Moving from urban to rural area

BrandNewDay

I currently live right in the center of Gloucester. I can walk to Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, and Iceland. Not to mention a bunch of charity shops and other cheap shops. I can walk everywhere. I can go to the stores that have the best BOGOF offers or whatever.

I'm about to move to a small village in rural Scotland, about two hours from Glasgow. The nearest supermarkets are a co-op about 20 minutes away and a Tesco about an hour away. I will have to drive everywhere. Even to the post office. (Petrol is a couple of cents higher there, too.)

What tips do you have on how to save money?

kiwichick

Sounds difficult. All I can offer by way of advice is to try and save up a bunch of things that need doing in town so your journey maybe takes the best part of a day but means you wont have to keep popping back in. That would save on petrol. Maybe makes the food shopping the last thing you do that day and try to get to tesco later, say 6pm or 7pm, from reading posts here it seems that is when they start reducing things. Once you know the neighbours, if there are any, you might find one you can share a shopping trip with so you can split the petrol cost.

Also, I know its a long shot being as they are so far away from you, can you see if they deliver?? We are in a small village with no shops/post offices, strangely though we have 2 pubs! I shop online and noticed a neighbour having deliveries too so plucked up the courage to ask if she wanted to do a bulk order with me. We often have a big enough order to get a decent amount of money off from online vouchers and split the delivery cost. Its working out cheaper than going to the shops.

angchris

i too live in gloucester:D but my parents live out in the sticks, my mum meal plans for the month (or if you find it easier you can meal plan for 2 weeks) write lists of everything you might need for your meals including bread/milk which can be frozen, so you can literally live off of what you have. get yourself a large freezer and bulk buy any bargains. when my mum goes shopping (20 miles away) she has a list of jobs to do along the way and organises her journey and does it all in one swoop rather than back and forth all month saving petrol, walk to your local pub/village hall for the night out rather than taxis back from town. get to know your neighbours as where my parents live it is like a local cooperative and neighbours are always bringing their surplus garden produce/eggs and between the village there is probably most proffesions working there or somebody knows someone so they normally either get work done for free or at a nominal cost or by swapping their talents. my dad mows a little ol ladies grass and gets inundated with homemade jams/chutneys/cakes and knitted jumpers (proper old fashioned granny type chrimbo jumpers :rotfl: ) the key is to try and make friends as it makes life in rural areas not so lonely, good luck in glasgow, angchris

trigger2

ooh lucky you - where is it that you're going ? It sounds just the sort of thing we like (but haven't the guts to as my son has to go to hospital fairly frequently as he has bad asthma). My only advice would be, like everyone elses probably, save & do a once a month shop at the tesco, then top up with necessary bits from your local shop. Stock up on all your OS ingredients so you can always make soup, cakes, stews etc etc. Hope you have a fab time & enjoy it there !

AussieLass

I live on a little island off the coast of Oz. It takes me 20 mins ferry trip to get to the mainland. I then have to catch the bus to the supermarket with my Wally Trolley as DH needs the car for his work. :mad: It's such a pain in the neck tbh. There is only so much I can pack in Wally as once I get off the ferry I have a 10 min walk home and it get's heavy.

I meal plan & really cook from scratch. Try and get bulk in which will cut down on trips. I would go to Tesco once a month for the big shop & then a top up at Co-op in between.

Your lucky in that you have a car and you'll be able to work around it. I took that for granted. A couple of weeks ago, while I was waiting for the bus at the s'centre I looked at my watch and it was 11am. When I walked in the door it was 12.30pm. Due to the bus/ferry times it can take me that long to get home where before I would be home in 5 mins.

Try your hand at veggie growing too.

Essex-girl_2

Hello

I did this 18 months ago and havnt looked back myself. I used to have a co-op and safeway in walking distance and a short drive to all the other major supermarkets. I often used to pop into the co-op for a loaf of bread and come out at least £10 worse off so I dont have that problem now. I do have Tesco home delivery and I work out my shopping list much more carefully and generally do meal plan. I am also lucky have farm shops nearby (short drive) where can top up my veg.

apprentice_tycoon

My only addition to what everyone else has said is to always have plenty of groceries in so that you never run out of anything.
When you get started up there buy 2 of everything and when the first one runs out you put it on your shopping list to replace it BUT you still have the 2nd one there as backup, if you keep this system going you'll never run out of the staples.

Also I think that it would be a good idea to have a couple of ready meals in the freezer for emergencies, either bought or HM because I assume you won't have a takeaway near by and there will be days when you can't cook for some reason and those will be the days you miss the convienience of the city

As everyone else says make a good comprehensive list to take into town, include expected items like birthday cards, maybe get the whole famillies ones in one go so that you don't run out.

I think that Essex-girl made a good point, if you aren't going to the shops often then you cut down on the impulse buys so you'll save money that way.

Chipps

Definitely planning! As everyone else has said, make the most of trips to town. I have a monthly trip to the big town, when I do a trip round all the shops not available locally. A menu plan will help, but do try to think of everything you are likely to need, as you can't just pop back - well, not cheaply, anyway! - if you have missed something! Once you know where everything is in the area, try and plan the most efficient route round, taking in all the important things, like post office, supermarket, garage etc. With petrol/diesel prices being so high at the moment it's really important to get as organised as possible. You may need to be even more organised in winter, if travelling conditions get difficult.

BrandNewDay

Thanks for your suggestions, guys.
I did check - Tesco won't deliver to our address. This bummed me out - I was hoping to use them once a month or so for bulk toilet paper/laundry soap/etc orders.

I did buy an additional freezer. We have a regular fridge freezer, but I got one that had rather less freezer space than fridge space, and then got a smallish additional freezer for our utility room. Together, they make a fairly good-sized freezer. I am rather afraid of having too MUCH freezer, as I'm sometimes inclined to forget about stuff in the freezer. But, I do think we'll definitely have enough room to only need to buy meats/frozen foods once a month.

My husband's job is located next to a Spar, so he can bring home milk when it's needed. I'm hoping to use cloth diapers with this next baby to save money, too.

tootles_2

The way not to have too much in the freezer is to check each month BEFORE you do your shopping list and see what you can make for meals from whats in there, alsways leave enough for some extras 'just in case'.

We lived in a remote area for a while, I always made sure I had flour for bread, rice, pasta tinned tomatos breakfast cereal etc. You can freeze milk, I used to buy the 4 pint bottles, tip out a bit and then freeze them, remember to take it out the night before you want to use it........you could also keep in some longlife milk as a standby, we use Tesco value milk regularly now and have done for a number of years, its cheaper than buying fresh milk and you do not have to store it in the fridge until its opened.

I turned a cupboard in one of the bedrooms into a store cupboard, took stuff from there to stock the kitchen cupboards and then made up my shopping list, when you have taken out from the store buy a new one........and put all the packaged stuff into the store cupboard, that way you have a good standby for bad weather and believe me you can get bad weather in Scotland, but having said that I regret leaving..... but my job took me south and then family dicated that we came back to the Midlands.

Good luck...... it might be a good idea to sort out some sort of hobby to keep yourself busy..... it was when we were in Scotland I took up quilting.....