Coupon Mom: Fresh produce - AmericaNowNews.com

Purchasing fresh produce at the grocery store is a healthy choice, but it can get expensive pretty quickly if you shop without a plan. "Coupon Mom" Stephanie Nelson shares some savings strategies for buying fresh fruits and vegetables.

"You can be smart about how you shop by buying produce in season," says Stephanie. "For example, when you buy in-season fruits and vegetables, you'll usually pay half of what it costs out of season. That's an easy way to save."

For example, in the Fall acorn squash is a good buy. During the winter, you can get a lower price on grapefruit. Come spring, go for the asparagus … and summer's great for enjoying and saving on cherries.

Stephanie says you also want to be more aware of how much produce costs per serving.

"For example, this apple at $2.49 a pound actually costs about $1.30 an apple, and this banana at 59 cents a pound costs about 20 cents a banana. So in theory with my family of four, if we had one banana a day instead of one apple a day, we'd actually save about $100 a month," says Stephanie.

And that's just comparing apples and bananas. Stephanie says you can also save on vegetables by not buying the pre-cut salads and veggies.

"If it takes you less than five minutes to prepare produce, you can skip the cost of convenience and save money," says Stephanie. "For example, this cabbage is 50 cents a pound. It'll only take me a few minutes to shred this cabbage. If I were to buy the cole slaw already shredded, it'll cost me $2.00 a pound.  I'm saving $1.50 a pound with a few minutes' work."

Stephanie says another way to save is to compare prices between stores, and even look at "no-frills" discount stores for deals on produce.

"And also look at warehouse clubs," says Stephanie. "If you find that the warehouse club has the lowest prices on produce, but you have a small family, you could shop with a friend and divide the quantity so you both get the savings."

By using all of these strategies, you may actually cut your produce bill in half.

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