Would anyone like to join me in this?

[swiperfox]

Having just watched Supermarket Secrets again and feeling absolutely sick at what they do to us, I am going to try, from this weekend coming, to buy as little as i possibly can from the supermarket from now on.

Who wants to join me?? I would like to do an 'experiment' and post exactly what i buy, what is available and the prices so that any of you interested can see the differences. I want to find out exactly how much we are being conned by being led to believe that it is cheaper to go the supermarket than the local butcher/baker/grocer and market. I also want to see if it makes a difference to dd (3.7)(behaviour/concentration etc) It would be good if a load of us could do it and post what we have bought, prices, what meals we made etc so that we can all give each other ideas for things to buy and meals to make. I would also like to try organic ranges as well and post the differences.

Anyone fancy it?

Will be very interested to see this develop. Sophable, my BIL does that. Buys half a cow from a local farmer at a time. Lasts him for months, think he said maybe even a year (my sister is veggie). That way he knows the meat is good quality and it's cheaper too. Mind you, he's Italian and passionate about food. He can't imagine buying meat from supermarkets - the idea makes him feel queasy.

thanks for those links flashingnose, they're brill!

I spoke to my Mum yesterday, who had funnily enough just been to the farmers market after my aunt told her about the programme! I was telling her what I was doing and she said she wished she could too, but that the local butcher, grocer and baker had all been closed down!!! They've been part of Mum's town for as long as I can remember and it made me really angry because it means that my Mum now has no option but the big supermarkets or Waitrose. The farmers market is once every 2/3 weeks i think - maybe even monthly so isn't convenient for fruit and veg.

Are there many of you who have no choice except supermarkets?

we can#t afford to completely do it as a family atm so we are half and half but our 2 yo is now completely organic. he has never had silly additives anyway. we are just starting weaning our youngest and he will be organic too....when we have sorted our finances we will all be organic....word to the wise tho....DON'T buy lots and lots from grocers they don't always last as long as supermarket fruit and veg. i ended up with up with lots of fuzzy fruit that i had spent a fortune on!!!

scary day! I've got to get the majority of the weeks shopping today so i'm going to try and avoid the supermarket as much as possible! Trying to figure out a sensible meal plan for 3 meals a day without costing a fortune......could be a while!!!!

I would love to do this but A) I don't think I can afford to and b)my kids seem to hate me trying to do anything different.

I'm not sure we can affort it yet either lol Thats why i'm trying to make a list otherwise i'll buy stuff that looks nice and end up with no meals and no money!!

I'm in, my question is can we afford NOT to take care of what we & are families eat ?

Have to say I have quite a full store cupboard at the mo, but will be trying to buy fruit/veg from farmers markets or maybe the box scheme.

Judging by those poor dairy cows & the chickens, I think the least people can do is buy organic milk & chicken....

i'm going grocery shopping today. i will be buying things like loo roll and cereal in tesco, but all the fruit and veg on the local market and farm shop. i'll let you know how i got on later!
also, DP stopped the milkman (express dairies ) this morning and asked how much it would cost to have milk delivered. he said 47p/pint for normal milk and 66p/pint for organic.

We've always bought fruit and veg from greengrocers, as it lasts longer than tesco, plus you don't get all the packaging with it.

I saw a list the other day which gave 5 green labels and 5 red labels, so you have an alternative to what you normally buy, but I can't remember it!!!
Basically, buy Mars instead of Nestle, Shell instead of Esso, and some others.

If you can find a good farmshop, it is worth sticking with them. Many sell other things, like dried fruit, cereal, veggie things, wine. We have one near us which is huge, like a supermarket, and is great.

I did it!! I'm quite pleased with what we managed to get. A load of meat from the butcher for just under 20.00 and 2 bags of fruit and veg for 7.00....I'm off to make a proper list of prices etc and will be back - have to say, it feels really good!!

OK. I took 90.00 out from the bank earlier. First stop, the Butchers. Dewhursts. We got: 6 cooked gammon steaks, a big tray of chinese chicken wings, a big tray of garlic style chicken breasts, a tray of 6 lean Aberdeen Angus burgers, a pack of 18 fresh pork sausages, 15 large free range eggs for 17.98!
Next stop the 'Weigh and save' shop where they have big containers of everything and you just use a scoop. It's charged per 100g. We got plain flour, pecan nuts, tropical luxury museli, red lentils, barleycorn, a huge bottle of fabric conditioner and 2 tins of chick peas...came to just under 7.00
Then we went to the local grocer and got: A cauliflower, 2 lots of spring onions, 2 huge spanish onions, a suede, half a cabbage, punnet of nectarines, whole garlic, punnet of strawberries and a bunch of bananas (7).... all that came to 7.01!!!

I had to go to sainsburys for cartons of orange juice, organic milk, bread, frozen pastry and a few other bits which was a tenner, then nappies etc was another 12.00

But overall I'm really surprised at how much stuff we got for that little money. I will have to go midweek for more fruit as dp has gone smoothie mad!!!

The weigh and save shop do yoghurt covered banana chips/peanuts/raisins which are sweet enough to fool the kids with for a snack but better than crisps&choc!!

So am feeling quite pleased with myself The next step is to figure out what to cook with it all!!

well i didn't get to the farm shop today :/ but i will on monday or tuesday.
i'm very impressed by all those that tried already, seems definitely worth it!
litterach, it's a very good point about the packaging! also, i never got why supermarkets package potatoes etc in plastic bags as they get so wet in them and go off quicker.

Because people do see it as convenience.
I am forever on at DH that we don't need apples that are pre packed. Or avacadoes.

In Tesco they once tried to put all of my loose veg into separate polythene bags - may have been when I stopped shopping there for veg!

Swiperfox, I wish we had one of those weigh shops, they are much better, especially for cereal.

Now, what are you making?

We stopped using supermarkets after reading "Not on the Label" last year. We now get 95% of our food from local greengrocer / market / local organic shop / online health food shop (www.goodnessdirect.co.uk). Many local independent shops will order things in for you, and even deliver, if you explain you will be doing your main shop there each month.

I order all our dried and tinned food once a month and then shop at market / order from box scheme for fresh stuff. I would say at least 75% of all we eat now is organic. The "choice" available in the supermarkets is crap when you realise what else is out there. Organic food is easy to find and does not have to break the bank. We spend less by avoiding 'impulse buys' at the supermarket and by eating much less processed food. Fruit and veg from supermarkets is a rip off and mostly tasteless. Local organic food tastes sooooo much better!

Good luck everyone trying to change the way they shop - the other bonus is: no more toddler tantrums going round Sainsburys. My son loves going to choose fruit at the grocers, chatting with the staff at the local independent shops, and unpacking the deliveries...

swiperfox - what a great idea for a thread.

I am going 100% non supermarket. I am going to a farmers market tomorrow. There are also a few farm shops around here that I am going to have a nose around.

I have a good range of shops at the end of my road to buy bit and peices (ie. bread, chemist stuff). The only problem is getting hold of organice milk.

will follow this thread with great interest.

I did it too ! :0

Spent £17.93 on mainly veg, hot choc (£2.08), bread - organic, wholemeal large loaf for the week £1.85, 6 organic local eggs £1.20, banana cake £1.50, soap liquid ( sls free) £2.43 & bar of soap 50p, oh & 4 nectarines for 99p which are yummy.

Just need to locate local milk/cheese/chicken/beef/fish

Mojomummy - for the chicken and beef - one way I located a butcher (who as it it turns out does free range meat) was on yell.com I just typed in butchers and my town and loads come up and I identified a couple who specialised in free range and organice (some had websites linked as well. I hope that makes sense

Hi swiper!
I'm a sucker for a farm shop/local shop - and I live virtually next door to a tesco.
The thing that got me into my local shops was the fact that none of them minded me bringing the dog in (well behaved and doesn't pee up the veg!). The best of it is, it is a two way thing - my dog gets to sit in the door of the butchers whilst they all throw bits of steak at him, and they get business everythime we go, which if my dog has anything to do with it is every day!

Got to say though, my favourite favourite shopping trip ever is to a multicultural suburb of the city, with a mixed black, Asian and heavy on the Polish, with a liberal sprinkling of hippies and student mix. I went last week and stocked up on dill pickles (DP favourite) and a kabanos sausage from the Polish butcher, and then, best bargains ever, to the Asian supermarket - huge sack of black peppercorns for £5 (last forever and a different world away value wise from the mini jar you get from tesco for about £3) And if you love your curries, great place to buy spices by the mini-sack for next to nothing.

Loads and loads of fruit and veg (and all the hard to find stuff too) - recognisable stuff: 2kg red onions for 99p, bag of 6 peppers 99p, 3 bunches of spring onions 50p etc.

Sadly, went and ruined it at the checkout with the pistachio kulfi icecream on a stick for 69p. Worth every penny though, that puppy

Hiya Serah! Was just saying on the tv thread about the supermarket secrets that I miss being in Reading because of all the multi-cultural grocers. I'm a sucker for west indian cooking and in Reading you can find everything you could dream of!! Hopefully now we are living in a City again I'll be able to find something similar down here

The thing i love about the local butcher and grocer as well is it's so personal, like you say. You can stand and have a chat with them and they are soooo friendly, it's brill!

Forgot to say earlier, 4 pints of organic milk from sainsburys was 1.30. Not an awful lot dearer than normal milk and so worth it not to make those poor dairy cows suffer

swiper - the milk tastes nicer organic as well so well worth it isnt it

emily05 will try that way to find butcher thanks

BTW think it would be a good idea to let the supermarkets know we've had enough of them- any one got any press contacts ? And good advertising for mumsnet/local farmers too ?

I've been following this thread and watched the programme, i've been convinced to change to organic milk and have been following the links for farmers markets, etc. I've found a local one on Sunday that we can go and have a look at.

Other farm shops seem thin on the ground around us, and it's a very long walk or drive ot get to anywhere with small individual shops, but I'm going to try and make the effort

I have to say as well after that programme I suddenly realised how unsmelly the fruit and veg section is and I know when i've been on holiday abroad how everyone always smells their fruit to check for ripeness.

flowerfairy - if you cant find a farm shop some of the box schemes are really reasonable - have been pricing them up and they are not as bad as I thought

Emily05Do you know any links to a box scheme?

Tried a basic search the other night, but results were a little fruitless-pardon the pun

able and cole
organic directory - you will need to register

what region do you live in?