Where I go for specific groceries

 with what I have available here to me in Peterborough.  These days I tend to go where the prices are good for a specific range of goods, like meat, vegetables, cleaning items and consumables, tinned goods and baking ingredients.  I do not rely solely on supermarkets and certainly do not do big shops in them like I used to do.  With the increase in prices and only a limited budget something had to give and so for the best part I cook all our meals from scratch. My shopping habits have changed.  I predominantly buy only ingredients and then make something from them. When you buy pre-prepared food, you end up paying a premium on them; often it is quite a big mark up.

Now in my reality a lot of the food shops have something about them a lot of it comes down to personal choice and what you actually use in your own kitchen. No rhyme or reason to buying in items that you are just not going to use. I tend to buy the items I like and will use often going into a supermarket and only buying a few items.  Often I will buy in generic supermarket labels.  For instance Morrisons offer a cream cheese (like Philadelphia) for £1 a pack which is a good substitute.  The Philadelphia is lovely but at about £2.60 a pack and bearing in mind I have the cream cheese on my Croissaints or Pain au Chocolat for breakfast in the morning I soon work my way through this.

Cleaning items, toilet paper, soap powder, conditioner, personal items etc.

I go to Home Bargains.  Boxes of soap powder (77 washes) work out a lot cheaper.  I use Persil ordinary powder (not biological) and I also use Oxygen cleaner powder/stain remover to boost the soap powder.  Fabric conditioner works out cheaper to buy here as well.  Toilet rolls in packs of 32 also work out cheaper. I buy the Nicky variety which works out at about £9 for the 32 rolls.  It is a thicker tissue which has a moisturiser and a scent to it.

Tinned Goods for the Pantry shelf

B & M, Home Bargains and Iceland. I tend to cherry pick between the stores.  I occasionally buy from Waitrose as well especially if it is something different that I cannot get elsewhere.  A lot of Waitrose own range items are good value for money.

Sugar, and some Baking ingredients

Sugar is a lot cheaper in Iceland and has been even cheaper in Home Bargains per kilo. As I preserve a lot, I tend to normally keep a good stock of sugar in.  Home Bargains is also very good for Cereal and Baking ingredients.

Dairy

Large bottles of milk from Iceland Food Warehouse when I can. Also make my own yogurt from this or if I have any in the Pantry, Long Life milk.   They have regular offers on, on all sorts of items.  I use them for tinned goods as well as some frozen goods and always have a good look around to see what is available.  My Pain au Chocolat come from here, as does Bread.  G uses a lot of a well known Tomato ketchup and we get the largest bottles of this at a very good price, usually about £9 for 3 largest bottles.  Always worth a look as they do have some very good offers. In the past I have found whole Leg of Lamb joints which are frozen for about £16, although prices have gone up a bit since then.  Sugar if you buy two 1kg bags is £2 for the two bags.  Last time I went into Home Bargains it was 85p a bag. The shop around the corner (a Morrison Daily store) is charging about £1.35 a bag.

Meat

Predominantly from a Butcher rather than a supermarket. We have a range of good Butchers available to us both locally and further afield.  We tend to go to a Butcher in Peterborough known as ABC Meats. The quality of the meat is very good for middle of the range prices and exceptionally good for families. They frequently have offers on.  They also have a selection of other items including frozen goods and other items.

The other two Butchers that I go to, are Farm Shops and the meat is somewhat dearer.  Both are very good and very different.  There are products from both shops that we use.

Preserves

I usually make all of my own preserves unless I find something unusual that have not tried before and buy a  jar in to try it. Before Christmas I located Mackays Ginger Preserve at the Morrisons Daily around the corner. I bought several jars of this and have now run out.  I was browsing on line on Amazon after a key word search on the Internet and have located 6 340g jars of this preserve for £9.60 for six jars. Morrisons was charging £2.70 a jar This should tide me over for a few weeks.  I have always loved Ginger Preserve since I was a youngster.  I have also found a recipe that I want to try to make my own.  Sometimes it does pay off to have a look at bulk buys online for specific items.

 Different Flours for bread and baking and Cornflour

Every so often I send for a 16kg bag of Bread Flour usually Canadian Bread flour direct from Shipton Mill who I have found to be very good.  In-between orders though I do tend to buy bread flour from Waitrose.  Cornflour I often obtain from the Indian shop around the corner from me, although if I do see it when I go into a shop I do tend to grab a packet. I use it for thickening gravy and sauces, and making Shortbread.  It is also good for making home made Blancmange.

Fresh Veggies and Fruit

The majority of my vegetables particularly  sacks of potatoes  come from Tallington Farm shop as does some fruit.  I also buy a couple of large trays of eggs as well. The eggs keep really well in a cool place. Remember eggs though have a porous shell and will for instance take on the taste of anything that has a strong flavour (like garlic) if it is store next to them.  So make sure that there is nothing like this where you are storing your eggs.

I also use Waitrose or a Farm Shop and sometimes Morrisons

I do use the Internet for sourcing flour, cheese making equipment, wine making, shallots and pickling onions. Also Malt Vinegar and White Spirit vinegar in larger quantities for my preserving. The White Spirit vinegar is also used for cleaning and also makes a good natural washing conditioner if you are unable to afford the commercial variety.  It works very well.  I have also sourced starch powder (for shirts, sheets etc, to make the ironing nice and crisp)!  I do prefer to shop items in person, however that is not always possible.

These are just a few of the sources I have for locating specific ingredients in this particular area.  At the end of the day you can only take advantage if you have similar stores in your area.

Have you found that you shop in a completely different way (often out of necessity) since Covid impacted everyone or are you still following your pre-Covid routine?

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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