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

vivw_2

little_miss_thrifty wrote:

Hi, you must live fairly near me - Ipswich is not too far away, and i have been to Jimmy's farm when i did some research on his house (census' etc). Anyway, Some of the farm shops around Ipswich should hold flour etc for baking, and possibly frozen fish. As for toilet rolls, i found out yesterday that my local health food shop does not stock toilet rolls (not even Nouvelle!!) so i will either get them from Makro, or mail order a bulk buy from Greenpeace's Natural Collection, or the Green Shop in Shroud. I need to get some rubber gloves for cleaning - hoping that a local shop will have some.

I am cross with myself, that after so much reminding from this thread, i MISSED the Dispatches programme, but it certainly sounds as though it put a few more people off Tesco. Lets hope they watched it in my area, where the Tesco supporters group are telling us why one should be built in the middle of our market town:eek: :eek:

You must be near Hadleigh????
As I'm in the Brazier's Wood/Ravenswood area [nr old airport] there are few farm shops nr me. Do you recommend any?
Can you recommend any other small 'local' shops that I could use, even if it means driving a few miles?
How come you can use Makro? I thought only traders got a card. Can anybody help with that one?

little_miss_thrifty

vivw wrote:

You must be near Hadleigh????
As I'm in the Brazier's Wood/Ravenswood area [nr old airport] there are few farm shops nr me. Do you recommend any?
Can you recommend any other small 'local' shops that I could use, even if it means driving a few miles?
How come you can use Makro? I thought only traders got a card. Can anybody help with that one?

Hello!!! Yes you are right!! We use Makro occasionally, we have a family buisness, so were able to obtain a card (they invited us to, so didn't refuse!)
Try looking at https://www.bigbarn.co.uk and type in your postcode - it will give details of all the surrounding farmshops etc. Not too sure about your immediate area, but Hollowtrees in Semer is good, what about a fortnightly treat/trip to Lavenham?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

hi.. vivw.........makro.. is suposed to be cash and carry for trade......but to be honest.. we had our cards.. because of the business we were in.... and found them quite expensive and could not make a profit if we bought from them.......

a business can have up to 12 additional cards....so you need to know someone who is allready registered with them as a business.........

if you get any probs..... let me know and i'll see how we go about getting extra cards.......as we only have 2 at mo.....

some things will be cheaper in bulk.. i found that they big 100 wash..... washing powder.. when it was on offer good value..... i think daz was £8.99 plus vat......

i found the friut and veg..... not good.... quality was... very poor to say the least........

what i have bought is the big tubs of jam......etc.......

all i can say is take a look ...take a note book and write down the prices of the stuff that you use...... and also check the monthly offers.......

vivw_2

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote:

a business can have up to 12 additional cards....so you need to know someone who is allready registered with them as a business.........

......

Thanks for that info
A friend of ours is staying tonight and I know his parents have a card. I'll get him to ask them about it [ they are also good friends of ours!]
thanks

hazzie123

I`m also joining in this challenge,can I have a rebel number?

today I went to a local greengrocers but wasnt very impressed,some of the veg looked really good,had the biggest leeks I`ve ever seen.But the bloke behind the counter had a face you could chop sticks on,not even a slight smile.He wasn`t very helpful when I asked if the veg was grown locally.
I also was charged 35p for half a small white cabbage.

So I think I`ll have to have a look tomorrow at the veg market in town to see if thats any better.

Anyone know where I would get dried yeast from for using in the BM? Thnk that`ll have to be a supermarket jobby?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

hazzie123 wrote:

I`m also joining in this challenge,can I have a rebel number?

hi..... hazzie123....... welcome aboard...... you are rebel no 8.....

dont let that person put you off.....check out the market...

as for yeast......i know someone bought some on ebay.....also would they sell it in the chemist..... as i know one of the local chemist sells a lot of stuff for home brewing.....also if you got a local baker....you could ask them do they sell it.....worth a go......

competitionscafe

rach wrote:

i keep thinking about this! how do you get hold of the basic storecupboard ingredients? for me, living alone, i use a fair amount of stuff.

for instance, for dinner on sat i want to do fajitas - where would i buy the wraps except the supermarket?
and i need to stock up on tins of tuna, one of my staples - not sure where i would buy them i really want to try this, but just not sure where to get the staples!!

You can get almost all basic storecupboard ingredients at goodnessdirect, they do tinned tuna too and I am fairly sure they even do bogroll and kitchen towels. If not the traidcraft shop do and so does ecotopia. If you spend over £35 at Goodness Direct it's free delivery so worth putting in a bulk order.

Fajitas, well I know it is quite easy to make flatbreads in a frying pan, which are similar.....otherwise it really is worth exploring local shops - for example one of my local butchers does bread, fruit juice, milk, mustards and other goodies in a seperate section. The fishmonger does tinned tuna, anchovies etc, the cheese shop also does mustards, bread, milk, butter, sausages.

Must admit I still use M&S for a few things though as they are better quality for those few items than anywhere else I have tried: pitta bread, tinned Ventresca tuna, houmous and buffalo mozzarella cheese. I can buy better buffalo mozzarella in the deli but it's twice the price of M&S! So you might end up with a few things from supermarkets like you say, but I have no problem with going into M&S and just buying those 4 items (okay and some milk and fruit juice, so 6 items!) and getting everything else from local shops, farmers market and mail order.

competitionscafe

rach wrote:

i was talking to my best mate who lives in switzerland last night and she is gonna try too, but with a slight twist - she wants to try and make sure everything they eat comes from within a 5 km radius!!!

There is a chef in London who gets everything within a certain radius (within the M25 I think) - he said the one thing he missed was olive oil. I think I would miss lemons, oranges, bananas, avocadoes, tropical fruit and nuts as well, but I aim for about 80% UK and the majority of that Scottish.

Psykicpup

lil_me wrote:

I had a look at that Psykicpup, unfortunately closest to me that are listed on there are over 20 miles away, seeing as my vehicle does 15mpg it'd work out worse in many ways to travel all the way there.

Sorry that wasnt much help to you Lil_me - I noticed though that there a quite a few local indepandants near me that were'nt listed so its not exhaustive! _ I agree I try to buy 'local' dtuffs too!

(edit) PS - was I counted earlier ? if not can I be please? (2 if you ccount hubby too lol)

lil_me

My take on it (everyone has their own views)

All supermarkets which are part of a chain, netto, lidl, coop, morrisons, asda, tescos etc I am trying to use less. Unfortunately our local 'Bells' stores which ended up becoming quite a chain anyway have now been bought out by Sainsburys. Costco/Makro etc are just glorified supermarkets, Costco also put a friends butchers out of business so take it even more seriously.

Local store is getting better, I called in last week, doing locally baked breads etc. Still wouldn't touch the frozen stuff. Her cleaning stuff, loo rolls etc is getting cheaper. Downside being whats in supermarkets on bogof one week she has loads of the week after (can tell where it comes from then)

£1 shops etc depends which ones, some are chains, some are not, Poundland for example are. Found a great little DIY store ran by a lovely lady quite near to me a while ago who does DIY items, bin bags, cleaning stuff etc so that one has come in handy.

I'm finding quite a few things I use via ebay. I find goodness direct extremely expensive, but may make an order while the free fruit and veg box is still on.

Fish there is Martin's Seafresh which you also get points back through quidco http://www.martins-seafresh.co.uk/shopping/default.htm?affid=54760 some towns have a local fish delivery but I did try one once and it was awful. There is always the option if your local fish shop do wet fish aswell.