car free grocery shopping savings

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

another solution for getting the kids around..

elj2287

Hehe! Love the pictures!

Well done you for biking it!! Mine is currently being repaired so will be using that to get around locally when it is fixed. Sadly I have to use my car for work as it is 25 miles away and it is needed to get to remote/rural areas.

Also do you find it a lot less stressful on a bike?! Much nicer than attempting to driving round the supermarket car park where peoples road sense seems to go straight out the window!

dawkins

I'm another bicycle shopper. After we heard our car needed several hundred quid of work to get through the MOT, with the prospect of over a grand extra needed shortly after, shopping by bike became the sensible option! It was originally pretty easy as our local supermarket (Waitrose) is only 5 minutes cycle, but since money got tighter I've taken to making half hour expeditions to the next town for some cheaper options. I have to admit that the prospect of making the journey is always daunting, but once I get going it is fine. I have two panniers, plus a large rucksack, and am shopping for two greedy people (and two cats!) so I have just about enough room. I bring a spare fold up bag and always have my bungy cords, so if anything amazing on offer catches my eye, I can tie it on the bit between the panniers.

fedupfreda

Hi folks

I have always shopped by bike (could never afford driving lessons let alone afford to buy and run a car...) and apart from a 'blip' of internet shopping when the kids were small (try negotiating 2 toddlers and a fully laden bicycle - not fun) have found that I can do the weeks shopping for a family of 4 in 2 trips, but then I am lucky enough to live in a town with a decent variety of shops, all fairly close to each other. The local farm shop is a 15 minute bike ride away, travelling mainly via a riverside path, although I do have to watch out crossing one road, which leads directly to the A1 and has a 50mph speed limit, but you wouldn't know it to see the way some people drive :mad:

However I have noticed in recent months more and more people using their bikes, I have even seen a few with 'bike hod' type trolleys but they are a bit too expensive for me, so until I can afford the proper trolley, I shall continue with the panniers and a couple of bags on the handlebars. I find I just need to plan my shopping - get the meat and frozen items in one trip, then groceries and veg in another.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Hi fedupfreda, I googled 'bike hod carriers' and came up with this site http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://bp0.blogger.com/_GiPPIe9CEf0/Rzm6QMwlJeI/AAAAAAAAADs/NQaxIHqISYw/s320/bikehod.jpg&imgrefurl=http://onelessvan.blogspot.com/&h=302&w=300&sz=15&hl=en&start=2&um=1&usg=__s5oztLNgAxpoMk0CSck0YiwMoNE=&tbnid=mtWbU-eEP9fY1M:&tbnh=116&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbike%2Bhod%2Bcarrier%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGGLG,GGLG:2005-40,GGLG:en%26sa%3DN which has some good ideas for carrying loads.

One thing that surprises me is that you don't feel the weight of the shopping as the bike seems to take all the load.

I've just been to Wilkos and got loads of bits, also stopped off at the charity shop and got some clothes bargains, feel quite virtuous and eco-ish!

I agree, there seems to be a lot more people cycling these days, I thought it was me just noticing it due to being more bike orientated. Had trouble parking up today due to all the lamposts being taken up by other bikes...

fedupfreda

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

One thing that surprises me is that you don't feel the weight of the shopping as the bike seems to take all the load.

Hi Desperate Housewife, its probably because I don't get that much shopping compared with a lot of other people, my weekly bill usually averages £60, since the cat passed away I no longer have to worry about tins of cat food and massively heavy bags of cat litter, that used to take one trip on its own :eek: Also I don't get that much in the way of tinned food and tend to buy a weeks worth of meat at a time, rather than stocking a freezer. Its more bulky than heavy. Also when I was younger I used to help my mum get the shopping by bike, every Friday we would load up the bikes and wobblingly make our way home, so I guess you could say I am used to it !

BTW thanks for the link, something to think on once Xmas is out of the way.

Ben84

I've not had a car for a long time now, and I only normally have the time to catch the bus in to the city once a week, and it costs £3.50. Sadly the supermarket is not that close to the bus stop and our apartment isn't anywhere near the stop the other end either. Good shopping bags are essential, those flimsy throw away ones are not going to last the journey home. It does also make you much more focused on how much you're buying and how much you need it.

I try to work around the issue that bigger packets are cheaper by buying one big item a week, for example a packet of pasta or a box of washing powder. It averages out over time as I don't have these items in smaller packets in my shopping every week.

The big problem I have is drinks. Bottles of milk and cartons of fruit juice are so heavy. At first I would always run out of both by the end of the week, but I drink a lot more tap water now because it's there in unlimited volumes without any carrying up stairs and on buses.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

I agree with fedupfreda and ben84 about the weight of things, also about drinking more tap water!

I managed to get into town today and had a rummage in the poundshop, they had 4 cadbury selection boxes for £3 so I opened them all and binned the wrappings and plastic trays and the choccies fit nice and snug in my rucksack!

I can see my dustbin being empty at the end of the week at this rate!

[Deleted User]

I gave my car away and use my bike almost every day. I keep a list going in the kitchen and buy some things off the list every time I go out. I have 2 ortlieb panniers and carry a heavy lock!! and have done about 700 miles since july 20th. It is brilliant being on the bike and my cheeks are rosy all the time.

I like my bike so much that it is kept on a rug in front of the radiator in my kitchen

edit: I sometimes remove the outer packaging so that I don`t waste space in the panniers

Bargain_Rzl

Ben84 wrote: »

I've not had a car for a long time now, and I only normally have the time to catch the bus in to the city once a week, and it costs £3.50. Sadly the supermarket is not that close to the bus stop and our apartment isn't anywhere near the stop the other end either. Good shopping bags are essential, those flimsy throw away ones are not going to last the journey home. It does also make you much more focused on how much you're buying and how much you need it.

Get a good trolley. Seriously. I live in an area with a lot of streetmarkets and a lot of families without cars, and loads of people have trolleys. It makes life so much easier than carrying bags everywhere! Also, if you live in an upper floor flat, get a stair-climbing one (like this one - you can probably find cheaper ones elsewhere) because I didn't and I wish I had!