Saving money shopping local.

Being away from the temptation to shop at any Tesco store, I have been enjoying shopping locally in the village where we are particularly fortunate to have a range of independent shops including Thomas Glyn the greengrocer and The Ruddington Butcher. Glyn's greengrocers are very reasonable in price and the fruit and vegetables are always fresh. Plus if you happen to just want one potato and a couple of carrots it is no problem. Not that I often shop like that but the option is there. Like those at the butcher's round the corner the staff are always friendly and knowledgeable and the service is pleasant and quick.

I will give you an example of how I think I have saved money and time by shopping local. As I never set out to do a contrast and compare exercise I unfortunately I can't give a specific alternative example from a supermarket, but here goes. Firstly the shop is two minutes walk from my house so no brainer there. There are other alternatives a similar distance away for veg shopping and those are the local Co-operative store and a Sainsbury's Local store. The Sainsbury's is far too limited in choice and expensive and mainly the Co-operative store shopping gets a bit tempting to 'just get' something else whilst in store. Beer mainly.

So I had in mind a nice big chicken stew to try and beat this cold I have right now. Plenty of garlic and leeks. At Glyn's I sourced some ingredients based on the fact I only had ten pounds in my pocket in cash and a chicken needed to be bought too from that amount. The items below are what I purchased from Glyn's for the sum total of £2.94. The little bag of thyme was on offer at 45p and I had more than enough to flavour the chicken. I already had garlic in the house.

A medium sized fresh chicken cost me £6 from the local butcher. Interestingly I have brought very little meat since breaking up from work just over two weeks ago. The chicken has been my only meat purchase. I have been happy to do without it. Far too many food miles and time expenditure in going out to a large supermarket on the edge of town.

So far I have had three big bowls of flavoursome chicken stew and there is enough left for a few days more and it is the nicest tasting chicken I have had for while. In a large supermarket a chicken would probably about the same but I reckon double the amount on vegetables. One small step in saving for me and mankind. ;0)