My local shopping kick

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I thought I would come update those of you who gave me suggestions for how to find local butchers etc.

I have been doing it for a few weeks now. I haven't increased my budget, just shopping on our old supermarket one. So far, it seems to be working. The things like bread, tinned goods and crisps (I have no idea when I started buying crisps again ) I am buying fortnightly in bulk so saving there, which I think I am then passing on to the meat/veg bill.

I managed to find a looooooovely local veg shop, and a butchers that does prepacked meat (I was terrified of not knowing what to do in a butcher's!!! )

It all tastes so much better. Even the meat is easier to cut up. The prices are very good (I am pleasantly surprised), so much so that we are eating lamb which we haven't in aaaaaaaaaaaages because it cost too much. Having one meat free day a week.

Getting milk from a milk man, potatoes too, which is costing more, but again - keeping local dairy and milkmen in jobs.

All in all - loving it

Good for you . DH and I get all our veg from a local farm shop. We have yet to start using a butcher's but it is a start...

Well done. This is something we've gradually moved towards over the last few years. I reckon we now avoid supermarkets for about 70-80% of our shopping, we're still working on the remaining bit!

Nice one. Butchers are oddly intimidating, aren't they? I had a real lightbulb moment when I realised that in the supermarket I normally get the same size packs of meat. So I actually read the label, to find out how heavy they are. Bob's your uncle - now I can confidently ask for "500g of mince and 200g of cold ham, please" and know that I'm not going to make a fool of myself

And then I discovered that my butcher really doesn't mind at all if I bat my eyelids and say "If I buy one of those, what do I do with it." In fact he delights in educating me. Suddenly the fact that there are all sorts of things I don't recognise has become a benefit, not something to be worried about!!!

I totally know what you mean about a local shopping kick. I come back from my trawl up the little shops feeling so satisfied. As opposed to the sense of having come back from a war zone that I get when I leave a big supermarket!

I just wish that there was a greengrocer, market, or health food shop within walking distance of me The only food shops within walking distance are Budgens, Sainsburys and Tesco.

I thought I was the only one who was scared of butchers, they always seem to be full of knowing types who clock me as 'that one who doesn't know what the hell she is doing'

LOL ibroughtcake. I think it's something about the big, intimidating counter and the blood all over their hands.

I guess we are just not used to having to ask for our food these days - much easier to feign expertise in a greengrocer where you can grab an interesting-looking fruit without having to let on that you don't know what it's called!

I dont like the fact you can't have "thinking time" in butchers/greengrocers etc. We have lovely local shops 5 minutes walk fom our house, but I hate the fact you dont get time to look carefully at everything, and decide what to buy, before the shopkeeper pushes you to make a decision. I've been known to spend 20 minutes in Waitrose comparing prices/amounts etc before deciding what to buy. You need to have some time, to make cost effective decisions, and avoid waste.

Thats why I do internet shopping, so I can shop really carefully, even though in principal I approve of local shopping.

Minum - there's no reason why you shouldn't have thinking time. I was in our local butchers earlier having a look and thinking about what to cook this evening and when the butcher asked if he could help I told him I was still thinking about it. He got on with something else for a few minutes and when I was ready I called him over - no problem.

Why on earth can't you have thinking time? We do in all our local shops. In fact, the butcher at our farm shop is lovely, always asks can he help or are we just browsing and he doesn't mind either way! Sometimes we look and then buy, sometimes we look and leave it for that week, no pressure!