Enough. We're walking away from supermarkets

alfsmum

We've started using our local milkman again after they came door to door after Christmas looking for business. can't afford to get all our milk from them but we have 2litre semi and 1 litre skimmed on the 3 days a week they deliver here. Hopefully it will stop me having to go out just for milk and ending up with a basket full of other stuff

alfsmum

I'm also trying to make a point of using the brilliant green grocers in our village. It's a very large village so we also have a T@sco and L@dl but the stuff at the independent shop always looks so much fresher and its much less stressful shopping there.

pollyskettle

We only have a butchers and a post office in our village - the little shop closed down on NYE. To be honest, I wonder how the butcher keeps going with the prices he charges - I only use him sparingly and I simply can't afford his roasting joints.

I have received my first https://www.clarebarry.co.uk order this morning. All looks good, although I probably won't get the roasting gammon again as I'm not convinced that it was good value for the price. I ordered 20 chicken breasts, diced lamb, minced steak, diced steak, minced lamb, the gammon and a couple of brisket joints to make pulled beef (rather than pulled pork!). Can't fault delivery, ordered Wednesday evening, delivered by fedex 8am this morning. Would have liked a dispatch email, but that really is splitting hairs!

I also had a https://www.spicesofindia.co.uk order this week and I can't fault them - brilliant prices and top notch stuff. Again, super fast delivery and proper decent sized onions.

I'm not abandoning supermarkets completely - I have still had a delivery this month and will continue to do so for the bits it's not economically viable to get elsewhere. I think I might go to our nearest town on Saturday and make use of the fruit and veg stall and there is a nice decently-priced butchers there which I may try next month. OH picks up any other fresh bits we need at Aldi on his way home from work when needed.

We haven't set foot in a Tesco since 2006, but we did do an online order once which we regretted as the experience was so very dire. I don't dislike Sainsburys; Asda are cheapest for the cleaning bits and bobs (although I have bought bulk buy washing powder and dishwasher powder cheap from eBay for a couple of years now with no problems); Waitrose delivery was ok but nothing special, but the store isn't local enough for us to use regularly and Ocado don't deliver here.

frugal_shopper_2

sams247 wrote: »

We used to go on holiday to Machynlleth every year when the children were young, beautiful area and brilliant location. We used that cafe a lot so very sad to see it go. It was actually going to Mach that started us on this route, as one of the things I loved about being there was the little local shops, you bought your bread from the bakery and people spoke to you, the butcher knew where his meat was from that day, the market in town was bustling, and the cafe at Plas Talgarth supplied fresh salmon. I loved the difference from the busy busy supermarket life.

It's not clear why CAT chose to close the cafe as it was always busy, I can understand the quarry shop closing as it had high prices & limited customers but the cafe should of been making a decent profit.
The bakery is still there but is up for sale, if they don't find a buyer soon then it is likely to close.
Wil Lloyds butchers is still there but Hamers closed a few years back as he thought he would do better with property investments.
The market still has stalls selling fruit & veg, meat, fish, bread, cheese, eggs, jams & preserves but that includes new stalls selling low quality produce as well as the decent ones which is causing some stall holders to struggle as they can't match prices. There are less stalls than there used to be & an awful lot more selling things you would normally find in a £shop.
Tesco bought the former Travis Perkins site & cattle market, despite being told where to stick their planning application a couple of times already they are still trying to push it through. If they ever succeed that will probably finish off all the remaining indpendent shops.

frugal_shopper_2

sams247 wrote: »

Prob will keep Costco as I get it as a work perk, so its seems daft to lose the discount, we only get the household cleaning products and loo rolls from them though as you're right in that they dont stock much by the way of organic

You can get cleaning products cheaply elsewhere too for example Bonnymans have assorted cleaning sprays that work out about 16p per 750ml bottle. These particular ones come in sachet form which you dilute yourself so they take up very little storage space.
http://www.bonnymans.co.uk/products/product.php?categoryID=1376&productID=6190

[Deleted User]

alfsmum wrote: »

Hopefully it will stop me having to go out just for milk and ending up with a basket full of other stuff

Well done on getting your milk from the milkman.My late husband used to say that if you went into a supermarket you would end up with the £5.00 loaf I knew what he meant as its rare to just buy one thing if you go to a Tescos or Sainsbugs.But I have found that by keeping a list of things I run out of by the kettle then not going to buy anything unless there is at least 5 things on the list and only taking enough cash from my 'food purse' I do save quite a bit. I keep a separate food 'cash only' purse in the house which is only used for food and nothing else.Its how I used to shop 40 plus years ago when my children were small.In those days if you ran out of cash before friday payday then you just had to manage with what you had in store.If you only use cash then your mind is more concentrated on how much you have left to spend that week/month.I have a set amount per month for food only and if I manage to stay clear of the supermarkets I find I do have cash left over at the end of the month This I put into my 'summer holiday spending money ' fund at the end of the month.In January I had just under £4 left ,not a lot but I had cut my budget in half anyway as I had a lot of left over bits from Christmas to use up.I still have quite a bit and this month have decided to have £60.00 in my food purse as its a short 28 day month anyway.True I can do it as I live alone and can please myself what I have to eat and don't have to think about making a big meal for a family.But when I think I used to spend in the region of around £200 .00 per month on aimless shopping ,almost bunging stuff in the trolley automatically I now shop a lot more carefully than I did 2-3 years ago and save myself quite a bit.

gailey_2

alfsmum wrote: »

We've started using our local milkman again after they came door to door after Christmas looking for business. can't afford to get all our milk from them but we have 2litre semi and 1 litre skimmed on the 3 days a week they deliver here. Hopefully it will stop me having to go out just for milk and ending up with a basket full of other stuff

I do same as can order other stuff and veg basket off them.
Its true op out for pink ilk come back loads so have 16pints delivered and best not as how much else buy on top:D

WartimeScrapingofMarmite

Really interesting thread, this is something I have been thinking about for a few months now.
This year I have started get milk, bread, butter, cheese and a fruit and veg box delivered every week from our milkman, as these were the things I was always "popping" to the supermarket for. I buy eggs from a colleague who keeps chickens
We have just been to our local farm shop for the first time and got one of their meat boxes which included 8 pork chops, four chicken breasts, a large whole chicken, 8 pork sausages, 10 lamb and mint burgers and a large packet of bacon for £30 - I couldn't buy that quality or quantity of meat at our local Supermarkets for that price (we have a Co-op and Sainsbury in the nearest town).
I've also found Farmfoods excellent value for things like big boxes of crisps, chocolate bar things for lunchboxes, cleaning products and toilet roll. The nearest one is 12 miles from us, so try to tie in my visits to when I am in the town anyway:money:

PasturesNew

teampugh wrote: »

We have a strict £50 per week budget

Hardly strict... I'd be rolling in food with that budget!!

gailey_2

Depends how many feeding I guess.

We spent £85 on ocado just over a week ago and today did shop in lids £72 but we family of 5 and needed stuff for packed lunches, had run out of basics also like passatta and we get through 6-8pints milk a day there are 5 of us. havent added any booze to either shop.

Hardly got any meat today apart from 1 free range chicken.some ham couldnet spot the half price turkey breasts they said on website and they wouldent let me use £5 off voucher on phone.

Cant wait until can go farmshop and independant butcher but far failed mot and eldets birthday moneys tight this month.