Buying Local

[thesultanofsheight]

My criteria are quality first, and provenance second. Price comes well third.

 

All I can say is that it must be nice to be able to afford that luxury. I'm currently very skint, in future I'm likely to be even more skint the way our offshore economy looks to have been f**ked up last week. I think huge numbers of people are in the same boat and therefore I really couldn't care. Price is top of my criteria everything else is second really.

 

Quality is not the same as expensive or extravagant. Nor just about what tastes nice - though that is important. It's also about what's good for you. I seldom buy ready meals or any other sort of processed food. Raw, simple and natural is what I go for. People who buy cheap ready-meals probably spend more money, but get less value. And less pleasure.

 

S

 

All I can assume then is that some people prefer to live in fantasy land.

 

I have 3 teenage kids, we don't buy ready meals or the other rubbish you cynically suggested we might but for 2 adults and 3 mid to late teenage kids our shopping bill is £750 a month. Thats one weeks wages to me. I'm sure loads of people are in the same boat so forgive me for not wanting to put price third.

 

I think most people with families make the same decisions and as L200 says I've never met a poor farmer so if you want to voluntarily pay over the odds because you choose to that's your perogative. I do, however, think that as this thread expands most people are likely to agree that its cost that drives your buying habits no matter how you want to dress it up and in a recession costs get even more of an issue.

[Slim]

I'm not saying cost isn't important, it's just not the only consideration. Cheap shite is still shite, pay a bit more and get reasonable quality and it's better value for money. Cheap isn't the only consideration.

[thebees]

I hate to say it but, I fully agree with Slim. I do without eggs rather than buy UK or battery eggs. Farmers who own their farms may be wealthy but I dont think you'll see many tenant farmers rolling in money. Farming isnt exactly a cushty job though is it? up at stupid o'clock, working damn hard all day, in all weathers, why should they be poor? It would be fun to have a go on a tractor or quad bike but thats as far as my tendency towards a change of career to farming would go.

[Frances]

I have 3 teenage kids, we don't buy ready meals or the other rubbish you cynically suggested we might but for 2 adults and 3 mid to late teenage kids our shopping bill is £750 a month.

£8/person/day - seems highly excessive to me if this is just food - a local supermarket was running examples of feeding a family (of 4) for £5 a main meal so say double this for your 5 - I reckon as a single adult I spend at most £5 a day on food; cooking for more than one is considerably more efficient and less costly but does take time.

[thesultanofsheight]

I have 3 teenage kids, we don't buy ready meals or the other rubbish you cynically suggested we might but for 2 adults and 3 mid to late teenage kids our shopping bill is £750 a month.

£8/person/day - seems highly excessive to me if this is just food - a local supermarket was running examples of feeding a family (of 4) for £5 a main meal so say double this for your 5 - I reckon as a single adult I spend at most £5 a day on food; cooking for more than one is considerably more efficient and less costly but does take time.

 

Well it does rather seem that people without large families know more than us about how to feed a family cheaply. Funny that as we've been doing it for the last 18 years.

[molly]

What pisses me of about the whole buy local thing is when it comes from the likes off Rileys or Robinsons etc. as I often see that they have new vehicles registered with uk plates on them. so much for the buy local.

[Frances]

sorry my arithmetic was out doing it properly brings to down to a more reasonable £5/person/day - however I come from an even larger family so recall how my parents had to manage in those days on just one salary - I've also catered for large numbers so have some practical experience of estimating costs. However will agree that basic fresh produce on Island is expensive - I estimate it costs me nearly 40% more to eat (mostly veggie) as compared with SE england if you want to stick to fresh produce.

[pongo]

I estimate it costs me nearly 40% more to eat (mostly veggie) as compared with SE england if you want to stick to fresh produce.

 

Does that mean that we effectively end up paying more VAT - even though it is levied at the same rate ?

 

ETA: Is VAT charged on food ?

[slinkydevil]

What pisses me of about the whole buy local thing is when it comes from the likes off Rileys or Robinsons etc. as I often see that they have new vehicles registered with uk plates on them. so much for the buy local.

 

You mean the bananas, kumquats and pineapples I buy from Robinsons arn't grown local? The bastards....

[thesultanofsheight]

sorry my arithmetic was out doing it properly brings to down to a more reasonable £5/person/day - however I come from an even larger family so recall how my parents had to manage in those days on just one salary - I've also catered for large numbers so have some practical experience of estimating costs. However will agree that basic fresh produce on Island is expensive - I estimate it costs me nearly 40% more to eat (mostly veggie) as compared with SE england if you want to stick to fresh produce.

 

I'm sorry if that came across as an attack - it was not meant to be. The fact is though that many of us already don't have the luxury to pick what produce we want because as you say if you want locally produced stuff the price here is stupid.

 

The fact is we are already pushed and the outlook is pretty grim so either the cost of food comes down OR we buy less. That is it in a nutshell really. About 25% of our monthly outgoings goes on food and just stuff that involves daily living. I'm so pleased others have more options in the way they shop than we do and want to debate the wider issues.

[Sebrof]

I estimate it costs me nearly 40% more to eat (mostly veggie) as compared with SE england if you want to stick to fresh produce.

 

Does that mean that we effectively end up paying more VAT - even though it is levied at the same rate ?

 

ETA: Is VAT charged on food ?

 

There is no VAT on food, unless it is sold as part of a service, in which case it is fully VATable.

 

So a sandwich from a shop is VAT-free, but if you ask them to heat it up for you, they have to charge VAT.

 

S

[Sebrof]

My criteria are quality first, and provenance second. Price comes well third.

 

All I can say is that it must be nice to be able to afford that luxury. I'm currently very skint, in future I'm likely to be even more skint the way our offshore economy looks to have been f**ked up last week. I think huge numbers of people are in the same boat and therefore I really couldn't care. Price is top of my criteria everything else is second really.

 

Quality is not the same as expensive or extravagant. Nor just about what tastes nice - though that is important. It's also about what's good for you. I seldom buy ready meals or any other sort of processed food. Raw, simple and natural is what I go for. People who buy cheap ready-meals probably spend more money, but get less value. And less pleasure.

 

S

 

All I can assume then is that some people prefer to live in fantasy land.

 

I have 3 teenage kids, we don't buy ready meals or the other rubbish you cynically suggested we might but for 2 adults and 3 mid to late teenage kids our shopping bill is £750 a month. Thats one weeks wages to me. I'm sure loads of people are in the same boat so forgive me for not wanting to put price third.

 

I think most people with families make the same decisions and as L200 says I've never met a poor farmer so if you want to voluntarily pay over the odds because you choose to that's your perogative. I do, however, think that as this thread expands most people are likely to agree that its cost that drives your buying habits no matter how you want to dress it up and in a recession costs get even more of an issue.

 

You are jumping to conclusions. When I say price is well third, I don't mean it isn't important. But I will never buy rubbish because it is cheap. If I can't afford Waitrose sausages, I go without sausages rather than buy nasty Irish MRM stuff packed with steroids.

 

I know Waitrose isn't local, but I don't know any supplier of good quality local sausages made from proper meat as opposed to eyelids and worse. (Suggestions gratefully received.)

 

I buy porridge rather than Kellogs cereals because it is both healthier and cheaper.

 

I buy offal and oxtail and neck of lamb. It's nutritious and inexpensive. I buy Cox's apples rather than French apples or tropical stuff.

 

£750.00 a month for 5 people isn't extravagant, but it's not breadline by any means.

 

S

[thesultanofsheight]

£750.00 a month for 5 people isn't extravagant, but it's not breadline by any means.

 

No but that's the point isn't it. I can't afford for the food bill to go up so basically back to the original post in this thread - will people care less about food miles? Too damn right they will. Food is expensive enough already and the only way we can cut back if / when we have to is by eating less. I think 25% of our earnings just to eat is pretty horrific.

[Frances]

nothing to do with Vat - mostly a smaller market at end of an expensive distribution chain - when I first moved to Peel the local fishmonger was same or lower cost that SE England (as would be expected on an Island) - since closed, all fish(except some shellfish) it seems have to be imported from England ; for fresh produce the towns are too small to run a sensible street market eg I'm currently in SE England 5 peppers, 7 avocados, 6 oranges etc are at £1 a bag on the local street market and these are usual weekly prices - if you go towards end of day then many bargains if you can cook them within a day or so (hence my comments that cooking for 5 is considerably less per person than for 1) - I don't eat meat but I was told that manx meat was cheaper in Liverpool than on Island - potatoes might be cheaper but if you have any ground it is easier to grow a wider range of varieties than manx white/red - Manx asparagrass was about the only cheaper delicacy.

[pongo]

I don't know any supplier of good quality local sausages made from proper meat as opposed to eyelids and worse. (Suggestions gratefully received.)

 

I rate the local Cumberland sausages to be fair. And I'm quite fussy about food And honestly - sausage is historically made out of left - over bits of meat. Everywhere that invented sausages. It's about using all of the animal and I more or less approve of that. It would be pretty dumb to use the best cuts to make sausages. Sausages are about using up the animal bits.

 

We only buy local eggs. Gellings eggs are definitely always local. And IOM lamb and beef - although we don't eat that so much meat these days. Local potatoes sometimes - depending on how they are. Sometimes a local cabbage - provided it isn't too soviet. Sack of carrots from a farm sometimes. Sometimes some stuff from the Quay in Ramsey from a Saturday. And asparagus when it is in season. Local mushrooms if we can get them.

 

Apart from that it is hard to find locally produced food. Much of the stuff packed here is not local. There seems to be no locally produced ham etc. Not keen on the local cheese. Is locally smoked bacon also locally produced ? We make our own bread. It's a pity that Ramsey Bakery put the local bakers out of business.

 

We would definitely buy more local stuff if we could find it. Partly because I instinctively believe in being as close as possible to where it comes from - and partly because money spent locally is more likely to go back into the local economy.

 

People used to spend way more of their income on food than they do now btw. We're all completely spoilt. Yolu can't really complain about the price of food and then buy an enormous TV.

 

Apart from ice cream we buy very little processed food.