Lent finishes today! Are you going local for life?

We've had a great time doing the #local4lent challenge again this year! With many people from 2013 taking up the challenge again and lots of new faces too! There's been a fab twitter community sharing ideas, helping each other out spreading the #local4lent message! 

We love finding out how you've got on with the challenge - the highs and the lows! So huge thanks to Westy who we've got to know on Twitter who's written the guest post below.

Guest Post - Westy

Phew, Lent is almost over and I’ve not set foot in a supermarket for the entire time! How does it feel?  Honestly?

It feels great!

Was it easy?

Well, let’s just say, it’s getting easier with practice.

Around this time last year, I gave up supermarkets for 28 days. My children were small - I was still at that difficult stage where life is lived in the gaps between nappy changes and afternoon naps and, when you do get out, it’s with a buggy, a huge changing bag and crossed fingers that you can get essential tasks done!  Giving up the supermarket at that time seemed like a huge challenge and I probably only thought it was a good idea because I was sleep-deprived and not thinking straight. I had a hazy idea that I wanted to support my local shops and I thought it might be interesting…

Happily, it was indeed interesting and had the added bonus that I learned a lot. I discovered that I can get a number ofitems delivered directly to my door by local suppliers, plus I uncovered some negative things about the supermarket that I’d not given much thought to previously – such as their treatment of some suppliers, as well as a number of questionable marketing strategies. It seriously changed the way I thought about my consumption in general, and I began to think more about my community and the value of local businesses. I did, as was always the plan, go back to using the supermarket after last year’s challenge but I spent significantly less money there and I felt guilty. Really guilty!

Fast forward to this year and I’ll admit that I was excited about ditching the supermarket over Lent. I wanted to put a bit of effort into building on last year’s challenge, plus I really needed a break from that guilt…

I knew that the challenge would be different this time round. As well as better local knowledge of where I might find my household essentials, I had orders for veg, fruit and eggs set up and I had found a dairy that would deliver milk.  Also, my children are at an easier stage – the buggy, nappies and naps are gone. As we are constantly out and about together during the day, I was hopeful that shopping locally could be incorporated into our normal lives without too much extra effort.

For the gory details, you can read on my blogwestywrites.wordpress.com how I got on – go on, take a look!- but…

*spoiler alert*

...ultimately I have avoided supermarkets. As long as I get through the rest of the week without being forced against my will into a supermarket, I’ll have achieved my goal. Yay!

But….(there’s always a but!) I didn’t find it as easy as I’d expected at the start of the challenge.  My two biggestnegatives were finding affordable organic items and sourcing ingredients for my bread maker. Hmm, I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a precious princess… Making my own bread and buying organic where possible, have become important to me since I’ve had children and the supermarket has allowed me to do both – and to take them for granted!

With a bit of effort though, I managed to source what I needed. I did have to use transport to find them (i.e. they weren’t in my immediate locality) and the prices weren’t as competitive as the supermarkets, but that was okay. I’m becoming only too aware that where the supermarkets may boast a low price, it is worth checking whether there has been a human cost somewhere within the supply process.  I am happy to pay a higher price for items that are important to me.

Giving up supermarkets for Lent has once again been a greatlearning experience. Here are some of my most important moments of the last six weeks: 

Discovering that I can buy fresh food from a local initiative that visits numerous places within the community – my GP surgery, the local primary school and even the sports centre.

Realising that my children’s worlds have revolved far too much around the supermarket – my youngest didn’t know why there might be a cow on our block of cheese, and then when prompted to think about where milk comes from, proffered the answer…Tesco…Oh dear….

Finding an amazing shop not too far away that sells a huge amount of food ‘packaging free’. This means I can purchase exactly what I need and reduce the amount of waste that ends up in my bin.

Forcing myself to think about what items I can actually live without, that I’ve bought for years on autopilot from the supermarket (e.g. fabric softener, kitchen roll, wrapping paper). I’ve also dabbled in card making to ensure that I’ll never again buy a supermarket greetings card.

Getting back onto my high street, talking to people that work in local business, and buying lots of new (and often better-quality) products compared to those I pick up without any thought in the supermarket.

I have emerged from Lent committed to the prospect of reducing my spending in supermarkets, and enthused aboutsupporting local businesses and my community.  

Thank you to Local4Lent for inviting me to do this guest post and, most importantly, for providing a community where we can share our experiences and find support.  Hopefully next year there’ll be even more of us!

Exert influence with purchasing choices and 'vote with your purse'!

We’ve enjoyed talking to lots of different people throughout the #local4lent campaign and have been interested to discover the different ways people support local businesses. Everyone we’ve spoken to has discovered different challenges depending on where they live and what amenities are available.

So we’ve been chatting to Yorkshire mum, Lydia Buckle, and we wanted to know if shopping for a family of six presented an issue for budget, convenience and variety of produce when keeping it local.

Like a lot of you doing the challenge, Lydia explained that she already shops local most of the time. This challenge doesn’t come with strict rules because even just changing some of your shopping habits is great, so most of the time is good enough for us!

“Even small regular purchases make a difference; when a whole community makes small, regular purchases it contributes to a thriving local economy where money is kept within that community.”

We agree with Lydia that supporting local independent businesses protects and preserves the local character of the community. How many times do you hear the phrase ‘use them or lose them’ - this is so true and we believe that by using these shops and services they are more likely to remain there! Lydia told us that she feels valued as a customer in many of her local shops, and indeed has formed friendships with staff after years of repeat business. Many shops and services survive by their reputation and repeat business, which means a higher standard of service.  

     So we know that shopping local can be hard if your area doesn’t have a good food market, farm shops or butchers and greengrocers on the high street. We asked Lydia - does having a family of 6 make shopping locally difficult and do you think supermarket shopping would be more convenient?

“In all honesty, yes - shopping solely from a supermarket would be more convenient! You can buy practically everything from them. I would be lying if I said I didn't use them sometimes, but I try to only buy the things that I know I can't buy elsewhere. Once you have trained yourself not to think purely in terms of convenience then supporting local shops can become part of your shopping culture.”

     With all this talk of budget cuts, recession and unemployment we often hear people say that shopping locally is too expensive. There has been a recent increase in people using food banks and lots of people were caught out with the horsemeat scandal. The reality is people will always want to buy things cheaply but are we more concerned with cost over quality?

      “Price is obviously a big factor for many people, but in the main shopping locally is not vastly more expensive. For us personally, the meat is probably a bit dearer, but we don't eat so much meat so it balances out for us.”

      We asked Lydia, do you shop around for a bargain or is supporting local businesses more important that price? She admitted that she’s done both! Lydia explained that she knows from which supermarket to buy the cheapest recycled toilet paper (which you could say was shopping around), and buys that. But on the other hand she also shops around within smaller local shops. Sometimes it can take a bit more time but we have found that once you find who does what at a better price within the local shops then shopping at these independents can become part of your routine. At the end of the day every penny counts which Lydia highlighted when se told us that she can buy cheaper Fairtrade raisins in Oxfam rather than in the Fairtrade shop! So do you think shopping around in your local independents can result in saving money and a clean conscience, Lydia definitely thinks so.

“Supermarket shopping would be significantly cheaper if everything was budget-price 'betta-buy' stuff, but let's face it, that stuff is the lowest possible quality.” 

We do know that for families it can present an issue if your local area doesn’t have great amenities and it may take more time splitting shopping around various places rather than the convenience of doing it all in a big supermarket, but do they really need your business? The benefits outweigh the negatives, provided you manage to find time to source stuff elsewhere.

As we’ve said all along, #local4lent was started with a challenge which was fun but the underlying factor has to be an individual’s principles. We’ve talked about shopping around and budgets but like Lydia we try to buy as cheaply as we can without compromising our principles. We don’t lay out rules in this challenge and there’s only you to decide what is more important but we think that shopping locally, getting better quality produce and boosting the local economy can only be a good thing.

Lydia told us:

“Fairtrade and organic are very high priority for me, and I try to buy where at all possible. The whole Fairtrade ethic is so important to me, and there has been a huge increase in awareness toward it in the past 10-15 years, which has such a positive impact on small producers in poorer countries.” 

So back to what is available where you live, we wanted to find out what selection Lydia had in her area.

“In my immediate local area, many shops have gone. When we first moved here there was a greengrocer and Post Office, but these have long since gone (grrr). We faithfully support our baker, and there is a butcher and Co-op too, which seem to be thriving. Within town - 15 mins walk - there is a good selection of pretty much everything.”

      Something we’ve definitely been hearing loud and clear from all your tweets and emails is that once you’ve broken the initial fear of going to your butcher and having no idea what to order, or buying muddy potatoes from the greengrocer, you have gone back time and time again. Why? because of the service and quality. Your butcher doesn’t expect you to know exactly how many pounds of beef mince you need, a good hand gesture and description of who you’re feeding usually works fine!

Lydia explained that her family regularly use the same butcher and baker, and buy an organic vegebox from Goosemoor Organics (which they have done for over 15 years), the contents of which are grown near Wetherby.

We’ve also been encouraging you to share useful websites which can help when shopping locally. We have a useful links page that has been compiled from your suggestions and Lydia told us she has also bought on organic meat box online on occasion.

#local4lent does have a strong food vibe but we are also huge advocates of supporting local crafters and other independent businesses. We had a great selection of businesses at our event last year and our challenge does involve considering birthday presents or local beer.

Lydia told us that she buys fairly-traded cards and gifts from the Fairtrade shop in town, and a whole manner of other things from independents such as toiletries and clothes.

“Shampoo I have always bought from my health-food shop as it is cruelty-free/paraben-free etc., and I recently discovered Oxfam sell it too, but cheaper! (Brand: Faith in Nature) However, if you do some homework it's amazing what you can find regarding sourcing alternatives. I recently started buying rubber gloves from the Fairtrade shop in town and recycled pan-scourers from Oxfam.”

It can sometimes be hard to take that step and find the time to discover local shops but we know through this challenge many of you have done just that. Some of you on Twitter and Facebook have told us that the #local4lent challenge has really helped as most years you give up something for Lent anyway and the challenge factor encourages you to keep going. We asked Lydia - for those who haven't yet committed to shopping locally, what would you say are the main bonuses? We couldn’t have written her response better ourselves!

“The whole experience is invariably better: better customer service, and competition and diversity leads to more customer choices. A community that is teeming with small businesses is the best way to ensure low prices over the long-term. Going local does not mean walling off the outside world, it means nurturing locally-owned businesses which use local resources sustainably. They employ local workers at decent wages, and serve primarily local customers. And we as customers are valued so much more highly than in supermarkets, which are owned by distant corporations who don't know us from Adam!”

We’ve been asking you to share your favourite local shops and products on Twitter which has been great to discover hidden gems and pass on to others. So here are a few of Lydia’s:

o   Oil of Aldborough! Virgin oilseed rape oil, produced nearby in Lower Dunsforth (nr. Aldborough), purchased directly from the farmer himself! (Steve Metcalfe) Delicious rich yellow, high in Omega 3.

o   Rare-breed Gloucester Old Spot pork, lovingly made into sausages by our butcher who also feels passionately about sourcing his meat as locally as he can. These pigs are reared just outside Thirsk.

o   Goosemoor vege-boxes, which contain a delicious and varied selection of seasonal, locally-grown organic vegetables.

o   Kingfisher toothpaste/dried fruit/nuts/shampoo/soap/spices/Barleycup etc. from our health food shop. Not produced locally but sold locally, and another thing less to buy from a supermarket!

o   Fresh eggs from our own lovely chickens.   ;-)

      Lastly we asked Lydia has #local4lent challenge made you re consider how you shop for some items?

“The local4lent campaign is an excellent tool to challenge and galvanise people into a different way of thinking. As a 'convert' I'm not sure I have changed my purchasing habits because of the campaign, but it has reinforced to me the importance of it all, and I hope it is the catalyst for change in all those taking on the challenge! Good luck, and well done!”

P.S Lydia had a lot to say which is great and if you’ve managed to make it to the end of this very long blog post then she just wanted to add, “Last but not least, the best 'local' is home-growing and home-baking! I'd recommend this, if you can find the time....”