Recently on Twitter, one of my followers stated that she wanted to save more on her grocery budget, but spent a large majority of that budget on fresh produce…fruits and vegetables for snacks as well as meals. She asked me what my thoughts were on this. Being rather long winded like I am, 140 characters just wasn’t going to do it for this answer!

If you read my weekly menus and grocery lists at SuperJenn, you will see that a large portion of what I buy each week is also produce. I like to use fresh produce when I cook and my kids will eat fruit and vegetables from morning until dark. Buying THAT much produce each week just isn’t feasible for me if I want to stick to our weekly budget of $50 for our family of five. Being extremely frugal with the other items that I buy makes room in my budget for these items but I will admit, I’ve had to make a few concessions, change my thinking a little bit to make this work. Here are my suggestions for you.

Know What You Are Buying

This is difficult for me, but keeping a price book will help you know what the best prices are on your most consumed produce. Recording prices from store to store with the prices at Farmer’s Market and other local food stands from week to week, month to month, will let you know what is a “good” price and what is a “steal”! It is the most sure fire way to not only not over spend, but to save money on your produce budget. I would love to have a section that says “Buy at Farmer’s Market” …but that is not exclusively, nor a sure fire way to save money. Keeping a price book will help you decipher where the best deals are. It wouldn’t hurt to have a notation system for the quality of the produce you are buying from place to place either.

Buy In Season

Even if your children LOVE strawberries, in the month of March expose them to more pineapple or bananas which are considered to be in season all year long. Purdue University has an extensive list of what is considered “in season” by month throughout the year. When items are in season or on sale:

Find a New Way to Prepare

Yes, I’m talking about freezing, canning and drying. When apples are $0.69/lb buy them. Buy a lot of them. Then make applesauce and freeze it, dry slices and bag them for later, make jelly, butter or other snacks and preserve them for later in the year. A great resource for learning how to preserve fruits and vegetables and recipes to use if you already know how, is the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. If you have some dried fruit and mix it with darn near free Planter’s Peanuts you can have a nice healthy snack that will sustain you and your little ones through an afternoon play date!

Even food that will be consumed quickly like bananas don’t always last through the week. Buy them and freeze them (peel off) dipped in yogurt or rolled in chopped nuts for a different snack. I have a great article on SuperJenn that gives some tips for perfect frozen bananas, grapes and blueberries! Not only does this save you from running back and forth to the store, it can save you money. In Lawrence, if you buy your bananas at Checkers on Thursday you can get them for $0.19/lb! More ripe fruit can always be mixed into smoothies or quick breads for a healthy snack as well.

Buy fruit and vegetables that are “Loss Leaders”

Loss Leaders are generally items featured on the front pages of the weekly inserts. These items are at such deep discounts that the store is apt to take a loss…but it gets you in the door. The stores are counting on you picking up two or three other items as you walk through the store to get to the discounted item. If you can control your impulse buying, you will get the best prices on these produce items and save yourself some money.

Every Drop Counts

I mean that literally. Make sure your produce is dry when you purchase it. You are generally purchasing based on weight so why pay for water?

Buy Bagged Produce:

When you buy pre-bagged apples, potatoes and citrus items you can generally get a better price. The store is required to sell you at least the advertised amount (ie a 5# bag must have at least 5# in it). They aren’t going to cut an item in half to sell you EXACTLY 5#. Weigh a few bags to find the heaviest one therefor getting the best deal. When you bag your own produce you will be charged on the exact weight of your purchase.

The down side to this is that pre-bagged produce often has less of a “shelf life” left in it. Make sure that you can use the amount your are buying in a short period of time. Not using produce you purchase, letting it go bad in your refrigerator, is a sure fire way to waste your hard earned money.

Be Picky with Organic Produce

If you are going to buy Organic produce….know the ins and outs of Organic and buy only those things that are necessary to purchase the organic variety. There is a great article at About.com that lists fruits and vegetables from the MOST highly effected by pesticides to the LEAST affected. This will help you to decide when it is the most pertinent to spend your money on organic produce.

Know Your Resources

There are a lot of resources for finding coupons for healthy food…including produce! A great resource is TheThriftyMama and MamboSprouts are my favorite. They may be sparse with the produce coupons but they are great resources for more healthy options in the other facets of your shopping life. I wrote a more inclusive “where to find” post for organic coupons and resources HERE.

These are some basic ideas for reducing your produce budget. Remember that a little bit here and a little bit there will add up over time, every little bit helps! Do you have great ideas for saving money on produce? Let us know what you think!