An Aussie man fed up with inflated grocery prices at his local Woolworths and Coles has turned to his backyard to save hundreds of dollars a month.
Matthew Norris told Yahoo News that since the Covid-19 pandemic, and more recently the Middle East conflict, he believes the Aussie supply chain has shown how vulnerable it is.
At the start of the year, with news of supply chain disruptions, he thought, "if stuff's gonna start running out, maybe I can grow some of my own".
Starting with just a couple of his favourite vegetables, tomato and capsicum plants, Matthew started to become less reliant on major supermarkets.
"And I suppose it sort of became a bit of a hobby," he said.
"It was nice to go outside and just look after them, and then one thing led to another and I just started to experiment, and then it turned into a whole vegetable garden."
Now, after a day running his real estate marketing business, Matthew can be found tending his lush garden of more than 20 plants of vegetables, herbs and spuds.
"I'm finding I'm shopping far less at the supermarket now, and harvesting most of the time out of my backyard."
The 32-year-old said he has not only saved money but growing more vegetables has "accelerated" his weight loss.
Matthew put off by supermarket prices and quality
A grocery run or two used to cost Matthew and his partner $500 to $600 a week, he told Yahoo.
But since starting his vegetable garden, which cost him $20 to get started, he now saves a couple of hundred dollars a week.
Matthew said he also shops more locally and visits a butcher when he buys meat to support Aussie farmers. He said the payoff has been great given "the quality of the meat in the supermarket has definitely diminished over the year".
He also said the quality of produce has deteriorated at major grocery chains, which motivated him to ditch supermarkets, especially considering the rising prices.
"It's so expensive that I'm happy that I've made the investment to be able to grow this stuff at home because I'm in control of the growing process,"
"I can see the quality of the stuff I'm growing, and it's better because it isn't just mass-produced."
How to get started on your own vege garden
The 32-year-old Adelaide resident said he's observed over the years that "Australians are being squeezed harder now than they ever have" as the cost of living bites.
That is why he is motivating Aussies to grow their own produce, saying it takes $20 to $50 to get started with pots, seeds, and potting mix.
"Every cost of everything is going up," he stressed. "And I think in hard times, people start to really think about, and they start to question their reliance on what they need or what they don't necessarily need."
Matthew said he was raised with a green thumb, as his grandparents on both sides of his family introduced him to gardening.
While he has years of foundational skills for growing a flourishing garden, he said plenty of tools online can help beginners get started.
"It took me probably three to six months to work out what works and what doesn't."
Matthew said "spring is a fantastic time to start".
"Vegetables we eat on a daily basis, like tomatoes, capsicums, chilli, all those sorts of things," he said. "This is the perfect time to get into growing all that sort of stuff."
