PlanetHurley.com

Until 5.5 years ago I used supermarkets. I personally used to spend around 2-3 hours in the super market each week (including having to pop to buy main thing I wanted, nipping in at lunchtime etc.). My average weekly shopping bill was between £80 and £100 (for myself and our 2 cats food/drink and toiletries). I was appalled at how much would need to be thrown away each week due to my impulse buying.

Step 1

I started off by getting a weekly veg-box scheme for my fruit and veg. This brought my bill down to around £60-£80. after a few weeks I started to get my dairy from them too, and this brought my weekly bill down further. I have a regular box order, so I don’t even need to do anything, it just arrives, and a direct debit sorts out the payment.

Step 2

The next big step was to get a monthly meat box. It seemed expensive at £40 a month, however when I divided over the month it came to less then I was spending on my normal cheap chicken breast and bacon! Again I have a regular box, so I don’t even need to do anything, it just arrives, and the payment comes out of my bank automatically.

Step 3

I found a local shop in Hartley wintney who deliver everything else I would normally get from the supermarket (dried and tinned goods, toiletries, treats and detergents). I order online and it gets delivered to my front door the same day as my veg box. Again it looked expensive online, however as I was only buying the things I needed rather then impulse buying my weekly shopping bill was down to under £38 a week. I have some items which automatically go into my basket (pasta, loo roll, tinned soup etc), which means I only need to add the extra bits I want that week. They refill my detergent bottles too which makes it cheaper (hand soap, washing up liquid, laundry liquid, surface cleaner etc).

Step 4

CHICKENS. We were getting through so much veg which means we had loads of peelings. Add to that the cost of eggs we decided to invest in some rescue battery hens which provide us with eggs and eat our veggy scraps (more information coming up in another section).

Conclusion

By doing these 4 steps, I managed to reduce the time I spend shopping from 8 – 12 hours a month down to 30mins a month. And my monthly shopping bill went from £320 - £400 a month down to £152 for myself, my husband, my 3 cats, 3 chickens and the duck. What’s more its all organic, seasonal and local… and you don’t even need to pay for petrol to the supermarket