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

Psykicpup

I would rather pay the 'right' price for something than the overly reduced prices that Mr T. sells for & is pricing our farmers etc out of business! + I would rather my local shops made a profit out of me & stayed open!

Having said that ..... I think I'm still making a profit doing this.. less temptation if you know what I mean........

lil_me

Dispatches 8pm next Monday is about Tescos taking over the country, sure some of you will be interested so thought would post about it, just seen the advert (PS forgot to put channel 4 incase you don't know which one Dispatches is on oops sorry)

Ishtar

Psykicpup wrote:

I would rather pay the 'right' price for something than the overly reduced prices that Mr T. sells for & is pricing our farmers etc out of business! + I would rather my local shops made a profit out of me & stayed open!

I agree, and would support paying the 'right' price, but unfortunately I haven't found this to be the case at the organic farm shop. I completely agree with their ethic, but sadly I don't have the budget to shop there as often as I would like!

There are places in Cirencester town that sell exactly the same thing at a much lower price, and I don't mean Mr T and the like - we've got a good mix of independent, local and national chains. We're quite lucky in that we can avoid the supermarkets here if we want to as the centre of town hasn't really suffered that much due to the influx of Tesco (thankfully!).

I just wanted to say that the farm shop is a great place, but expensive compared to other retailers locally. As I said previously, it's well worth a visit if you're in the area - but don't expect to do your week's shop there

D.

ZTD

kscour wrote:

I do feel after lugging all of my shopping back to the car park that the lemonade and similar heavy stuff may have to be purchased in Lidls (or Makros when I go) or I'm going to end up with bigger muscles than popeye:D

You could always get a wally trolley.

Great thread BTW.

lil_me

Had a funny one today, DPs never been bothered much about where I buy food (doesn't get involved) but today I'd found 2 steaks I bought in supermarket a while back (yellow stickered) so defrosted them and did them for tea, cooked in same way as always do.

His comment 'If you find any more like that put them in a stew as they are as tough as old boots compared to the usual ones' :rotfl: strange how you don't realise how nice something is until you have the other ones!

JayneC

Hi, I found this thread really interesting.
I have been trying to shop more locally (inspired by this site) and now buy all my meat and veg from local suppliers and usually buy bread rolls from local bakery. I stll go to Tesco too mainly for fruit juice, tins, store cupboard and cleaning products and I do like the points.

I've found that even if the meat and veg are more expensive (which isn't always the case) my total weekly shopping bill has reduced by around a third. Probably because I buy less convenience stuff.

I've started making my own bread ( but do buy the ingredients from Tesco:rolleyes: ) and cakes/puddings.
I grow some herbs and a bit of veg.
I would like to try making yoghurt too - I'm sure I read somewhere that you can do this with natural yoghurt and milk, but not sure how, does anyone know?

Good luck with the challenge COOLTRIKERCHICK.

x

lil_me

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=71520 this thread will probably have all you need to know on yoghurt making, if there is something you don't know worth asking in that post

tinselfairy

Well I have finally been able to wave goodbye to Mr T.
The only thing I was buying from them were the Quorn Swedish meatballs. DH and DS love them.
Found another supply, unfortunately another supermarket, but at least I can cross that particular supermarket of my list and start trying alternative sources. I'm taking it a bit at a time.

Also this week I bought a friend's birthday present from a stallholder at the local market who makes her own fabric corsages and handbags. So money going to a talented person working hard to make their own living rather than another purchase from a chain store. Not quite on topic, but in the same vein.

JayneC

lil_me wrote:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=71520 this thread will probably have all you need to know on yoghurt making, if there is something you don't know worth asking in that post

THank you x

ZTD

lil_me wrote:

Had a funny one today, DPs never been bothered much about where I buy food (doesn't get involved) but today I'd found 2 steaks I bought in supermarket a while back (yellow stickered) so defrosted them and did them for tea, cooked in same way as always do.

His comment 'If you find any more like that put them in a stew as they are as tough as old boots compared to the usual ones' :rotfl: strange how you don't realise how nice something is until you have the other ones!

My parents are the same. I put them on to this place for their meat. They will never, ever go back to a supermarket.

Ever.