When we get beyond all of the press stuff that is happening at the moment, the core part of our project… the part about trying to see if it is possible for a normal British family to survive on just British goods and services, is beginning to become more routine.
It is fair to say that, we, like most families, tended to buy much the same things week in week out. For the first two months this was obviously not the case, while we began to find our way to the British stuff and leave behind the imports. Now we seem to have settled into our stride we have regular things we buy on a weekly basis and this makes the core project much easier.
We now know where our essentials come from, when we go to the supermarket there is far less need to check the backs of packets and the time it takes to organise shopping is far less than when we first started. The fact that this has become routine is probably a very good sign. It means that living on entirely British goods is possible for an average family. That is to say, we have survived 2 months on a normal family budget, have the time to live a normal family life and best of all have not starved.
So, barring a few issues (batteries, light bulbs, kids toys) the early signs are good for being able to live a truly British family existence. In fact, more than that, we are really enjoying it!
I wonder if you’d at some time be able to post up something like a standard weekly groceries shop so that we can get more ideas of what to look out for please?
As an update… there is an article addressing the subject of our weekly shop coming out in The Sun… Last I heard it should be our Saturday.
The problem with providing such information though is that we no longer just buy from the supermarket (in fact very little is from the supermarket). Most is through KentVegBox or the internet. So it is difficult collecting it all together and presenting it as a weekly shop.
Thanks for replying, that’s understandable of course. It’s not always easy to find out where some of our supermarket products actually come from. And even when we can eventually, it’s not always good news… Thanks for the info about the forthcoming article on your weekly shop.
Lizzie has hit a nail on the head here – this is a significant issue for the project and the mass of the British consumer who doesnt have the time or money to source boutique goods and services. How much more does it cost when buying British brands eg Lea&Perrins, Colmans mustard etc than buying discount or supermarket own brands? Are supermarket own brands made in Britain? How has your diet changed – do you eat bananas, pineapples, oranges?
I strongly feel if the project focussed on how an average consumer can walk into a supermarket and change their buying habits without busting their budget, the impact would be immense!
Hi, I’m Joe and i live in Sheffield.
I suppose, to answer the bit about how much you need to buy, how often your going to buy it and what shops you have near by.
I apologies for my anorak but if you start with that you can get an idea.
I reckon there’s usually a small retailer (fruit’n’veg, butcher, dry goods etc) not too far away, OR maybe on the way to and from work or a regular trip you make.
Afetr that it’s a matter of thinking about how much to buy at the frequecy you can (so it doesn’t go off, I find it annoying to buy something you have to throw away) use all of it within time.
Local suppliers tend to know where what they buy comes from cos it’ll be written on the box they bought it from at the wholesaler.
Good luck. I don’t do our shopping, but sometimes i wish I did, cos I would look for what you are looking for, food grown, produced and then processed ( yes i likie process food ) here in England (or even better Yorkshire).
Joe
We will certainly look into it in the near future and try to do a comparison. Thanks for the idea:)
Have you seen the website http://www.stillmadeinbritain.co.uk, loads of ideas on there….. 🙂
Where’s your twitter feed on the homepage gone? I’m not a member of twitter but like to follow the conversations on your feed!
Thanks for letting us know. All sorted. J&E