack of grapes £1.70
Pack of strawberries £1.90
Pack of raspberries £1.90

That plus the veg we buy more that covers our 5 a day for the week and comes in at far less than your £5 a day!

berries are expensive but there are cheaper fruit options.

I love berries but only buy them a couple of times a week. I go to m&s who have 2 for £4 deals.

I'm on a really tight budget (single parent, living on ill health pension). I buy these and dc have them in porridge, Crumble, yoghurt, rice pudding.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/295653714/?icid=ghsandapp_ghs_pdp_share

Mainly though we have fruit on offer eg pineapple is 80p this week at tesco plus a combined of bananas, kiwi, apples and easy sweet peelers (clementine/mandarin) dependingon price. I also have a few tinned fruit that I buy on offer and have as a back up.

I defrost frozen fruit in the microwave before adding to granola or porridge or crumble. Soft fruit is expensive to buy fresh but if you have a bit of space you can grow some - raspberry canes are unfussy and after a year or two will give you a bumper crop. Strawberries can grow in planters etc. Blueberries are a bit fussy about soil.

It's also worth exploring whether you could cut costs by using tinned pulses to replace or reduce meat, which gives you an extra portion of veg (only counts as 1) while saving money for fruit. Veggie chilli and dal are both popular here.

Hardly surprising if you're buying them blueberries.

Try buying apples, satsumas and kiwis. (Tesco this week, 89p, 99p and 1.09p. Cut or segment them to make a fresh fruit salad in a little apple/lemon juice mix, and serve with a stick of shortbread. You could add sliced banana or plums.

I bottle blackberries and home grown raspberries in the summer and my ds eats them through the winter with pancakes.

It's only unaffordable if you restrict yourself to luxury fruit. I buy one small pack of berries fortnightly. Cheaper fruit and vegetables are for everyday consumption.

It's definitely no longer affordable to eat the wide variety we used to eat in this house. We stick to apples, satsumas, pears etc. Veg is basics like broccoli, carrots, onions, frozen peas. Things like tinned sweetcorn as a bit of a treat and asparagus is now for once in a blue moon. We also eat a lot of lentils and chickpeas which aren't too expensive.

It's still totally doable but not half as easy as it was even 3 years ago.

Yes, my dc eat a fair bit of fruit as do I and every little shop is £££

The £35 a week that you're spending on berries you would go a long way if you spend it on other fruit. I just had a glance at the Tesco website - A banana is 16p. 6 small apples are 69p. 6 kiwis are £1.19. I love berries too but if you're on a budget they're not an everyday item.

Apples and pears are much cheaper than berries, unless you can grow your own. You can get wonky strawberries at some supermarkets for under £2, I wouldn't buy them for more than that.
Frozen berries are OK with some things, like oats or in a pie, but not so great as a stand alone snack.