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Support local businesses while on a student budget
Bristol is famous for its wealth of independent businesses from restaurants and cafes to greengrocers and butchers. Yet there is often an assumption made that buying ‘local’, ‘sustainable’ or ‘home grown’ is more expensive and difficult than buying from a supermarket.
This need not be the case.
In many ways, buying your food locally can solve many of the regular problems that you come across as a student attempting to feed yourself away from home for the first time.
is needed now More than ever
Many of the best spots in Bristol are also already offering student discounts, edging away from the suggestion that financial sacrifices must always be made in order to support small businesses. For example, Reg the Veg, a family-run fruit and veg shop in Clifton Village offers a ten per cent student discount all year round.
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Another great idea is to sign up to a veg box as a flat. This means that every month you have a supply of fresh fruit and veg delivered, and the cost can be split between everyone you live with. You’re then all able to take away a seasonal selection of what ingredients you want to cook with.
Veg boxes allow a variety of weird and wonderful items you wouldn’t necessarily have chosen otherwise, forcing you a little outside of the culinary comfort zone.
For the carnivores among us, Bristol also offers a great number of local butcher options, allowing you to buy meat which is sustainably sourced, local and hasn’t travelled across the world before landing on your plate.
While it can be more expensive, shopping at a butcher will allow you to buy just the amount you need, rather than having to buy in bulk and freeze large amounts. For example, buy three sausages for dinner rather than a large pack that you won’t finish on your own.
Bountiful boxes of veg (prices per box)
- Windmill Hill City Farm, £10
- East Street Fruit Market, £13
- Leigh Court Farm, £12.60
- The Community Farm, £13.60
- Reg the Veg, £20
Butchers worth buying from
- Ruby & White, Whiteladies Road
- Clifton Village Butchers, The Mall
- Meat Box, Wapping Wharf
- Rare, North Street
- MJ Dalton, Gloucester Road
Wholesome (whole) foods
- Smaller Footprints, Regent Street
- Better Food, Clifton, Wapping Wharf and St Werburgh’s (coming soon to Gloucester Road)
- Wild Oats, Lower Redland Road
- Zero Green, North Street
- Preserve Foods, Gloucester Road
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Brilliant brunches
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