This weeks shopping

Since starting my challenge not to shop in supermarkets, I haven’t been to one.  It doesn’t seem like a particularly big deal any more and I can’t really remember why I though it would be such a problem not to go to a supermarket.

Sustainable gift wrap course

My husband however has been shopping in supermarkets.  Where I am really happy to eat all my food made from raw healthy ingredients, he wants specific brands and junk food.  You can of course buy these things outside the supermarket, but sometimes if I’m not quick enough to get the food he likes, then off he goes to the supermarket. He mainly buys munchies for himself, but he did buy icecream the other day, which the kids had some of and he was eating some crisps today which I nicked a couple of and then he pointed out that he had bought them from a supermarket recently….  As I said originally though I do the bulk of the shopping and I do most of the cooking, so really the vast majority of our food is not coming from a supermarket.

This week my shopping came from two places.  The food on the left came from my local corner shop and the food on the right came from Southwick Square – a lovely shopping street local to me. The whole shopping expedition took me around an hour and 20 mins and I spent £69.54 on it.  I know I will have to go shopping again for bread and milk during the week which will add to that bill and that will feed 3 adults and 2 kids for a week.

I tried to do a comparison between my shopping and what it would have cost me at Sainsbury’s where I used to shop.  It was quite easy to compare the food I bought in my corner shop to the supermarket prices and the corner shop came out cheaper.  It was trickier though to compare the food I bought from Southwick square. Compared to the non-organic options in the supermarket the food I bought came out more expensive.  However the meat I bought was free range, the cheese I bought is apparently made in Cheddar and some of the fruit and veg I bought was local / organic (none of it is labelled though so it is hard to tell). so it is difficult to compare like for like with the supermarket prices.  I do think though perhaps I should be shopping around for fruit and veg as there are lots of greengrocers to choose from in the area, but I do like Southwick square…

I am going to start buying some food online though.  In particular porridge oats are only sold in very small expensive bags in my local area (or at least in all the places I’ve looked).  We have them every morning for breakfast, so I want to buy them in large quantities.  Plus some of the foods my husband likes might be cheaper in bulk online, which might reduce his supermarket visits…

I do like shopping at my local shops, because in between shops I get fresh air.  People have started to recognise me in the shops and they are friendly.  Southwick square in particular has a nice feel to it. I love having a a nosy round the charity shops (looking for stuff for the kids) and the Chinese shop at foods and ingredients I’ve never heard of.  I definitely enjoy the experience of buying my food far more than I ever did in a supermarket.  At the moment though I’m starting to wonder if the places I’m currently shopping at are the most cost effective and whether I want a bit more knowledge about where my fruit and veg has come from…

So far I have given up shampoo, supermarkets, buying new things and I’m preparing to give up single use plastic too as part of My Year of Eco Challenges . If you have a moment I would really appreciate it if you would consider sponsoring me with an action on my DoNation page. Also if you liked this post please click like on Facebook and follow on Twitter – thanks so much!