Organic food in supermarkets

rufydoofyM

Have just discovered an offer on Laverst0ke meat with them direct or through 0cado. Min order £100 with 0cado including £25 of Laverst0ke products (some of which are on offer) then add v code and it deducts £25 from the total:D

I've ordered and instead of £54 full price chosen a selection of things on offer so offer price £35 then deduct £25 so Total cost for meat a whopping £10 !!!!!:j

All other items in my basket were on offer as usual saving another £29 and I had a couple of small v0uchers saving a further £10 so I'm feeling really chuffed:D

http://www.laverstokepark.co.uk/daily-mail-offer.aspx

Edwardia

Seven portions a day..

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/01/fruit-and-vegetables-seven-portions-ucl-study?CMP=twt_gu

Time to ditch the fruit bowl ?
http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/467996/Time-to-ditch-the-fruit-bowl-How-much-sugary-health-food-we-should-really-consume

missjames

I think forget 5 or 7 per day, just eat plants and be balanced.

Does anybody know which veg box delivery service is best value. I do not need it to be organic I just want best value.

Kirri

No idea how many I eat a day, must have done 4 so far today and always fit a lot in my dinner. I'd probably have to make a bit of effort to get up to 10 but if I wasn't so short of money I'd have a lot more fruit in the house so would be easier then.

missjames wrote: »

I think forget 5 or 7 per day, just eat plants and be balanced.

Does anybody know which veg box delivery service is best value. I do not need it to be organic I just want best value.

If not fussed about organic you might be better off with a small local farm box as they always seem very good value in comparison to the well known org box schemes.

Riverford and A&C seem much the same price on boxes though A&C are a lot more expensive on individual items (getting a bit outrageous on cost really so I went to Waitrose this week rather than getting it all via A&C). Farmaround tend to offer slightly more in the bags but their customer service was fairly bad for me and they kept making mistakes on my orders. Ocado do good value boxes - worth checking out when they are on offer - they have their own box, Wholegood boxes and a new ish non org box. They were on offer the other day when I looked.

Kirri

Not seen this before, think it's new as I don't recall M&S having any organic bagged salads before? £2

Waitrose have a very similar new bagged salad as well this week, might be same supplier. Think the Waitrose one was £1.99.

[IMG][/img]

rufydoofyM

Ocado recently stopped doing organic mixed salad leaves so hopefully they'll stock the new W'rose ones.

It's now just over a year since we went almost totally organic:jand it was with the help of all the info on this thread so Big Thank You to Edwardia for starting it and everyone else for adding to it.

Overall I don't think we are spending much more, but we are certainly eating and feeling healthier. I used to hang about at reduction times several times a week and got loads of bargains. I thought I'd miss them, but I don't. Shopping online has now become the norm and I still manage the bargains by taking advantage of Ocado flash sale items every time I check out. I edit the order several times a day just to maximise any possible flash sale items in the 3 days prior to delivery. I also take advantage by doing 2 small orders instead of a big one each week. Special offers can be taken advantage of way beyond the finish date by creating orders as far ahead as you can book and if necessary changing the delivery date to extend the ability to take advantage of offers further. 7 weeks is my record.
I also take advantage of vouchers and offers including the latest laverstoke one and the odd fb offers.

Then there's of course Abel and Cole and Riverford. They both have pros and cons. I agree with Kirri in that some individual items with A&C are expensive, but both boxes are good in all sizes and we like the ability to like or dislike stuff with A&C. It also helps that one delivers to us on a Tuesday and the other on a Friday.

This year we are trying to convert to toiletries and cleaning products that are less toxic to both us and the environment.

We have a limited income and I figure if we can convert and feel better eating organic then anyone can. I still pop into W'rose and Sainsbobs very occasionally for certain things like mince and salad stuff and to have a quick scout for organic reductions.

So for anyone out there lurking and thinking organic is too expensive think again and give it a try, if we can do it then you can. A bit of time spent checking the offers and planning ahead, bulk buying when possible so full price is never paid and you have enough to last until the offer comes round again is how it can be done. I never pay full price for coffee, tea and flour for example.

Anyway less of my waffle, off to add some Montezuma organic chocolate to my next Ocado order as it's 25% off and our favourite of all time especially the lime and chilli milk one and the plain chilli bar:D nom nom nom

Dolly_Mixture

I have just read "Not on the label"by Felicity Lawrence and "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins and both have scared the heebeejeebees out of me! "Not on the label" focuses on how the food in our supermarkets is produced/grown/transported, while "The Food Revolution" is more about practises in America of intensive meat farming, gm crops and the effect on our planet. I am now very interested in buying more organic but am not sure the best way forward. There are just 3 of us, my OH and I eat mostly vegan and juice a lot, our teenage DD thinks we're too weird and still eats an average British teenage diet. I like the idea of a box scheme but am worried we will be stuck with a load of stuff we won't get round to eating and I will have to top up from the supermarket to get the stuff we do want! We live in a rural area and I do not have the luxury of lots of shops nearby where I can shop around. Any advice you helpful people can give me would be welcome. Thank you.

Kirri

^ I think you do have to be quite open minded to enjoy a box scheme - I like them as they do make me eat a much wider variety of veg than if I just pick out what I want each week. Get a good collection of recipes together but if you eat mostly vegan you might already have that. Vegbox website is good for inputting a particular ingredient to find a recipe and Riverford/Abel & Cole both supply recipe cards and A&C's website is really good for recipes too. A&C often give their cookbook away with first orders and it's great especially for new ways to use up veg. Worth planning meals for the week ahead to make sure it's all used in the most efficient way.

As you're in a rural area you might already have a good local box scheme? but if not the large box schemes like Riverford/A&C have a really wide range of items - I could do almost my whole weekly shop just at A&C with the amount they now stock ie pulses, storecupboard ingredients, household cleaning etc (but you may want to shop around price wise). A&C also do juicing boxes. Both sell extra items of veg separately to the boxes albeit A&C's individual items are expensive compared to Riverford, but you could make up a boxful of veg items yourself then. A&C allow some dislikes too on their set boxes. If you have Ocado in your area they are excellent for organic offers, also do veg boxes and have a huge range of organic/vegan items compared to the supermarkets. I'd just offer your daughter the equivalent organic version of whatever she eats!

You'll probably find as you go organic you won't actually want to shop in the supermarkets much/if at all as you'll see them as vast places full of mainly processed crap, albeit some are still good for the odd organic item. I find it too time consuming to bother much though as they offer little that I want.

rufydoofyM

Dolly_Mixture wrote: »

I have just read "Not on the label"by Felicity Lawrence and "The Food Revolution" by John Robbins and both have scared the heebeejeebees out of me! "Not on the label" focuses on how the food in our supermarkets is produced/grown/transported, while "The Food Revolution" is more about practises in America of intensive meat farming, gm crops and the effect on our planet. I am now very interested in buying more organic but am not sure the best way forward. There are just 3 of us, my OH and I eat mostly vegan and juice a lot, our teenage DD thinks we're too weird and still eats an average British teenage diet. I like the idea of a box scheme but am worried we will be stuck with a load of stuff we won't get round to eating and I will have to top up from the supermarket to get the stuff we do want! We live in a rural area and I do not have the luxury of lots of shops nearby where I can shop around. Any advice you helpful people can give me would be welcome. Thank you.

Thanks for the book info.
As kirri has said both Abel and Cole and Riverford have their pros and cons. I think we have tried most of the different boxes now from both companies. It took a month or two to get everything balanced, but has changed the way we shop and eat for the better without breaking the bank.
Abel and Cole have a 4th box free offer and Riverford gives the 3rd box free. Both do good size cook books which I got free and every week you get recipe cards and there's more on their websites.

Riverford has a min order of £12.50 and delivery is free. Individual items are often cheaper than A & C.

Abel and Cole has a min order of £10 and delivery is 99p.
They have different special offers every week and sometimes even beat Ocado on price. The likes and dislikes options means you can avoid things you don't like of won't use when ordering a box. They are one of the very few places to get milk that hasn't been homogenized too.

If you haven't yet used Ocado then they also run promotions for new customers.

And Ocado has to be the best of all for customer service out of all the supermarkets and A & C is excellent too. Riverford I've found is better if you deal with your local franchisee than head office.

Look forward to hearing how you get on, please let us know. Hopefully you are in a delivery area for at least one of the above, but if not and you find any other schemes please come back and share.:)

Edwardia

Jeremy Clarkson spotted at Daylesford Organic !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2599424/SEBASTIAN-SHAKEPEARE-Thought-steak-chips-man-Jeremy.html