This isn't about sewing, but I am sewing right now. I've almost finished 3 pairs of pjs for R, and I have something cut out for myself. I bought myself an Ottobre Woman magazine for my Christmas. I also bought a bag pattern and some vintage patterns. I plan to do quite a bit of sewing this year (like I planned to do last year, but just never got round to...) Just reorganised my fabric stash the other day too.
I wanted to blog about my new idea... to give up shopping at supermarkets. There are lots of reasons I want to do this. It seems like supermarkets are trying to take over the world. All the local shops are closed. All their stuff is totally over-packaged. And they're always trying to make me buy stuff I don't even want or need with their special offers.
I want to be more eco-friendly - cutting down on the waste we produce. I want to support local businesses that people actually own rather than big companies. I want to eat more locally produced foods rather than stuff flown in from overseas. I want to eat more organic food.
I am thinking I will start a weekly order from Grow Wild - a local fruit and veg delivery company. They source the majority of their stuff locally. And it is organic. They also sell locally produced organic meat, honey, jams, eggs, and dairy. I just priced up a few random items - Grow Wild was £9.97 and Tesco was £8.41 (is it just me or do Tesco just bump the price up of anything that has "organic" in the title?) I usually have my stuff delivered from Tesco at a cost of £4.50ish. Grow Wild charges £1 for delivery, so shopping from there is actually saving me almost £2!
I can use Grow Wild for my fruit and veg (just need to decide on what size and type of box to get) milk, cream, butter (will switch to real butter instead of margarine), eggs and some other things like pasta and even some cleaning products and toiletries.
I think I might use somewhere like Ethical Superstore or Goodness Direct for toilet roll and bulk buying of flour, grains etc. If we switch from boxed cereals to porridge, (quinoa porridge for me!) or eggs and toast etc in the morning then I think that will cut down on packaging and also be healthier.
I'm thinking I will put the bread maker to use again. I've never been that happy with the bread I've made in it before, but it is good for mixing dough for things like bagels and rolls.
For the cats, Grow Wild sell a beef/lamb mix for pet food. Not sure if I am meant to cook it or feed it to them raw? I can also use the sort of local and family run pet shop in Linlithgow for cat biscuits and rat food. I am going to avoid Pets at Home, since I think they count as a supermarket. There is also place on the way to Larbert that sells bulk pet food. I noticed that Ethical Superstore sells Bio Catalet cat litter - which we use for the rats. Might be able to get that locally though.
Other things I have been thinking about - fizzy drinks (bad habit I know). The amount of plastic bottles we go through must be huge! I was thinking about getting a soda stream machine. The children also like drinking squash type drinks... so what would they be replaced with??? I could get the Rocks Organic brand from Ethical Superstore. They come in glass bottles, so easy to recycle too. We can work on cutting down the amount of non-water drinks we drink. Yogurt - we don't eat a huge amount, but I have always wanted to get a yogurt maker. The cheapest place selling them is on ebay - but the place that sells them also sells "poultry dispatchers" which is something you can use to break a chickens neck... not sure I can buy from somewhere that sells stuff to murder chickens with... Next cheapest place is amazon, but does that count as a supermaket? Its a massive shop that sells everything. Probably taking business away from local book sellers and companies. (tis my favourite place to shop tho!!) There are loads of those EasiYo yogurt makers around, but it seems like the stuff you need to buy to use them is quite expensive, and I'm sure I remember reading that it comes from New Zealand... might be wrong on that though.
Other things we buy from the supermarket are crisps/biscuits and other snacky type foods. I'm thinking that we could bake more. Cheese scones for a savoury option and biscuits, cakes or muffins for sweet snacks.
I feel like this is probably going to be more expensive than my normal Tesco shop, but I have a pretty decent £500 a month budget for 2 adults, 4 children, 2 cats, 2 rats and some fish.
Got to get to bed. I will add more ideas later, but I think I pretty much have it covered. Just have to put it into practice really.
I wanted to blog about my new idea... to give up shopping at supermarkets. There are lots of reasons I want to do this. It seems like supermarkets are trying to take over the world. All the local shops are closed. All their stuff is totally over-packaged. And they're always trying to make me buy stuff I don't even want or need with their special offers.
I want to be more eco-friendly - cutting down on the waste we produce. I want to support local businesses that people actually own rather than big companies. I want to eat more locally produced foods rather than stuff flown in from overseas. I want to eat more organic food.
I am thinking I will start a weekly order from Grow Wild - a local fruit and veg delivery company. They source the majority of their stuff locally. And it is organic. They also sell locally produced organic meat, honey, jams, eggs, and dairy. I just priced up a few random items - Grow Wild was £9.97 and Tesco was £8.41 (is it just me or do Tesco just bump the price up of anything that has "organic" in the title?) I usually have my stuff delivered from Tesco at a cost of £4.50ish. Grow Wild charges £1 for delivery, so shopping from there is actually saving me almost £2!
I can use Grow Wild for my fruit and veg (just need to decide on what size and type of box to get) milk, cream, butter (will switch to real butter instead of margarine), eggs and some other things like pasta and even some cleaning products and toiletries.
I think I might use somewhere like Ethical Superstore or Goodness Direct for toilet roll and bulk buying of flour, grains etc. If we switch from boxed cereals to porridge, (quinoa porridge for me!) or eggs and toast etc in the morning then I think that will cut down on packaging and also be healthier.
I'm thinking I will put the bread maker to use again. I've never been that happy with the bread I've made in it before, but it is good for mixing dough for things like bagels and rolls.
For the cats, Grow Wild sell a beef/lamb mix for pet food. Not sure if I am meant to cook it or feed it to them raw? I can also use the sort of local and family run pet shop in Linlithgow for cat biscuits and rat food. I am going to avoid Pets at Home, since I think they count as a supermarket. There is also place on the way to Larbert that sells bulk pet food. I noticed that Ethical Superstore sells Bio Catalet cat litter - which we use for the rats. Might be able to get that locally though.
Other things I have been thinking about - fizzy drinks (bad habit I know). The amount of plastic bottles we go through must be huge! I was thinking about getting a soda stream machine. The children also like drinking squash type drinks... so what would they be replaced with??? I could get the Rocks Organic brand from Ethical Superstore. They come in glass bottles, so easy to recycle too. We can work on cutting down the amount of non-water drinks we drink. Yogurt - we don't eat a huge amount, but I have always wanted to get a yogurt maker. The cheapest place selling them is on ebay - but the place that sells them also sells "poultry dispatchers" which is something you can use to break a chickens neck... not sure I can buy from somewhere that sells stuff to murder chickens with... Next cheapest place is amazon, but does that count as a supermaket? Its a massive shop that sells everything. Probably taking business away from local book sellers and companies. (tis my favourite place to shop tho!!) There are loads of those EasiYo yogurt makers around, but it seems like the stuff you need to buy to use them is quite expensive, and I'm sure I remember reading that it comes from New Zealand... might be wrong on that though.
Other things we buy from the supermarket are crisps/biscuits and other snacky type foods. I'm thinking that we could bake more. Cheese scones for a savoury option and biscuits, cakes or muffins for sweet snacks.
I feel like this is probably going to be more expensive than my normal Tesco shop, but I have a pretty decent £500 a month budget for 2 adults, 4 children, 2 cats, 2 rats and some fish.
Got to get to bed. I will add more ideas later, but I think I pretty much have it covered. Just have to put it into practice really.
Comments
Good luck with your venture.
Kim x