Is £12.50 a week on fruit and veg expensive?

[BeOrganised]

Im talking about the small Abel and cole fruit and veg box. It is 3 seasonal organic fruit and 5 seasonal veg. I have 3 Dc, 6,2 and 1. Though the 6 year old only eats peas, and carrots. So probably wouldn't be eating much of the veg in the box.

I'm going back to work soon and thinking to do an order of this along with milk and bread so that I always have the essentials delivered. But I'm also trying to wipe off a. Big chunk of my debts this year so also trying to save money.

So basically is this an ok deal?

Depends if it would last you the week or not, I have looked into veg boxes and I don't think they would, well the fruit definitely wouldn't. I can go to the market on a saturday morning and get three huge carrier bags full. for just over £10.

Yes it depends if it's going to be enough. My school as a 'fruit break' so that's ten pieces straight away.

We used to get an organic box delivered but stopped for austerity reasons.

It depends on where you live and how much time you have to go shopping, I think. I live in a part of London which has dozens of fabulous and cheap fruit and veg shops (although not organic), and I often buy something every day, but don't work full time.

If shops are further away and you don't have time to shop frequently, then a veg box should be great. Give it a go and see what you need to top up with.

You'd be better off going to a market. But it does depend if you can get to one easily. This isn't cheap at all

I used to have a cossey one which was a medium one for £12.95 good quality mostly and tons and tons for your money. I once added everything in my box up on asda website and it went to £23! It was wasted though and I chucked so much stuff out that me and the dc didn't eat and we all got fed up with soups and stews to use things up.

I did get to try new things I wouldn't of tried before like Kale but I also got loads of veg I don't like, like broad beans and cauliflower so with my family it wasn't worth it but if I had dc that liked soup I would get it again.

The fruit wouldn't last, but the veg would. Yes it's the one where it's random things, but you can always check beforehand and change anything your not too keen on.

I'm in north London, though having the dcs and being on my own I don't tend to go out to the markets (though wouldn't know where any are?) because a double pushchair is a pain!

I'm planning to do online shopping, so do you think I should just stick the fruit and veg, milk and bread on there? Abel and cole option was really so that every week I had a set delivery and also would try out different things.

I'm really not a fan of supermarket fruit and veg for lots of reasons and in your situation I would probably go for the organic box and put bread, milk and extra fruit on your online shop and see how it goes.

You can always change your mind, but definitely getting food delivered is the way to go.

Oh I've never heard of cossey. I just googled and it's double the fruit and veg for basically same price!!
How comes? Is it because it's not organic? This wouldn't bother me.

Cossey is really good! It's not organic although most is home grown and most of their clients are trade (we have them in the nursery I work in) and because they're trade they get charged more so normal people get charged less. Its really really good value for money.

My order from them every week was the normal you don't know what your getting but every week without fail was

potatoes every week a bag
sweet potatoe quite frequent
carrots
onions
cabbage
parnips sometimes
broccoli
spring onions
lettuce
tomatoes
cucumber
mushrooms
apples
bananas
oranges
pears most times

and then there would be less regular and dependent on season strawberries a mango avocado sharon fruit pak choi kiwi different lettuces and cress

they normally gave a free loaf of bread or pack of 6 rolls every couple of weeks as a gift to.

You can also order things online before like milk bread yoghurt diff fruit and veg herbs and others but was expensive.

Well thank you for introducing me to it! I am scrapping the able & cole and going to try Cossey. Though I haven't checked if they deliver to my area, so fingers crossed!

and melon was most weeks in the summer to.

Noooo, they don't deliver to where I am

How silly, their main office is in London to. You should email them and ask them why not.

we cancelled our box after trying for a few months.
why?

• box arrived on a tuesday, so by weekend when we do most of the cooking some of the veg were wilted esp leaves
• the list on the website was extensive so just going through to tick the things we didn't want was time consuming
• we never needed all the onions, carots and apples so they were piling up after a while

we fare better with buying by availability and apetite from supermarket or market even when buying mostly organic.

I used to have A&C but now have Riverford. It is cheaper but much less choice - you can select a type of box but you don't get to pick and choose likes & dislikes. They start at £10.45. TBH I think the local shop is cheaper but the quality tends to be high and I like both the surprise and the convenience.

Sorry last sentence should read:
TBH I think the local shop is cheaper but with Riverford the quality tends to be high and I like both the surprise and the convenience of a box

I found able and cole had v small amounts of each veg. I use kent veg now which is same price for much more veg.

Yes, it's expensive. The veg are often peculiar things like beets and jerusalem artichokes as well. For £1 at the typical supermarket you could get a kilo pack of things like carrots, onions, bananas, apples; a broc or cauli head; a pack of peppers, lettuces or tomatoes; a big bag of spuds and big bag of frozen peas. £12 goes a long way and you'd be getting exactly the fruit and veg you want and can use up, rather than someone else's selection.