Skipping the Supermarket – A Summary
May 11, 2012
Skipping the Supermarket – A Summary
Skipping the Supermarket – Month 3 starts
Mr Fresh and Cuddles head to the farmers market
We hit the end of two months of Skipping the Supermarket at the end of April.
Two months of not shopping at the supermarket – not once.
I have to confess that moving into month three I did go back between the automatic doors down the long aisles of the supermarket.
I felt like everyone was looking at me and that I was doing something very wrong. I felt so bad going through those doors!
I feel guilty and disappointed in myself but this is my honest account of our experience.
Why ?
Nappies for Cuddles, toothbrush heads and dish washing sponges…I know! Not very eco-friendly items to be going for.
I am disappointed that these items ended our challenge but I am admitting my limitations. In addition to all of the things I do in my daily life I could not bring myself to initiate the extra washing that comes with using cloth nappies. I understand what is involved with using cloth nappies as I used them for Punky. I have to put my hand up and say – I am not superwoman. Something had to give.
Making things from scratch, seeking alternate supplies that do not cost the earth and travelling further to get these items all takes time and energy. This is time and energy that I could be devoting to playing with my children, tending my garden, cooking, more research for my posts, my ironing pile, my paid job…..Mr Fresh seems to want some time with me too.
Over the previous months I have explored alternatives to the supermarket and either made my own items from scratch, gone without or found a new local supplier. I have learned so much since commencing this activity – primarily it has re-inforced what I already knew and had practiced but to a lesser extent.
I have always avoided processed foods for my family and am very fussy when I purchase tinned or packaged items. I have given readers a look in my pantry in a post at the start of this year. A look in my pantry now would show many more preserves stacked on the top shelf thanks to the bounty I have picked from the garden.
My Summary of Skipping the Supermarket:
- I am passionate about fresh produce
- I am teaching my boys to understand healthy foods and eating
- I can make most things we need to use and eat at home. I enjoy doing it. I find it satisfying and I love that Punky is proud to discuss his food snacks at Kinder and show off his purple heirloom carrot sticks to his little mates 🙂
- What you have available to you as alternatives to supermarkets depends heavily on where you live:
-
Before moving here I was buying nappies at an alternate local supplier, but our soil was so terrible and the climate so much cooler that I had a very poor performing veggie garden.
-
My local co-ops are expensive and the range is poor.
-
There are many more farmers markets in the area we live now
-
- We can not afford to pay more for grocery items that I could go and get from the supermarket
- The supermarket is a trap for impulse buying, there are so many items on the shelves that are very easy to dump into your trolley. You need will-power, a list and complete focus to not collect items you really don’t need
Home Made yogurt
My future shopping plans:
We will continue to shop as we have been since we started Skipping The Supermarket. I will visit the supermarket to buy nappies and some personal care items and cleaning accessories. If I find a viable option elsewhere I will happily switch.
I do not intend to do the daily grocery shop visits I did prior to this challenge.
We will:
- Grow as much as possible – I picked almost 14 kg of produce from my garden in the month March-April
- Buy fruit and vegetables from the local farmers markets
- Dry my own fruit for baking and kinder snacks
- Buy our meat from the farm – we are complete converts to farm fresh meat now. Every meal we continue to be amazed at the quality and flavor
- Continue to make home made yogurt and ice cream – Punky would not let me stop doing that!
- Make home made scrolls, breads and kinder/lunch snacks – as I have always done
- Reduce our use of packing and purchases of items that are packaged
- I have found a product that is made from material and is used (and re-used) to wrap lunches and snacks as a starting point and have converted to little containers instead of using wrap also.
Fresh from my garden
Some of the things I have written about Skipping the Supermarket over the previous months are listed below if you would like to read more about what we have been doing :
Shopping Local and Helpful Hints
Supermarket Alternatives – changing the way you shop and eat
Have a great weekend, check the date of your local Farmer’s Market and visit it if you can.
Inspiring families to grow at least one fresh food item at home to experience the benefits of fresh food.
Kyrstie, amazing I love what you are doing! I like to pop by my markets and get all my protein for the week and freeze them. I still want to cut them off completely but it’s still quite hard when you need fruit/veg/meat after work :(!
Hi Julie, it is tricky when you work. I am lucky to have most of my week at home with the boys so it is a little easier to plan for the days I do paid work.
The one thing I enjoy about winter is that many of the comfort foods can be made in advance and in big batches that can be frozen. Thanks for reading 🙂
Hi Kyrstie,
I am incredibly impressed with this! I’ve just recently started the Bellarine Community Farmers’ Market this year (in Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsula, Vic) so I can completely identify with your ethics and passion. At the moment it is monthly, I would dearly love it to (eventually) be weekly – long term goal!- just to make it easier for us all to source that local, fresh product in one spot, as opposed to several, (sometimes dozens!) around the place in order to avoid the supermarket. 🙂 Keep up your amazing and inspirational work – look forward to more blogs/emails/fb updates.
Cheers – Sally.
Thanks so much Sally. I am really looking forward to coming along to your market soon. The last couple of months we have had other commitments on the day. Thanks so much for reading, and your lovely feedback. Kyrstie
I think that’s an awesome achievement! Well done!
Your doing well Kyrstie! I know what you mean about feeling like you were doing something wrong when visiting the supermarket. I’ve resorted to getting someone else to do the shopping for me when we’ve broken the challenge.
I’ve just posted a bit of an update on our progress wth the shipping the supermarket challenge. Feel free to leave a link to this post in the comments section so that others can come over and read how you have been going. T