I try to buy food without supermarkets

So a couple of weeks ago I talked about my loathing of supermarkets and my wonderings about whether it was really possible to shop for a family without using one. Today was my shopping day, and since our daughter’s birthday and party are over, I thought it was a good chance to test it out.

The idea behind this is that I want food shopping and planning to be a nicer experience since I seem to spend a good chunk of my time doing it. Supermarkets have lighting that hurts my eyes, trolleys that have a mind of their own, and just too much stuff to tempt me and cause me to stray from my budget.

The first thing I put in place was a weekly organic vegetable/fruit box delivery. We’ve had this going for about 6 weeks now and I’m still loving it. It does mean I can’t plan my meals until I see what’s in it, but for me, it’s worth a bit of disorganisation because the food is so good. There isn’t a massive amount in it. It’s a mixed box of fruit and vegetables and you may only get one onion, and two potatoes in amongst the other stuff that was ready to harvest. That means that I’ve become really clever about adapting recipes and finding ways to use up everything before the next delivery comes. We’re supplementing the veggie box stuff with greens from the garden (kale, silver beet, sorrel, spinach) and we have zero veggie waste.

Just over a week ago we got chickens and two out of three of them have been faithfully laying an egg a day. So that’s eggs sorted, leaving me with flours and grains, meat and fish, and cleaning products / toiletries.

Our local co-op in the Blue Mountains is one of my favourite places to shop so I was kind of excited to spend most of my shopping budget there instead of a big supermarket. My kids love it too. My daughter has mastered the art of the nut butter machines and she will happily take the list and go off to scoop flours from the bins into bags. The little trolleys they have in there are the perfect size for my little guy.

I’m not going to lie, it does take more time. You have to label the bags then scoop, then pay and pack in boxes or your reusable bags, then transfer everything into jars or containers when you get home. BUT.. while you shop, you’ll be toasty warm (it’s freezing today), listening to music, and sometimes there’s even a lady in there handing out herbal tea or soup. Shopping this way makes me aware of how much I’m buying because I’m putting things into bags rather than grabbing a predetermined amount of something off a shelf. I only get what I really need – so if I need 50g of potato flour, that’s all I’m buying. Today, the only cleaning product I needed was dishwashing liquid, and I managed to get that at the co-op by pumping some into a recycled plastic bottle they gave me (with a bike pump! That was an experience).

Everything you see on the table is what we’ll be eating this week except for some fish that I’ll pick up on the day we eat it, and some beef mince from the butcher.

So, is it possible?

I think it is, but it wasn’t for me today. There were some things I just couldn’t get in the co-op, and a couple of others that were significantly cheaper at Woolworths and I couldn’t justify the added amount. I got my supermarket shop down to one bag and about 10 minutes of my time, so I think that’s progress. Next week, I reckon I can make it.

Now, if you’re like me, you’ll be asking yourself how much that all cost and what exactly did I buy. I put this at the end because I know there are plenty of people who aren’t interested in the details – so if that’s you, lovely to see you and please come back and read again, or have a click around the site and see what else might take your fancy. For the detail orientated folk – onward!

The vegetable and fruit box is from a local company called Hartley Harvest. It’s $45 and contains 3kg fruit plus mixed vegetables depending on the season. It also includes 12 eggs, but since we have our own eggs now (yay!) they kindly put more vegetables in for me instead.

At the co-op, I bought:

buckwheat flour
besan or chickpea flour
flaked quinoa
vegetable stock cubes
rapidura sugar
spelt bread
cashew cheese from Peace & Love (the BEST fermented foods, made in Australia)
Sauerkraut
cacao
prunes
raisins
dried apricots
mixed dried fruit
lentils
dishwashing liquid
almond milk
soy milk
coconut milk
almond butter
peanut butter
pumpkin seeds
baking cups

At a cost of $104.00

At Woolworths, I spent $30 on:

four tins of tomatoes
packets of dried black beans, chickpeas, and borlotti beans
rooibos tea
two packets of rice noodles
porridge
mustard
500g organic tofu
olive oil

So all up $179 for the week, plus there will be the 500g of beef mince and some fish. You’ll notice there are no packaged foods in there, and that I’m only buying one meal of red meat for the week. It’s basically just raw organic ingredients – making it pretty affordable for a family of four, but time-consuming for me because I will be the one transforming those ingredients into things we can actually eat!

It’s not for everyone, and to be honest, if I was working outside of home it probably wouldn’t be for me either. But for now, it feels good to be in touch with what I’m buying again.