Five ways to pay less for fruit and veg!

by Rachel Wait on 07 April 2010  |  22 comments
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Sick of paying through the nose for fresh fruit and vegetables? Follow our top tips to help slash those food bills...

These days, we’re continually being encouraged to eat more healthily. And that’s all very well and good. But the trouble is, fruit and veg can add a sizeable chunk onto our shopping bill.

And unfortunately, following record rainfall in Spain – which is a key exporter of fresh food to the UK – the price of fruit and vegetables has gone up even further.  

So if you’re looking for ways to save money on your fruit and veg, what can you do? Well, I’ve come up with five top tips to help you.

1) Shop around

First and foremost, you should shop around. Shopping around is one of our key mottos here at lovemoney.com, and I can’t stress enough how important it is if you want to slash your bills!

A great way of shopping around for food is to use mySupermarket.co.uk. Here you can compare your basket of shopping in four of the major supermarkets – Ocado (aka Waitrose online), ASDA, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. So you'll easily be able to see where you can pick up your basket of goods at the best price, or at least compare the prices at the big supermarkets with the prices at the deep discounters like Lidl and Aldi. 

To give you an idea of how prices might compare, the chart below lists a selection of fruit and veg in each of the different supermarkets, and how much they cost.

*Special offer

Source: mySupermarket.co.uk

So, as you can see, prices can vary considerably from supermarket to supermarket. And in this case, the basket of fruit and veg comes out cheapest at ASDA, costing just £8.80. Perhaps surprisingly, Ocado (Waitrose) is in second place at £9.02. Since Ocado customers swear by the quality of the fruit and veg they order online, this is good news indeed. But the fact that supermarket giant Tesco was a massive 15% more expensive than its biggest rival Asda is bad news for all of us, as it suggests competition in this sector isn't nearly as fierce as the supermarkets want us to think it is. 

Of course, this is just a snapshot, on one day, and I only looked at nine different pieces of fruit and veg. So it's difficult to say whether this would always be the case with your own individual basket, over the course of the year, with its many different seasons.

But it does go to show that shopping around really is worth it. Yes, your basket of goods may work out differently, depending on what you buy, and how much you buy. But hopefully this shows that you can make significant savings by doing a bit of research first.

And remember that when you're choosing your fruit and veg, try to buy it loose, because generally you’ll pay far less if your produce doesn’t come in lots of packaging.

• Watch our video: Slash your supermarket spend.

2) Eat the seasons

You can also save money on your fruit and vegetables by eating the seasons. That’s because you’ll avoid paying a premium for food that is in shorter supply or needs to be imported.

If you’re unsure what’s in season when, make sure you check out the Eat the Seasons website. For example, it should currently be cheap to buy broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, rhubarb and spinach – to name just a few.

3) Give the big supermarkets the heave-ho

There are of course other places to buy your fruit and veg – other than the major supermarkets. For a start, deep discounters, such as Lidl, Netto and Aldi, are well worth checking out as these are often packed full of great offers.

Right now, for example, Lidl is offering aubergines for just 59p each, and avocados for 29p each. And at Aldi, packs of carrots, vine tomatoes, apples, mushrooms, baking potatoes and oranges are all just 49p!

It’s also a good idea to check out your local farmers’ market – if there is one near you. Farmers’ markets often offer good quality food at better prices. Alternatively, why not check out your local market? These are usually packed full of bargains!

4) Grow your own

Of course, if you’ve got enough garden space, it’s well worth simply growing your own fruit and vegetables. If you’re a little unsure of how to go about it, you can find a range of ‘growing cards’ here which will give you all the information you need to start growing your own produce!

And if you’re after some gardening deals, check out Top DIY & gardening bargains.

Finally, if you don’t have a garden, you could try calling your local council to see if they have an allotment free, or you could help to grow a local community garden. Check out the Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens for more information.

5) Pick your own

Last summer, I decided that as I hadn’t done it in years, I would get out in the sunshine, go back to basics, and pick my own fruit and veg.

So I headed off to my nearest pick your own, and got down to business. I then decided to compare what I had bought with how much I would have paid in the supermarket. And fortunately, my hard work paid off, because overall, I spent less than I would have done in the supermarket.

You can see the full results in my blog.

Related blog post

• Rachel Robson writes:

  Where to get fruit and veg for less!

  Last weekend I decided to make the most of the sunshine and do a spot of ‘pick your own’. And as I got into the swing of things, I realised I was probably saving myself a few pennies.

  Read this post

As a result, I decided that picking your own fruit and veg was well worth it!

Of course, if you are going to do this, you’ll need to take petrol costs into consideration, unless you’re lucky enough to live right nextdoor to a pick your own farm. And of course, you’ll need to have a bit of spare time on your hands, as picking your own fruit and veg can take a few hours.

But that said, it’s also a lot of fun. And if the sun is shining, it’s a great way to get outdoors! What’s more, you’ll also be showing your support for UK farms.

To find out where your nearest pick your own is, check out this website. Simply type in your postcode/location, and hey presto!

More: Ten ways to slash your supermarket spend | Seven old-fashioned money-saving tips