Fruit isso expensive!

We've really been trying to cut down on our food bill recently.

For fruit we have started buying frozen tropical fruit and frozen berries for our smoothies. Great money saver. For fresh fruit we have mainly been buying apples, bananas and satsumas, but we are getting really bored of them now. I do miss the days when I could routinely buy fresh mango, papaya or berries.

Yesterday we bought a fresh punnet of raspberries, but we could only share them between two of us or none of us would have had enough to make it count as one of our five a day.

What fruit do you all buy? How do you make it stretch? Where have you found the best value for fruit? Any other money saving tips when it comes to fruit?

We have several fruit bushes/trees dotted round the garden including a thornless blackberry, strawberries in wellies, blueberry in large pot. Saves us loads xx

I think picking up good value fruit takes time and effort, now I work less days than I have free I have the time to 'shop around'. When I worked full time, I just had whatever the supermarket I was in ...plus the Bham market on occasions had.

I check the Aldi and Lidl websites for their weekly offers, though currently Aldi only have veg on their 29p specials, I often pick up avocado and mango in their 29-49p range.
I use Birmingham market once every three weeks, a great fruit and veg market, I know most stalls buy from wholesalers and are not growers, their overheads are small so often fruit is a good price.
I buy from a local farm - but that is mainly veg.
I do tend to still be a seasonal fruit and veg buyer and if you buy in season these are often good value....but of course our wonderful country doesn't produce the delicious fruit we are becoming used to, so travel and import costs mean we pay high prices. We also spend autumn eating apples and pears too! Aldi and Lidl use some as loss leaders, to get you in which is why you can often pick up good value 'different' fruit there. Plums and kiwi have been cheap this winter.

Like, Whatford whizz I grow fruit, I tend to grow fruit and veg that is on the expensive side to buy. I once grew carrots, took a lot of work and actually cost me more to grow in my small quantities than buying. We have patio fruit trees, apple, plum, pear and cherry. We have raspberry canes, early and Autumn, gooseberry, loganberry and red current bushes and grow strawberries in our greenhouse in the summer ( it is not heated).
I forage where I can, we do a lot of countryside walking so know the spots for elderberry and blackberry. Last weekend I froze tons of wild garlic - not a fruit I know! We freeze ( I have two freezers) anything we don't eat immediately, summer crops for winter eating.
I think the frozen berry bags Maza are brilliant value, I buy basics. Great for smoothies and puddings but too slushy for lots of recipes. We have experimented in freezing - we now have non slushy raspberries, but apples, plums and pears are only good for cooking/ mixing.
Friends who visit their house in France regularly bring me a shopping list of peaches, nectarines and apricots that always seem to be cheaper there.
I think lemons and Limes are really expensive at the moment, my G&T's are costing more now!

I am also growing carrots at the moment and I know what you mean about the cost! Thankfully a neighbour gave us a huge bag of compost when they moved a couple of weeks ago and so that has helped enormously.

I never thought about checking websites for offers - great idea. I did get an email this morning saying that Asda had the 20p veg offer on again.

We have plum trees and a pear tree in our garden but sadly they hardly produced any fruit last year. The pear tree had some sort of virus but it's full of blossom right now, so fingers crossed. We do make the most of the blackberry season though, although I've gone off them after finding a few too many 'mini beasts' in one batch. I know I need to grow up on that one. It doesn't bother DD or DH at all.

Great idea about finding places to forage for other fruit - I'll have to do some local research.

Supermarkets are always expensive for fruit and it's not the greatest quality!
We have a local fruit shop that gets fresh deliveries every day, it's all locally produced too sonny shopping there we are supporting local small businesses
It's much higher quality and around a third of what we'd pay in a supermarket!

I still spend a lot on fruit, but get a lot for it, as my daughter alone goes through a pack of blueberries and strawberries a day!!

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Originally Posted by Hebs

Supermarkets are always expensive for fruit and it's not the greatest quality!
We have a local fruit shop that gets fresh deliveries every day, it's all locally produced too sonny shopping there we are supporting local small businesses
It's much higher quality and around a third of what we'd pay in a supermarket!

I still spend a lot on fruit, but get a lot for it, as my daughter alone goes through a pack of blueberries and strawberries a day!!

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You see our local fruit/veg stall is very expensive compared to the supermarkets. I used to buy some stuff from there as I also like to support local business, but I can't afford that gesture at the moment. I find farm shops really expensive too.

We've got a fruit and veg shop nearby that's very reasonable and also the local market is usually cheaper than the supermarkets.

My son who's at uni is the one who eats most of the fruit, so we only have to buy huge amounts when he's home. I tend to go to Costco then as their fruit is a good price for bigger bags. There no point us buying it when he's not here as we wouldn't get through that much.

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Originally Posted by Maza

You see our local fruit/veg stall is very expensive compared to the supermarkets. I used to buy some stuff from there as I also like to support local business, but I can't afford that gesture at the moment. I find farm shops really expensive too.

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Same here ... expensive market!

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Originally Posted by Maza

You see our local fruit/veg stall is very expensive compared to the supermarkets. I used to buy some stuff from there as I also like to support local business, but I can't afford that gesture at the moment. I find farm shops really expensive too.

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This happens for two reasons.
1. Supermarket buyers scr3w1ng the primary producers, like the way they sell milk for less than the ost of production. Buying from supermarkets gives us a short term benefit, but eventually results in farmland and habitats being lost, because farmers are better off selling the countryside for new housing developments.
2. A recent middle-class cache for using markets, farm shops, etc.

If you use a greengrocer or stall regularly and juice your fruit, ask them to save you the damaged/bruised/browned fruit, often referred to in the trade as 'touched' fruit. Just fun out the brown bits and away you go. We did thus in the greengrocer' where I worked weekends whilst at college. Sold it for next to nothing as a desirable alternative to throwing away lots of edible fruit just because it didn't appeal to the eye.

I live in a village. The nearest town is 3 miles away, it doesn't have a single fruit and/or vegetable shop any more. It has a market twice a week if you want fruit and veg sadly to say if you cant get there market days it's the supermarkets, there are 4.

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Originally Posted by bunyip

This happens for two reasons.
1. Supermarket buyers scr3w1ng the primary producers, like the way they sell milk for less than the ost of production. Buying from supermarkets gives us a short term benefit, but eventually results in farmland and habitats being lost, because farmers are better off selling the countryside for new housing developments.
2. A recent middle-class cache for using markets, farm shops, etc.

If you use a greengrocer or stall regularly and juice your fruit, ask them to save you the damaged/bruised/browned fruit, often referred to in the trade as 'touched' fruit. Just fun out the brown bits and away you go. We did thus in the greengrocer' where I worked weekends whilst at college. Sold it for next to nothing as a desirable alternative to throwing away lots of edible fruit just because it didn't appeal to the eye.

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Brilliant idea Bunyip, I'll look into it, thanks. I suppose I could use the good bits of the fruit for fruit salads as well as juices?

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Originally Posted by Maza

Brilliant idea Bunyip, I'll look into it, thanks. I suppose I could use the good bits of the fruit for fruit salads as well as juices?

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In all honesty, you could eat most of the 'bad' bits too, because they aren't bad, just a bit soft and less visually attractive.

The bruise on an apple is in no way unhealthy if eaten quickly; though it will deteriorate more quickly. Mound on the outside of an orange won't affect the flesh straight away. Depending on where you are in the world, a "ripe" banana might be yellow, green or brown.

We've probably all eaten fruit that we wouldn't have considered buying in a shop. Many hotels, restaurants and canteens order 'Grade A' produce for display and the less pretty 'Ungraded' stock to cut up and cook.

Don't forget that tinned fruit has lots of vitamins and goodness too...tinned pears in natural juice are the favourite in my house at the moment x

im quite tight and will only buy apples pears and bananas pretty much. All my mindees love strawberries and bluberries and all sorts but its just so expensive im not willing to buy it, i wonder if the parents think i offer really crappy fruit choices :blush:

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Originally Posted by mumofone

im quite tight and will only buy apples pears and bananas pretty much. All my mindees love strawberries and bluberries and all sorts but its just so expensive im not willing to buy it, i wonder if the parents think i offer really crappy fruit choices :blush:

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I buy blueberries and strawberries for my family and occasionally chop up a couple and add to greek yoghurt for the mindees - a couple of strawberries between 3 children or a 3 or 4 blueberries make the pudding sound more exciting on the daily menu, the parents don't know how sparce the fruit is.

Why not grow your own, blueberries and strawberries are quite easy to grow, blueberries like acid soil so I grow mine in large pots. Plants cost about £7 and strawberry plants are usually pretty cheep. Lots of learning whilst the children help tend and watch the plants growing.
You get to eat them at their best, freeze some or make jam!

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Originally Posted by watford wizz

Why not grow your own, blueberries and strawberries are quite easy to grow, blueberries like acid soil so I grow mine in large pots. Plants cost about £7 and strawberry plants are usually pretty cheep. Lots of learning whilst the children help tend and watch the plants growing.
You get to eat them at their best, freeze some or make jam!

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I must admit that this is how I got in to gardening, when my lads were young I found it much more economical to grow my own fruit and vegetables...the satisfaction of eating what you grow is great plus my grown up sons now still grow stuff, one does so on his tiny balcony, Salford quays seems to be a great tomato growing environment. Our garden was just a playground with vegetable and fruit plots at the time, flowers were in small quantities really as they didn't earn themselves room in value for space. The experience of doing it when young has stuck with them both, the youngest used to earn pocket money/ time on msn by weeding and digging over little veg plots.

Me too Flora, I started with a very small old flower bed in my back garden and a few pots, I now have 7 raised beds and more pots in front garden plus 1.5 allotments. Totally addicted now!!! Children and parents love it too.

Well DD challenged me to a carrot growing competition. I didn't want to turn it into a competition but she insisted. She planted hers in our garden and I planted the few I was allowed in a plant pot on our roof terrace. Hers didn't do anything - I knew they wouldn't - she totally neglected them and didn't do any prep work. Mine flourished, and so we had sulks. Anyway, I went to water them today and something has dug up and stolen half of them. My money is on the flipping squirrels. They are such a nuisance. Now that they know they are there they will probably come back for the other half a dozen. Any tips?

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Originally Posted by Maza

Well DD challenged me to a carrot growing competition. I didn't want to turn it into a competition but she insisted. She planted hers in our garden and I planted the few I was allowed in a plant pot on our roof terrace. Hers didn't do anything - I knew they wouldn't - she totally neglected them and didn't do any prep work. Mine flourished, and so we had sulks. Anyway, I went to water them today and something has dug up and stolen half of them. My money is on the flipping squirrels. They are such a nuisance. Now that they know they are there they will probably come back for the other half a dozen. Any tips?

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Sure it wasnt your daughter Maza ;-0
Just kidding! x

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Originally Posted by watford wizz

Why not grow your own, blueberries and strawberries are quite easy to grow, blueberries like acid soil so I grow mine in large pots. Plants cost about £7 and strawberry plants are usually pretty cheep. Lots of learning whilst the children help tend and watch the plants growing.
You get to eat them at their best, freeze some or make jam!

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Weve actually just planted some strawberries but im not holding out much hope - my gardening skills are pretty rubbish!
I hadnt thought of blueberries, ill have to look into that - thank you x