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

lil_me

CTC have you tried this http://www.delivermilk.co.uk/ or
http://www.findmeamilkman.net/default.aspx bit will need to be registered to find on those.
I rang the local dairy to find mine

Spendless

I've called at the farm-shop today. It was en-route from college to my house (so no special trip to make :j )and picked up some apples and veg (carrots, onion, cauli, white cabbage). Mindful of what someone had said about farm-shops I also checked what I bought and didn't buy anything from overseas. I left iceburg lettuce cos it was £1 :eek: , thought that was dear.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

spendless..... was this the first time you've been there ?

there's diff ways of looking at this challenge...... by not going to supermarkets.....

support local traders.. whether the product is produced locally or not....

support locally produced products as much as possible....

not put your money into tescos profit fund.. by buying all your shopping there....

use local post offices for cash withdrawals... instead of cash points and cash back in tescos..

its the store cupboard things that is the problem....

irishwench69

Cazzdevil wrote:

Spiddy100 - I'd thought the very same thing about the water and was considering a Soda Stream myself too, I could imagine it would save me money on pop for my OH in the longterm.

Are they as good as I remember from being a kid?

Well I can't speak for how much you loved it as a kid ( ), but I love mine - with my OH and my brother, I think I'd be bankrupt through buying drinks otherwise! :eek:

You can get them at Argos...... http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/0152446.htm

HTH!

IW x

Spendless

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote:

spendless..... was this the first time you've been there ?

there's diff ways of looking at this challenge...... by not going to supermarkets.....

support local traders.. whether the product is produced locally or not....

support locally produced products as much as possible....

not put your money into tescos profit fund.. by buying all your shopping there....

use local post offices for cash withdrawals... instead of cash points and cash back in tescos..

its the store cupboard things that is the problem....

No it's not the first time but I don't go very often. I live 5 miles away from town centre and the farm shop is in the next village to me, but going further away from town centre, so I don't go through that village as much as I do other ones in order to get to town IYSWIM. I'm at college (a FE centre, rather than the main town centre college) once a week though and have to pass through the farm shops village en-route, just a slight de-tour down a different route to get to it.

I'm in town tomorrow (chiropody appt) and will check out the price of iceburg lettuce there. It's not a proper market day when everything is open, but a few fruit and veg stalls will be.

kscour

Hi
I've found this interesting reading! Our local shop (well 2 miles away but that counts as local round here!) was taken over by a couple of butchers a few months back and has turned into a non posh farm shop ie good quality reasonably priced meat and they buy in local bread & veg etc. but not over priced fancy stuff. So we've been buying off them rather than the 14 mile round trip to supermarket for inferior overpriced equivilants. However it's the store cupboard basics that have us back into the hands of Mr T's. The local shop just can't compete or provide the variety.

However with having different appointments etc in local towns nearby over past few weeks I have been playing a kind of nutty Supermarket Roulette. What I do need to buy from the supermarkets are limited and I've been popping into different supermarkets on each visit (so far Asda, Tescos and Morrisons -next Lidl & soon to be opened Aldi) in each one I stick to the minimum list eg 1 tin beans but stock up on bogof offers (if the prices really tally up to proper bogof) Been having no end of fun out of this! There really is some kind of strange satisfaction in paying whatever (ok knowing it will be reasonable but still not thinking twice about it) in local shop and then not buying baked beans unless they are on special offer in supermarket and stocking up on their bogof's. It really seems like fighting back - if we all bought enough of their loss leaders perhaps they might actually make a loss?? Just now need to find a website that lists all of their offers so I can just whizz around and steal the goodies.
sorry I know I probably sound like I need to get out more but I do really feel good when I look at the receipt and see that I've had more or less a 50% discount and no expensive impulse buys!

moggins

I have seen milkmen driving up our road but I wouldn't dare use one. It would be gone from my doorstep in 5 seconds flat. We are right on a busy high street! I remember once removing stuff from my car as I was giving it to someone on Downsizer. I had to leave a load of it outside while I nipped in for a wee, I was only gone for 5 minutes, came outside to find someone rifling through the bags of stuff!

lil_me

Moggins, sometimes they can leave it in a different place, we used to have them do that when I lived on a high street. Our milkman also delivers on an evening to some when they are home, in areas where milk was stolen a lot. In fact sometimes the kids here can be terrors! Often on a weekend when I left it on the step a little longer they would pinch it. Comes in first thing now!

I'm going for the 'local as possible' route. I know some things I will find hard to source, but trying my best. Haven't been to Tescos so far this month (but I will miss the points!) There is a nice whole foods shop in town, or at least there was, who is pricey but the produce is fab, might see if they are still open (I have not been into town shopping for a while in that part) Only other downside is what I am spending, never spent this much so far since I started the grocery challenge!

stilernin

kscour wrote:

....... There really is some kind of strange satisfaction in paying whatever (ok knowing it will be reasonable but still not thinking twice about it) in local shop and then not buying baked beans unless they are on special offer in supermarket and stocking up on their bogof's. It really seems like fighting back - if we all bought enough of their loss leaders perhaps they might actually make a loss?? ........QUOTE]

I can understand what you are saying but unfortunately, as far as I understand it, the supermarkets 'persuade' the manufacturers to sell to them at a reduced price for the BOGOF offer. So they won't lose out much I'm sure!!

lil_me

Many of the suppliers offer the good for these offers, there is many a time where the same products are on offer in many supermarkets at once (BOGOF on Maryland Cookies recently for one example was on in Sainsburys, Tesco and Somerfield that I know of)

Just been listening to the news about the 'Say no to Tesco' campaign