MS Dilemma

vickyelaine

Curv wrote: »

I'd be interested to get your views on this:

I currently get my milk delivered by our local milkman... doorstep delivery, glass bottles, local cows - the works. My milk bill is around £25 - £30 per month. I started getting the milk delivered for two reasons:

• to stop me having to pop to the supermarket when I run out, only to leave Mr T's at least £20 lighter :rolleyes:

• to support local business

Since I started doing the Grocery Challenge, I've restructured my shopping so that I now shop twice a week and don't need to make any unplanned trips. I've worked out that if I bought my milk from Tesco, I'd cut my bill down by at least a fiver a month, maybe more. My improved planning skills mean that I'm far less likely to run out than I used to be.

I'm VERY into the whole MS thing, and so it feels wrong to knowingly pay 43p per pint for something I could get for 28p per pint. But I feel a bit bad about compromising my 'support local business' principle.

As I say, all views welcome

Curv x

Hello
Dont know how true it is but milk in bottles is supposed to be better for you. Im thinking of going over to the milkman because I recently read an article about plasticizers from plastic containers leaving deposits in the milk which actually get ingested by the consumer. Another toxin.

Paul_VW

milk in glass tastes better!!

plus the whirl of the milk float at 4am in the morning is just great!

grayme-m

Ytaya wrote: »

I think it depends on what you think you're paying for. If it's just the milk, then get it at Tesco or Lidl. But it's not, is it? It's also about your personal ethics and the service you get from the milkman. So you need to decide how much those 'extras' are worth to you.

An honest question, but why pay over the odds to support someone that cannot compete with the likes of Tesco that can deliver milk also?

It's romantic to have a milk delivery, but what is so special about milk compare to the local pub, post office, computer store, corner shop, cinema, or any other shop or service?

To say local produce is the difference, it's all local jobs and businesses?

Isn't it a bit hypocritical to get your milk delivered to support him yet not to support all other businesses?

The trouble for us is that it is not always better service to go for local shops. PC World would have had an item in stock, the local computer shop guy forgot to order any in and I had to go back the following week (I saw he's now closed down); I got a bike from a local shop and the service was appalling, at least Halfords' oiks had the next ready on time; the local carpet shop never even came round when arranged....

BTW, I can recycle the plastic bottles at Tesco, there isn't a green argument for us either.

Gillian1912

For the first 20 years we lived at this house our milk was delivered on alternate days and I also had eggs weekly. The milkman was local and divided his "area" into two parts - delivering on alternate days to each.

The milk was always outside the front door when I got up at 6 am each delivery day and he would call for his money fortnightly on a Tuesday. Those he missed for payment during the day, he would come back in the evening to collect. He would leave an invoice before he came for his money.

Then he gave up the business and a local dairy took over. All was well at first until they announced an "improved service" of daily deliveries which meant them doing the whole double round every day. Hence our milk was arriving after we had left for work. On top of that, the milkman seemed to be charging a different amount each week depending on who answered the door. He also insisted that the money be left outside for him on a Friday morning, even if nobody was in. When I phoned the dairy to question the current price of a pint of milk I was asked whose round was I on so it seemed the price varied between rounds!

I cancelled my milk and took to buying from the supermarket. The dairy later contacted me to say that that milkman had been sacked (he was on the fiddle) and did I want to order again but I had had enough.

It seems we were spoilt by having such a good milkman for years previously!

Big_Mama_2

Freezing fresh milk is something I have done for years and it saves the problem of impulse buying at the supermarket as other people have said. I stopped buying from a milkman 15 years ago as he would come at different times and I would have too much one week and too little the next. It is a shame not to support local businesses though.

Angelraesunshine

I used to get my milk delivered but i was let down badly by it my 2nd DD had just turned 1 at the time and i upped my order as she was now on cows milk this was just before Christmas so the order had been delivered and then they were meant to deliver all my milk for Xmas on the xmas eve, to cut a long story short they never turned up and i was left with 2 young children and no milk over xmas i was very distraught it was the last straw and i never had it delivered again after that.to make matters worse i then had a big fight with them as they said i had not paid when i had the cashed cheques to prove it, was a very bad experience and would never do it again. The milk man was so unreliable.

Now i get my milk delivered from tesco and i buy 1 extra to put in the freezer to cover me if i run out and not due to go to the shops, this has worked wonders as i too would go in for milk adn come out with about £30 + of shopping

Jeanann_2

I support my local milkman as I feel that some older people are not able to get out to the shops, and carry milk which is quite heavy, so rely on the doorstep delivery. I might need this service one day so prefer to help it keep going even though I have to pay more.

SusanCarter

We get milk from the milkman even though it's more expensive. With the amount we use vs the size of the fridge, we have to buy milk far more often than everything else so the saving vs. the time taken to go and buy it made it not worth it.

Other reasons were:
1) Glass bottles which are reused
2) Convenience/reliability
3) Milk is more local
4) Farmers get a better price
5) Helps support deliveries which are essential for some (such as the elderly) 6) One day we may be elderly and depend on it

I didn't used to be able to get it as I lived in a city centre and the milkman delivered after I went to work so no chance of it being there when I got home even if there wasn't the issue of it going off.

Ours seems to be delivered at times varying between about 2am and 6am (I heard him when I was getting up to feed the baby) and we asked them to deliver round the back (we live in a terrace) as the front gets full sun in the morning.

Annie_711

I used to get my milk delivered and suddenly the milk man could only deliver Monday, Wednesday and Friday so therefore I had a fridge full of milk over the weekend when we did a large family shop and I didnt have room for all the food and milk. When I eventually went to the supermarket for milk we found the cost considerably lower than the delivered milk i.e. £1.00 for four pints as opposed to 52p per pint. Problem solved.

Curv

Thanks for all your replies. I'd decided to stay with the milkman despite it being more expensive than the supermarket, despite the fact that he offers nothing over and above the milk deliveries and despite the fact that his delivery times are erratic which occasionally leaves our milk in the sun for hours at a time. But all the reasons on this thread for staying with him were compelling enough to stop me cancelling.

But I've just been out to collect our milk (yes, he is this late delivering sometimes) and I've been delivered completely the wrong order - I usually have 1pt of semi-skimmed and 1pt of whole milk and instead I've been left 4pts of semi-skimmed and 1 pint of skimmed. It's as if he got to my house (I'm at the end of a row) and dumped whatever was in his basket. I'm really cross because there's no way I will use that much semi-skimmed and I've got to go to Tesco for the second time today so that my toddler will have milk to drink at bedtime. I'm really cross.

I've decided to buy enough to last until my next Tesco run and leave a note for the milkman, cancelling with immediate effect.

Honestly, what a set of Noddies. Grrrrrrr.