I have been changing my families diet slowly and one of the things I am most proud of is that instead of asking for cookies or candy at the grocery store my girls always ask for strawberries or other fruit. I am always happy to buy them some but now the price is creeping higher and higher for any type of berries. They love apples and grapes as well but the berries are where their real loves lies.
The major problem is that the four of them can eat 4 lbs of berries at one time. I know that the obvious answer is to not let them have them all at once but reality is that is hard to do. We don't keep junk food in the house. Our snacks are popcorn or fruit/veggies. I do usually have some type of homemade cookies available as well. So what to do??
I was only grocery shopping once a month and picking up raw milk and eggs from my farmer but I find myself needing to do a produce run weekly and it's adding up quickly! I'm thinking that I need to re-evaluate how my shopping should work and I also need to realize that $20 for produce a week won't cut it at my house.
Do you have a set amount of money you spend on just produce? If you do would you mind sharing it?
5 comments:
I buy a lot of frozen berries. Usually they freeze well so they still taste great. They also last longer since I ration them more instead of trying to eat them all at once before they go bad. Maybe you could cut down on the berry consumption without cutting it out altogether, while trying to get the girls excited about the new fall produce that is out? Pears are lovely this time of year. How wonderful that they love fruit so much!
I know what you mean, it kills me to spend so much on produce. I always buy bananas, no matter what but for everything else, I only buy it when it is in season, they just have to make due and eat what I have.
I try to go to the store every 2 weeks, so the first week we eat the fresh fruit and the second week we will move on to canned fruit with no sugar.
We also eat a lot of cut veggies for a snack, carrots, celery and green peppers(when in season).
Good luck.
I buy a ton of it in the summer...so much so that I think we get sick of it and we're excited to have apples again! We only eat whatever is in season. It's just too much money to do anything else. I can tell a big difference too when I buy strawberries in October because they aren't nearly as good.
I'd add some kind of a protein in with your popcorn and fruit. It'd help them feel fuller longer and they wouldn't need quite as much fruit. It's amazing what a scoop full of peanut butter or a small cup of milk will do to make you feel full longer.
I don't have a set limit on what I will spend for produce. We just try to eat with the seasons. For instance this week I bought pomegranates and clementines at Sams club. In the summer we do berries.
I have the same problem as you with my kids loving berries more than anything, but I just rarely buy them in the winter. They are expensive, not from the US (more pesticides), and frankly they aren't very good.
I have found that limits help when it comes to kids. Yes my kids would eat 2 lbs of strawberries at one sitting, but if I only put out 1 lb they are happy with that. Also explaining why you won't buy berries in the winter will help with the older ones. You could also buy 1 pack a week or something then maybe everyone would be satisfied.
We pick out own in the summer and freeze as much as we can. When we get tired of apples, bananas and oranges, we pull out some frozen berries. Not the same, but it helps. Good luck!
I buy in season, and I have a price per pound limit. Buying in season helps with that. I aim for $1.00 or les per pound. When apples were .49 a pound, I bought 200 lbs. We ate them fresh, cooked, and I made applesauce. When peaches were on sale (in season) I bought 324 pounds, canning most but also eating some fresh. This keeps my produce costs down throughout the year.
You can see when I bought in bulk and canned and how much here: http://theprudenthomemaker.com/thisyearscanning.aspx
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