Ethical grocery shoppers - how much is your weekly food bill?

[Scrumplet]

I've been getting a fruit and veg box, some bits from our healthfood store and the rest of my groceries from Waitrose for a while. In the spirit of cutting costs and wastage, I'm having a go at planning meals and buying only what I need for them plus breakfasts and light lunch basics.

I thought this would lead to a significant saving, but it hasn't. My bill (for just me and DS) is working out at about £75/week (£5-10 at the healthfood shop, and the rest split between the organic delivery and Waitrose). This seems like a lot to me, and I'm wondering where I'm going wrong - or if I'm not, and that 'greener' grocery shopping simply costs more money. Any thoughts?

Few questions - are you planning meals with expensive ingredients?

-Are you using everything in your veg box (must be a small one for just 2 of you) and do you need to buy any veg to top up?

-Why shop at Waitrose when it's easily the most expensive supermarket?

Do you get premium products for everything eg. the best bakery bread?

Fully organic shopping will be a bit more expensive, but you can offset it by having plainer meals and less meat, seasonal veg etc.

Mmmmm Waitrose cakes. Mmmmm soooo nice. I can clearly see how you spend so much. Could you make your own? They are lovely though.

Could you do your food shop at the Co-op?

How long could you live out of your freezer and store cupboard?

I think planning meals may be more expensive initially as you have to buy things for a recipe, can't take advantage of specials etc. But it probably pays off down the track with less wastage.

You may have to just give it time.

That's a silly amount a week for 2 people.

We buy organic for pretty much everything & don't use supermarkets, but get a lot bulk direct from Suma which helps enormously. Could you set up a buying co-op with friends?
We live in a housing co-op and bulk buy a lot with the group plus grow some of our own food, so our shopping isn't very representative, but FWIW I would expect to spend:
£35 a month from SUMA
£60 a month on my card in our local wholefood shop (includes quite a lot of buns & cups of tea though)
£50 per month food club to the co-op
say £40 per month bits & pieces in the local butcher & the Spar
So I reckon overall say £45 per week for 3 of us for everything except vegetables, milk & eggs (which we grow ourselves).

Do you eat meat? Cutting that out, or at least cutting down would probably make a significant difference, especially if you're buying organic.

Agree that you'd also do well to swap to a less expensive supermarket than Waitrose.

What is involved in your light lunch? Things like soup are very economical (and can help use up any leftovers from your veg box).

And could you grow some of your own? Things like courgettes, beans, and strawberries are relatively expensive (relative to potatoes and onions I mean) and can crop heavily and cheaply if you grow your own. Likewise tomatoes. A couple of courgette plants could keep you going all summer if there are only two of you. For the price of a couple of seeds.

We do grow some of our own veg, don't eat meat and don't buy Waitrose cakes. Which is why I think, yes, it does seem a 'silly' amount for two people - thanks, JodieO.

We buy in Waitrose for several reasons, with one of the main ones being it is (supposedly) the most ethical supermarket alongside M&S. Where people shop is a key part of ethical shopping, surely? And since we need to use a supermarket for about half our groceries and household supplies, we try to use a greener one. But clearly it's whacking up the price.

Neither DS nor I drink cow's milk, and alternative milks are more expensive. He still has nappies at night time, which cost. We buy freshly pressed juice and dilute it, not concentrate or squash - more expensive. We buy organic cheese and butter for ethical reasons, which aren't unavailable from our veg box supplier. I have my latest shop sat here and honestly, looking at it, I don't think it's extravagant. It's decent quality food, yes, but there are no fancy bits - no cakes, ready meals, etc. So it must be a consequence of choosing to shop in Waitrose coupled with buying fresh/organic/some 'free from' stuff in there. We have an ASDA and apparently I could do an equivalent shop in there for half the price - but according to Compassion in World Farming, it's the least ethical supermarket.

Swings and roundabouts.

Thanks for posting. We'll give the meal planning time and see if we can get the cost down.

Is there a Co-op near you? I'd have thought that was the most ethical of all supermarkets.

Supermarket hierarchy for ethics

Habbibu and thirtypence - Co-op's a great suggestion. Thanks. It didn't occur to me, TBH, because it barely has a presence where we live - we have a teeny tiny one on the edge of town.

Our other supermarket choices are, unfortunately, a mahoosive Tesco and huge ASDA.

I'm going to check out our dinky Co-op and see what I can get in there. Thanks again.

Hi Scrumplet, we ditched supermarkets for food shopping some time ago.

Is it more expensive? Not sure because we've worked out a network of cheaper fruit & veg shops (supermarkets are often an expensive place to buy fruit & veg unless they've screwed their suppliers for a deal), but we've also cut cost on other less important products (dominated by multi-nationals) like toiletries, washing powder, loo roll, etc.

You can bulk buy everything from shower gel to washing up liquid from ecotopia, or use cheap high street chains like Savers, leaving you money for the important stuff.

The biggest step was leaving the safety of the supermarkets. It forces you to search for better value local shops (and is a lot more enjoyable!).

Dubh, I am loving Ecotopia - thanks for the recommendation. I just worked out I could buy in some of their eco toiletries and cleaning stuff for the same price as bog standard brands at Tesco! - so that will definitely cut our bill over time.

I like the idea of ditching supermarkets altogether - I admire you for that.

We have an independent family-run greengrocer here, which sells good quality fruit and veg much cheaper than the supermarket and organic delivery companies ... but they don't sell organic and they air-freight stock in.

I recently did a Waitrose order for two weeks' worth of meals (and some cleaning stuff). I'm going to go through it and work out what I could get at Co-op and what I could get from Ecotopia, and drastically shrink the Waitrose contigent.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions; I can now see some ways to potentially shrink our grocery bill but still shop ethically.

Quick question - does your town have a farmer's market? Our local ones (we are market town heartland here) are fantastic for cheese, dairy, meat, sausages as well as vegetables and pies. It's not all wholly organic but at least it's genuinely local. I've been thinking a lot about supporting local and small businesses recently.

Oh, yes - farmers' markets. We're really lucky in that we have easy access to 3, with another one about 25 mins drive away. Not relevant to you, but the meat is much cheaper, and we also can get bread, honey, beer, herbs, veg, soap, etc etc. Some of these things are artisan produce, so not cheap, but the veg meat and fish are local, high quality and a great price.

We live in Fife, where a group of people ran an experiment about buying only local food. It was called the Fife Diet and may give you some ideas.

re local greengrocer - we are lucky to have a great local one with some organic - but you will avoid air freighted fruit and veg if you eat whatever UK fruit and veg are in season and you'll save money too! i remember reading somewhere a list of 5 or so fruit/veg that are most important to get organically (i think based on amounts of pesticides used/difficulty of removing residue), might help to prioritise?

personally i would rather eat non organic veg and keep a local family shop open rather than use a delivery service where i'd be likely to waste some - also keeping £ in local community rather than faceless big business

also, hate the phrase, but you can often buy staples such as dried beans in 'ethnic food shops' or delis much cheaper - i get my giant rice sacks from local chinese supermarket for instance.

when i was a kid we used daily bread co-operative, don't know where you are based

I have a theory....

by shopping at a normal supermarket[morrisons] and buying 'ethical' products we encourage them to buy differently and they have more buying power than me alone.... hmmmm

Even shopping at Waitrose, 75 pounds seems excessive for two people, especially if you're not buying meat.

A few tips to get the cost down whilst remaining true to your ethical way of life:

• roast a load of veggies on a Sunday (we like new potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips) to have with green vege and nut cutlets or something for lunch. Save half of the vege to blitz into soup n the Monday, with some stock and some spices.

• lentils are cheap, last ages in the cupboard and can form the basis of loads of tasty and cheap meals

• seasonal vege and fruit where possible

• buy a big block of cheese one week, grate it and freeze half, so you don't need to buy cheese the following week

• make enough pasta, rice etc on a meal to allow for leftovers for lunch the next day

Asda is vile; you would be severely compromising your ideals by shopping there methinks.