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

lil_me

Yes your butcher should be able to get you suet, some will shred it and if they won't a grater usually gets through it

I've sinned slightly and used Iceland for a couple of things but mostly doing well, been to another grocers in town on Wednesday and bought a huge pile of veg to make soups. This reducing supermarket thing is helping me eat healthier too. I've been spending less but we did have quite a lot in to start with. Whatever happens if I can keep out of T@$C0 I'll be happy

lurkey*is*here

amber03 wrote: »

Thanks for that anguk i get annoyed when supermarkets open nearly everywhere and feel for local businesess. Where i live the local shops are lovely ,quality of the food is good and are well supported by the local people.There needs to be a balance between the two. Love market day here some of the stalls have been here for years, problem is i buy more than i should and struggle home with heavy bags cos i've decided not to use the car as much, to save on petrol.

do any of your local shops deliver?
My husband owns a shop on the local arcade and he either charges 50p delivery for one off people he isnt farmiliar or free for regular customers I would ask If I was you alot of people dont ask:D

its been a pleasure to read this thread to know that there that care about small local busnesses:Tpeople dont understand that small shops dont have the same prices as big supermarkets because they cant buy stuff as cheaply It makes me want to cry sometimes when you see places selling stuff at half the price we are paying for things at the warehouses
supermarkets arent the only culprits either Ive noticed places like Focus B&M and home bargains are just as bad:( last week something we sell £2 below the rrp for £7 B&M had it for £4 Focus sells it 2 for £10!!! we pay £4 .20 before Vat for it

lil_me

Lurkey many small traders I know will buy from B&M, poundland and other stores rather than warehouses, it's crackers but for example my friend has a tiny 'cleaning etc' as I call it stall. She buys large packs of wash up sponges and splits them into smaller amounts. Things like packs of 4 cleaning brushes she does one, with a tea towel, cloth and sponge. The people she sells to seem to appreciate the effort and thought, that she brings these products closer to them and like your partner will deliver for them. Many of her shoppers get the bus and don't have transport to get to the retail parks or travel home with a 30 pack of sponges

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Went to my local butcher and spent £100 on bulk buy meat for the freezer.

I buy a whole side of silverside, that should have been £85 but he sold it to me for £60, he cuts it up for me into dif size joints..bought a huge bag ( couple of kgs) of mince, 18 pork and leek sausages, 8 pork loins, chicken breases and some lovely cooked ham..

As i am doing some batch cooking, i needed a few bits so decided to go to bookers ( ok i nkow its not an independant, but i do need to balance a few things and bulk buy) and i was looking at the whole sides of silver sides, and i just had to laugh ( and practically cry at the same time as it just didnt make sense).

The sides of beef from abroad were practically half the price of the welsh beef that was practically reared on our door step..

Going back again in the week, as sugar was £13.69 for a 25kg sack and onions were £4.49 for a 10kg sack,

So trying to find a happy balance between supporting local and bulk buying ( to save some more pennies) while not setting foot in a supermarket...:T

i must admit though i have had to buy milk in the co-op, no milkman around here, but as i say one step at a time...:beer:

JustKeepSwimming_2

Still not set foot inside MrT's yet this year, & only went to Sain*y as I couldn't get wraps anywhere else, so I'm glad :j

For the first time ever I'm within my grocery budget & I'm convinced it because I'm having milk delivered & not doing the £20+ "need to get a pint" shops....

I'm hoping it will make me eat more healthy food too - once all the Xmas stuff has been eaten. I'm thinking about what I eat a lot more & haven't had to chuck anything out yet that has gone off, which is a big achievement in this house. I've not bought any bread this year as I've finally got my BM to produce lovely bread (Doves Farm Barleycorn flour is so yummy) & provided I leave it on the kitchen worktop I can't forget to make a new loaf.

I've really enjoyed this challenge so far & it has provoked some discussions with friends too. So farthis year I've gone back to being more OS than I have for years - got the knitting needles out too & planning limited pot growing veg (as hoping to move house) & am just generally feeling happier. I'm sure this has got a lot to do with not working at the moment & just having more time to do stuff. The test will be when I go back to work....

JustKeepSwimming_2

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

The sides of beef from abroad were practically half the price of the welsh beef that was practically reared on our door step..

This is why I think the world really has gone mad (as opposed to just me ). I can't get the maths to work - how can it be so much cheaper to produce the same "thing" abroard when all the transport/storage costs are included?

I rarely eat meat but would be happier to pay the extra if I knew how the animal had been looked after & could follow the audit trail of the meat. But that is a huge price difference & would make me think twice if I was on a really tight budget (rather than my loose'ish budget that often gets tweaked). Madness.

Gigervamp

The other problem with buying meat from outside the UK (aside from the welfare issues, even in the EU), is the way animals in other countries are routinely given hormones, anti-biotics etc as well as hygiene issues.

artichoke

it's also the scale of things - new zealand lamb is cheaper as it is managed on such huge scale in NZ, thousands of sheep at a time compared to hundreds here - but is also given more routine drugs for flystrike and antibiotics etc...

and cattle in the US are kept in such intensive factory type farms...

have you seen the film Food Inc....it is horrific in parts..


i would love to expand this in more detail but it is way past my bedtime...

we are having lamb for lunch tomorrow and i remember exactly which lamb it is - and i look forward to watching her mother give birth to another set of twins (hopefully) in March...

I really hope to get more on board with this challenge in the spring... at the moment i am watching and also taking note of the things others and myself find difficult to source without the supermarkets...

i will list some more independent suppliers next week when i have the paperwork to hand..

art

hex2

I bet the meat from the butchers tastes a lot better. We have bought imported beef from Makro before and it is just as bad as the supermarkets. While I can afford to I would far rather buy from the butchers and have meat that tastes of something.

I have slipped slightly due to a change in circumstances, and a minor tendancy to panic buy. I wont be able to go shopping on my own anymore from next month and I have been and bulk bought the hard to buy stuff to get us through a couple of months that will keep us functioning usuing local suppliers for a while. I need to go and do the big feeezer fill at the butchers, and get a fish delivery in as well whilst I still have time. There is a lot more money going out than coming in, but hopefully this will pay off in future months.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hex2 I stated bulk buying meat in the butchers a few years back, when money was like a feast or famine, When i knew i had a week with a bit of cash in my purse i would stock up on meat for the freezer, so i knew when money was tight, or practically non existant at least i would have meat in the freezer and other bits and around the kitchen to make a nice meal.

I also bought the large tub of lurpak in booker's yesturday as that is waht we use, and that is hard to find in local independants around here.