This is a little different from the challenges I normally set myself.

You may wonder why I would choose to ban myself from such all-under-one-roof convenience but I often grumble about the 'bloody supermarkets' when I see smaller shops close down through lack of trade. I've been known to wax lyrical about how communities should refuse to shop in a new store after they fought to stop it being built. As consumers we have an incredible amount of power - a shop, no matter how big it is, can't survive without customers.

However, in the past year I have purchased numerous non food items from Tesco when I could just as easily have gone to local shops. The contradiction here became to hard for me to ignore.

So, for the whole of July I intend to support the high street and use local shops where ever possible. I want to see if I can survive without Tesco.

Here is how I have been getting on so far...

Day 1
Whilst in B&Q, for reasons of a DIY nature, I picked up some dishwasher gubbins too. I realise that in doing this I am simply swapping one large store for another but bear with me, I started this with no plan in place so I am having to find my way one day at a time.

Day 2
Back at work. I should have been more organised but I'm so used to the convenience of having a Tesco within walking distance of work I didn't think to plan ahead. I'd intended to go to a local butcher, it's combined with a bakery (that had no sandwiches left despite it being just passed noon) and it also had no meat - not a sausage, as they say.

As a result I had to go to Tesco as no butcher would be open on my way home and I'd run out of time to go elsewhere. I spent £4.20 on two jars of Dolmeo in local shop instead of the £3.48 it would have cost me in Tesco. Today has been a bit of a hoo-ha.

Day 3
All I needed for supper tonight was some veg. My greenhouse offers a nice line in radishes and salad leaves but I wanted proper, hearty, green veg. I knew that there was a veg stall on the Square near to where I work, I found out that this is every Tuesday... between 9 and 10.15 am. Not helpful. So, I ventured to Woodbridge to go to the greengrocer there. Guess what? No broccoli or greens, I made do with frozen peas and beans that I had at home. Fail.

Day 4
Needed cat food, so I went to Seapets which is just around the corner from my office. Again, I see the irony that I am still using large, out-of-town stores. But I don't have a problem with these stores as such, what I have a problem with is my reliance on one store above all others. That said, my intention to support local stores remains intact.

Day 5
Back to Woodbridge to the greengrocer, baker, fish monger and I needed single cream so had to pop into Budgens too. This is a small store tucked unobtrusively into the town centre so I felt okay with shopping there. I needed white wine to cook with but I didn't have time to get to an off license so I substituted the wine for water - it tasted just as good!

Day 6
No shopping

Day 7
I visited The Egg Shed this morning, stocked up on eggs, milk, broccoli, bacon and, as OH was with me, a random pot of mustard. I also checked out a butcher and baker and the Saturday market in the town centre (where some friendly banter with a stall holder left me in the finest of moods). I had all the provisions I needed for the next few days.

Or so I thought.

When I returned home I discovered that we were having a BBQ for five friends. With two hours to go and a house to clean, OH went to Tesco.

I was disappointed to default back to Tesco so soon but we needed a number of different things and we wouldn't have been able to get everything from the limited number of smaller shops nearby in the time that we had.

I have found that living in a rural area has hindered this experiment a little. The local farm shop and the only general store both open at 9am and close at 5pm. I drive past at 8am and back again at 5.45pm during the week, so any shopping has to be in my lunch hour and near to work so planning is crucial!


Day 8
No shopping (eating BBQ leftovers and nursing a slight hangover)

Day 9
No shopping (more BBQ leftovers). This is unusual for me, I used to go to Tesco once a day, sometimes twice.

Day 10
I bought my lunch from the sandwich lady (a lovely lady in a van stuffed full of the nicest chicken baguettes known to man). It feels much nicer to support her than to trudge to Tesco for sandwiches everyday.

After 10 days I'm roughly £8 out of pocket. I have found some new places to shop and I feel good about it. Not only am I exploring my local area more, I'm supporting local businesses (which I hope to do more of as I discover more) and I've only been into Tesco twice.

As for the £8, I think I would have spent that on impulse buys in Tesco - I always used to pick up 'extras' every time I went in. Hands up who's gone in for a pint of milk and a loaf of bread and spent £70.00?

Day 11, 12, 13
No shopping.

Day 14
I explored a nearby town. I found a butcher, baker, reptile house, the most fabulous haberdashery, two wool shops... no green grocer though. So, for my veg I went to a farm shop on my way home - I'm slowly discovering more places like this locally - but they, quite rightly, only have seasonal veg. This is going to be a bitter pill to swallow, I cooked a roast dinner but had to forego the parsnips. Roast parsnips are the best.

Do you always head to Tesco or do you use local stores? I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on this.