Lightening Online

 This is part of a series I have been writing on how we reduced our grocery spending by around $3000 a year.  If you’d like to review the rest of the posts you’ll find links to them in my sidebar under “Reducing the Grocery Budget Series”.  I hope you enjoy and find these of some value.

The fruit and vegetable section of the grocery budget is always a tricky one when it comes to reducing the grocery budget.  It’s the one category in my budget that I work hard NOT to UNDERspend in.

Now I know that some people like to claim that eating healthier is more EXPENSIVE.  Personally, I haven’t found this to be the case but it would depend upon what you were eating/buying before you made the change to healthier eating.

Sometimes fruit and vegetables can SEEM expensive because we EXPECT them to be cheap.  If you consider “value for money” fruit and vegetables really rate very highly in the sense of return for $$ spent.

Let’s take for example a snack for a child’s lunchbox.  You might spend 25-50c on a packet of chips whereas an apple will cost more like $1.00.  To look at it in pure “frugal” terms, it can at times be tempting to cut down on fruit and vegetables.  To look at it in the overall scheme of what you’re getting for your money though, shows a different picture.  For your 50c you’re getting a bunch of salt, fat and additives as well as a piece of plastic to add to landfill.  For your $1 you’re getting fibre, water, a wide variety of vitamins and minerals and an apple core that will biodegrade reasonably quickly (unless your kids eat the core as well! Lol which does happen!).  You’re easily getting twice your money’s worth and then some!

For this reason, I prefer to look at a nutritional return on my $$ spent rather than a “fill up tummies” return.  I’m not saying we don’t buy ever buy junk food.  But I wouldn’t look at the difference between the cost of an apple and a packet of chips and decide that they chips are better value for money.  I doubt you would either!    But I wanted to point that out because some people are very quick to dismiss those who have lower grocery budgets by saying that they must just feed their family junk.

In our family the opposite has been true.  As we’ve worked to improve our health and increase the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed, our budget has actually dropped overall. 

Health is one of the reasons I keep my fruit and vegetable spending separate from my general grocery spending.  I want to make sure I’m NOT saving money by spending less in this area.  Or if I am spending less, I want to KNOW about it so I can look at the “why”.

While I have broken down my grocery budget into a number of categories, you still need to take into account the overall effect across all categories.  From a health point of view, reducing meat, adding beans and lentils and switching to wholegrains will all help to reduce your overall grocery spend.  It is even possible that your fruit and vegetable section of the budget will go UP rather than down.  As long as your overall spending is still coming down, this isn’t something you need to get worried about.

Having said all of that, there are many things that can be done to help reduce the cost of fruit and vegetables:

BUY IN SEASON

While this will seem rather obvious to some people, it surprises me how many people still *insist* on eating the same fruits and vegetables all year round.  In doing so they can end up paying premium price for a product that is possibly inferior in both quality and taste.

FRESH ISN’T ALWAYS BEST

Research has shown that frozen vegetables can be as good and sometimes healthier for you than some fresh vegetables.  Make sure you know your prices as it can sometimes happen that frozen works out cheaper than fresh.

One of the advantages of buying frozen or canned goods is that you can have a big buy up when you see a good special.  I did this just this week with canned two fruits.  Our children are big fans of these.  I find that some weeks there are virtually NO specials on fruit and veg and everything seems expensive.  In those weeks I will buy less fresh fruit and veg and resort to using what I have already on hand (you can be sure that those weeks the frozen and canned products will be full price as well so take advantage of sales when you see them).

GROW SOMETHING

It’s really not as hard as it sounds.  Take it from me – the resident brown thumb.  Gardening is about having a go and seeing what you can produce.

Renting?  No excuse!!!!   Just start small.  Plant something in a pot.  A couple of years ago I was given a pot with annual flowers in it.  It sat empty (other than our kittens curling up in there) for some time.  Now I have parsley growing in it.  I’m kicking myself that I didn’t plant it back when the pot was first empty.  I paid $1.10 for a packet of seeds from a Cheap as Chips store and they’re growing great.  I’ve even “trained” my kids to empty their water bottles into the pot at the end of the day so I don’t even have to water it!  Just go and pick as needed.  You could do the same with something like chives and use them instead of onion in recipes.

Personally I love plants where you take a bit and the plant then grows more.  Parsley and chives or shallots are like this.  I have also had good success with mignonette lettuces (again, $1.10 packet of seeds) and silverbeet.

If you’d like some fruit in a pot, try some strawberries.  I think you can even buy strawberries in a bag now. 

It is amazing what can be done with just a few pots and a small investment!  Don’t get put off by thinking you could never grow enough to feed your family!  It doesn’t matter.  ANYTHING that you can grow will help the budget a little.  And little bits add up when it comes to grocery budgets.

BUY IN BULK

Being a part of a co-op or sharing bulk buys with a friend are great ways to reduce the costs of fruit and vegetables and take advantage of larger buying power.  If you can access something like this, grab it!   If you can’t, you can still take advantage of bulk buying on some items.

Get to know what fruits and vegetables keep well or freeze well.  I’ll mention a few that I will tend to buy up on:

• Apples.  I know that my local supermarket doesn’t get fresh apples in every week.  So if there is a good special on, I will buy up quite a few.  They may as well be sitting in my fridge and saving me a few dollars as sitting in their coolroom waiting for me to pay more for them the following week.  I also tend to buy my apples in those prepacked 2kg bags (watch out – I noticed that Coles are often only 1.5kg bags).  My main reason for this is that my children are young and they’re often a more suitable size for them.  I get more apples per kg AND pay a lower price per kg.  You sometimes get not so nice apples in these bags but on the whole I have found them to be pretty good.

• Oranges.  These are definitely the nicest when bought in season and can work out quite cheaply on a per piece costing.  I find they keep easily for a month or more in the fridge without showing any signs of aging.  The hardest thing I do find with buying up on oranges when on special is taking the risk as to whether they’ll be nice or not.  This can vary quite a lot.

• Potatoes will last 2-4 weeks if you keep them properly.  Newspaper is a great way to keep them fresh as it insulates from the warmth as well as keeping light out.  You can apparently freeze mashed potato and reuse but I’ve never succeeded in doing this to my satisfaction.  If I wanted to freeze potato I would cut into chunks, cook a little and then freeze and use in soups or other cooking.

• Carrots.  As I’ve mentioned before, I often buy juicing carrots in a 5kg bag (last time it was a 20kg bag!)  You get a few odd shaped carrots and often many broken ones but they taste great (just avoid them if they look a little on the pale side).  With the 20kg I bought, I grated quite a few of them and froze to use in cooking.

• Onions are a great one to stock up on when they’re at a good price and then freeze.  You can dice them before freezing although most of the time I simply cut them in half (skins still on) and throw them in a bag in the freezer.  You just need to cut them up before they’ve fully defrosted when you go to use them.  The good thing about this is that frozen onions don’t make you cry (you do need to let them defrost a little before cutting as they’re rather hard fully frozen).

• I do the same thing with capsicums.  I’ll buy a bag of mixed colour capsicums for around $2.00 and chop them up and freeze ready to use.  They won’t be so great for using in salads but for adding to pizzas or spaghetti Bolognese sauce etc it works really well.

How you store your fruit and vegetables can make quite a difference to how long they last.  I LOVE my Tupperware containers for keeping things fresher longer.  Wrapping in newspaper is also a good way for many items.  There are many great tips all over the internet for storing fruit and vegetables to get maximum life from them. 

GET AS CLOSE TO THE SOURCE AS POSSIBLE

Sometimes this is easier said than done, I know. 

Markets are a great source of cheap and fresh fruit and vegetables.  If you can get to one, it’s worthwhile.  If you don’t live near a market, keep your eyes open when you’re in other areas as you may pass one occasionally.  We live 500km from our nearest capital city and go there 2-3 times a year and I always take the opportunity to stop at either a market or a road-side type stall and stock up.  I may not be able to get cheap fruit and veg all of the time but I’m sure going to get it when I can.  Not to mention how much fresher it is!

Is there someone nearby that is an avid gardener?  Perhaps they would be willing to trade excess produce or sell it to you for a bargain basement price!!!  Who do you know with fruit trees in their backyard?  Perhaps they’d be willing to pass on some fruit in return for a jar of jam made from some of it?  How do you find these people or bring up such an arrangement?  Start by giving and you’ll be amazed at what can happen.  Maybe you don’t have fresh produce to offer someone but what do you have?  Kids clothing?  Some babysitting time?  A freshly made cake?

THINK OUTSIDE THE SQUARE

The most effective way to save money in any area is to think creatively.  Some people think that they’re not creative but I think in part it comes with practice.  When you’re in the habit of thinking “outside the square” it seems to become easier to do so.

When banana prices shot through the roof in Australia, some people decided that they were going to buy bananas regardless because they are so good for you.  Fair enough.  What I did was research the health benefits of bananas and then look for other foods that would replace the nutrition that bananas were providing.  We didn’t “go without” bananas altogether though.  I bought a few every now and then.  Smaller bananas mean you get more per kg.  Or you can buy larger bananas and cut them in half.

Another thing I do to allow us the occasional treat without overspending the budget, is to buy some items of fruit through our “treats” budget.  For instance, when bananas were REALLY expensive, I’d sometimes buy a couple and take it out of the treats budget.  At the time they really were treats and just as exciting as buying a block of chocolate or similar.  I’ve done the same at times with punnets of strawberries.  We enjoy them as much as other sweet treats, so why not purchase them from the treats budget?

Are there fruits and vegetables that you haven’t tried yet?  Perhaps there is something out there just waiting to be discovered?  What about changing the way you cook things?  I’ve finally started cooking my pumpkin with the skin on.  Not only does it make less work for me but we waste less of the pumpkin flesh this way.  Feel like salad at a time when salad vegies are expensive?  What vegies are in season that might taste good raw?  What about a tin of chickpeas or butter beans added to your salad?  Cheap, filling and nutritious.  The possibilities are endless.  What it takes is stepping back and looking at things with a fresh view.

YOU’VE PAID FOR IT – USE IT!

I find the highest amount of food wastage in our household is fresh fruit and vegetables.  I guess this is made more complicated for me due to my proximity to shops.  The good thing about not being close to shops is that if all the bananas get eaten in the first two days, it’s too bad.  Instead of running out and buying more bananas, we all have to be content to eat apples or oranges.  The hardest part about it is that I can’t always predict how much of an item we’ll need and will at times overbuy and things get wasted.

Menu planning is one way to help reduce wastage.  By planning based on what you have, there are less likely to be as many foods go bad before they’re used.  It also forces you to think about (and look at) what you already have.  I know I always think I’m going to remember what is in the fridge – but gosh it’s amazing what can be hiding at the back of the shelf! LOL.

What about parts of the fruits and vegetables that get thrown away?  Are there parts that could be used for another purpose?  I keep a container in the freezer and chop up things like broccoli and cauliflower stems and pop them in there to be added to soup or Bolognese sauce etc.  My family aren’t big fans of the stems so this is a way I use them up.

At the moment I’ve been saving and freezing pumpkin seeds.  I’ve been buying these from the shops so I’m hoping to be able to cook and shell them.  It’s an experiment in progress at the moment so I can’t comment on how it’ll turn out yet.

Freeze leftover vegetables and use in soups etc rather than simply throwing them out.  Chop up bits of fruit that have spots on them and add to muffins or cakes.  I’m sure there are 1000s of other little suggestions out there for how to make use of food to save it from the rubbish bin.  So, take a fresh look at what you have and how you’re using it and consider if there are changes that could be made.

What about peelings and other scraps?  You could keep chooks or begin a compost heap and turn those scraps into something useful.  That’s something I really LOVE about fruit and veg – every part of most fruits and vegetables can be used somehow in some way.

Before I wrap this up (it’s rather long isn’t it?) I want to say this.  You’re not wonderwoman (or superman).  Sometimes things will happen and stuff will get chucked out.  Do NOT waste your time and energy beating yourself up about it.  Just keep working on those small changes, one step at a time.  What you don’t want to do is turn this whole thing into such a drag that you never want to think about cutting costs with groceries ever again.

Goodness this has been a long post!!!!  Nearly 3000 words!!!  Is it any wonder I managed to churn out 50000 in a month when I can spit out 3000 in a sitting!  If you’re still reading, THANK YOU!  I did consider splitting this into 2 posts but it was difficult to figure out which to put in each part.

Also, if you’re interested in frugal posts, www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com has a list of links each Friday as part of her “Frugal Friday” where you can drop by and find other bloggers blogging about this kind of stuff.  :)  That ends up being Saturday here in Australia if you go there and can’t find anything.