After we were married and first started living on our own, like most families, we bought most of our fruit and vegetables from the nearby Woolsworth supermarket. However I was never 100% happy with the produce they brought in or their prices, especially when we only had the SO's income to live by, so I was always on the lookout for alternatives.

We now shop at the Westend Davies Park weekend market for our fresh produce, which has been pretty good. Our weekly grocery bill for fruit and vegetables fluctuates between $10 to $35, depending on how impressed with the week's crop I am. But I'm not very good with buying fruit.

Since first learning of online grocery services and food boxes, I've been wanting to try them out and see if they would suit our lifestyle. I like the idea of convenience and the element of surprise with receiving a box of what's in season every week, rather than making up a grocery list every week and hunting down what we need, only to realise the quality of the produce is crap.

So to add a little more spice, I am starting a weekly challenge over the next few months to compare the value of fruit/vegetable boxes against what we can get at the Westend Davies Park markets.

But to ensure we compare apples with apples as much as possible, here are a couple of controls:

• The spend must be $30 a week.
  This won't include delivery charges, if any. Just $30 on the produce.
  
• There must be fruit AND vegetables every week.
  That'll force us to eat more fruit, which should be a good thing.

But how am I going to assess value?

• Of course the quality of produce. If they're organic, I'll mention that too.
  
• Whether the total purchase is enough to feed 2 adults 2 meals (lunch and dinner) a day over 7 days. On the reverse, was there any wastage at the end of the week?
  
• The convenience (ie. how easy is it to order, receive, etc)
  
• The service (ie. are they friendly? Are they willing to assist me with my undoubtedly stupid questions?)

And I already have the first contender lined up for the next post. Talk about being efficient! (^0^)/

Is there anything else you'd like to know during this challenge?