A friend of mine told me about this motivational video he’d seen that recommends you try a 30-day challenge: change one aspect of your behaviour or routine, however small, for 30 days. It’s not going to kill you, and it might just make life interesting or better. It did. I tried 30 days without a supermarket; that is, for a month, I did all my shopping in independent stores, with a ban on entering any ofs, and I’ve changed most of my shopping habits as a result ever since. Although I do get some stuff from supermarkets, it’s very selective, and I never do what I did before the challenge, which was to go to a supermarket and let it suggest to me what I wanted to buy.

No more of this: trying to calculate the real cost of two items that are priced using different methods. Despite the price tag, the ones on the left are in fact almost double the price of those on the right.
30 days without a supermarket: the full list of blog entries
- July challenge: No supermarkets for 30 days July 6, 2011 8:33 pm
- Life without supermarkets #1: Goodbye Danone July 6, 2011 9:24 pm
- Life without supermarkets #2: Kettles & shallots July 8, 2011 12:09 am
- Life without supermarkets #3 & #4: Goodbye Green & Black’s July 9, 2011 11:43 am
- Life without supermarkets #4 again: At last, satsumas you don’t throw away July 9, 2011 10:36 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #5: Goodbye tabloids & loyalty cards July 10, 2011 6:38 pm
- 30 days without a supermarket #6: Goodbye ‘the faceless mute’ at Tesco July 11, 2011 9:00 am
- 30 days without a supermarket #7: Wasting not, wanting not July 12, 2011 7:39 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #8: How much is a packet of digestives? July 13, 2011 10:32 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #9: Muesli & the benefits of forethought July 14, 2011 2:05 pm
- Life without supermarkets #10: Hello parval July 15, 2011 11:14 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #11: Hello kohlrabi July 16, 2011 10:53 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #12: Lemons and notebooks July 17, 2011 11:56 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #13: What £5.50 can buy you July 19, 2011 12:33 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #14: The power of old bananas July 19, 2011 9:50 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #15: A fridge full of food, a pocket full of money July 20, 2011 10:32 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #16: Less is definitely more July 21, 2011 12:25 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #17: How the middle class destroyed the high street July 22, 2011 8:41 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #18: do you really need all that stuff? July 23, 2011 6:39 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #19: pleasures of the haphazard July 24, 2011 10:45 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #20: Wake up and smell the (Lebanese) coffee July 25, 2011 5:23 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #21: bye bye chicken breasts July 27, 2011 5:43 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #22: Goodbye mugs July 27, 2011 5:55 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #22: Hello Harissa July 28, 2011 5:40 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #23: How I learned to stop throwing stuff away July 29, 2011 7:07 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #24: Lemon shortbread July 30, 2011 6:42 pm
- 30 days without supermarkets #25: Selling sugar, salt and fat cheap July 31, 2011 7:47 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #26: defeat in Prague and glory of kitchen departments August 1, 2011 5:15 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #27: My new briki August 2, 2011 8:31 am
- 30 days without supermarkets #28-30: wrapping up August 7, 2011 8:08 am
- A darker shade of chocolate: Green and Black’s and Ben Goldacre September 6, 2011 9:50 am
- How blogging helped me make the best cup of coffee ever February 29, 2012 4:14 pm
- How much is a packet of digestives? You do the math… July 31, 2012 9:16 am
- Supermarkets: will we (or they) ever learn? July 16, 2015 10:02 am