In the last few months I have done my best to shop in independent shops and I have to say its a total pleasure compared to Supermarket shopping. I do still venture into one the supermarkets occasionally , but mainly for loss leaders and things I just cannot get elsewhere. I also have been scheduling such trips for a Monday morning around 9am.......................much quieter, especially at this time of year.
I called at the butchers at our local market today and spent £20 on my meat, for that I got 2lb of pork and leek(£3) sausages, 2 gammon joints(£4), 2 free range chickens(£5) , 2lb of braising steak(£4) and 2lb of minced beef (£3) . I know that that's a good deal but, I was interested to see how that compared with the supermarket .........................cue a trip to mysupermarket!
Tesco Free range chicken was £4.58 per kg my birds are 1.1kg each, that means these would have cost me £5.03 each instead of the £2.50 each I paid. Shockingly, Tesco braising steak was £18.42 per kg my steak works out at £4.40 per kg! My smoked Gammon joints equate to £2 a kg the Tesco Value joints are £3.98,so yet another saving . My sausages work out at £3.30 a kg, Tesco's finest Pork and leek sausages are on offer at the moment making them £4.96 per kg. Lastly my minced beef was the same price as my sausages so £3.30 kg and value beef mince at Tesco is £2.88 per kg if you buy the 800g pack , so on this occasion the supermarket won. After a few sums and a bit of head scratching I calculated that the full cost of my items if bought at Tesco would have been:
Chickens £10.08
Steak £16.74
Gammon joints £7.96
Sausages £4.50
Mince £2.62
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Total £ 41.90
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So by shopping local I saved a staggering £21.90, add to this the savings made by shopping at my local greengrocer and those made by shopping at the various foreign food stores I regularly frequent and you can see how shopping local really adds up to a great deal!
5 comments:
Fantastic savings, this just goes to show that shopping local as well as keeping our lovely independent retailers in business is kinder to our purses.
I bet you got to chat to all the shop keepers too, not just pushed through a check out with 'beep, beep, beep' ringing through your ears and a token 'have a nice day' as you depart many pounds lighter, with a trolley full of things you didn't really need.
This is my challenge for 2012, to shop local, and to avoid the supermarkets as much as I can. We'll see how I get on, you've just proved for me that it can be better for your purse as well as your conscience.
Sue xx
Definitely a much friendlier experience , the butchers a bit of a flirt , the greengrocery lady knows all the village gossip !
One thing I have noticed is people don't seem to mind waiting in the queue behind you , I guess that's because they know when it's their turn they get the shopkeepers full attention too.
Brilliant savings, certainly nothing like that about here, if there was I'd be doing similar.
Well done with your decision to 'keep it local'.
This is such a great and eye opening post. We don't have to buy any meat but I am shocked at how much the difference is!
Philippa
Hello, just popped over from Frugal in Norfolk! We think the price and quality from our local butcher on the high street far surpasses any supermarket. We also get service with a smile and its nice when someone gets to know your name. They also do a range of fruit and veg, not always what you want but if you do the price is very reasonable.
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