Well....

as far as packing lunches go, there weren't a lot of options where I live.  Deli meat?  Chain supermarket.  Juices?  Same. emergency run to the store for cat litter? Again, chain supermarket. The only things I could find at our little locally-owned grocery was snacks, at about twice the price, and some fruits and veggies. 

I didn't do a lot actual grocery shopping, because I knew we would be at day camp all week.  This weekend I have been shopping for our church's VBS, and that hasn't worked out for shopping locally or stretching the dollars.  Our local Goodwill had one item on the list, and Joann's Fabric had some. But neither fit the bill of locally owned and operated.  It may involve a trip out of town.  This is an issue that happens frequently where we live on the Olympic Peninsula.  It seems that the local stores take pride in not providing what locals want or need.  And it is summer, so almost all business is aimed at the tourists.   

We are also hoping to do a few home improvements this summer. Smaller projects like painting and replacing trim.  The trim I like is available at Home Depot in another town at less than $2.00 a foot. The paint is also at Home Depot at $25 a gallon.  We have local hardware/lumber stores, but they tend to lean towards builder's items.  Which would be handy if I was building.  I may keep checking, just in case.  And again cost becomes an issue.  With a family of 6, there's only so much room in the budget for "projects" of any variety, so the savings at Home Depot gets put in the grocery budget. Of course, the decision may be made by summer gas prices!

One of the things that strikes me about Distributism, in a deep and buried kind of way, is there seems to be an element of quality versus quantity.  Having one amazingly beautiful, well-made item, is worth ten cheap, mass-produced of the same thing.  Trying to convince my family of this is a bit difficult, as the youngest doesn't believe there is such a thing as "too many Legos" and the girls are, well, clothes horses.  The oldest has learned this lesson through trial and error with camping supplies, so he is pretty on board with this little experiment.  He is admittedly trying to upgrade ALL of his camping supplies through this.  We'll see if it works.