The Bradshaw family's project to buy nothing but British products has had a happy side effect. Find out how it's cut their food bills by 20%.
Food prices continue to rise, leading to many of us shifting our buying habits to save a bit of cash on our weekly shop.
The Bradshaw family from Kent – dad James (34), mum Emily (29) and son Lucan (2) – reckon they’ve shaved 20% off their food bills, but not through deliberate money-saving efforts. It’s actually a nice bonus from their project to only buy British-made and British-produced goods for a year.
They’re now at the halfway stage, so I spoke to James to find out how they’d done it.
The idea
“It started from Emily," he told me. "The story broke about Amazon not paying their taxes in this country, and there was our own economy having real issues. The mix of the two made her go, ‘right, I’m not buying any Christmas presents from Amazon this year, all our gifts are coming from elsewhere.’
“That got a conversation going and a train of thought that actually said, ‘can we, as a family, spend a year buying British so that all our money goes back into the British economy?'”
Early days
At the beginning of the year, that’s exactly what they did, although not without some teething troubles when it came to food.
“When we started the project, we did what we always did, which is trundle off to the local supermarket.
“We quickly found that we couldn’t get the range of items that we needed that were entirely British. And not only in one supermarket, but in two – a Waitrose and a Tesco.
“We had to start looking at alternatives, especially as we don’t eat much in the way or frozen or pre-packaged foods.”
Veg box to the rescue
Help came online. “We were struggling with fresh fruit and vegetables, and then we started looking at box schemes. We contacted Abel & Cole and Riverford, who actually couldn’t guarantee an entirely British range of fruit and veg.
“We contacted a local veg box scheme called Kent Veg Box and everything they produce is from within a 30-mile radius. They’re also small enough that they can cater their service to our needs. That’s the biggest part of the saving we’ve achieved.
“And we found that it was such fantastic quality, far greater than a supermarket, so we started our meat and then our fish and then our milk and eggs.
“It’s delivered to your door, you don’t have to spend the petrol and you don’t have to drag a screaming two-year-old round the supermarket. We grow a lot of food too.
“We do go to the supermarket, but it’s probably once every three weeks now. We get whatever canned goods it’s possible to get from the UK, which is very little. We also buy some sauces and oils, although we buy a lot of stuff online. If something’s on offer and we know we eat it regularly we’ll bulk buy it.
“Quite specific things like garlic we have to buy online. We started buying rapeseed oil instead of olive oil, and we find that’s cheaper online than in the supermarkets if we buy in bulk.”
Pros and cons
James argues that the pros far outweigh the cons. “Arguably it's slightly more complicated, but I think actually the produce we’re getting is better quality. We’re getting carrots that still have the mud on them and are just packaged with an elastic band. They’re all odd shaped, and not uniform like you get in the supermarkets.
“In a bad way, you don’t know what you’re getting on any given Friday but in a good way it makes you a more creative cook. Our son will eat what’s put in front of him, and enjoys food, which is fantastic.
“The only issue we have had is it’s only in the last three to four weeks that we’ve started to get any fruit other than apples and pears. But now we’ve got strawberries and raspberries coming through.
“We’ll never look back really,” he concludes.
A celebration of all things British
The project is also spawning a free one-day fair in the family’s hometown of Westerham on 31st August where a variety of British manufacturers and producers will showcase their wares. Find out more at the British Family Fayre website.
You can read more about the Bradshaw family's adventures via their blog A Truly British Family.
Are you inspired by this? Or do you already buy British? Let us know in the Comments box below.
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