To use a community grocery

[guiltynetter]

A community grocery opened 5 minutes away from me about 6 months ago. It looks like a proper little supermarket and you pay £5 membership and then a £3 shop up to 3 times a week, you get up to 15 items for this.

Recently I've felt so stressed with money worries. On the face of it we look OK, both work (but big childcare bills), have a house etc and don't receive any benefits but food prices have gone up so much, as has petrol and our heating bills are set to go up £50 a month and I'm not sure where we're going to get the extra from. I end up using our credit card to cover the extra in food bills every month and I can never pay it off, especially now its near Christmas. My husband had to take a lower paid job during lockdown and can't do overtime any more which we relied on before.

The grocery says its open to absolutely anybody but I feel really embarrassed to use it. I feel like it's for people who maybe have hardly anything, hardly enough food to feed their children etc. What do others think?

Has anybody else used one?

Yabu - you should leave it for the absolutely desperate
Yanbu - you should use it

OP if people don't use it then it won't be able to run. It says it's open to anyone and you are paying to use it so perhaps see yourself as supporting it rather than in a negative light.

They want as many people signed up as possible because it keeps them running & puts money in the tills. Please go! Plus every penny less in a major corporation and instead for a community scheme to help others is a win

The thing is with this kind of thing is that they are run by people who want to help... not people who want to check benefit entitlement... BUT they can smell a taker a million miles away.

I work for a foodbank. Schemes like this grocery are great for us as they are the next step to independence from reliance on foodbank. And they are the step before people get to need a foodbank. I would much rather @guiltynetter you used this grocery, than came to the foodbank in a few months up to your eyes in debt that could have been avoided.

Local councils have in some areas been handing out loads of money to foodbanks and schemes like this grocery store over the past couple of years. They are there to help. The vast majority are run by lovely people who want to help and they are all governed by law to not share data of who walks through their doors. We are also good at getting supplies in and rationing when we need to. If they don't have enough food you will see that when you go in - but I'm sure it will be fine!

45 items in a week or 180 items a month is more than 1 weeks shop for my family of 4. Choose carefully each week and you will be able to avoid that credit card shop and start next year in a better place. (And if you need help working out what to get along with what you have do shout up!)

@Winter2020 I do agree with you about not using it to maintain a standard of living but equally sometimes circumstances change and someone can have all those things and then find themselves locked in with no means to feed themselves. My friend is a teacher and during lockdown she delivered food packages to houses with brand new range rovers on the drive..the owners did lots of cash work but then furlough hit and they were entitled to nothing! Not saying that’s right but the children still needed to eat…

Use it Op. If you feel guilty, why not make a commitment to donate some food/money at a later date when you can afford to do so?