Since returning to the UK in 2011 I have been struggling to come to terms with the lack of affordable, quality produce available in Greater London.

No wonder this country is suffering the highest levels of illnesses caused by bad diet when every street has a Kebab/pizza/fried chicken outlet within 1/2 mile of me there are 2 kebab shops, 3 pizza delivery, 2 fish & chippies, 5 Indians, 1 chinese takeaway, 1 Thai, 3 greasy spoons and a chain Pizzeria.......

Not a single Fresh food shop........ Local Butchers are suffering, Greengrocers closing every day and finding a fishmonger is like winning the lottery.

I admit, living in Italy for most of my adult life I have been spoiled by the sheer abundance of local, fresh, quality produce presented with respect and care and cooked in the same way.

I set myself a target to feed myself and my husband with a weekly food budget of £50 whilst eating healthily and well, without the inclusion of processed or pre packaged foods.

Step one was to find valid local stores selling quality produce and providing value for money.

Butcher: "She who searches shall find"..... and I did, my local butcher (hidden down a side street) buys his meat locally and traceability certificates and animal passports etc. have always been available to view...... he makes a huge variety of high meat content sausages on premises, will cut, trim or prepare meat to order and has yet to fail in sourcing me some of my more 'unusual' requests, whilst remaining competitive on price with all the major Supermarket chains..... this wonderful man whom I call 'Dan, Dan the sausage man' is Dan Parker, 4th generation proprietor of : www.sausagemasters.co.uk  in Wallington.

Greengrocer: This was not as easy as you may think, luckily I have an International grocer only a 15 minute walk from home that I use for the more exotic needs, whilst remaining on budget, but whilst having a quiet drink with my husband in our local CAMRA award winning pub http://www.hopecarshalton.co.uk/ I was called over by the manager and introduced to a gentleman holding a box of beautiful cabbages...... unbeknown to me there is a trend for "pop up" stalls selling locally sourced produce at reasonable prices and this was our local one...... this gentleman can be followed on Twitter as @CarshaltonPatch    or on Facebook as "The Carshalton Patch"   after a conversation about heritage golden beetroot and vine tomatoes I was sold....... Tuesday's orders are boxed and ready for collection on Saturday morning on their stall by carshalton Beeches station........ Veggie sorted!

Fishmonger: Here again it was a tip from another source, my wonderful Butcher..... he has a friend who is a wholesaler locally and will source whatever I need for larger orders, dinner parties, bbq's, buffets etc. on a weekly basis I am still looking locally but do find the quality at my local Costco very good and a £15 side of scottish salmon will produce 6 fillets and enough trimmings for a family size fish pie.

Bread and cakes etc.: With the popularity of TV programmes such as "Great British bake off" and others I find it hard to believe that people don't bake their own bread..... Commercialy produced loaves have an incredibly high salt content, home baked can be flavoured with olive oil or herbs to give it flavour whilst keeping sodium low, a 1kg bag of strong bread wholemeal flour costs the same as a 400gr loaf and makes at least 6 times the amount of bread, no need for a breadmachine, give the bingo wings a work out kneading your own dough!

Cakes and desserts the same, give it a try and get the kids involved.... you'll soon see how easy and satisfying it is to produce a fragrant apple pie & homemade custard on a Sunday just like our Mother's did when shops were shut and Sunday lunch was sacred.

My average meal cost at present is less than £5 per head, we eat very well and have lowered our blood pressure noticeably, Supermarket shopping is reduced to detergents, dairy products and other household necessities.

Go on, give it a try....... buy local, source well and support British produce.