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

greenbee

Caterina - I've checked the current Ethical Consumer, and you're right, M&S is at the top (although still only 8 out of 20).

StressedSteph

Hi all

I would REALLY REALLY like to avoid giving any of my money to the large supermarkets, especially Tesco's. So I am going to try to buy everything in local shops for the month of February and see if it costs me any extra and how I get on.

I usually have a home delivery from Tesco's each week and spend around £60-£80. Lately I haven't been able to get any discount codes and after watching Hugh Fernly-Whittingstalls (sp?) programme and how disgusting Tesco's are I would really like to avoid them completely.

So here's my plan :-

I will get my veg from the local farmers market and if I need any extra there is a local Stokes in town, which I presume are not too big a company and at least they are in the high street.

I will get my meat from my local butchers, not overly cheap, but I will try to get cheap cuts and just generally cut down on my meat consumption.

I will get my toiletrries from a lovely pharmacy in our small high street that is privately owned. What I am mostly stuck on is buying teabags, sugar, ketchup etc...The only other small store that sells these is a co-op corner shop, but then this is a massive company, so not sure what to do about those incidentals?

Is there anyone else out there that wants to join me, or someone that does something similar and can advise me on how you do it.

Thanks
StressedSteph xx

chika

Good idea, I don't know about the Tesco thing, I didn't watch the program but Techo hatred seems very high at the moment!

Do you have a cooperative near you or an independnt supermarket? In Manchester there is the Unicorn Grocery which is organic and lovely and stocks a lot of things but no sugar (because they consider it to have no nutritional value ...!) The coop is more ethical than most so I wouldn't worry too much about buying bits from there.

Good luck!

simpywimpy

I too dislike Tesco.

I don't think I can giv up all supermarket shopping but I now get some supplies like milk £1 for 4 pints, Bread, 2 for £1.50 (Kingsmill 50/50) and biscuit box £2.25 (2kg of chocolate ones such as rocky) all from Farmfoods!

Personally I think tesco needs taking down a peg or two. They seem to think they can do what they want and we'll still shop there regardless.

Well done Steph for supporting your local shops! They really need our help at the minute x

seabright

Why don't you become a member of your co-op? I've just joined mine and as well as getting a "divi" you can (if you wish) become involved with the co-op and influence what they do.

greenbee

I get a lot of stuff from my local independent health food shop, farm shops, farmers markets and my village shop. Organic box deliveries may include some of the groceries you need.

Ethical Consumer did a report on Supermarkets in their Jan/Feb issue this year. Have a look at their website for details (I'm not sure whether this report will be free, but you may be interested anyway). I obviously can't reproduce the whole thing, but if you do have to shop at supermarket or convenience store, go for M&S, Co-op or Farmfoods.

Some links that may be of interest http://www.tescopoly.org/ www.foodethicscouncil.org www.foe.co.uk www.competition-commission.org.uk

WartimeScrapingofMarmite

Farmfoods for frozen stuff - they also sell teabags, sugar, tomato ketchup etc.
Local Butcher for meat - tastier, cheaper and the produce is local
Local Greengrocer or market for fruit and veg
We have a great shop near us called Bodycare that sells branded (and unbranded!) toiletries far cheaper than Boots - I don't know if they are nationwide though.
We have a small village shop for "emergency" supplies so I go there quite often too.

I won't go into Tesco now unless I absolutely have to - I hate that fact that they seem to be taking over everything and everywhere and they are ALOT more expensive than shopping locally. BY shopping around as I've listed above I've knocked £75 off our monthly shopping bill - there are four of us and two cats and three chickens.

So I wholehearted support your quest!

kerik4

Depending on where you live your local milkman can deliver groceries, often on special offer. you'll be supporting local business too! Try milk&more.co.uk to see if you are on a round

Penelope_Penguin

StressedSteph wrote: »

Is there anyone else out there that wants to join me, or someone that does something similar and can advise me on how you do it.

Thanks
StressedSteph xx

A whole load of Old Stylers have and continue to do this I'll merge the threads, as there are lots of tips on how to shun Mr T

Try Approved Food for dirt-cheap food close to use/sell by dates.

Penny. x

kscour

Well a question from skintscotslass made me look up this thread again and I'm sooooo glad. Workwise I've been through 18months - 2 years of long hard hours (the joys of being self employed:rolleyes:) and things have slipped. We still use local shop & a butchers for alot of stuff but have had to resort to Mr T's far more than I was comfortable with.
Before rediscovering the thread I'd had a chat with DD's and we'd agreed to hit a small market town near us this weekend to make a start at getting back to being real rebels again!
We're not going to rush it just rediscover the shops and actually enjoy shopping again. Browsing a high street is fun, being herded around a supermarket isn't.