How to spend less on fruit & veg

[hairRaising]

I want to cut spending on fresh fruit and veg but not sure how.

Haven't got a car so use bus / walk to local supermarkets and put food in buggy basket.

Tried a Morrison delivery recently and got the wonky range, but the pears went from rock hard to rotten overnight, the bananas were bruised etc so it seemed waste of money as chucked a lot away.

Any ideas please?

Bananas that will not get used before they go bad can be frozen and used later in smoothies, milk shakes or for banana bread.

I'm sure I've read that frozen peas have more nutrition than shell fresh peas. And they are much cheaper.

I don't buy tropical fruit unless its got a yellow sticker.

I chop and freeze raw onions. If I am particularly organised, I chop up loads of onions, carrots and celery in the food processer then freeze it in portions and use it as a base for spag bol, chili etc etc.

I freeze pretty much any fruit and veg. Anything that can't be frozen raw can be cooked up and frozen. I made a butternut squash risotto last night and only needed half a squash. I roasted the whole thing (in its skin...so easy!) and then froze the rest. It'll be chucked into soup at some point.

It's worth trying your local market at closing time if possible as they can literally give things away! I was walking past mine recently with DS and a stall holder gave us a whole carrier bag full of raspberry punnets. There were a few squishy ones but most were good enough for freezing and putting into smoothies.

If you have a garden and freezer space then growing your own is a no brainer

Tomatoes can be tricky for new gardeners but the following are incredibly easy:

Fruit trees are awesome if you have space eg apple, plum, greengage
Fruit bushes ditto eg black currant, gooseberry, raspberry canes
Courgette plants
Salad leaves - it’s very hard to kill rocket!
Herbs

I have a freezer half full of the harvest from my fruit bushes which I use throughout the year

I know this is obvious, but if you meal plan, it makes sense to use the stuff that doesn't keep so well first.

It does mean that close to shopping day, it's carrot, onions and potatoes all the way.

Well, not really, but root veg lasts longer than something that was picked. If veg goes bendy, we have soup. If fruit is starting to turn up its toes, it goes into muffins or a smoothie.

Aubergines keep reasonably well in the fridge, and they're one of those veg that is quite usable even when it starts to look elderly.

@blindassasin I second that about freezing bananas, I defrost them in microwave and mush up for baby food or banana bread :-)

@itoldyouiwas freaky

Do you mean you freeze a bag of raw chopped carrots, celery, onion and then thaw it and try it? Or try from frozen? Would like to try this

Quick update: I've not yet got hold of a Lidl box, but I did get some great bargains so far this month including:

4 punnets cherry tomatoes for a pound from fruit stall - added them to all our recipes, delicious

Over a kg of plums for a pound from stall - ate loads each day plus cooked some for baby food

Pack of 3 courgettes reduced to 29p in Tesco - grated into pasta sauce

Wonky potatoes from Morrison

8 peppers for a pound - roasted these whole, skinned them an added to whatever dish we were making that day

Trash cafe or junk food project. If there's not one near you and you have time set one up.

Supermarkets will give it away for free

Also - I bought a bag of frozen fresh ginger for £1 and blitzed some with onions, garlic and chilli to make a curry paste. Made double the quantity and froze half the paste for a quick curry next time!