Do you buy all your food at the supermarket?

[Curly]

Many moons ago DH and I used to buy our fruit and veg from the greengrocer, meat from the butcher etc. These days we get EVERYTHING at the supermarket and I know that the quality is not as good but it's quicker, you know?

Anyway, our supermarket bill is huge, at least $300 per week, and I was wondering if anyone actually finds it cheaper to shop at the greengrocer, butcher and leftover stuff at the supermarket?

[visitor1]

Its to much effort to go from shop to shop when i can get it all in one place!

[Nai]

I only buy the non-perishable stuff at the stupormarket - I can't bear the wastage that comes from having to throw out fruit and veg that has gone off in 2 days or is rotten when you bite into it. I get my bread and milk delivered and only buy fresh fruit and veg. It doesn't take that much extra time.

[Laranna]

I get my bread and milk delivered

OMG really? I haven't seen a "milkman" in such a looooonngggg time. I remember when I was a little kid, my nanna and grandad used to get the milk delivered in the glass milk bottles and then my parents used to get the milk delivered in cartons. I would LOVE to get my bread and milk delivered these days.

To answer the OP, I go to a small shopping centre that has a woolies, a bakers delight, lennards and a butcher so I get my stuff from all of them and fruit and veg I get from the markets.

[Danni]

You can DEFINITELY save money by splitting it up. There is no way I would buy fruit n veg or meat from Coles. It is sooooooooooooooooo much more expensive.

I do one stop at the wholesle butcher which is right next to the green grocer, then I go to coles. You will find that you will save a minimum of $50 doing this even though it is a PITA to do so

[bronners]

I do my main shop at Coles, but we get our (organic) fruit & veggies delivered...got a co-op delivery system going locally as the greengrocers is 40 mins away. It is organic at very cheap prices, almost exactly the same as conventional fruit n veg at the supermarket when the produce is in season. We also probably only eat meat once a week and I am vegetarian so that helps cost wise. At the moment I think we are spending around $150 a week for shopping all up (fam of 3, DS is 3yrs). I am a budgeter and menu planner though and make a lot of our own snacks, not much packaged stuff.

[Lucy]

I live in an area where we are blessed with fantastic choice of produce shops as well as a lovely sense of community. These things, and price and quality, mean that yes, I definitely 'split' my shopping.

I buy bread from an Italian bakery twice a week.
I buy fruit and veggies from a fruit and veg market once a week. And it lasts the week.
I buy meat from my local butcher, weekly.

All the other boring stuff I get at Coles/Woolies/Foodland.......

[Astrolady]

Yep I am the same, buy the time I have done the "other" shopping I really can't be bothered walking down to the butcher and fruit and veg which is at the other end of our supermarket near woolies.. I shop at Coles. So I just get everything at Coles.

For a family of 5 we push the $300 mark sometimes too. We mainly sit around $250