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!

Yeah it is really expensive. Both my kids like the 'luxury' fruits. They're both ND and very particular about food, so I'll pay because I'm delighted they will actually eat something healthy.
Neither will eat pears or bananas. One will eat apples, but only Pink Lady. The other will eat satsumas, but otherwise it's berries, melons, pineapple, and grapes.

Uber Eats do 50% of fresh fruit and veg from grocery shops on Mondays.

I have strawberry and raspberry plants in the garden, which helps. I've got a new blackberry bush, and will be getting a blueberry one as well. Luckily the boys don't care for out of season berries as they're so bland.

Frozen fruit is mainly for blending or incorporating into recipes, rather than just eating. Tinned fruit isn't the same.

I love it all too, but I can't afford to buy it for me as well, so I'll stick with apples, oranges, and whatever I grow!

Don't buy out of season stuff if you can help it. Lots of vegetables are really cheap. I love eating a raw carrot instead of an apple. Many frozen vegetables are cheap too. I aim for 10 a day and my food bill is around £25 a week. It's meat that's really expensive so I've cut back on that.

Completely unreasonable!! Apples oranges and pears!! Veg - carrots and cabbage amongst many other super cheap alternatives.

@Meadowfinch Snap! Your shopping list looks like my shopping list!

And to be a little more helpful you can get a box of fruit and veg (random selection) for a very cheap price in Aldi.

Agree berries are a bit of a luxury for most. Tinned pulses are super healthy, cheap and make up part of your 5 a day.

Fresh berries are mega expensive and I’m not a fan of frozen unless in something hot like porridge or in pancakes. If they’re fresh I’ll rinse the porridge off if my kids leave them and eat them later!

Re the rest though, load your meals with veg. So my spag Bol I use celery, carrots, frozen diced onion, mushrooms. I grate courgette and carrots into pasta dishes. I use frozen diced pepper too, frozen broccoli and cauliflower. The kids have grapes, carrot sticks and cucumber sticks for each meal.

Tangerine, apples and bananas are all relatively inexpensive.

Do more veggies over fruits. Green and root vegetables are still very cheap.
Soft fruits and berries have always been expensive. Cheaper fruits exist.

We don't budget tightly in the supermarket, but blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and cherries do not make regular appearances in the house! I'm buying more as the price drops going into summer - but that means a box every week, not sporadically.

There are lots of fruits that are cheaper. Tinned and frozen fruit is also nice.

And vegetables in season are usually cheap too.

You're buying the most expensive fruits so obviously they're going to be expensive??

Buy frozen, tinned, whatever is on special offer that week

Make up a 'tomato soup' but add in carrots, peppers, brocoli and lentils as well. It will taste mostly of tomato still but will get you a lot of different veg

No. We just buy what is cheap and on offer. We dont eat loads of fruit. Normally just a banana at breakfast and an apple as a snack. We eat soup most days and you can get a load of veg into one. I'll save the broccoli stalks to chuck in and use up anything that's getting older.

My teenagers are obsessed with making smoothies, and you can shove frozen berries straight out the freezer into the blender (just not the really big strawberries) - they’re really quite cheap in Aldi. It’s the cost of the protein powder that’s crippling me! 😓

I always forget that beans and pulses count! Thanks for the reminder!

Noone else is buying their kids 4 packs of Pink Lady!

We're buying loose braeburn apples 😆
Eat as much British Fruit in seasonal as you can and look for reductions. Apples & pears, grow some rhubarb of you have space.

Grapes are £1.50 from asda.

I grow berries, so only have them in season. I wouldn’t be eating apples in May either as they are really old, or I guess imported from a long way away? It’s actually really hard to find British apples at any time of year in uk supermarkets, which is crazy as we grow the best apples in the world.
I barely eat fruit at certain times of year but eat lots of vegetables. All fresh produce is getting more expensive though and it’s only going to get worse with climate change and water shortages which is quite scary…

It is like you have never been a young person living away from your parents for the first time, sharing digs or halls! Yes, it has always been expensive to eat well, not just now.

Try to eat seasonally - no need to eat strawberries for another 3 weeks, raspberries for another month and a half. What is wrong with carrots? Apples? You are supposed to eat only what you were born into, i.e. white UK residents are not supposed to eat oranges/bananas/kiwis, etc. It is not like we are entitled to them. We have cabbages, apples, carrots, beetroot, onions.

Spuds,onion,cabbage, carrots

Have you tried your kids with tinned fruit ?

If your five a day come from berries, yes, you woukd spend a fortune. But they can eat a variety of fruits, a lot of them cheaper.

Also, the 5 a day is not only fruit, vegetables are even better than fruit, same benefits without the sugar and some of them also very cheap.

If you spend £35 per week it is your choice.

It's really not unaffordable.

There are more basic fresh fruit and veg at very little cost, plus frozen and tinned, which are cheap and nutritious.

Your kids don't to have blueberries and strawberries to get their five a day. Ideally, most of this would be coming from veg anyway.

Berries have always been a luxury in our household. I will occasionally buy a punnet as I like them with yog for breakfast but they get eaten fast. I do keep a bag in the freezer as I find they last longer.

Our food shop costs around £70 for two including all breakfast, lunches & snacks and I’d say we get closer to 9-10 in a day rather than 5. It’s what you’re buying.

Carrots, apples, bananas and pears are not expensive. You can also get mango cheap. Generally, get more local/ seasonal stuff, its better on all accounts anyway.

You can do home smoothies with frozen fruit, just add banana and some natural yoghurt or orange/ apple juice.

I use frozen fruit, so buy bigger bags of winter or summer berries and add to natural flavoured yogurt or greek yogurt. Frozen mango and frozen raspberries I use with soaked oats - I get the. peanut butter powder and add to the oats and add frozen raspberries onto - so similar to jam and peanut butter flavour

Buy pineapple as it is usually a £1 for an entire pineapple, apples, oranges

Tinned beans of any type count as a portion of vegetables

I get the frozen bags of Mediterranean vegetables and make pizza dough - then using a tin of tomato, strain and add paste as the base - then add the frozen vegetables and top with goats cheese or cheddar - make double pizza dough and keep one int he fridge for a few days and make double sauce - then its good to go for a second time

I make a leek and broccoli pasta bake and use frozen leeks and broccoli - a sole white sauce and again cheddar or goats cheese or both to top it of - make double and eat one put the other in the fridge for a few days time - as its veggie it'll keep longer

I buy chicken drumsticks as they are £2 for a big packet - I marinade them and cook in the air fryer as needed - service with a simple salad

30p each in Aldi and they're huge.

We buy what's on offer. All the supermarkets do super six or the like, with fruit and veg for half nothing