How to Save Money on Produce
If you are intentional with your spending and strategic with your timing, you can provide your family with high-quality produce at a bargain.
This post is part of a series on How to Save Money on Real Food where we cover how to save money on meat, produce, grains, and dairy.
Here are some tips to help you save money on produce:
Buy in season.
It’s Economics 101. The more supply, the lower the price. Strawberries are cheaper in June (and way more delicious) than in January. Bananas, grapes, lettuce, and broccoli are items that usually don’t follow this rule as grocery stores usually price these at a loss year-round.
Focus variety as a year-round concept as opposed to a daily concept. God created our bodies to work well on a seasonal-growing schedule. An all-produce-available-at-all-times-because-it’s-trucked-in-from-miles-away schedule is not nutritionally necessary. Eat lots of berries in the summer, apples and pears in the fall and root vegetables in the winter. You get the picture.
Grow your own
Gardening can help you reduce your grocery budget, especially if you focus on the food that grows well in your region without a lot of extra water. Do some research and you could save quite a bit of money, especially on vegetables.
Find our gardening resources here.
Pick your own.
We are so fortunate to live in an area that has many small farms that offer a U-pick option. You provide the labor and are able to get high quality, oftentimes pesticide-free produce at a discount from buying it in the grocery stores or farmer’s markets. My husband and I are planning to pick strawberries, peaches, raspberries and blueberries this summer. And free blackberries on the side of the road, of course.
Find a comprehensive list of U-pick farms at PickYourOwn.org.
Preserve.
Canning or freezing produce, especially fruit, is a great way to enjoy the taste and savings of summertime deals. Growing up, my parents were mad-canners. I have a vivid memory of eating canned brussel sprouts, which may explain my gag-reflex when it comes to vegetables. Please, do not make your children eat canned brussel sprouts. Absolutely disgusting.
Check out our canning and preserving resources here.
It may also make financial sense to get an extra freezer if you’re going to freeze a lot of fruit, meat, and other prepared foods.
Shop produce and discount markets.
There are tons of these in the Portland Metro area. These are retail stores that sell primarily produce. overstock dairy, and close-to-expired food. And they often have fantastic prices. You can get awesome deals on a regular basis.
Shop the grocery store loss-leaders.
A loss-leader is an item that the store sells at a loss to get you in the store, in hopes that you will buy the rest of your grocery list there. And most of the time, the loss-leaders are in-season and local.
We tend to see the most consistent loss leader deals on bananas, grapes, apples, pears, broccoli, lettuce, and potatoes through the year.
Find more ways to saving money on real food here.
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I LOVE Organics to you! Organic veggies and fruit delivered to your door. If I do not go to the store to get fresh fruits and veggies, it makes up the cost to get able to afford organicstoyou.org!!
I find the HMart in Tigard to be much cheaper than most grocery stores on a variety of fruit and veggies. Sometimes the quality isn’t perfect but this week, oranges are .58 cent/pound. I also got decent looking leaf lettuce for .99! Things like kale.99/each 🙂 can’t beat it even at WINCO
Such a great series of articles. Eating clean, locally and sustainably is so hard on a frugal budget. East Coasters like myself are a bit more limited in terms of market and availability, but it’s still possible to find a deal at the farmer’s market come spring. Planting your own produce or becoming CSA members are some other ways to save green on greens.
Buy at wholesale markets
I checked out the upick website, but I’d like to know if anybody has a favorite farm they frequent? This will be our third summer in Portland and since I’m on maternity leave, I’m determined to take my little ones to pick some fruit and maybe even try some canning. Variety and price would be my most important factors.
Just wanted to let you know that there isn’t actually a Camas County in Washington. You’d want to look in Clark, Cowlitz, or Skamania counties for farms in SW Washington. Camas is a city in Clark county though…
I’m such a dork. I meant Clark. Thanks for pointing that out!
I’m a huge fan of picking your own fruit when it’s in season as a way to save some money (I love the u-pick blueberry farm out on Sauvie Island).
Also, thanks so much for the Food in Jars nod!
I get a CSA share from Gardenripe. They are out of Silverton, but they deliver to Portland and Beaverton. It is $480 for 1 share, but I split it with a friend because it is so much produce! I think it is such a great deal for locally-grown, organic produce!
I bought 3 Chinook Books, so I’ve been going to the markets such as Uncle Paul’s, Sheridan, Food Front, etc. to use $5-off-$25 type of coupons. If you want to save on organic vegetables, it’s good.
Does anybody have an experience with CSA farms?
I worked one morning a week at the Abundant Harvest CSA last year in exchange for a share. It was great and if I wasn’t six months pregnant I would do it again. I also subscribe to Winter Green Farms CSA and find it to be good. I enjoy experimenting with different foods and find that CSA’s force me to get out of my comfort zone of broccoli and asparagus.
growers outlet is my favorite also. I canned a bunch last year and if you buy enough from them, like over 20 lbs then the price goes down and makes it even more affordable 🙂 Their staff is also really knowledgeable about whats the best to can and so forth.
The barn on 148th between airport way and marine drive. they are seasonal and open in June thru October I belive. They have a good variety of fruits and vegtables. Though I would say the prices sometimes are overpriced. My opioion, anyone else shop there?
Do you have a good smoothie recipe you can share?
My smoothie consists of : organic— berries, banana, kiwi, apple cider vinegar, flax meal, chia seeds, spinach, coconut, turmeric, coconut milk Sometimes I put carrots for sweetness or honey. Enjoy!
Growers Outlet on 162nd & Glisan has amazing prices on tons of fruits and veggies, as well as a huge assortment of grains, nuts & dried fruits. Another SE store! Sorry:)
There is a great little produce place next to Trader Joe’s on 39th & Holgate (or so). Produce store is called Limbo. Some organic options (that aren’t always a great price) but they usually have one product that is a great deal and a few other seasonal items that are good deals.
They also have a the wall ‘o herbs that is INCREDIBLE. Every possible herb, spice, tea, ….. that you can think of, in bulk. I think they claim 200+? There are a LOT of jars on that wall. 🙂
i agree – Limbo is great for some stuff – usually their in season produce is very reasonably priced, while everything else is way expensive. but yeah, that wall is AMAZING! great loose leaf tea!
One great way to save is going to Save a Lot. Their bananas are usually 3 lbs/$1.00 but when they start to get over-ripe they mark them down to 25 cents per lb. I peel them and freeze them on cookie sheets to use in smoothies and banana bread.
Would love to know some produce markets on the west side.
Not sure exactly where you are, but Tacoma Boys is one of my favorites! 😀 They have ground beef (frozen) for a great price too! 🙂