Author Topic: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!  (Read 6424 times)

Babymoustache

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A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« on: March 01, 2014, 07:27:14 PM »
A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!

I love the farmers markets on a Sunday!  I live in the city and I'm able to literally get a whole week's worth of healthy fresh (and super yummy) groceries for only $20!  I've got to be careful of my health, so I eat massive amounts of fruit and veggies, which can cost a pretty penny at the supermarket. I've had some horrendously big supermarket bills when I've been busy/tired and haven't done the farmers markets, so boy do I know how good the farmers markets are in comparison!

Today for $20, I got:
- 42 tomatoes ($4.50) - as you can tell I loooove tomatoes!
- 10 peaches ($1.50)
- 12 capsicums ($3)
- 9 courgettes ($4)
- 3 eggplants ($3)
- 5 onions ($1)
- 2 mangos ($2)
- 1 lettuce ($1)

This combined with some potatoes and pumpkin left over from last week (I always have leftovers from the week before's shop as I never get through eating them all) will make me a weeks worth of yummy meals in the crockpot like tomato soup, curry, rataullie, and vegetable stew. Then, I will chop up the remainder into healthy fresh snacks to go.

I'm close to vegan in my eating style because of health issues so, don't have to worry about dairy or meat.  PS: this style of diet has helped me loose 35 kilo in the last 2 years :)

Now to be fully transparent, I do supplement this with bulk lentils, rice, beans, nuts, spices and the occasional $1.50 loaf of bread from Moore wilsons (NZ's equivalent to costco), so it's probably closer to $25 for the weeks food than $20 but still, I reckon that's pretty good for me! Especially when my November food bill was up to a guilty $170 per week last year.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2014, 07:30:06 PM by Babymoustache »

TomTX

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2014, 07:52:56 AM »
Must be nice to have affordable farmer's markets. Around here, everything costs 1.5x-3x more than the grocery store. Farmer's markets here are for the trendy and overpaid.

spoonman

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2014, 05:11:42 PM »
That's pretty amazing.  As TomTX said, prices like that are a pipedream here in the states.  You are very lucky!

Babymoustache

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2014, 06:07:10 PM »
Wow @tomtx and @spoonman (ps love following your journal - very cool) - I'm amazed at how expensive the farmers markets are there in the states! How disappointing! The whole reason we go to them here is to cut out the middle man and buy straight from the farmers.  The supermarkets here put horrendous mark-ups on fruit and veges (higher than any other product in the store) as it's where they make there most profit. So buying fresh from the supermarket can be outrageously expensive here.

I do remember when I visited LA (loved the states, you have an awesome country over there) I was surprised at the price of the farmers market there but I thought it was something just particular to the area.

Does anyone from the states have any tips to share on getting cheap fresh produce?

abhe8

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2014, 08:09:04 PM »
yes. grow your own. or, if i go at the end of the farmers market i can get sweet potatoes for 0.50 per pound or tomatoes for 1 per pound, if I buy in bulk and from farmers I know. the other way i get good deals on produce is to order from Azure Standard, but its still big quantities. 25lb organic carrots for $15. 50 lbs organic yellow potatoes for $23. (we have a big family, so buying is bulk is actually my preference). otherwise, i stick to what is in season and buy lots of it.

homehandymum

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2014, 08:59:13 PM »
Farmers Markets are all different, ,even in NZ - it depends on how many market gardeners you have in the neighbourhood :)  Our local farmers market here is mostly of the boutique baby carrots and handcrafted venison salami variety, but there are good deals on stone fruit.  Our last city we lived in had fantastic prices and bulk deals at their farmers market.

The key is finding out what you can buy cheaply where you are.  Well done for finding that your farmers market is your jackpot!  $20 is a fantastic amount!

Babymoustache

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2014, 09:13:12 PM »
yes. grow your own. or, if i go at the end of the farmers market i can get sweet potatoes for 0.50 per pound or tomatoes for 1 per pound, if I buy in bulk and from farmers I know. the other way i get good deals on produce is to order from Azure Standard, but its still big quantities. 25lb organic carrots for $15. 50 lbs organic yellow potatoes for $23. (we have a big family, so buying is bulk is actually my preference). otherwise, i stick to what is in season and buy lots of it.

Wow abhe8! There are some fantastic ideas in here! I like the idea of buying bulk in season produce too.  You can always cook up a storm and do the freezer thing.  Thanks for sharing about azure standard.

OldDogNewTrick

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2014, 11:22:24 AM »
Must be nice to have affordable farmer's markets. Around here, everything costs 1.5x-3x more than the grocery store. Farmer's markets here are for the trendy and overpaid.

Ours too... they tend to have food trucks and live music in addition to a fine selection of heirloom tomatoes, microgreens and baby veg. I believe the stall rents are high so goods are priced accordingly.

soccerluvof4

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2014, 11:30:54 AM »
I am going to start growing my own this summer because food markets around me would break the bank. Kudos on all that for 20$$ thats awesome!

TomTX

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2014, 07:09:24 PM »
That's pretty amazing.  As TomTX said, prices like that are a pipedream here in the states.  You are very lucky!

Interestingly enough, the only farmer's market I have seen in decades with really attractive prices was in Hawaii!

If you ever go to Hilo, make sure to go to the farmer's market. Saturday and Wednesday are the "big" days - but there are a handful of stalls every day.

Rural

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2014, 07:26:40 PM »
We don't have a farmers market as such, but the local swap meet has about half homegrown produce during the growing season, most of it at rock-bottom prices. Also several local farmers park in front of the courthouse (with the county's sanction) and sell from the beds of their trucks one morning a week, again for dirt cheap. Perhaps there are alternatives out there aside from the "farmers market"?Or perhaps it's just that I live in farm country. At any rate, cheap local produce does exist in the US.

Annamal

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #11 on: March 03, 2014, 07:58:14 PM »
Willis street market (I'm assuming you're Wellingtonian because of the Moore Wilsons thing)?

We temporarily had a car this week so we upped our usual purchase with some pumpkin and did a Moore Wilsons run for 10 litres of vinegar, 500g of cinnamon and a years worth of kalamata Olives

For $31 at the market we got

2kg of carrots
a pumpkin
a kg of apples
Kale (my first kale experience...it's a little scary)
coriander
lemons
a bag of garlic
2 leeks
bananas
mushrooms

Out of this so far I've had kale chips (not a fan),vegetable soup (a far better use for kale), banana baked oatmeal, a chickpea curry with mushrooms, coriander and frozen spinach,an apple a day and some quite nice roast garlic hummus (with lemon juice).
We used to be really awful about wasting market produce but we are getting better.

spoonman

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #12 on: March 03, 2014, 08:02:41 PM »
@TomTX:  Thanks for the tip.  That's definitely unexpected and perhaps one of the ways to mitigate food costs in Hawaii.  My understanding is that regular supermarket food is expensive in Hawaii because it has to get imported.  I wonder if the island of Kauai (my favorite) has affordable farmer's markets.

@Babymoustache:  I'm glad you're enjoying the journal.  So yeah, farmer's markets here in the LA area are strategically placed near affluent neighborhoods that can afford the prices.  It's definitely a trendy thing.

horsepoor

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Re: A weeks worth of healthy fresh groceries for $20!!
« Reply #13 on: March 03, 2014, 08:04:31 PM »
Does anyone from the states have any tips to share on getting cheap fresh produce?

Bountiful Baskets or other co-ops are available in many states.  Of course you don't know what you'll get week to week, but the "add ons" can be a great value.  The basic basket is 6 types of fruit and 6 types of veg for $15, and it's usually a LOT of produce.  When I've calculated it out, it's been worth roughly $30-40 at grocery store prices.  This week I was really tempted to get the add-on of 25# of Brussels sprouts for $18, but didn't want to spend all weekend processing and freezing them.  They also offer stuff like big jugs of olive oil, coconut oil, honey, bread, granola and tortillas at good prices, on a rotating basis.

As far as farmer's markets, the prices can be pretty good if you find the ones in the non-trendy areas.  The stuff at the downtown Boise market, if you can find the food amongst the homemade handicrafts, is way too dear for me. We have orchards here, so during harvest time, it's possible to buy fruit by the half-bushel quite cheaply.  Then later in the year, local onions and potatoes by the 50# sack for next to nothing.

When I lived in Bakersfield, CA there was a really basic market with just a couple stalls in an unused parking lot, and everything was so cheap.  They would just dump the produce, out on folding tables, little clumps of mud and whatever still sticking to them, and sell in larger quantities to people who were buying their staple food for the week, not seeking the ultimate $10 heirloom tomato.