10 Ways to Save on Fruits & Vegetables
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
guest post by Erin from Coupon Cravings
It’s summer and fresh fruits and vegetables are on our plates just about every meal. To maximize your dollar on summer produce follow these tried-and-true tips. 
1) Buy Fresh Produce In-Season. Switch to frozen produce out-of-season when you can. Click here to see a list of summer fruits and vegetables, which includes broccoli, green beans, peaches and tomatoes.
2) With Bell Peppers, Go Green. Green peppers are field grown, while red, yellow and orange peppers are grown in hydroponic greenhouses. Growing these hybrid bell peppers is more labor-intensive, making them about twice as much as green bell peppers.
3) Switch from Apples to Bananas. Bananas are one of the most inexpensive fruits you can buy at less than one-third the price of apples or peaches per pound.
4) Make Your Own Fruit Salad: Pre-made fruit salads with watermelon, honeydew, grapes and pineapple can cost upwards of $7.99 per pound. Cutting your own fruits and make the salad yourself will save you at least 50 percent.
5) Shop the Dollar Store. The dollar stores sell more than ramen noodles and potato chips. Many stock produce, including broccoli, radishes and fruits. For best selection, call your local dollar store to find out when they re-stock.
6) Check out Discount Grocery Stores. Seek out extreme value grocery stores like Aldi and Save-A-Lot. Discount grocery chains can save you 30-40% or more on produce and many other grocery items.
7) Shop Farmers Markets at the End of the Day. It’s easy to find farmers markets during the summer and if you want to save money, shop at the end of the day when sellers are more interested in negotiating on prices to take the produce off their hands.
Track Produce Prices at Local Stores: Jot down the everyday prices of the fruits and veggies most often on your shopping list. This way when you get your weekly supermarket ads you’ll know which prices are really the best bargains.
9) Store Your Produce in the Refrigerator: Keeping your fruits and veggies in the refrigerator will keep them fresher for a longer period of time so you may not need to re-stock every single week.
10) Eat Your Fruits and Veggies: The most expensive bananas and tomatoes are those that don’t get eaten and go to waste. Only buy produce that you know you’ll use in a given week so you don’t end up throwing away spoiled fruits and veggies (and your money!).
Erin Gifford is a deal seeker and a coupon lover who writes at Coupon Cravings. She has three kids and enjoys saving money and watching her grocery budget shrink a little bit more each week.
11 Responses to “10 Ways to Save on Fruits & Vegetables”
July 9th, 2008 at 6:56 am
About number 3… There are issues with the way bananas are grown that keep the price so low- unfair wages, oppressive working conditions- and I tend to avoid buying them. Your other tips- eating locally and in season- are great for the pocketbook, and result in fresher produce that’s better for us! This summer, I’ve added to this list- I’ve grown my own produce! It’s an almost-free way to eat our veggies.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:36 am
We have been using Debbie Meyer Green Bags that they sell on TV (though we picked them up in Walmart with the other things that are sold on TV), and it really does work to extend the life of produce! Definitely worth the $10 for the package of 20 bags — particularly because you are supposed to rinse out and then re-use the bags.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Great tips, Erin! I just wish we had a good farmer’s market around us!
July 9th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Don’t forget another tip: grow your own! If you have the space,a good apple tree or a set of strawberry plants can help save money while providing fresh fruit.
PS I think that it’s funny that
turned into the “cool” smile.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Great list! I always wondered why red and yellow peppers were so much more expensive!
July 10th, 2008 at 8:06 am
This is an excellent little list.
I have found that locla vege stores here in Montreal do great deals on veg they think is going bad…. often it is a tiny blemish or mark.
I but these for sauces and most bulk dishes… sometimes I can get 3 red peppers for $1, that is a deal
July 10th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
You should stress that this info is only for the grocery store (if even there). I grow all sorts of colored peppers in my garden, as do folks at the farmer’s market. I don’t know why ones in the stores would be hydroponic since they grow just as easily in the ground as do green ones. In fact, most colored peppers start out green–I believe the cost is because they take longer to grow, not necessarily the method used to grow them. Also, not all colored bell peppers are hybrids. In fact, I believe that all of the colored varieties I grow are heirloom–I have grown yellow, red, orange, white, purple and chocolate.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I love the farmers market in the town over - I can get veggies (to spice up my pasta salad)for half the price. I just wish we had one in this area so I didn’t have to wait for a special trip to K-Town to induldge!
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:53 am
In response to the use of Debbie Meyer green bags to save money on fruits and vegetables. Consumer Reports did a study using them vs regular ziploc bags and the only item that fared better was bananas. In fact, strawberries were moldier in the debbie meyer bags whereas the ziploc strawberries were soft but not moldy.
It can be viewed at consumer reports.org. Ziploc bags are far cheaper than the meyer bags so that’s where you’ll save money.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Re: Sorage bags for produce
For anyone who has been lucky enough to have been blessed with a newer refrigerator; I have a separate setting on the fruit and vegetable drawers that have separate humidity controls for both the fruits and vegetables.
When I lined the bottoms of the drawers with absorbant cotton cloth, set the humidity controls; I stored ripe vine picked tomatoes without any bags for three weeks. Expensive refrigerator, no bags at all.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
One more tip: if there is an area near your city that has a high concentration of immigrants, check out the grocery stores and farmers markets in that area. I shop on Buford highway north of downtown Atlanta, and for some reason, the produce is always cheaper than at the big chains, though there are fewer frills. Added bonus: they may carry fruits and veggies that your local chain doesn’t, allowing you to do some experimenting.
Leave a Comment