Veg prices have soared - but maybe you’re buying the wrong veg?

According to reports today the price of fresh fruit and vegetables has increased by 23% since July. Which sounds like bad news except when you read the detail of the survey. The fruit and veg that have gone up are out-of-season cherry tomatoes, strawberries, grapes and new potatoes, foods that you’d expect to be expensive at this time of year. To that you could have added fresh peppers, cucumber and other salad veg.

Don’t be put off buying fruit and veg though - they’re a vital part of a healthy, balanced diet. There are ways of cutting what you spend on them. Here are my top four tips:

• Buy fruit and veg that are in season - at the moment that’s home-grown root veg like carrots and parsnips, greens, apples and pears (one of the only products in the survey to have actually gone down in price, along with bananas which are available year-round). The exception to this is produce that is always popular at Christmas like sprouts, satsumas and clementines.

• Buy your produce loose. It's significantly cheaper than buying it pre-packed - sometimes dramatically so. Compare the price per unit on the shelf tickets.

• Don’t overlook frozen veg especially peas, peppers and spinach and frozen berries such as raspberries. True, they don’t have the same texture as fresh veg but they are just as nutritious. Tinned products too are good value, especially tinned tomatoes which have much more flavour than fresh ones at this time of year.

• Check out your local greengrocer. You might think they would be more expensive than supermarkets but they often carry locally grown veg which are quite a bit cheaper in price. Better for the environment than imported veg, too.