I'm guessing from my various witterings on this blog that you've gathered I'm an advocate of living as simple and sustainable a life as possible; this is partly out of a desire to try and make and grow as much as we use as realistically possible; and was inspired by reading Rhonda at Down to Earth's fantastic book.
The other part of living a simpler life is to try and become as financially resilient as possible. We have both turned 50 and we bought this house last October. We don't have a massive mortgage but we want to pay it off quickly; we also want to ensure we remain debt free as well. This means several things - living off of one wage (the other goes directly into savings), not having a credit card, saving to buy things we need and shopping differently.
It's the shopping differently that I wanted to write about a bit today. I caught this really interesting article on the BBC website; which is where the title for this post comes from - a hilarious quote from the head of consumer research at Deloitte - I thought I was food shopping!
Unknowingly Jean-Luc and I appear to be following a trend. We no longer shop weekly; what we do is about once a fortnight we go through the store cupboard, pantry, fridge and freezer to see what staples and bulk goods we need and Jean-Luc picks it up from the supermarket on the way back from work - he also checks for any bargains in our usual purchases and bulk buys those for the pantry. I then top up our fresh fruit, veggies, bread and milk at the local store, market or other stores in town. We don't stick to one shop and we go where the bargains are...... apparently the same as many others.
To be honest I don't mind being part of a trend like this - it's a swift kick up the pants for major supermarket chains that have slowly been monopolising the market and eroding the high street and local shops; not to mention the ludicrously low prices they expect to pay suppliers and farmers while demanding perfectly shaped fruit and veggies; all year round supplies of seasonal produce and charging them for instore promotions. If you're interested in reading more about this then Joanna Blythman has written some excellent books and articles on a variety of food based topics including supermarket domination of our foodchain.
Right time to go and be promiscuous at the end of the road again the Nu is out of kibble.
Quelle horreur!
Rhonda is such an inspiration and her blog also inspired us to move to a more simple lifestyle. I too shop different stores to get the bargains and I do shop once a week. Nu is just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteCarol