How much do you spend per week on fresh produce?

[Erica in PA]

I'd be interested to hear how much everyone here spends on fresh fruit and veggies. Since I've been shopping weekly at our local farmer's market, I want to be careful not to overspend on fresh produce. We're on a tight budget, so even though it's healthy stuff, we still can't go overboard there. It's so tempting, with so much fresh summer fruit to choose from, and at such reasonable prices! We've been eating it all each week, so I'm not overbuying in that sense.

 

I've been averaging about $16 per week. Last week included: potatoes, green peppers, onions, romaine lettuce, honeydew, bing and rainier cherries, strawberries, peaches, and blueberries. The fruit is for snacks and as part of breakfasts and lunches. In addition to these veggies, I also use a good amount of frozen veggies as well.

 

For those of you on a tight budget especially, do you spend this much?

 

 

Erica

[SkateLeft]

We spend a bit more, but I suspect it has to do with family size and location.

 

You may already know this, but I'll throw it out here in case someone else might benefit from it. One option for keeping the cost of fresh produce down is participating in a local CSA program... Community Supported Agriculture. For us, it's considerably cheaper than our local farmer's market.

 

Basically, you help support a local farm, and in return you receive a box (or in our case, boxes) of fresh produce each week. Our CSA is about $16 a week for a single box (meant to feed 4), and that varies to include seasonal fruits and veggies. Prepaying for 6 months or a year brings the cost down even more. There are other benefits too. We can order some seasonal produce at a sizable discount (this month, it's 3 types of tomatoes, peaches, onions and popcorn), and there are special events and opportunities (harvest festivals, camping on the farm, etc.) just for CSA members. We get a monthly newsletter telling us what's going on. We also get exposed a wider variety of things than we probably would otherwise. :)

 

CSA has been a huge cost saver for us, but it probably depends on where you live. One other nice thing is that our farm has a CSA pickup location right next to my husband's office, so he can get our boxes on his way home from work, saving me some gas money. :D

 

Here's a link to finding CSAs that serve your area - LocalHarvest.org

[Michelle T]

probably around $20-$25 per week, more if you include frozen veggies. My DS and DH eat a LOT of berries, especially blackberries and raspberries, both of which tend to be expensive. We generally have bananas, peaches/nectarines, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, and cherries in the house during the summer. Sometimes watermelon, apples, blackberries, mangoes.

 

I spend less in the winter, because the available fruit is more boring then!

Michelle T

[Mom to Aly]

Wow! I don't know how you got that much for so little! I posted recently about how expensive fruits & veggies still are! I got peaches, strawberries, grapes, lettuce and bananas, I think that is it last week, and not a lot of any of it, and I spent $17! Normally I get strawberries--1-2 quarts, lettuce, carrots-1 bag of minis, squash (zucchini & yellow-3-4 total), summer and/or acorn squash--1-2 small, cucumbers-1 or 2, tomatoes if affordable--1 pint grape, or 2-3 reg, portabello mushrooms--a couple big or a few small, carrots--a small bag, a couple to a few apples, which are outrageous here, peaches or nectarines or plums if not outrageous, a little melon if possible, and onion, and can easily spend $50-$60 on that. Broccoli I get frozen, at least 2-4 bags of steamfresh, along with a couple of bags of other frozen veggies (we are vegetarian and have veggies or salad at least once a day, and some fruit every day, plus I am diabetic so veggies are a big thing). All in all, total, veggies and fruits are one of the bigger purchases we make each week, and they have not come down much this summer. I find it very hard to get what we need each week.

[Ferdie]

Probably $45 a week in produce. I haven't found a farmer's markets around here so I get most of our produce at Costco, Sprouts or Walmart. I spend around $15 in fruit which includes frozen berries for my dh's daily breakfast smoothie. I spend about $10-$15 in pre-washed, ready to eat salad greens and spinach. The rest goes towards veggies and includes frozen veggies for twice weekly stir-fry.

[~Tara~]

I'm thinking around the $30+ range. For 2 adults and 5 kids. Fruits are part of breakfast and lunch as well as ocassionally for snacks. Then staples like onions, potatoes, baby carrots, salad...

I'd love to find a local farmer's market to see if that helps our budget!

[E_Edgerton]

We live off of salads, grilled vegetables, and fruit in the summer. It pretty much is our budget. I would say $40 a week easily. I know what you mean about the farmers market, it is wonderful and terribly tempting all at the same time.

[M&M]

I have a friend that buys directly from the wholesaler, we pay $48 a week for fruits and veggies. I purchase a few staples about once a month from Whole Foods or ShopRite (garlic, onions, herbs, frozen berries). That feeds 2 adults and 5 dc. Although if prices keep going up, we may have to make a change.

[HFClassicalAcademy]

We eat LOTS of fruits around here. I'd say maybe around $45-$50 a week. Veggies make up maybe 25% of this. I guess we are fruit fanatics and it is the first thing the kids ask to snack on and we serve fruit at every meal and it makes a big part of dessert.

 

Last week I bought 12 peaches, 2 strawberry pints, a big basket of blueberries (not sure on the size), 6 apples, a bunch of bananas, and grapes. It's ALL gone!! When I was pregnant I think I ate my own weight in fruit. One time, the fruit bill ALONE was close $125!!! Hmmm. Maybe that's why people kept asking if I was expecting twins. :001_unsure:

 

Liz in NC

[myfunnybunch]

We are also members of a CSA, which means that we get a weekly veggie box. For $20/week we get a variety of fresh seasonal veggies, usually picked on the morning we pick up our box. This week we got a bag of salad mix, a head of lettuce, cauliflower, a bag of spinach, a large bunch of carrots, fresh onions, cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash, tomatoes, garlic, a bunch of basil, and one of the men who works at the farm picked a huge container of strawberries and gifted it to my friend and our children for a treat. Not only that, but the same farmer often offers free veggie starts to CSA members for our own gardens, so I've got cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, peppers and onions in my own garden.

 

In the summer we also spend a lot on fresh fruit, but most of it gets frozen or dried or made into jam so that we can enjoy it all year long. I haven't bothered to figure out how much that translates to as a monthly cost if we were to spread it out over the entire year, but I do know that having the preserved fruit available makes a substantial difference in our fall/winter grocery budget because we're not buying nearly as much expensive fresh fruit from the grocery store. Blueberries, for example, I can U-pick for $1.25/lb during blueberry season; in the stores even now they're $3-4 for a pint, and the price only goes up in the winter. :eek: And cherries are even worse, so I am on my way to pick up seconds from the cherry orchard ($5/bucket) to dry and freeze. And eat! Yum.

 

Cat

[K&Rs Mom]

This is our first year with a CSA, and it's been great. We pick up at the local farmer's market, so I can buy a few extra things there too. It cost about $15 per week (you buy the whole season in May for $300), and is all organic. We've eaten things we otherwise wouldn't have, like mustard greens, and are definitely eating healthier this summer than ever before. This week we got potatoes, herb mix, salad mix, blackberries, kale, peas and garlic. I'm not a good produce shopper, always buying the same half-dozen things (apples, bananas, corn, tomatoes), so this is a great way to do it.

[runninmommy]

Oh. My. Goodness... I wish we had it so cheap. That sounds pretty darn good to me.

 

We are in Alaska though and everything is higher. I pay around $60.00 per week just for the basics; Spinich, carrots, celery, cucumbers, onions tomatoes, potatoes, herbs, bananas, apples, nectarines, grapes, blueberries (frozen) and peaches.

 

 

I can not wait to get to a real farmers market. We have a small FM but all it has are potatoes and Russian bread..which is really good but no real produce...

[Laurel]

We have a farmer's market twice a week, and I spend at least that much each time, just for fruits and veggies we will eat that week. I also buy eggs and meat there. I probably spend about $100 at the market each week. We eat a LOT of fruit, and that's the bulk of the cost, other than the meat (we only eat 1-2 meat meals a week). Lots of peaches. (3 year old will eat 3-4 peaches a day.) But I don't shop at the regular grocery store. Fresh produce at the market, then dairy, eggs, grains, nuts through the local coop.

[JFSinIL]

About $30 - depends if I hit our local farmer's market for corn/fruit etc. of just get by on whatever is still in the 'fridge from last week. In our family of six only hubby is a big fresh fruit/veggie eater.

[Lisa at Home]

Edited to add: No (cc) here. I decided not to "go there" and deleted something and forgot to delete that from my subject line.

 

:(

 

I'd like to do better, but with us not yet having a garden, and having no CSA options and a pathetic farmers market, I probably spend a minimum of $200 a week on produce. I still have to drive almost an hour away for good organic greens. Most of what we eat is organic.

 

That is is the largest part of what we eat, so that is a large chunk of my grocery budget.

 

I realize that that is not the norm, and I realize that we are not norm-al.:D

 

~Lisa

[Erica in PA]

 

I've been averaging about $16 per week. Last week included: potatoes, green peppers, onions, romaine lettuce, honeydew, bing and rainier cherries, strawberries, peaches, and blueberries.

 

Erica

 

Wow, sounds like I'm doing well then! I wanted to sort of compare where this amount fits in with others. We need to be at the low end of the range, because our income is at the low end as well. ;)

 

I'm feeling really grateful for our farmer's market, too. I shop at a Mennonite produce stand, and they have really good prices. Here's how the amounts broke down for last week, in case you're interested:

 

potatoes- about 10 medium sized baking potatoes- $1.25

green peppers- 3 for $1

onions- 2 of them, I think about .80 for the 2

romaine lettuce- large head, $1

honeydew- $2

bing cherries- 1 pound @ $2.50/lb

rainier cherries- 2 pounds @ $2.69/lb

strawberries- 2 quarts for $2

peaches- about 6 for $1.25

blueberries- one quart for $1.50

 

So that totals....about $18? Some weeks I've spent as little as $13, depending on the prices and the selection at the time. You can see from those prices why it's so tempting to just buy everything, because the prices are significantly lower than I can find at the grocery store.

 

Thank you for sharing your amounts with me! I guess I won't feel so guilty about all our fruits and veggies next week! :001_smile:

 

Erica