Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Have you changed your personal supply chain as a result of lockdowns?

25 replies

MusicMenu · 02/05/2021 08:10

And will you stick with it?

As a child of the 70s with parents who'd lived through the war, I've always kept "enough" in, so I was never faced with the panic some experienced when loo roll was out of stock etc but for a while it was tricky to get what I wanted and you never went to the shop confident you'd be able to get what was in the list. Also, I didn't particularly want to go to the shop if it could be avoided.

I now have in place:

  • milkman
  • veg box
  • local butcher who delivers
  • fishmonger who previously supplied restaurants but started home deliveries when their business dried up
  • Smol dw and laundry tabs delivered

The milkman is brilliant for convenience. I can add a loaf of bread etc until late the night before. It is expensive but I think means less waste as I buy what we need when we need it rather than trying to judge what we'll need for the week in the supermarket. Plus glass bottles.

  • Organic veg box means we eat a much wider variety of veg and eat seasonally and support the environment.
  • Butcher, the quality is far superior and it actually works out a bit cheaper than the supermarket
  • Fishmonger is very expensive, but the quality is incomparable to supermarket fish. This is my extravagant treat and I won't give it up easily. I have a DH and a DS who "don't like fish", but it turns out they don't like bad fish and are really enjoying this.
  • Smol is convenient and massively reduces the cupboard space and plastic waste
  • Toiletries, I do a monthly, or thereabouts online order from Savers. I can't believe how much cheaper the products I normally buy are.

I now go to the supermarket once a fortnight. I like supporting some local businesses and businesses with environmental ethos. Plus it had improved our quality of life.in many small ways. It is perhaps more expensive but less so than you'd imagine because I don't seem to buy so much frivolous stuff.

OP posts:
silentpool · 02/05/2021 08:19

I now get toilet paper and paper towels delivered in bulk.
I go to a greengrocer and have started buying meat in bulk from a farm.
I have put a lot of work into reducing food waste.
I have a larger stock of food in my pantry so I don't need to go into the supermarket as often.

Oncemoretwicemore · 02/05/2021 08:30

No, because it was a highly specific situation. We vastly prefer the convenience of one shop over multiple suppliers. We have more money at the moment but are trying not to live beyond our 'normal' budget.

(When it got tricky at the supermarket DH would do a weekly run to our local Morrison's which was usually ok. When regular delivery slots opened we switched to delivery but went to Sainsbury's in fairly short order as we kept getting rotten veg.)

StealthPolarBear · 02/05/2021 08:34

Yes started to use the local butcher rather than one in nearby village.
Use local coop even more than I did.
Also something about a state of mind. I used to go to tesco routinely. Now I try to go as long as I can and am pleased with myself for as long as I can manage with only local shops. Tesco is a fairly small one nearby, we have a giant marks and spencer and sainsburys about 20 mins away. I used to go to them a couple of times a month, I've maybe been four times since lockdown started (part of that is because the office I am no longer in was near them)

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Maggiesfarm · 02/05/2021 08:45

I had always bought in bulk and stocked up so lockdown didn't affect me too much. I do now have a few things that I wouldn't normally have bought and likely will not use but I can donate them to a food bank.

bluechameleon · 02/05/2021 08:46

We already did Who Gives a Crap bulk toilet paper, milk delivery and veg box. During the crazy days of the first lockdown we added yoghurts, bread and cheese to the milk order. We've since cancelled the bread because it was expensive and the children didn't like it as much but kept the rest.

MelissaVonStressel · 02/05/2021 08:48

We do a monthly full up from Costco and a weekly Tesco delivery. No more nipping in to the Coop for anything. The (new) chest freezer is full and although we've gone through the Brexit stash and the lockdown stash, we have enough to last if we are ill or can't get out for 2 weeks.

Squirrelblanket · 02/05/2021 08:51

No, I do a weekly Aldi shop as I prefer the convenience of getting everything in one swoop. We shop week to week as I don't really have storage space to build up a store of anything.

Chemenger · 02/05/2021 08:53

We have a fish box delivered every two weeks and sometimes get meat from a company that mainly supplies restaurants. The quality of both is very good and the fish box includes varieties I’ve never seen in the supermarket. We live relatively rurally so we don’t have a local fishmonger. We get our milk delivered now as well.

Jennyfromtheculdesac · 02/05/2021 08:54

Milk man. It’s fab. Love that I can add other bits and bobs in between my supermarket delivery.

Thisbastardcomputer · 02/05/2021 08:58

I still use Ocado but get a freezer order from the local and excellent butcher and the veg is delivered from the local fruit and veg shop. I use Amazon as a hardware shop only and do a bulk shop at the local pet shop. The farmer delivers sacks of potatoes.

I can't ever see myself doing a big shop in a supermarket ever again

UhtredRagnarson · 02/05/2021 09:04

No. Can’t afford to. Lidl weekly.

Spottyphonecase · 02/05/2021 09:54

We have. I’ve always been a bit of a prepper anyway. I kept an eye on what was happening in China before it came to the U.K. and made sure we had enough dry goods and filled the chest freezer with meat and veg.

We used a local company for fresh fruit and veg and supported local farmers for potatoes, honey, eggs and surplus veg. I have carried on with this. We are also using a local no waste shop for toiletries and dried goods.

I did have milk and more but have now cancelled. They don’t deliver until 10-11am which was fine in the pandemic but now we are all back at work I don’t want the milk sat outside until we get home at 5.

We are still baking our own bread and having no takeaways. The money we have saved by not having takeaways has allowed us to shop locally. The supermarkets were never going to go out of business so I made a conscious decision to support smaller, local businesses who were at risk.

CeeceeBloomingdale · 02/05/2021 10:00

I try to shop local more using local farm shop, bakers etc. We have always done a monthly toilettries order and always have at least one of everything in "stock". Our main food shop has moved to lidl as it's more local and frankly way better quality. We eat better and save money. If we need a couple of things we will pick them up at the local home bargains which is walking distance rather than go in the supermarket. Our local store has freezers and fridges, stocks fish, meat, cheese, fruit & veg and bakery as well as tinned etc.

Sparklingbrook · 02/05/2021 10:02

No just the weekly shop but Click and Collect rather than trudge about in the supermarket.

Foodisascience · 02/05/2021 10:03

The only change is we now click and collect mainly. It hasn’t been possible to go to the closest Chinese food store like I usually do. it’s a 70 mile round trip. I usually go every 12 weeks. I buy 5 litres of soy sauce usually, the teensy little bottles from regular supermarkets just don’t last and are much too expensive.

We already bought shampoo, cat food and a couple of other things in bulk as much cheaper and had them delivered twice a year.

SedentaryCat · 02/05/2021 10:13

We already bought loo roll and kitchen towels in bulk from Who Gives a Crap and have had the milk delivered for years.

We restarted the vegetable box during first lockdown and managed to get hold of sacks of flour for bread. The bread machine came out of retirement for about a year. Still buy flour direct from the mill but in more reasonable standard-sized packets. Don't make bread any more now so it's just plain/SR flour.

A local farm started delivering trays of eggs as their usual customers were all shut (restaurants, university colleges, etc). We still have these delivered.

midsomermurderess · 02/05/2021 10:15

'Personal supply chain', now that is not a series of words I would apply to my shopping.

midsomermurderess · 02/05/2021 10:15

Em, 'not' apply.

LongIslandIcedT · 02/05/2021 10:23

I've not changed anything. We've had a milkman for years and stock up on dried goods and cleaning supplies at Costco. We use a butchers cash and carry for bulk meat to fill up the freezer. (5kg of chicken breast for £20)

Supermarket shop every 10 days.

Pyewackect · 02/05/2021 10:26

No, pretty much as it always was. But I won't be beating a path to pubs and restaurants anytime soon. That's changed.

idontlikealdi · 02/05/2021 10:40

It's so budget dependent though. We've shopped at the local butchers for years with a supermarket delivery each week. We can afford to shop that way though.

EventuallyDistracted · 02/05/2021 10:55

We've done veg box and milkman for years, our main change has been using click and collect instead of the big supermarket shop. A fill up shop opened here last year, I use that a bit too.

merryhouse · 02/05/2021 11:04

We've stopped popping to the shop almost every day, but that's all. I now do a Big Shop twice a month to get the clubcard discount, and walking interim shops Monday and Thursday for fruit & veg, and milk as our fridge is quite small.

We've always kept in a fair amount of food (way back in 1989 H would buy a new packet of something as soon as he opened the previous one) and the only thing we had a real issue with was flour and yeast. Ended up buying pancake mix to make toad in the hole, and sliced bread for sandwiches for the first time in years. Then bought a 16kg bag of plain flour Grin

Lettuce and tomatoes were a bit hit-and-miss for a few weeks, though I don't recall ever having to change our usual lunch of mixed salad.

Our only fish vans round here are low-quality low-choice floggers. Very few decent local butchers because we have loads of farm shops - good quality but definitely expensive. The local milkman delivers in plastic bottles.

I buy basic toiletries as and when - not sure we get through enough in a month to justify the delivery charge. And a quick look at Savers tells me that the two products I've bought most recently are approximately the same price as in Tesco before the 10% discount. Don't buy laundry tabs, just a large cardboard box of powder.

Oh, and H has started buying strong white flour in Lidl (significantly cheaper).

Curlygirl06 · 02/05/2021 11:33

I work in a supermarket so I'm in there a lot, obviously. I always have been a "one in use, one spare in the cupboard" type of person but when we had shortages and panic buying I changed that. I've now got spares of everything, loo rolls, cleaner etc. I hasten to add that when friends were short of anything during lockdown they knew they could ask me for things they needed and I'd either give them some of my stash or get it when I was at work.
Also I had to consider that being with a lot of people when I was at work, I'd be more likely to come into contact with people who may have covid and therefore have to isolate. If I had to (tho so far, touch wood, it's not happened) I'd have enough of everything so that I'd not have to ask anyone, apart from veg and milk. My neighbour, who I do shopping for as she is CEV, has a milkman and I could always get her to up her order for me. We've had a few staff members self isolate and as I got shopping for them, I know they'd do the same for me. 2 freezers stuffed to the gills mostly with yellow sticker food, which I've also shared with all and sundry.
I tend to shop as and when, depending on my work days but get a paper every day from the garage. Worse case scenario I'd read it online but prefer an actual paper so I can read it in the bath!

Confusedandshaken · 02/05/2021 11:46

For nearly 20 years I did 99% of my shopping online at Tesco. When lockdown started I was no longer able to get Tesco delivery slots so from necessity switched to Waitrose. Now I use Waitrose and Ocado on alternate weeks and much prefer them for choice and quality.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread