A TAVISTOCK resident 'on a mission' last week proved that it was possible to purchase the weekly shop with her back firmly turned on the supermarkets — albeit with the help of a buggy.

Lisa Wadling decided that instead of shopping at the supermarket, she was going to try and purchase the same amount in town centre, preferably independent, shops — for the same price.

Armed with a list of normal weekly essentials, Lisa came up trumps.

She said: 'I did really well. I went to the butchers — and I don't really know what a kilo of meat looks like — and said I normally spend about £22 at the supermarket.

'He managed to give me everything that I'd normally buy for £23.40, but it's all from Devon and Cornwall, in fact, most of it was from Milton Abbot.

'I got the same types of meat for roughly the same cost, but much better quality and with less packaging.'

Lisa said she visited the three independent fruit and vegetable shops in the town to compare prices, then re-visited.

'I bought a massive cauliflower, a huge bit of broccoli, cabbage, carrots, swede, four kiwi fruit, four bananas and four pears for less than I would have paid in the supermarket.

'I bought cheddar cheese from the cheese shop, I asked for £2-worth, and got a bigger bit than I would normally have had, I got four pints of milk for 99p from another shop, I got some proper Italian pasta for 60p,' said Lisa.

In total, she spent £33.50 including £1.80 for two hours car parking. She did not buy tinned goods, cleaning materials or crisps or chocolate — but said having done more research since, she knows where to go to get some of these items at bargain prices.

'I even suddenly remembered I needed nappies and got them 60p cheaper than the supermarket,' said Lisa.

'I think you need to do it a couple of times to really work out where to get things from.

'Admittedly I do have the time to be able to do it, and I did have to put a lot of things on the buggy, but I can see my supermarket shop getting a lot smaller in future, perhaps just once a month for tinned stuff.

'I think I supported more than 12 local suppliers and four independent shops.

'If I did that every week, and spent say £40, that's a lot of money over the year from one person, but if you multiply it with even just ten extra people doing it, it really starts to add up.'

Lisa said not only did she spend no extra money, she had enjoyed talking to shop keepers about their produce.

'I think you just have to ask questions and not be afraid to do it. These people want your money after all.'

Lisa said some local retailers will also deliver — which for anyone without buggy or impressive arm strength, would also be a benefit for determined town centre shoppers.