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

catznine

We have managed to stay away from the big 4 so far! Have had to use Aldi and Co op but then I have an injured foot and can't get out myself so dh having to do it!

Really hoping that once I have mended I can get out further afield and support any local traders we still have!

pink_princess

Eliza wrote: »

I bought a pack of 3 - vanilla, lemon, almond essences in Aldi last week - I think 1.99 for the pack of 3. Dr Oetker.

Thanks, I'll take a look tomorrow. 2 full days off :j:rotfl:

Thanks as well to abitofhelp.

I hope you are well soon catznine.

A large spend today but all in independants. Felt really good. I'm not sure I will stop this come month end.

Rosetta92

Just checking in to say "well done" to you all. I feel a bit guilty because I have had to do a couple of online shops. Going back to work is making it a challenge to manage my fatigue, and my arthritis decided to flare up too :mad:

On a brighter note, most of my meat had been from the local butchers, and I've had a good few trips to our Co-op. Now that the sun has finally found our patch of the country I'm going to start growing some salad stuff so hopefully some progress will be made there.

Will definitely continue with this challenge after the month.

Have a good day everyone

meow5678

Thought this might interest some of you...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2012/may/21/giving-up-supermarket-shop

Butterfly_Brain

Another NSD day today, but we are going to Hemel again tomorrow because I want to get DD a copy of Delia's Frugal Food in the Works, because it is only £3.99 at the moment. I will pop in to B&M and 99p stores while I am there as well.

Gigervamp

meow5678 wrote: »

Thought this might interest some of you...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2012/may/21/giving-up-supermarket-shop

I was going to post that too! I wondered if she'd been reading this thread, or if any of the people who commented were members here.

thriftwizard

I have to report a failure...

Went camping with my 19 y.o. twins at the weekend for a young friend's 30th birthday gathering. On the way there, realised that we had no offerings for the communal bar table, and the only place we knew of & could get to in time was, alas, a branch of S*insbury's. They only got £20 of my money but I can't help feeling I've failed miserably.

Go eaten alive by gnats, too... 40+ painfully-itchy bites on one ankle alone! :eek:

DebtFree2012

Morning all

Hey don't beat yourself up thrift wizard - it's a challenge and sometimes life takes over. The fact that you are concious of it and that you would avoid them given the chance is already a winner in my book.

I feel that because I don't get time to go to the local grocers and so on that I should be doing more, but the fact is, it's simply not do-able with my life and situation. However the good side is, I have managed to get myself into a little routine and go to Aldi twice a week now which, so far, has met every need and I haven't needed to go to the big 4. The test will be when I run out of things I have never bought anywhere but tesco before (DW tablets, loo roll) as Tesco do them cheap as chips. I will prob have to pop into the town once every 3 months to stock up on them from a cheapy shop.

xxx

meow5678

Gigervamp wrote: »

I was going to post that too! I wondered if she'd been reading this thread, or if any of the people who commented were members here.

My thoughts exactly!

abitofhelp

I dont think its a failure to use any of the big supermarkets. While i have my well stocked up pantry & freezers i can easily do this challenge, there will come a time though i will need to use the likes of tesco again. However when that time comes, the items that i buy from there will hardly increase their profits or cause any hardship to the local shops that i now use. The bulk of my money goes to the local farm shop and will continue to do so. While i wont be able to avoid the big 4 in the future i have certainly reduced my need to use them so much.