Cost or conscience?

lilmisskitkat

Hello all

Just wanted to hear other people's thoughts on this, its something i've been pondering over a little while.

Our monthly food budget is £300, this includes DD2's nappies & wipes. I do a big online shop at the beginning of the month for all the tinned/dried/bottled goods plus toiletries and cleaning stuff. This leaves me with around £40-£50 a week to spend on 'fresh' foods eg, milk, bread, fruit, veg, eggs, meat & fish.

I like the idea of getting my fruit and veg etc at the market, supporting local traders etc but it just seems so expensive in comparison to the supermarket offers like Aldi's super 6, lidl deals and Asda/Tesco's special offers.

I took the kids into town today to the market, Bananas 99p kg, Asda 68p kg, sweet potatoes £1.50 kg, Asda £1.15 kg. I've got the kids off school/pre-school so i'e been buying extra fruit as snacks and it makes a difference to the cost when paying more at the market. Or is it just our market that is more expensive?

What do you do? Do you let cost rule your conscience or the other way round?

Thanks

K xx

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Opposite down here. Whole bowl of peppers for a pound in the market, three tiny unripe/bitter ones for £1.79 in the supermarket.

Tomatoes too. Huge carrier bag full for £3 or 6 under or overripe ones for £4 from the supermarket.



I see nothing wrong with a mix - spuds are cheaper at the supermarket, as are carrots, but fruit is usually much cheaper, you get a better variety of stuff and if it's in season, it's cheaper at the market.

Depends if you have the time for both.

orangesmartie

Having lost my job, money is super tight, so at the moment, cost wins every time for me. I'd like to support the local traders, but the extra few pence on every item soon adds up and my budget is very short. So for now, i'll shop whereever is cheapest.

unimaginative_user_name

If and ONLY if you can afford why not buy your fruit and veg from local traders once every four to six weeks. It's good to support local traders but if you cannot afford it then don't worry.

I'm the same with environmentally friendly cleaning products. I try to buy one occasionally as every little helps but if I did it all the time my bank balance would suffer!

sjprmc01

Cost wins here but quality comes into it too

flutterbyuk25

Cost wins here too I'm afraid! My day to day fruit/veg comes from Aldi (mainly whatever is Super 6), but I do buy my bananas from the local market as I like them greeny/yellow not browning, and they don't sell loose ones in aldi. If I have some spare pocket money I may pop to local market to buy some fruit like strawberries or raspberries as theirs are amazing!

x

Ben84

unimaginative_user_name wrote: »

I'm the same with environmentally friendly cleaning products. I try to buy one occasionally as every little helps but if I did it all the time my bank balance would suffer!

I find some of the more environmentally sound choices tend to save money. I use mostly soda crystals, borax, citric acid and ammonia to clean things. I find them far more effective (most commercial cleaners could only hope to degrease things as well as borax or remove stains from clothes like ammonia does), cheaper, better for the environment and they use a lot less packaging. I do still use washing powder and washing up liquid however, but the other products I rarely need now. Just wish I could have back all the money I spent before on brightly coloured wonder products that didn't even work that well in comparison.

sjprmc01

Where do YOU get them from?

I've been buying them in 1kg bags from home bargains for 65p


Just wondering if that's likely to be the cheapest?

Googled and amazon are selling them for £3.82 for 1kg! Madness!

bossymoo

I think that's about the price I pay too. Home bargains or wilkinsons.

PipneyJane

Does the conscience stuff have to be more expensive? I buy the majority of my veggies from a farm shop at a local National Trust property. The farmer grows everything on site. I spend £20-£30 a month there.

The thing is, when we first went to the farm shop, because we were buying our veg separately to our usual supermarket shop it seemed more expensive. However, that was because, for the first time, I could see how much I was actually spending on veggies (it's not so visible in a supermarket shop). When I actually compared what I'd purchased to the same quantities in the supermarket, it was either cheaper or the same price. And the farm shop veg is far fresher so lasts far longer, which saves me money.

PipneyJane

Ben84 wrote: »

I find some of the more environmentally sound choices tend to save money. I use mostly soda crystals, borax, citric acid and ammonia to clean things. I find them far more effective (most commercial cleaners could only hope to degrease things as well as borax or remove stains from clothes like ammonia does), cheaper, better for the environment and they use a lot less packaging. I do still use washing powder and washing up liquid however, but the other products I rarely need now. Just wish I could have back all the money I spent before on brightly coloured wonder products that didn't even work that well in comparison.

Stupid question, possibly, but how do you use these products? I mean that literally. I'd heard borax was great for degreasing, bought some when I discovered my food processor was tacky with grease (no idea how it got that way) but couldn't figure out how best to use it. I ended up using it as a sort of a scour. Also, when you use ammonia to remove stains, do you soak or do you spot dab?

Incidentally, to the person who asked - I bought borax and ammonia in Boots and soda crystals in MrT's. They were tucked away down the back. Recently spotted large quantities of citric acid granules in WingYip - a couple of Pounds for a big bag.

Incidentally, I'm still using the ammonia I purchased when we moved into this house 9 years ago - a little goes a very long way. I use it mixed with water to clean the stove top: 2 tablespoons to a pint in a squirty bottle.