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

prettypaula

im downloading the panorama documentary to watch, im going to try and talk to my mum about using more independent places today, she is a bit of a Mr T lover, and although very OS (she meal plans, cooks multiple meals at a time and freezes etc) she is obsessed with airmiles through clubcard points.

i already get a veg box delivery from riverford, and have found a nice butcher and green grocers to get my meat n fruit from

also booked in with milk and more for a pint of organic to be delivered every tuesday (we dont use alot of milk, its just the two of us!)

[Deleted User]

so far so good, except for one sin. I went to asda for sugar because I had about 16lb of seville oranges over the last week and no-one came close to 68p a bag. I have used 40lb of sugar and that is about 17 bags so not money I could afford to lose. I have made 48 lb of marmalde during the past few days ( and a few lb the week before) and I am cream crackered as that included dh and I taking the village bus to the (little) local town and carting the stuff home in a couple of round trips taking 3 hours each. Next year I am not getting nearly as many oranges. They were brilliant value at £1.79 a kg. The kitchen has been like a sauna but I got myself on a roll and processed the pips and peel etc the night before each set of 3 batches and after the first boil, worked out that I had 20 min to boil, while I labelled the lot before. tbh it tastes absolutely superb, so was worth it

Everything else is local

re meat, I must say that I only ever buy British ie Scottish beef, Welsh lamb and free range pork as I know our standards of care are much better than those abroad. Most of my meat is organic but I do make it stretch. Just lately I am putting a few lb of venison in the freezer as it seems to be seasonal

Top marks for local food shopping, I am extremely happy with the superb quality and the customer service is second to none

Lily-Lu

Mamma67 and Lil-me - thanks for the tip about the butchers. I can't think why that didn't dawn on me; it must be my age:rotfl:

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

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..

I'm sure you'll enjoy your British meat far more than the cheap one from abroad, though. The taste of cheap meat from abroad doesn't even come close to the British meat that I've had from my local butcher.
Some don't even get to see daylight, let alone go outside like a lot of our animals do. I'm convinced that what an animal eats is reflected in the flavour and an animal that doesn't get outside and only fed on some fattening-up pellets, or whatever, tastes nothing like an animal that's been allowed to graze in the field.

There's also the fact that some of these cheap intensively farmed abroad animals tend to have a lot more fat on them. A cheap joint not only has less flavour, but it often has more fat, and because there's so much fat in there to start with, by the time it's cooked, it's shrunk to half its original size. This doesn't happen with a well reared animal, so this is something that does need to be taken into consideration when comparing prices between the two:)

The butcher that I buy from does seem pricey compared to the supermarket meat, but their handmade sausages, dry cured English bacon, diced stewing steak and minced beef all taste delicious, and don't shrink, so I actually use less of it than I would if I'd have bought cheap supermarket meat.

anguk

It's not just the supermarkets that are killing local businesses but also the cost of living. My milkman called on Friday for his money (he calls once a fortnight) and said he's had to drop Saturday's delivery round because of the cost of diesel, he can now only deliver Mon-Fri. It's not a problem for me because he'll just leave Saturday's milk on a Friday now but it just shows how these small businesses are feeling the pinch, he had a choice of putting his prices up (meaning some people may cancel) or dropping a day.

Sheffield_Tiger

Just stumbled across this thread and wanted to give my encouragement to those trying to bin the big 4

I'm doing the same thing and sporadically posting thougts about it on http://livingwithoutsupermarkets.blogspot.com

It's recently turned from a chore into an adventure now I'm not "doing without" supermarkets but discovering a whole world of (1) better prices and (2) more exciting readily-available food & drink

lil_me

ang ours only delivers a few days a week now, we've not had a mon-sat round for about 5 years. We get Monday Wendnesday Friday I think it is, I can never remember but whatever it is seems to work fine ..... *looks confused*

Still doing ok My partner has even stopped suggesting going to a Tesco so he's took the hint

irishwexford

I used the supermarkets as little as possible since Christmas. I did the storecupboard challenge and also got myself a milkman. I found having the milk delivered was a saviour although it costs a bit more it saves going into supermarket where I usually come out with other things as well. All my meat for February will come from our local butcher and fruit from local market but when storecupboard is empty I will have to go to supermarket although I hope to get everything on one go. I feel I doing my bit for local traders but all our corner shops have closed over the years so no choice but to visit the big three at times

ginnyknit

I tried my best to do without the supermarkets and although I live a few miles from the centre of Manchester I have not found it easy to source everything I need locally!!!! Unless I use lots of petrol which is now a problem as we all know. But I have made a vast difference to my budget, I am spending a lot less, which i didnt think possible. I am more organised and well stocked up. I now go to Mr S on a Friday night and have managed to get lots of whoopsies. Our local Mr T and Mr M where my Dd works are blatantly targetted by a large group of people who just go in and buy up all the reductions. The staff at Mr T say they come in as a group and pounce on the reductions. Hopefully Mr S isn't in their area. One thing I have had a lot of trouble getting this week is dried peas neither Mr S or Mr T have any - is there a shortage? Anyway off out tomorrow to a little shopping area we love and having a picnic by a lake first. Lots of CS's and a proper greengrocers so I might get to make my marmalade - not a sign of a seville orange round here

hex2

No more spending planned for this month, I spent £253 locally, a futher £200 in the co-op (local emplyment so fine with that) and then some in the supermarket. I went and bulk bought the stuff I need for the next few months as I won't be able to shop on my on anymore. Heavily over budget due to stocking up.

Permanent changes - I will stick with using the milkman, and will continue with fruit/veg boxes until the garden is up to full production. First choice after that is the co-op, last resort the big supermarket.

[Deleted User]

I have just made my last order from local food for this month and my total for all of january is £147. This has been an easy and pleasurable journey and it is all down to that excellent company who have made it all so easy for anyone in my county in the SW. My freezer contains venison and pheasant all bought from within that £147. I haven`t skimped but I have also used some of my store cupboard. I went to the supermarket because I needed loads of sugar for my seville oranges and I made enough marmalade for over a year and yes the seville oranges were from local food too

I WILL carry on