Does anyone manage the monthly challenge shopping organic?

UltraCheap_2

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to come across a fairly large selection (for Costco) of organic foods like honey, baked beans, tinned tomatoes, tinned legumes. The prices were very reasonable as well, the tins were sold in a flat of 12, and the honey was sold in a pack of 3. The prices were about half the price of organic tins in Sainsburys.

I didn't have time to check and see if they were selling other items organic such as meat.

I don't got to costco's often, but a family member has a membership - and from my understanding, anyone can get one.

tiredwithtwins

just wanted to add that im struggling to get my weekly budget for 5 of us to under £80 at the moment!! i find it easier when kids at school cos i get down to sainsburys first thing and get whatever organic meat is reduced and work out our weekly menu from there. I chuck it all in the freezer as soon as i get home and defrost and use the day i want. good way of doing it

Hollysan

Doddsy - sorry not to reply sooner, I was out a lot this weekend. Basically I just phoned Rainbow in Norwich, who are one of the bigger wholefood wholesalers. We are lucky that they are quite nearby, but actually any of the bigger wholesalers will deliver if you order more than £150-200. There is Suma (East Midlands) and Infinity (Brighton) off the top of my head. When I started, about four of five years ago, they weren't very keen - I think because they were worried that little buying groups of individuals would mean less business for their main customers, the health food shops etc. I am all for supporting local health food shops, and actually it was the stuff we normally bought in supermarkets that we were thinking of eg washing powder, rice, pasta etc. I still buy lots of things like raisins and spices from the shop. Anyway, we found in the end that it helped to have numbers, and for a while I did it through a bigger buying group in Norwich. Someone else took over running it from me a couple of years ago, and went straight back to the wholesaler, and found that they were more helpful this time. It helps if you have an identity - we were largely mums from the local playgroup, and we bought stuff for playgroup as well sometimes. However, I think that they have got more used to buying groups now and realise that it is largely people who want to reduce dependency on supermarkets, for various reasons.

This is how we organise it - everyone phones or emails me their order (everyone has a catalogue to select from, some are quite out of date but we sort out the prices later). I go online and order it all from Rainbow (excellent service, by the way, but I'm sure they are all doing this now) and then I go and pick it up from the warehouse. The trickiest bit is the money. We do it at the beginning of the month so that I can pay by cheque, distribute the goods, together with an invoice, and then everyone reimburses me. This obviously depends on someone being willing to put the bill through their own bank account. When I collect the goods, I am given a printed invoice, and I take that home and put each individual's items onto Excel and print off an invoice for them.

The other way of doing it, which I have heard of, is to get people to put in a float, but I am not sure how well that might work. I think it is best to keep the group fairly small, otherwise the order would be huge, and although you could get it delivered, you would obviously be talking about large amounts of money. Also it mean more work, more time etc. We have found that around half a dozen families or individuals is best. We share things like large bags of rice and boxes of pasta.

So, I would start by looking at the wholesaler's websites and then give them a ring - you would need to get some people together first, and then you set up an account in one of your names and off you go...

Hollysan

yallapilko

I spend £300 / month including cleaning products etc, for 2 of us. Again it seems excessive with all the other budgets and I'm interested in making this less.
Currently, I buy all organic, and buy at tescos online.
I will only buy british meat though.
Can anyone post any more online organic british meat shops?
Where is the nene valley one? Anyone got a link?

owenwoodcock89

I spend about £30 a week on organic meat and organic veg for my partner and myself. I don't buy from a super markets though, I use a farm based in Wales which is located closer to where I live.
I get boxes rather than buying separate products and it works out cheaper.

2childmum

i notice you mention that you include petrol in your weekly spend - are you including anything else? Different people include different things in their weekly/monthly total - some only mention food, some include toiletries, cleaning stuff, eating out, alcohol, lunch money for the kids etc etc. You may find you are not comparing like with like and therefore aren't doing as badly as you think! Plus it's not a competition!

Having said that, there are great ideas here!