A budget-conscious family has revealed the simple way they’ve cut down on their weekly grocery spend, admitting their only regret is not considering supermarket alternatives sooner.
Trudy Boatwright, 48, said rising supermarket prices finally got the better of her and her partner, Miles, so they ditched Coles and Woolworths in favour of a subscription-based produce box.
They join the 86 per cent of Aussies who have taken steps to reduce their grocery costs to combat cost-of-living pressures, new research from ING suggests.
The Melbourne-based mum told Yahoo News they spend $50 a week on a “huge” produce box for her family of three, which she says is roughly half of what they were spending at Coles or Woolworths for the same amount of food.
Inside the boxes are a variety of fruit and vegetables, including broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, apples, avocados, bananas, lemons, oranges, and even herbs and garlic. The offerings change on a seasonal basis.
They decided on Funky Foods, one of many online services that deliver fresh produce boxes straight to customers’ doors.
It uses fruit and veg rejected by major supermarkets for minor imperfections, so it’s often priced more affordably.
“We just thought we would try one box to see what it was like, and then we’ve never gone back,” she told Yahoo News.
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Trudy purchased a box of produce for $50 (left), which she says is far cheaper than Coles or Woolworths.
(Trudy Boatwright/Getty)
“It just came to a moment where we were looking at how expensive food production was getting.”
They’ve only been using it for three or four weeks, but said it’s been an absolute “game changer”.
She suggests cash-strapped Aussies should consider other alternatives too.
Why do supermarkets reject imperfect produce?
According to ING, 2 in 3 Aussies (65 per cent) are opting to purchase imperfect produce to save money, with 71 per cent saying they’re not bothered by how it can sometimes look.
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Supermarket standards are “primarily set on aesthetics,” Farmers Pick co-founder Josh Ball told Yahoo News previously.
“Five to 50 per cent of any crop can get rejected because of the way it looks, either because of its size — it’s too big or too small — or it has a blemish on it,” he said.
But the quality is “amazing,” Trudy concluded
“We’re saving money because we’re using everything and it’s much tastier,” she said.
They’re also eating more fresh food because of it.
The 48-year-old said she’s also felt the price of staples increase drastically, specifically milk, which is “becoming more and more expensive”.
So they’re forced to be more “conscious” about how they save some dollars where they can, and she recommends other Aussies do the same.
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