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

sharronej

I'd like to join the challenge please - I have completely lost faith in the Supermarkets after reading about the selling of Halal meat without making it public knowledge therefore taking away our choices.

I was very shocked to find the Co-op on the list, the Supermarket which came out best was M0rris0ns British sourced meat. This set me off thinking about the shops available in our area - I think we are quite lucky really we currently have a Greengrocers, 2 Bakeries,a Hardware store, 1 completely independent mini mart, 4 franchised mini marts and a small Co-op, a Chemist and 2 Post Offices - one main and the other a small family owned store we also have a local newspaper shop and corner shop - which is of course very expensive. We have Butchers in nearby towns and our Milkman offers the Milk and More service. I already use the Greengrocers and the Milkman so my only concern is whether or not I can afford to use these other independents too. I've spoken to my dh and kids (well young adults actually) and we've agreed that we would rather cut our meat consumption to maybe three times a week in order to buy good quality meat which has been treated humanely as livestock.

I've got a budget of fifty pounds a week which needs to feed four adults so I'll give it a go and see how far we get!

JustKeepSwimming_2

I've just checked to see if there is a milkman in my area, & the only one listed is part of the Dairy Crest company (Milk&More). While I like the idea of supporting local businesses, the nearest depot listed is 14 miles away, & I wondered if anyone had any experience/comments about this service? I'd prefer milk in proper, glass bottles & I like that there is no minimum (regular) order, but I'm on a tight budget & their milk is 17p more per pint than MrT (my nearest supermarket).

I don't drive, so online deliveries are great for me, as I don't drive, but I do hate the whole "supermarket" thing. I'll go back to the beginning of this thread & see if it helps me make up my mind (I may be some time...)

greenbee

The current issues of Ethical Consumer covers supermarkets. They're doing a free one-month trial subscription at the moment, and £29.95 for a 12 month subcription including access to all the online resources. It might be a worthwhile investment.

(I get the magazine... need to upgrade to the online version...)

Cheapskate

I've read small chunks of this thread & am going to try hard with this one. We have branches of all 4 major supermarkets in our town, plus a few Co-ops, M&S, Lidl & Aldi; my son works for one on the list & we get staff discount, so will be hard to cut down or stop completely! My village has a butcher, a greengrocer & a couple of bakers, & we've a few farm shops less than 1/2 hour drive away. I'm also lucky enough to have an independent milkman, who's fabulous.
Will spend tomorrow reading more, & will def be back to chat & ask for help!
Thanks in advance.
A xo

sharronej

JustKeepSwimming wrote: »

I've just checked to see if there is a milkman in my area, & the only one listed is part of the Dairy Crest company (Milk&More). While I like the idea of supporting local businesses, the nearest depot listed is 14 miles away, & I wondered if anyone had any experience/comments about this service? I'd prefer milk in proper, glass bottles & I like that there is no minimum (regular) order, but I'm on a tight budget & their milk is 17p more per pint than MrT (my nearest supermarket).

I don't drive, so online deliveries are great for me, as I don't drive, but I do hate the whole "supermarket" thing. I'll go back to the beginning of this thread & see if it helps me make up my mind (I may be some time...)

I've had no problems with the milk and more and the way I look at it is that it is making life a little easier for our Milkman - giving him access to sell more than just milk. I know that now I've decided to give this a go and only buy from independents that my milk bill has the potential to double but I think I'm going to give it until Easter and then reassess (unless anything drastic happens inbetween now and then!)

mineallmine

This is an interesting challenge. For us:

- pet food - either direct from the vet for specialist stuff sadly or from local garden centre. So far so good.

- meat - already prefer ham from the local butchers. I like free range chicken. So could explore the butchers for that too. Don't eat much other meat.

- veg - only thing I've found is that from markets the veg doesn't last long. But I guess with a bit of planning you could manage this ok.

- bread - have a breadmaker, currently buy the mixes from A**a. Mmm - not sure where to get there. We do have a local mini market shop that may sell them.

- drink/pop/squash/teabags - we do drink far too much pop. So that leaves squash, teabags and coffee capsules too. Again maybe the mini market.

I guess like the OP says that even if one week we decide to try a local or independent supply for one type of food, then that's ok.

Finally, just remembered we have a number of Asian stores here that are good for bits and bobs. One sells a brown sauce that I had only seen in Selfridges before!!! Unbelievable.

Will keep an eye on this thread to remind me what we could do differently. Besides we cant all moan about the loss of shops when we dont do anything to support them.

[Deleted User]

thank you greenbee, I am looking through the site now. This one looks interesting re running costs
http://www.sust-it.net/

you can put your own energy tariff in

my own whirlpool dishwasher costs about 20p per cycle plus the cost of the tab. I am getting an owl monitor soon so will be accurate re costs. It all fits in with not using supermarkets ie going back to basics and that also means (for me) value for money re housekeeping. It is one whole ethical package

[Deleted User]

where can I get seville oranges? The short season is about to start and I don`t want to miss out. I am going to make a years worth of marmalade as I have tried a variation on the standard recipe that cut the prep time to a fraction

I used an electric squeezer and collected the pips for a muslin bag
Then I simply minced the rind and pith using a very os porkert mincer
Then just added normal sugar and boiled

If I can do this then I won`t be looking anywhere for good marmalade and I`ll be saving a lot, which will help with the no-supermarket ethic as it is going to be swings and roundabouts

JustKeepSwimming_2

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

kscour....... if you ever go to swansea for a day out let me know.. we could meet up..... and we can go to swansea market...........i very rarely go to swansea now.... but when i go i allways buy cockles from the market yummmmm..........

Still ploughing through this thread, but had to comment on this! I lived in Swansea many years ago & scoffed many cartons of cockles from the market . We'd often get the bus to Caswell & try & save some for eating on the beach, but usually end up eating them all on the bus! If we we're feeling flush we'd walk round to Limeslade & treat ourselves to ice cream at Fortes. Happy Days.

Really wish I lived there now as I'd do all my shopping in the market. Is there anything you can't get there?

[Deleted User]

I am definitely going with this one as I really want to save as much as possible this year .My DD got laid off Christmas week so until she manages to get another job I will be helping her out with food ect .I have a fairly stuffed freezer and cupbaords are overflowing I am staying away from as many shops as I can.luckily I do have a good local greengrocer ,or there is the farm shop for veggies as well.good time to re-access my stock control I think as well