So a month ago, I wrote about taking a break from supermarket shopping. It’s not exactly my favorite pastime, so when the lovely team at Supermarket Siesta said “see if you can manage without it”, I thought it might be something I would like to try.
I think if you live in a city or town, where it’s hard to source “local” produce or find ways to shop more selectively, the supermarket is convenient. I am not anti them, but I would like to change our shopping habits to become less reliant on convenience and look more at how we source what comes into our home to consume. Sometimes the supermarket is useful, and there are times when needs really must (ie when you have a child with a stomach bug in the middle of the night and you NEED cleaning and medical supplies, and more night nappies, and the 24 hour supermarket seems like a godsend) and there are things that I rely on the supermarket for, for work and home, but it is possible to look beyond just walking in, wandering around, grabbing things off shelves and not really thinking about where your food comes from, how it got to you, how fresh it really is, and what it actually tastes like.
So, this week, I am going to share several posts with you about taking a break from the supermarket, and how we managed (or didn’t, see above, stomach bugs out-rule all of my good intentions!!) and what we found out about the alternatives available, cost and planning around meals and other things we needed.
This first post is going to be the practical one. What a week in our house looks like and what we eat/consume and how we would need to change habits and planning in order not to be reliant on the supermarket.
Monday – the husband & I work from home, and I spend the day writing and cleaning the house. (cleaning products are something I rely heavily on the supermarket to source, I like particular brands and it’s easy to get them there)
Tuesday – the children and I leave the house early, they have breakfast at school, I am at work for 8:30am and after school we go straight to dance classes and I generally plan for them and I to eat on the run, and the husband works late so he eats food I have sent him with, or eats when he gets home. Both children have packed lunches, and I also prefer to eat food I have prepped at home, or I will pop to the local supermarket to get bits to make lunch at work.
Wedenesday – the same as Tuesday except we have swimming and we often have people over for dinner mid week, so I have to plan to feed the children and then a meal when we get home if we have friends coming over.
Thursday – I work til 5;30pm, the children go to a childminder who feeds them, so I only have to plan a meal for the husband and I.
Friday – we all eat together as a family unless it’s our monthly date night, in which case I organise a play-date for the children at our house and have four children to feed instead of two.
Weekends – we eat lunch together as a family on Saturday’s and Sunday’s and we may do dinner as a family on a Saturday night, and make it fun, like a game night with lots of snacky food or tacos, or the husband and I might have dinner together and feed the children earlier, if we need to catch up.
Sunday evening is a snacky affair, bits and pieces from the fridge. Toasted sandwiches, scrambled eggs, or whatever I can summon up from bits in the fridge. I normally do a grocery shop on Friday and then top up on Monday and as needed in the week.
Also bear in mind that I am trying to feed my family in a relatively healthy way but am catering to a cows milk allergy and a gluten intolerance in that mix.
So, come back this week to find out how we got on, what we thought about using some online delivery services to replace a regular grocery shop and if we think that we can manage with using the supermarket less…
Watch this space…