a month without supermarket - new challenge for 2011 starts at post 1013

[Deleted User]

artichoke pm sent

Pitlanepiglet

This is an interesting one for me. As neither of us have a job at the moment our key driver is budget. We also live rurally so our Tesco delivery from the "big store" 30 miles away is a lot cheaper than shopping locally.

I wish that we could go back 40 years to a bustling high street but unfortunately the genie appears to be out of the bottle and all of our food stores are a bit "boutique" like.

I'm not convinced by Co-op, our local store has always been more expensive than the bigger store in the next town and I've always felt that this was objectionable as it penalised those who couldn't get to the bigger store. We now have a Tesco Express in town and I suspect that the Co-op has now matched its prices in the other store.

I have switched to buying fruit and veg from our local farm shop, it's actually not much more expensive than Tesco, excluding the loss leader special offers found at Tesco or Lidl.

I'd love to do more but I'm not sure that our budget can stretch to it.

hex2

kittie wrote: »

re fish I get mine online in bulk for the freezer and it is good too

http://www.frozenfishdirect.co.uk/

Looks good - thanks!

Caterina

Hi people, count me in! When I checked with the rest of the family the only one who objected a bit was my son but I assured him that I would not be buying anything fancy anyway, supermarket or not, because of an economy drive in January (I am no longer working so only one income in the family) and therefore there would be nothing special from the supermarket. He grudgingly accepted the situation.

In reality, it is only a state of mind for him because when I do scratch cooking (e.g. pizza, gnocchi, the sort of things that I would buy from the supermarket) he likes them a lot more than the shop-bought stuff.

So I have put my first order of the new year with Riverford, for my box of mixed fruit and veg and some eggs. I have a well stocked larder as I buy organic food in bulk via my old business contact, and if I go short of something there is always the minimarket down the road, which is a one-person owned independent shop which I am pleased to support. Bread will come from our local bakery and all other things from a mix of local shops, health food shop, organic delivery, farmers market and regular markets (I am near two fairly big ones, Lewisham and Deptford). Wish me luck!

hex2

Good luck Caterina

DH was sat next to me when I was having a look at the fish websites. He is now signed up and enthusiastic about the idea, which will combine with his annual 'be healthy' new year effort. I know when we had the veg boxes we ate a lot more of it to use it up.

The gorwing co-op looks good but I can see a snag. I am lucky in that I have a big garden and can grow a lot of my own veg. I already have gluts of toms, courgettes and beans that usually end in the freezer without getting another 7kg of it to try and process. With the veg box schemes I just switch them off in the summer. I like A&C who let me switch off things like courgettes which I have a frozen mountain of.

jjef

Hi,

Count me in for this challenge, I had allready made a start towards the end of last year to start using more local companies for our fresh produce, so far I have a weekly veg box delivered and I have been using the local fish van which comes weekly - this has been used only occasionally but I will be making an effort to use weekly from now on.

For 2011 I will add in using the local butcher for all meat, the village deli for all milk, bread, cheese etc. We are also fortunate to have a small co-op which i will use for all other fresh produce required.

I currently visit costco every 6 months and stock up on kitchen rolls, toilet rolls, washing powder, cans of juice, crisps and some toiletries, I plan to continue making use of costco but went in December so dont need to go back until the summer.

I am hoping that by shopping locally I will be able to get back in control of the grocery budget as this has been steadily creeping up this year.

roosterpotatoes

Count me in too.

[Deleted User]

I have done it, made my order for delivery next week. No meat this time as my freezer is too full. Veg, milk eggs etc all nice stuff and only £3 delivery, cheaper than getting the car out. Sometime this week I`ll be making a seed sowing plan for my new allotment and I am going to be strict with myself re not sowing too many at a time

Veg in bags worked extremely well by the way, before I had the allotment.

lil_me

I'm in as I have done for some time now. I had to use T god I hate that shop over Christmas as I was given £200 to use there but once I figured I could use it on fuel I only did one shop there.

For me it's more about ethical than even local, most of our local shops are now chains so I travel further to farm shops etc. If I have to use a supermarket it's usually Sainsburys, Coop or M&S. M&S tends to be just when I can't cope with a queue in Sainsburys for the sake of salt or something. I do bulk buy some things from Costco but try to use my local pharmacy (not the Boots one!) for those sorts of things. The one a little drive away (about 4 miles) where we used to live does great offers on cleaning stuff, toiletries, loo rolls/kitchen rolls all sorts and I pop in when I am over that way. We get milk from the milkman which I depend on completely, I don't care if it costs pence more as it stops me going to the shops!

I have been ordering some thing from smaller specialist businesses online including eBay and other websites mainly for - natural cleaning products, yeast/flour improver, clothing, cheeses that I can't get from the farm etc. They're not local to me but they are smaller specialist traders I would like to support

emuratty

I would love to not have to go to the supermarket and to be able to buy all my food from my local market etc. I love the butchers and greengrocers on my market, but my problem is time.....working and studying, plus OH and 2 kids takes up most of my time during the daytime and limits my opportunities to visit the market regularly. I would love to be able to do a HUGE monthly shop for meat, bread etc at the market, but then struggle with carrying it all back to car or on the bus.

We were just talking about this the other day, and wondering why local markets don't provide a shopping trolly which you can wheel around visiting all the different stalls and do a big shop easily and then wheel it all back to your car. Or I would happily pay a couple of pounds for them to deliver a large order to me at home.

My second problem is cost, although I know I can buy my meat and fruit/veg cheaper (and better quality) from the market, it is all the other things - toiletries, cleaning products, toilet rolls etc, which are much cheaper in the supermarkets.

My plan for 2011 is to do a monthly shop at LIDL or ALDI for my tinned goods, cereals, toiletries, cleaning products etc. Visit my local market once or twice a month for meat and fruit/veg. And then just do a "top up" shop to the supermarket for other items when needed. I will meal plan every week to make sure I am using what I have first before buying more stuff, and to ensure that I only buy what I need.

Incidentally, a few people have mentioned getting milk from the milkman, but when I looked in to this it was much more expensive than getting from the supermarket, has anyone else found that too?