Supermarket abstainers

[BrummieOnTheRun]

Thought any fellow supermarket abstainers out there might be interested to know that Radio 4's Today programme is doing a special report on the effect supermarkets are having on...well...everything really.

They're looking for comments from consumers, suppliers, etc, if you fancy a rant .

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/

And just wanted to say a quick thanks to all the MNers who offered me helpful suggestions for non-supermarket suppliers! Weekly shopping bill is down by over £30/week, rubbish down to about 50% (incredibly), have a quite fit butcher and we're definitely eating more healthily. And loving those eco-balls and soappods! (why would you use anything else?!)

hi brummie,
where is the thread you just mentioned? would like some advice too.

here it is, oregonian.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2230&threadid=331415#6713163

top tips I adopted were:

• you can find local shops, farmers markets, food producers and possibly even your local milkman on www.bigbarn.co.uk
• local veg box schemes (and "happy meat"!) www.vegboxschemes.co.uk
• home delivery of bulky household items is available from ecotopia www.ecotopia.co.uk (and Wilkinsons, apparently)
• you can ditch washing powder completely by using soap pods or eco-balls (£30 for 1,000 washes!)
• toiletries and household items can be as cheap or cheaper from other high-street retailes like Wilkinsons, Savers, etc
• obvious stuff like using real nappies some/all of the time, making your own wipes, etc
• make your own household cleaner
• local greengrocers are much cheaper than the supermarket
• butchers can seem more expensive on a like for like basis, but you can buy cheaper cuts from the butcher that would not normally be available from the supermarket

Have fun!

I've bookmarked that thread. I decided some time ago to stop my weekly supermarket shop. I now do a monthly trip to Costco (is that worse??) for bulky household stuff, plus non-perishable foodstuffs. I go to my local farm shop for veg and some fruit and tend to buy most of my meat at Waitrose - I know, I know, it's a supermarket, but at least their ethics are more bearable.

My main problem is that going into Waitrose (right by the boys' school) for milk, bread and meat is proving rather expensive, mainly because I don't just stop at milk, bread and meat! I've started getting some of my milk from the milkman (can't afford to buy all of it from him because his organic milk is more than twice the price of Waitrose's) which means I don't go into Waitrose quite so often and that's a saving in itself.

My problem is that none of these shops is particularly close to my home which results in extra car trips. I do try to combine shopping with other stuff like taking my recycling to the collection point or collecting the boys from school, but it's still extra miles.

Freckle, I too was finding every shopping trip (whether online or in the store) resulted in a load of impulse purchases or 'habit' buying. costs a bloody fortune and half of it ended up in the bin. doesn't the average family chuck away a third of the food it buys? our food waste has gone down to virtually nil.

So while the cost of goods MAY be a little more expensive sometimes, I'm still saving huge amounts of money by not making the impulse purchases and not loading my cupboards with things that sit there for weeks.

I did find that online shopping helped bring the overall cost down as I could see exactly what I was spending, something which is very difficult when in store.

I do find that shopping every or every other month at Costco is good for stuff such as pasta, baked beans, tinned toms, etc. And the added bonus is that I rarely run out of these things so I can always throw a meal together even when there's nothing in the fridge/cupboard. I'm fortunate in that I have a cellar where I can store all the bulking items. And the bliss of not running out of loo roll!

Perhaps I should get into meal planning, so that I only buy what we are likely to eat that week. Means that, when I pop into Waitrose for bread, etc., I will only buy that rather than 10 other assorted items that catch my eye.

meal planning's the ideal, isn't it. it's just being disciplined enough to do it.

I do more batch cooking & freezing now to use up the veg box.

But not sure whether to cancel the veg box and just buy veg from the local greengrocer.

I'm getting a bit bored of having my meals dictated to me by the contents of the box! And it would be much chaper... I'm not TOO bothered about organic (unless someone can convince me it's massively bad for the kids...?)

I used to get a veg box - locally sourced (well relatively anyway), but found that some always went to waste as the boys wouldn't eat it or I didn't get round to batch cooking that week. Now I buy at a local farm shop which sources most of its produce from a local small holder - eggs too. It's not classed as organic as the small holder has had the resources to go through the accreditation, but it's probably as organic as accredited stuff. I do love buying eggs where it's clear that they've been picked out of hedgerows, etc., with dirt and feathers still stuck on them.

And, if I got my act together and made more of my own bread, I wouldn't need to go into Waitrose half as much......

Oh and I should add that meal planning's a b&gger because DH doesn't eat meat, so I always have to do something different for him, sigh.

I have that problem (doing separate meals) with the kids. PITA!

have invested in individual pie dishes and now batch cook 2 or 3 meals and freeze individual portions so they can have different meals at the same sitting!

Hi Brummie,
Thanks for the links and tips. Just yesterday, I found 3 local farm shops (well, as local as can be -- 10-20 min car trip, but the big tescos is also 10 min away), and felt quite proud of self for doing most of weekly shop there. I also think this feeling of self-rightousness will mean we waste less, but it might rub off after a week or so. Will keep trying.

Hello Feckle,
I also shop at Costco about every other month. My friends in the states say they are reknown for using GM in their food, and I notice that a lot of their products are big name brands; however, I have also heard that they support good labour practices.