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

COOLTRIKERCHICK

looking back on how we started etc...

I would say maybe just start off slowly.. if you want to change your shopping habbits long term...

Maybe the first week, find a good bucher, then maybe the second week, find a good fruit and veg supplier, whether its a local market, farm shop or box delivery scheme.

we have a local market ( if you can call 4 stall a market..lol..) 2 of them are fruit and veg stalls, ok the fruit and veg are not local, but they are independants up early in the mornings and setting up market stalls in diff places every day.. so this week i am going back to buy off them.


If you fell this challenge isnt going to work for you, then maybe if you just use one or two local businesses you will be helping... maybe rather than buying your magazines/papers in the supermarket, find a local newsagent, or use a independant petrol station.... etc

flea72

emuratty wrote: »

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?

it depends on what type of milk your milkman delivers. my local one still uses glass pint bottles, which means if you order full fat, its got a lovely glob of cream in the top - but it does mean i have to pay the single pint rate, which although is similar to buying single pints at the supermarket, doesnt work out as cheap as buying the 4 or 6pt plastic vats

however, some milk delivery companies, just deliver the big plastic bottles like you get in the supermarkets, and the price is usually comparable then

i think most people suggest using the milkman, as its invariably milk that people run out of, and forces you to do a run to the supermarket, whereby you get sucked into the 'bargains' and end up buying more than just the milk you went in for - so thereby paying a few extra pence per pint to the milkman, overall still works out cheaper, as you can avoid the lure of the supermarket

F

lil_me

Emuratty there are some very funky shopping trollies, would that help? If you search on eBay for shopping trolley wheels, there is even fold away ones. I know growing up we never had a car and did the weekly shop on bikes with bags attached or walked with the trolley (I'm only 32 so not talking 50+ years ago) My old butcher elsewhere would always offer to deliver if I needed so it's worth asking.

I try to buy local grown where possible, or at minimum ethically produced but I know I need to be careful as I've fallen out with traders for

1) selling eggs as FR that were not
2) selling veg as local grown then being caught out at the cash and carry buying it or leaving 'egypt' labels on etc
3) selling locally produced jams which were in fact relabelled pound store specials

Because local and ethical has become more fashionable some really do push it so have your wits about you!

Milk yes it costs more, just under £8 for 4 x 4 pints I think, I tend to pay a few weeks at a time, but it's delivered to my door then they collect payment from my door, so no fuel costs/hassle, it's from a local dairy that don't just pay farmers peanuts, it stops me spending £10 every time I pop out just for milk. Times like bad weather, he NEVER failed to deliver this year, offered extra if I needed it and the local supermarkets had no milk at all. Priceless!

Thing is to add with try it gradually you've got to want to do it and not just for financial reasons

Spiggle

Lily-Lu wrote: »

I got sick of seeing local shops close down; less and less personal service and friendly faces behind a counter.
... old-fashioned brown paper bags - lovely:D
After thinking about it, I actully felt a little guilty because I'd been a contributor to their closure by doing most of my food shop in the local supermarket. ...
Yes, it tends to be a little more expensive, but I don't impulse buy, as I was inclinded to do previously in the supermarket; so I would say on-the-whole, I've actually saved money:)
... I see the co-op as being generally ethical, and don't really see it as a supermarket as such, then perhaps I can get them from there and still have a clear conscience....We'll see:)
... There will come a time when many communities will have no other choice but to visit a supermarket, and I suspect there are even some places like that now:(
I think whatever steps people can take to keep their local shops' alive, whether it just be visiting the supermarket less, or choosing to buy just a few items regularly from a local independent shop, it'll all go towards keeping them ticking-over:)

I agree so much with what you have said Lily-Lu. We use the local Pet Shop to get our cat special diet. I discovered from one of the online hyper pet shops that we could buy much larger sacks which were far better economically. Instead of buying it online my OH rang the shop, asked if they could get the large sacks in and got a price that is 1p cheaper than the hyper pet shop. :T So same economic gain whilst helping to support a local small shop.

Ooh, yes nice brown paper bags great for storage, ripening fruit and putting in the compost bin when they're too holey or crumpled to use.

We're all guilty of contributing to it but we're also all together trying to do something about it which has got to be a good thing.

That the impulse buy in the sm pushes up expenditure I learnt through doing the Grocery Challenge. A list and strong resolve helps.

I don't have much option other than the Coop for the 'essentials' like loo roll - no costco or netto or any such thing around here - but I will be monitoring the costs. Money can only stretch so far.

I was talking to a friend only yesterday about this. As I said a couple of posts back, I used to do this and campaign about killing off communiies/town centres years ago. But I was then talking about towns. My friend had been to Cardiff which has for years been building a seemingly never ending construction of shopping centres - all in the centre but extending its periphery away from the heart iykwim - which now means that the pedetrianised main shopping street and the other non pedestrianised ones that were such a hubbub of shoppers now are losing all their big stores into the new 'centres'. But as each one gets finished units in the last new big one start emptying as the retailers want to be in the latest newer shinier one. When will planners realise that there are not an infinite number of retailers, shoppers, money or space? It really is sad.

We can really only do what we can and you're right even the smallest change to habits can help make a difference.

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

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.

Pitlanepiglet we can each only do what we can and what our budgets allow. It's a real shame that we can't go back but the way I look at it, if we can do something to help within our means then we can but try. Apart from the actual boutique, we are obviously lucky because our independent shops are not in any way 'boutique' just standard butcher, green grocer, pet shop, bakery (though these are chains) and deli. Plus the usual sp*r, b**ts, etc.

I often have thought that the Coop are a bit more expensive than the big four. Unfortunately, it seems to be the way in our upside down world that you pay more to have food produced in better local less intensive ways. You're probably right though that your local Coop will have to have brought its prices in some small way closer to the new competition.

Just a final thought about the f&v loss leaders in MrT (I don't know about L*dl). In the summer MrT had raspberries (or other summer fruit) on offer as a loss leader for a 'bargain' price of £1.99 per punnet. Seemed a great deal. My green grocer the same week had raspberries at £1.99 per punnet. Price matching you would think except that the greengrocer punnet was double the quantity of the MrT punnet and were English grown.

I hope things improve for you on the job front and 2011 is a good year for you.

Anyway, just some thoughts while I nurse my hangover! Happy New Year.

Take care all,
Spigs

parsonswife8

Buying from the milkman, keeps a person in a job, saves fuel and maintenance on your own car, or busfare, saves you having to go out in bad weather or if you are poorly and the milkman has a whole range of things that he will deliver to your doorstep.:D

No queues, no screaming kids, no battling to find a car space.:T

If you have your account online, you can add to your delivery, ask for it to be cancelled whilst you are away, etc etc.;)

We pay by a monthly direct debit and it works for us.

Kimitatsu

Hi all

Have been lurking on here for a while and am going to try not to visit the supermarket apart from basics. DS2 is lactose intolerant and so unfortunately I do need to go for specialist items for him, Asda is the only place around here which does yoghurt he can eat (just to make it complicated he is soya intolerant too!)

For anyone that lives in Lincoln or the surrounding areas can I reccomend Henriettas Garden for veg and eggs if you google them you can find them!

Its not a business as such but a community garden run by the mental health team and they sell their excess. The eggs are lovely - my chooks gave up laying in 2 ft of snow, so I went off there to get some and they are fab. So not only would you not be using a supermarket you would be helping a good cause too

lil_me

Ours isn't online parsonswife but I just text him if I want to change anything, doesn't do DD either but he's ex DFOB and set up on his own so think he's still finding his feet being a small business. I know if I needed something and was unwell he's probably someone I can call upon to help. Such a lovely man, even if he looks a thug with his tattoos and piercings he's such a lovely lovely man. He's helped 'out so many neighbours, saved one local old ladies life when he knew something was wrong, she didn't answer the door so he popped round after he'd done his rounds again and found her in the garage after a serious fall. Car accidents, housefire, you name it many milkmen are some of the only folks on the roads in the middle of the night so end up being first on scene for all sorts.

Not everything is about whats cheapest which is probably why we lost so much of our local Independant traders when price became priority

Kimitatsu have you tried Independant specialist retailers online for the produce you need?

greenbee

Milkmen have been known to rescue people ... they're good to have around

anguk

I love having a milkman. Not once through the bad weather has he missed a delivery, it's wonderful to open the back door to see 2 foot of snow and your milk on the doorstep. Ours only does milk, eggs, cream and orange juice but I can text him if I need any of those and he collects his money at the door every fortnight. I also have the Ringtons Tea lad call in his little van every month with my teabags!

I live on the outskirts of a small ex-pit town that is in rapid decline, we've got a big Asda, used to have a co-op but it's now Tesco and, as I understand it, Tesco are planning on building a massive superstore. I have mixed feelings about this, it will bring much needed jobs into the area but the high street is already full of empty shops as it is.

I hate, hate, hate supermarket shopping but unfortunately it's my OHs idea of a good day out, he loves shopping in them. :mad: I do go weekly to a fantastic farm shop (Knitsley for anyone in the Durham area), their meat is like nothing I've tasted before and they make all their own sausages, cooked meat, pies etc. and sell local cheese, butter & veg. Their prices are a bit dearer than the supermarket but well worth it, you can see the chickens in the fields and even the piglets growing and getting fat.

Kimitatsu

lil_me wrote: »

Kimitatsu have you tried Independant specialist retailers online for the produce you need?

Hi Lil me

I have! Unfortunately because they are chilled products not even the manufacturer does a delivery service - yet! I have suggested it but its the chilling that is the issue. I even tried the local milkman (that caused a few eyebrows to be raised!) although since it took 4 weeks to get them to tell me they couldnt supply organic milk (there lies a tale) then I didnt expect a lot.

Even though its a supermarket Waitrose seems to be best for the majority of stuff he needs and I like their ethical stance so its better than nothing, then quick whip into Asda for the lactose free stuff.

We have had small independant health food shops start up and they have stocked the stuff I have asked for, but living in a rural area unfortunately they havent lasted long, so I am still stuck back at square one.