We're Shopping Again!

The title says it all really. We're back on the shopping topic...

But this time we're not talking about where you shop, we're talking about how you shop. Make the most of your money, while cutting down on our plastic usage. Woohoo!

Let loose...

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Picture the scene... You go to the supermarket and choose a nice ripe bunch of bananas in a polythene bag. You get home, take them out of the bag and put them in the fruit bowl... How about you go to the supermarket and choose a nice ripe bunch of bananas not in a bag.  

Now there's a great idea! They taste the same, probably cost less as you're not paying for packaging and you're not clogging up your bins with waste. 
Did you know some stores are aiming to ditch the packaging completely? You can bring your own containers along and fill with as much or as little as you need. No waste plastic and no waste produce either. Win win!

Whole foods...

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No, we don't mean the healthy lifestyle whole foods. We mean literally THE WHOLE FOOD! A whole chicken by weight will be considerably cheaper than individual joints by weight. The farmer still has to make their money for each bird, which puts the price up, and then it needs packing which puts the price up even more. We looked at the price of chicken in one well known shop...

Chicken breasts - £5.19 per kilo. Whole chicken - £2.05 per kilo. Less than half the price... So why settle for  2 roast chicken breasts and 2 portions of chicken pasta, when you could have 2 roast chicken breasts, 2 portions of chicken pasta (thighs), sticky BBQ chicken (drumsticks and wings) and a family size pot of chicken soup!

Fruit and veg fans, you're not off the hook either. We looked at the same shop and found a pineapple for £1 and a packet of prepare pineapple for £1. What's the difference? You could have 5 meagre slices or a whole pineapple!

Buy in bulk...

https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/

You'll be starting to spot a theme. If you buy in bulk, the price goes down. Why does the price go down? Because there's less packaging! Less packaging means less plastic! When you go shopping, what number do you look at? The number written in large, bold print... Or the teeny tiny number in the corner of the label that says something like price per unit? Aha! Labelling can be sneaky.

There is plenty of produce we buy that either has a long date, or no date at all. Dried pasta. Herbs and spices. Toilet roll. So we experimented again, but this time we had to use a different store. The previous one doesn't stock bulk bags of herbs and spices which just made us sad. OK here we go... One little pot of 12g of oregano, £1. So that's 83p for every 10 grams. One bigger pot of 60g of oregano, £2.50. What?! £2.50! That's outrageous! Oh wait, that's actually 42p for every 10 grams. Almost half price... That suddenly sounds much nicer!

So there you have it. Some simple shopping tips to save you money while cutting back on plastic (or otherwise) packaging. Yay! Thumbs up and a pat on the back is required!