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I had a nifty little idea last night and thought maybe I could get everyone to pitch in!
Last night I went to the store just to get a few items. Fruit was something we were running low on so I got tangerines, bananas and frozen berries. The produce section always seems to be really expensive these days! When I got home I thought about this and decided to figure out the cost per piece/serving. I was shocked.
Bananas .16 for one large (.08 per serving as a half is one serving in my home)
Tangerine .18 for one
Frozen Berries .50 for half a cup
For some reason I had it in my mind that fruit was really expensive but actually its not. I didn't get any junk food last night or I would figure out the cost per serving for a couple of those type items.
Pitch in with your findings! How much do these healthy food items cost versus junk food? Not just fruit either, whatever you serve to you family is fine.
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My dd favorit snack is carrot or tomatoes . I pay about 1.50 for the carrots but she eats so many that it is only two servings. So by that I have to say .75 a serving. In that case its cheaper to get crahm crackers instead.
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Can't you buy a whole pound of carrots for around 50 cents? Even the fancy baby carrots you can usually find on sale for $1/lb. Is she eating 1/2 lb of carrots??
Our favorite fruits are apples, oranges and pears. Pears I'm lucky to find for $1.50/lb most of the year and just a couple of pears is a pound. Oranges too are often 50 cents/a piece which is pretty expensive. My DS needs both though for the high fiber so I buy them.
Candy bars are often 4/$1 so quite a bit cheaper than the fruit! I think it's easier to get good deals on veggies than fruit but not as easy to get DS to eat them!
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she will only eat the fancy baby ones and I will gladly pay any price for my dd to eat healthy if that is what she wants . Around here a 1.50 is the sale price on baby carrots!
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Baby carrots are usually around .41.75 here for the small bag. That was our snack of choice this summer, till we got sick of them.
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i can get a bag of baby carrots for .88 cents and usually a head of broccoli for 99 cents and celery for less than $1.00 so we keep these on hand. i also buy what ever kind of apple is on sale i can usually get them for .88 cents a lbs and right now our bananas are 29 cents a lb so these things are cheaper than junk for us...
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The produce section is where I spend a ton of money. I buy fruits that aren't always in season, so I end up paying more. We also eat salad every day with dinner so that adds up. But I think it is totally worth it. And I love when there are sales on organic fruits and veggies, because otherwise I just cant splurge on them.
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If we go to a higher end grocery store their prices on fresh fruit is close to ridiculous- especially the organics. I have trouble spending $4.99 on a 3lb bag of apples and $5.99 for oranges!
I recently found out (while the youngest was in preschool), that the town where my youngest goes to preschool, the sell their produce fresh from the Strip District in Pittsburgh. The Strip is an open air market that sells to retailers, fresh foods and also other items. I got a 3 lb. bag of Apples for $1.50, 5lb bag of oranges for $2, baby carrots- 3 for $1 and many other reasonable prices. We usually go to the Strip in the summer months- but now we won't have too!
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I never really do the exact math on it, but I shop mostly organic w/ lots of fruit and veggies. I have recently decided that I am going to phase meat out of our diet due to animal cruelty concerns and health ones. Here is what I do to justify the expensive healthy food purchasas in my mind.... I pick up my organic fruit for say $3 - $4, it's a lot, but if I compare it to the bag of potatoe chips that is almost $3, it just doesn't seem so bad anymore.
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I think another big reason people don't buy fresh fruits/veggies as much isn't necessarily the cost but the time it takes to prepare them. Definitely a lot more work to clean, chop, and cook fresh stuff as opposed to just opening a can or bag.