Cost or conscience?

lilmisskitkat

Thank you for all the replies

I do a mix at the moment, have done for years, i just felt a little bad that i couldn't support the local traders fully. I do have time to shop around as i'm a SAHM and when DS starts school in Sept i'll only have DD2 to trail around with me and shes happy enough in the buggy with a snack.

Yesterday the market had 5 peppers for £1 which was great and a huge box of strawberries for £1 so some things are cheaper, it was the bananas mainly because we use a lot of them each week and the price difference added up. Asda usually has overripe bananas bagged up at 10p per kg which i buy for making banana bread, i got a dozen for 23p the other week :T Also spuds, a small bag at the market cost £1.25 but i could get 2x bigger bags for £2 at Asda.

I'll continue with a mixture then and keep my conscience clear. It's like i do for meat anyway, i get some from the butchers but if i spot anything good on the reduced shelf at the supermarket then into my trolley it goes

Re; Farm shops - despite living in a quite rural area the nearest farm shop is quite a few miles away so a visit there is only if we're going that way anyway. There is a farmers market 1st sunday of the month about 10 mins away, must get the little ones up and organised to go next time, Sunday mornings tend to be quite lazy here!

Thanks again

K xx

zaxdog

We don't have a greengrocers in our small town so I use either Aldi or Lidl for veggies as well as tins/dried stuff etc as they are cheaper and so much better quality than Tesco.

Meat-wise we eat very little as I will only buy meat I know the provenance of so our mutton, beef and pork come from a colleagues farm (also know the slaughterhouse they use), our rabbit comes from the same place where the teenage son earns his pocket money by controlling the rabbit population. We do eat lots of fish as my OH is a very keen sea fisherman.

I find it's eay to balance cost and ethics as long as you don't mind a few veggie meals or bulking your meat out with lentils/oats :rotfl:

With cleaning I use soda crystals, stardrops and lots of vinegar (high limescale area, only one in Scotland I think lol)!

adelight

PipneyJane wrote: »

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.

Where is this? I've never heard of it before but sounds interesting.

I am cost over conscience every time right now, though that does include buying most f&v at the market where it is a bit cheaper than the SM. I would love to buy free range or local eggs and meat and will when I can afford that sort of increase. Just switching the eggs would cost around an extra £100 a year!
The farm shops near me are extortionate. A dozen eggs, whole chicken, spuds, bunch carrots, greens and 1/2 dozen apples will set you back well over £20.

shellsuit

All my fruit and veg comes from Aldi. It's really fresh and the prices are fantastic.

All my meat comes from local butchers. I don't mind paying extra for meat, as it tastes so much nicer, I know where it's come from and what's in it, and isn't full of a load of fat!

Ben84

PipneyJane wrote: »

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?

It's a good question actually, as there aren't normally instructions on the packets. I've just tried things and seen what works. I do discover new ways of doing things and change my mind on what works best sometimes, but I'm pretty happy with the stuff I'm using and how easy and effective it is right now. So, there probably are better ways to do some things and you might discover them along the way.

With the aside, borax is the main thing I use for tacky grease (rather than burnt on grease), so things like the deposits you find on top of the kitchen cupboards or the tiles and cooker. I rinse a cloth in hot water, shake on some borax (often not that much, half a teaspoon goes a long way) and scrub. It's safe for metals, glass, plastics and such. It tends to remove even quite thick grease in one go as borax does seem to emulsify grease very well. I also put a teaspoon in the hot water and detergent when cleaning the floor, which seems to help a lot. You could add more, but then you'll have to rinse the floor to avoid a powdery deposit when it dries. May be worth it for a very greasy floor, but I wouldn't bother for regular cleaning.

Soda crystals I use mostly in the bathroom as it always leaves everything very clean and shiny at the end. Shake a few teaspoons in to the toilet and let it stand a while while cleaning other things, then scrub the bowl with it and flush. In the sink and bath I run some hot water and dissolve the crystals in that, then when it's dissolved I scrub the sink, bath and tiles with the solution. Just make sure they dissolve or you may scratch the finish. Rinse at the end, as soda crystals do leave a powdery deposit if you don't.

As for ammonia, it does a lot of things. I usually mix household ammonia 1/3rd with water and put it in a spray bottle. Then I mostly use it for cleaning glass with newspaper, or removing stains - usually by placing a clean rag over the stain and flipping everything over to spray the ammonia through from behind to push the stain out in to the rag. I also use it on rugs and furnishings by spraying on and blotting. Because ammonia evaporates in to the air, it doesn't leave any deposit on these things.

Citric acid I use to remove scale from things. For example I soaked the shower head in a solution made with a couple of teaspoons in a litre of hot water for a few hours and it removed the scale very well. I also fill the kettle with water, boil it, then add a couple of teaspoons (more if there's lots of scale) and leave until the scale is dissolved and rinse well at the end.

There's lots of other things I use these for, but that's some typical every day stuff I've done in the last few weeks.

Ben84

sjprmc01 wrote: »

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!

65p for a kg! You'd need a time machine around here to get them that cheap. I usually pay about 90p at the supermarket, which is the cheapest option here that I know about.

shelley_crow

I'd dearly love to get all my produce from a market but around here, the quality is shockingly bad. There's a few farm shops where the produce is good quality but everything is double the price of Aldi. There's a new farmers market opening soon so hopefully that will make things better.

dogstarheaven

cost over conscience for me too. as i'm a singleton, i can't afford the the shop i used to do. i've resorted to using value chicken wings from s/m, whole reduced chicken from lidl and sainsbury cooking bacon when i buy meat (can't afford the others so don't buy them anymore, unless i have a treat once in a while).

in nottingham, i go to the cattle market every saturday (near forest fc ground) and there's a stall that do about 5 products (changes week to week). last time were peppers for £2 per box. yes, per box! pineapples 3 for £1! ok, they were a lil' old, but if you had a dehydrator, then you could make so make so much out of bulk buys. peppers would of frozen well, or preserved after grilling/roasting in cheap olive oil with herbs.

i know it's off topic, but there's a few plant stalls that are super cheap. very good prices for perennials.

also there's an auction and is v. popular there for decent bits of kit (tools, power ones, garden stone benches etc)

I_wanna_live_for_free

our market has a couple of stalls that do a bowl for £1. Onions, peppers, carrots, mushrooms usually. Also seen bananas, Clementines and plums etc sold that way too. I have got 12 avocados for £1 and 5 peppers £1. I go along after work and they have baskets of unsold veg, you guessed it £1 :j have gone home with cabbage, carrots, peppers, and onions - loaded the veg rack for pennies, then gone to asda for the main shop and been shocked at the cost!

We have an Asian supermarket just down the road too and get onions for 20p a kilo from him. :j

Farway

shelley_crow wrote: »

I'd dearly love to get all my produce from a market but around here, the quality is shockingly bad. There's a few farm shops where the produce is good quality but everything is double the price of Aldi. There's a new farmers market opening soon so hopefully that will make things better.

Same here, the market is same price as Asda, and dearer than Lidl, but inferior quality & unknown provenance, farmers' market is monthly and a good hours bus ride

So here I am in southern Hampshire but unable to support local produce or producers as none readily available

Luckily free range eggs are in Lidl at around 90p for 6