Skipping the supermarket

debtfreeforlife

I've spent the past hour reading through Ethical Consumer's Supermarket product guide (in their May/June 2019 publication, available here: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/).

I've been considering this for a while but have decided to set myself a 3 month challenge in which I visit a supermarket only once a month. Everything else will be bought via a veg box scheme, my local plastic-free shop (for all grains, pulses, nuts etc) and an online ethical retailer which sells cleaning items. I already buy toilet paper in bulk from 'Who gives a crap'. Hoping this will result in reduced costs and weight loss, but most importantly I would be withdrawing my support from supermarkets that take advantage of low paid workers in the UK and internationally, and supporting alternative, better business models.


Does anyone else fancy joining me on this challenge?

Helen105

Hi

I have been doing something similar but I have found it frustratingly more expensive although morally satisfying.
My current gripe is tea. I drink a lot of tea and was perfectly happy with Lidl's cheapest red label teabags but then thought I should switch to tea leaves bought loose at the packaging free shop in Leeds market which cost £4 per 250g. I seemed to be going through 250g every week compared with a box of 160 teabags at less than £2 lasting about 4 weeks.

Yesterday I tried to buy Yorkshire Tea at Bettys. They sell loose tea online at £2.59 for 250g so I reckoned if I rocked up to one of their shops with a large plastic box I could get a kilo for about £10. Oh no, they don't sell Yorkshire Tea in their shops but they did offer to sell me their Breakfast Blend at £36 a kilo! !!!!!!?


I don't understand why buying stuff unpackaged has to be so expensive. My current thoughts are that I will return to teabags but try buying them in bulk.

pile-o-stone

Make sure those teabags are plastic free!

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/food-drink/best-plastic-free-tea-bags-clipper-t2-pukka-twinings-a8982626.html

JKenH

Guilty there as we use Tetleys or Yorkshire which contain a small quantity of plastic but if the choice is either compost or landfill I go with compost. I hate sending anything to landfill.

mmmmikey

Thanks for the link, I haven't come across the ethical consumer site before. It's clearly very politcal but no harm in that, it's a great starting point for understanding the various ethical issues surrounding the products they review, and we can all make our own decisions as to whether to agree.

My approach to ethical consuming is just to accept that a lot of the ethical products cost more, but to buy them anyway and try and save the cost elsewhere. I've recently taking to buying things in bulk to reduce packaging, e.g. laundry detergent, white vinegar, etc.

My solution to tea drinking is as about as cost saving and organic as you can get I have a Croatian friend who collects and dries wild herbs from the hillside once a year on her summer holidays, and she brings me back a years supply. Very refreshing drink - I use just a pinch of them in my Star Wars Death Star tea infuser, which I've had for years. May need to replace it soon as the Imperial Fighter is starting to work loose from the chain I guess this isn't a solution for everyone though.

Good luck - be great if you could post any new products you've tried out.

JKenH

The milkman is making a resurgence so chance to avoid a bit more plastic - and it might be delivered on an electric milk float.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/milkman-back-best-milk-delivery-services-uk/

Plasticfreemama

Great tips. We do buy milk and eggs from our local farmer, and get vegetables from a local wholesaler so it is not wrapped in plastic and most of the products we get are seasonal, so they come from the UK.