I think I have discussed previously about making a point over the COVID period to support small businesses. Such things have included my Christmas toy shopping being done with The Entertainer rather than Amazon (because they encourage closing on Sunday’s and looking after their staff above profit), buying from my local butcher rather than Tesco and using the milkman again. There is additional cost in this but it is totally worth it.
Last month two of my colleagues mentioned using a service that delivered frozen foods made by local chinese restaurants that delivery country wide. The thing that really grabbed my attention though was that it only took 20 mins to heat up the meals with minimal fuss. At this point we were getting 1 or 2 takeaways a week which was costing up to £45 per takeaway. I received one of their discount codes and decided to take a look at what Alta Foods were offering.
Firstly the website was super easy to use and gave sufficient description to everything that is currently on offer. They require you to spend £30 per order to qualify for delivery, if you spend £50 then you get free next delivery and if you spend £85 you qualify for free Saturday delivery. All delivery is done next day since it is frozen food and needs to be placed in our freezer as quickly as possible.
On my first order I spent the £50 for free delivery with the thought that we would cut out at least 2 takeaways to cover the cost. In fact, the amount I ordered along with the discount code got me 4 meals including rice and they were so simple and delicious that when we sat to do our month budget we agreed to cut out all takeaways and spend £100 at Alta for our second order.
Each meal comes in two sizes.. small (enough for 1) or large (enough for 2). The rice comes is portions for 2. With our first delivery we received our own discount code which I will share with you all to get your 10% off your order. I was even able to use this myself for my second order as well.
DSEL10
My second order consisted of 10 large meals and 2 egg fried rice (my aim is to learn how to cook Egg fried rice at home this month).
Everything arrives in a freezer box along with gel packs that can be stored and refrozen for personal use (I contacted the manufacturers to specifically check this and if they are damaged then the contents abide my government guidelines to be allowed to pour down the sink as household waste). The best bit is that each meal is vacuum packed and take very little room in the freezer.
When it comes to dinner time, you just grab the packs of choice, pop them into a saucepan of boiling water for 20 mins then serve. Every single meal we have had has been delicious and I cannot wait to see what other restaurants Alta food begin to partner with because I love this concept of supporting several small businesses at once, having options of no fuss dinners in the freezer that take up minimal space whilst at the fraction of the cost of a takeaway.
In what ways are you supporting small businesses? Have any actually saved you money?
See you on Tuesday
Faerydae Stitches 