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

mineallmine

kymbogs wrote: »

I've just looked up Aldi's cat litter and it's £1.79 for 10kg compared to £1.55 for 10kg from Tesco, I know Aldi still isn't brilliant but I'd rather give them my money than Tesco - and I can send DH down there to lug it back up the hill ;-)

I'd rather spend it elsewhere than Tesco too. Their buying of land to keep out competitors and so on is incredibly aggressive. And points don't mean prizes, they mean boarded up shops.

Caterina

Today was my first challenging day. I needed quite a few bits and pieces. I asked the kids whether they needed/wanted anything as I tend to involve them in the decisions about what to cook.

DS was like "what, anything non-supermarket?" but DD was much more receptive. I asked for suggestions about where to get frozen peas (one of their favourite stand-by foods for a quick hot meal). So we had a quick discussion and agreed on foods that I could buy in local shops, in fact when I suggested a vegetable soup using curly endive, which DS loves, he was quite enthusiastic. He also asked for romanesco cauliflower but unfortunately I could not find this anywhere. I shall have to look at the farmers' market for it this Sunday, as it is absolutely divine in pasta!

Anyway, off to the shop, the greengrocer did not have all the stuff I wanted and certainly nothing organic. I decided that nobody is going to die for a couple of days of non-organic fruit and veg (my organic delivery is arriving on Thursday) and got what I needed, minus a couple of items of no great consequence. The most challenging thing was walking past the M&S food store, knowing that I could have got a 20% discount with the leaflet and that I would have found all the organic stuff I needed, but walked past and went to offer my custom to the local shops instead. I suppose this is going to become a habit soon and I sincerely hope to leave supermarkets as a thing of the past.

greenbee

Well done Caterina

I've made the same decision myself on the organic veg - when I can't get to the farm shop then I buy non-organic in the village (although the chances of the produce being locally grown except for a few months in the summer is slim). Luckily my village shop does stock English organic milk, butter and yogurt. If there's a farmers' market on, I do sometimes buy local non-organic rather than imported organic.

As I've said before, buying ethically is a minefield, and you're constantly having to juggle your priorities. Eventually you find a balance that works for you. I also find that shopping locally involves more exercise - I take a backpack and buy small amounts daily to make sure I get out for a walk!

JustKeepSwimming_2

phizzimum wrote: »

So I'm now I'm starting to think about using a milkman. I've noticed that "milk&more" deliver to our road. I've checked the prices online and obviously it's more expensive than the supermarket.

Don't forget to use the offer for free shopping that is on their website (think it is for £10). I've had my 2nd delivery this morning, with a leaflet of grocery offers, so all is going well so far - milk is here before 7 am & the bottles look lovely in my fridge :rotfl:

Offres include a free pint of 1% milk (if you've never ordered it before),

Cathedra1 C1ty Lighter 500g £3.09, (MrT £3.99)
Clover 500g £1.32. (£1.75)

& a good range of other stuff. Bread is £1.25/loaf which is handy when you've forgotten to make your own (I'm trying, honest, it just seems like I have a stroppy breadmaker that I haven't yet learnt to manage - bit like marriage in the early years )

hex2

Just keep swimming - does the milkandmore leaflet say when the offers start? I have had a look online but they just have lots of very reduced christmas chocolate on the offers plus the bread, etc that was on last week.

I dithered and missed the cut off for the Riverford box and the milk &more one, local scheme are on holiday until next Friday so I may have to go with A&C this week. Two visits to the co-op and one milkman delivery have been principally for F&V so relatively expensive A&C seems to be the only option. I notice they are doing a free offer if you quote 'freeveg' again if anyone is considering tryng them (or indeed going back to them) - it makes it a lot more reasonable. It was on the home page, but I have signed into my account so I can't see it now. I think it was £15 off your 4th order.

mama67

dollydaydream07 wrote: »

mama - does the butcher deliver ot not? if so would they deliver to grimsby??

also the veg box scheme, who do you juse and would they deliver to grimsby??

thanks
dolly

Hi, the butchers is Pettits on Bethlehem Street, and yes they do deliver free if order over £25; they have a website as well as being able to phone for orders.
http://www.johnpettitbutchers.co.uk

the veg box scheme I use do also deliver into GY and Clee as my driver does the deliveries.
http://www.woodlandsfarm.co.uk
the veg box only missed one delivery to me when we had all the bad weather. I can tailor it to suit my needs, so if I have leeks in the garden ,can ask for them to be subbed for something else. I also buy sacks of potatoes (£6) from Robinsons Farm Shop (near TollBar school) rather then get the ones in the veg box.

hth

phizzimum

JustKeepSwimming wrote: »

Don't forget to use the offer for free shopping that is on their website (think it is for £10). I've had my 2nd delivery this morning, with a leaflet of grocery offers, so all is going well so far - milk is here before 7 am & the bottles look lovely in my fridge :rotfl:

Offres include a free pint of 1% milk (if you've never ordered it before),

)

thank you JKS (love the username by the way)

I've decided to take the plunge and sign up for milkandmore. I think I will feel like a proper mum now we have a milkman! my DDs think it's very exciting as it's so old fashioned!

signed up for the £10 discount but couldn't see anything about the free pint of 1%. is it on the offers page or do they email you about it?

Have to add at this point that I'm not doing the month without supermarket challenge - I hadn't looked at this thread until one I posted on was merged with it! But I'm glad I've found it now. I'm aiming to only go to the supermarket once a month - this is a long term goal though, so I'm hoping to pick up some tips.

Over the last year we have made a lot of changes to our grocery shopping. We get 99 % of our meat from our local butchers, have chickens for eggs (although only get a few a week at moment so buy from butchers as well) , buy spuds by sack from farm shop. DH now has an allotment so I'm hoping for much more home grown veg than we could manage in our garden. He's just come home from lunch with a 10kg box of carrots from the farm shop too! will they last without going mouldy? I'm so used to supermarket shopping, so I have a lot to learn.

phizzimum

hex2 wrote: »

Just keep swimming - does the milkandmore leaflet say when the offers start? I have had a look online but they just have lots of very reduced christmas chocolate on the offers plus the bread, etc that was on last week.

.

the offer is on the website too. You have to sign up with your credit or debit card, and when you check out for the first time use the code WEBJAN for £10 off your first month's payment

hex2

Thanks Phizzimum - I mean when does the cheese go on offer though, I used the £10 off and had my first delivery yesterday. Carrots I think need to be kept somewhere dark and frost free, just like potatoes
mama67 -I am envious of those cucumbers. 67? we got two! Still eating the courgettes though......

I have done an online order for pet food, looks like it will be at least Monday before I have my car back so holding off to go to the farm shop isn't an option.

kymbogs

Hi guys,
Hope everyone is well.
Gosh I am sick to death of thinking about money at the moment! I'm a full time student so get my payments in 3 installments. It feels like such a long time since September and I've had a lot of unusual outgoings that have really messed me up - I had to pay for a college trip and buy things for it, and the cooker died in November for example. I'm also being messed about by Student Finance who are trying to claim some money back off me and basically it's all I've been thinking about lately, and how to eek out the little money we have until January 17th!
I know the above hasn't got anything to do with OS or not shopping in a supermarket, but it's sort of explaining the rubbish financial situation I'm in at the mo.
Our fridge looks really bare and I don't like it, though seeing as I meal plan there should be most things for our meals till after the 17th in the freezer and in the cellar (which is where I store excess tins and dried stuff). My 3 year old though seems to be going through a growth spurt and is trying to eat me out of house and home! And I'm struggling to find filling things to give her or to bulk out her meals so she's not still claiming to be hungry afterwards.

I need to make a little shopping list to take to the market on my way to get them from nursery and I need to keep it cheap. We need some fruit but we are all getting pretty sick of apples and bananas, which are generally the cheaper more filling options. I don't want to spend my money on something different that I don't know they will eat at the moment if you get me. Pears go down well, otherwise I'll just be looking for inspiration from the fruit stall - and I'll be using a different one this time after finding the quality of the main one to be abysmal.
Few more bits of veg to get and had better stock up on eggs. At the butchers last week when I was in the market they had a sign up saying their eggs were 50p instead of £1 as they were 'no longer free range' - they'd moved the chickens into the barn because of the awful weather. The sign went on to say that they still had access to outdoors, that they had free reign of a huge barn, and they'd even calculated the amount of space per chicken.

Hope everyone is having a good supermarket-free day.
Kimberley x