copyright galore

i’ve been meaning to write this for so long. like. so long. probably close to 18 months, but i’ve never known how best to approach it.

it stems from an event that happened a couple of years ago. remember when i used to paint onto driftwood? remember when i did a few avengers pieces to mark the release of one of the films?

you might not, it goes back a long way. so you probably also don’t know or remember that as a result of that i have a cease and desist from the legal team at marvel comics for painting iron man’s mask onto a piece of driftwood. seems petty to do it for a single item i was charging £2 for, but marvel is kind of known for doing this on sites like etsy.

did this impact me? not really. i took the piece down and managed to sell it elsewhere. it was, after all, only one item that wasn’t easy to reproduce (not like a print, mug or phone case). and i had a number of original designs and pieces to fall back on.

i usually split my work into two categories: attention pieces and sale pieces. an attention piece is self-explanatory, it’s something that is visually striking and often large and expensive. something like my violin and ukulele pieces. they may not sell quickly but they draw eyes over to my work and can lead to me selling other items, my sale pieces. a sale piece is something like a print, mug, phone case etc. an item that, once i’ve finished the design, doesn’t require much effort to reproduce and i can sell for a modest profit. the profit margin doesn’t have to be high because i tend to sell more of them and they can be quickly and easily re-ordered or manufactured.

but if my business was based on marvel characters on various products etc, i’d have been screwed.

my point here is that marvel was right to issue that cease and desist to me because the image i used wasn’t mine to profit from. i was just fortunate that i had a portfolio of other original pieces to fall back on, which some people don’t consider doing (or for whatever reason aren’t able to do).

with christmas coming there’s sure to be a number of companies selling “knock-off” products from big companies which is understandable, we’ve all got bills to pay and things like that can really help. but what i’m really trying to encourage is building your own brand rather than relying on other images.

when i first started out i did that. i wanted to sell things so i made what i thought people would buy because it was familiar to them. it was all twee and trying to be cute but it wasn’t very “me” at all. it’s only been a couple of years of focusing on my own stuff and i already have people coming to me for my style and being able to recognise my work. replicating other popular images is ok if you want to make a bit of quick cash then have your etsy account deleted and claim the industry doesn’t support indie artists.

the longevity depends on your originality and your ability to stand out among so many other people trying to do the same thing.

minimise / maximise

i’ve become obsessed with minimalism this year, but in an odd way. while i am still trying to get onto clearing out a lot of my older stuff (something i’m managing to do slowly, but there are some larger items i’m struggling to sell on eBay so a trip to the tip may be in order soon) but it’s taken another form.

as well as the physical ideas of minimalism referring to how we make use of space, i’m trying to apply it to other areas where i guess it already exists but isn’t known as minimalism. for me it’s a way of minimising effort or resources while still getting maximum results.

the first one of these for me was exercise. due to my shoulder injury, mental health and various side effects that go along with my current medication, i’m often very low on energy or worried about damaging myself further. so applying my interpretation of minimalism being getting the most out of the least i was able to research various workout plans that used a lot of energy in a very short time. things like tabata training and hiit all work well for me, and as soon as my head is shaved and don’t have hair in my mouth all the time i’ll be doing them a lot more often. please note i mean the workouts themselves take shorter amounts of time, these are still not “quick fix” weight loss routines.

that got me thinking. if i can condense what would normally be a two-hour gym session (including travel, warm up, cool down etc) into around 40 minutes, what else can i condense to save time?

i’m often asked how i manage to get so much done (producing new work regularly, running a blog, making podcasts and still maintaining a social life of sorts) and i guess this is one way i do it. if i’m ever travelling i’ll generally be overlapping a bus/train journey with work by planning or writing something down. i’ve found if i really focus on preparation while i’m doing other things that don’t require much thought or energy, i can do things so much more quickly when the time comes to do it. i’ll rehearse a podcast for days before actually recording it. then the time comes to record, i sit down, do it pretty much in one take and spend as little time as possible editing it. this also kind of refers back to a previous post where i discuss making time to think about things, as well as making the most of the time you have when you’re awake.

i apply it to my artwork too. i use squared paper to plan first because it helps with proportions and symmetry, especially when working from a reference. i also doodle a lot of stuff that never gets shown to people, but even when i do share work i don’t expect (and i don’t promote) aiming for perfection. aiming for perfection leads to overthinking and becoming hypercritical of your work, which isn’t the best way to use your time. trust me. i spent a lot of time doing that and it held me back in so many ways.

i don’t really spend a lot of time editing anything, if i’m honest. even when i’m writing i’ll maybe restructure something as i proof-read it, the rest is just spelling mistakes.

back when i was 17/18 i was in a band called the acclaimed and we managed to record a 7-song ep in the space of a four days. even back then i tried to make sure practicing was a huge thing so when it came time to record we all basically sat down and did our own bit in a couple of takes. i think we even had a three-take rule back then (you have a maximum of three attempts to record something and use the best one – it’s something i’d read about a few punk bands doing when studio time was expensive so they had to get through things quickly) which allowed us to focus on songs or areas we really needed to work on.

minimalism has helped me really take a new and effective approach to my own life, purely because i make use of the time i have available. i’m excited to see what i’m capable of doing in a day, week and even a year when i’m off my meds and not sleeping as much as i do now!

patience.

i’ve been thinking recently. a lot of people i know in real life and through things like twitter are regularly saying things like they’d like to do one thing or another but they’re scared it’ll fail or be shit. they’re basically letting their insecurities take over and prevent them from doing something they’re clearly passionate about.

so here’s the thing. when you see a successful artist, author or business you’re seeing what worked. you’re not seeing what they’re keeping hidden: the stuff that didn’t work. it’s very rare that you find someone who does something perfectly the first time, but they improve by doing it more often and learning. maybe your first attempts will be awful but if you’re enjoying it and improving then who really cares? if any of your projects ever make it big it’s unlikely it’ll be the first project you ever took on because, since then, you will have done more and improved vastly in that time.

learn, grow and expand.

i exhibited at a ‘yard sale’ of sorts over the weekend and the turnout wasn’t as high as the organisers had hoped and they came over at the end to apologise, but it was their first time. these things take time to build momentum and word of mouth. their confidence was knocked and i understand that but it reflects so much of what i’ve been saying on a very small scale.

it’s very easy to try something for 6 months to a year and have a level of success that doesn’t match what you’d hoped for, then think it isn’t working and drop it to try something new only for the same pattern to repeat itself. even more so when you do something once and it doesn’t meet your initial expectations.

be patient.

i tweeted the other day that my monthly income vs outgoings have finally started to balance out. it’s been just over four years. for some people this will take even longer. it depends on the industry in which you’re operating and your own personal outgoings. take those things into consideration before giving up and trying out something else. if you’ve got the support and finances you can even try to do a couple of things at the same time.

keep reminding yourself how much time you have.

snippets

recently i’ve been a bit slow on posting everywhere, mainly because i’ve not had many fully formed ideas. so rather than leave it any longer i figured i’d just post a few musings here for the time being.

1. taking time for yourself.

something i’ve wanted to talk about for ages is the idea of how people think if you’re a creative or self employed that you always have to be moving and making new tangible stuff. all about the output rather than the value of your brand. i always hate referring to myself and my work in the same breath as a brand but if you do anything yourself and put it online you’re basically creating a brand identity, and i see mine as including podcasts, videos and blogs alongside my art and merch projects. one of the joys of doing this is i get to do what i want when i want and as long as it’s all linked together properly it all forms the brand and therefore everything compliments everything else and adds value to what i’m doing (or at least that’s the plan).

so we have the idea that what looks like inactivity to people outside of your business/head is a bad thing. you’re not making things or adding value, simply because people can’t see a pattern or process developing. i’m not very good at writing plans or making full cohesive strategies but i do have a firm idea of what i want to do and how i want to do it. i spend a lot of time thinking and reverse engineering, i like to solve problems and analyse information but i rarely write or talk about it because to me it’s something that happens in a split second in my head. writing it down slows the process down for me. i place a lot of value in taking some time away from posting everything on social media and making new pieces of work all the time (not to say i don’t enjoy that, back in april i made 32 new pieces in a month) to focus on where i can grow and ideas i can look into. i’ll write projects and ideas down but a lot of it is very conceptual or involves a lot of reading. sometimes i spend my time walking around just visualising what a finished project will look like, and when i get home i’m able to put what i have in my head into a finished item. it’s the same with podcasts; i’ll quite often practice more or less the whole thing in my head first then make some quick notes to give an idea of order and to make sure i don’t forget anything.

2. technology & art.

recently i’ve seen some ridiculously clean lines in tattooing and a lot more tattooists seem to be planning their linework using ipads etc. i’ve seen it in the work of other artist as well and it got me thinking about how some people within the art community have moved further from using technology, almost rejecting it for the time being. i get the odd urge to make a fully digital piece every now and then but the majority of the time it’s saved either for editing/layering or left completely out of things. could it be that advances in technology are encouraging some artists to move away from it? that we used to want to aim for perfection, but now that’s far more possible we now aim for organic imperfections?

3. my old job.

would i rather be back in my old job (or one like it)?

not at all. i’d take the uncertainty and difficulties that come from running my own business over that any day of the week. the circumstances which led to me leaving my old job and the journey that has resulted from that has exposed me to flaws and problems that may have otherwise been buried or gone totally unnoticed. yes money is tight and yes my motivation fluctuates and yes i sometimes work very long days, but i feel so much more ‘me’ compared to how i was in my old job. i always joke about how the version of me at uni wouldn’t recognise (or would hate) who i am now because i’ve changed so much. the truth is that transformation truly began when i left my job to set up my own business.

i still feel like i can do more, but i always do, and nothing will ever feel like enough for me. that’s how i know i’m on the right track, because i’m still trying to make things work. nothing feels formulaic or textbook to me. i’m trying to do more with what i’ve got and (as you’ve probably seen) i’m consistently attempting new things and releasing new one off pieces.

i go through obsessive phases, which is in part possibly due to my mental health, so you’ll probably see me release a whole load of one type of item or a certain style before moving onto something new. then it kind of gets left in the “one day i’ll do more of this” pile while i do something else.

that’s it.

that’s all of them. flash thoughts i wanted to write down and flesh out but never got round to it so enjoy those and maybe ask me some questions if you want more information!

Supporting Creative Friends

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram 

Hey everyone!

I’ve noticed something recently. A lot of smaller businesses online are either having to shut down or they’re scaling their portfolio down a lot. So I’ve decided to write a a post for people who want to know ways to support small businesses and independent creatives they follow on various social media.

Purchase their work!

This is the most obvious. If you want creative people and small businesses to continue creating at a regular pace and put all of their time and effort into what they’re doing, your best bet is to purchase from them. The amount you spend and the frequency of which you do it is down to you, and it’s largely dependent on what you need, what people are providing and the cost of the items themselves. I’ve been encouraging some friends to include payments in instalments to make things more accessible. I’ve introduced it in full scale to my store recently and it’s been pretty popular.

Let them know what you want more/less of!

Is your favourite artist releasing a bunch of designs you like on items you don’t want/need? Contact them! Small retailers are usually more able to respond to direct demand quite quickly and can sometimes make things as a one off.

Please keep in mind some people may have to release items as a pre-order to generate the funds (and establish the demand) for certain products. A couple of years ago I released t-shirts at the request of a few people, they started as a pre-order and when I had the funds I ordered in as many as I believed demand to be (from people saying they’d buy one) to not sell nearly as many as I’d anticipated. Had I done this as a full pre-order I wouldn’t have had this problem, and the situation itself nearly led to me having to close down my store.

Patreon!

The next couple are pretty similar. The first of which is subscribing via a service such as Patreon. This is great for people who make content on YouTube, write blogs or generally create content that may not necessarily always result in items for sale. Most Patreon creators include rewards and regular updates for Patrons, and it’s something I’m still getting the hang of. Some people need the funds to cover project costs, others to cover their regular outgoings. They usually list their reasons for using it in their description.

You can sign up to support creators on Patreon from as little as $1 a month (around 80p) and even if you can only pledge $1 a month it’s a huge boost to the creator. At the time of writing, my pledges come to around $50 and a bunch of those are $1. It builds up if enough people do it and it means creators can focus on making great content for you full time without worrying about money, and you’ll get rewards in the meantime!

I should probably mention that once you make a pledge you can edit or pause it whenever you need to. You’re not tied into pledging a certain amount until you cancel or anything like that.

Donations!

Not able to pledge every month for whatever reason? Does the creator you want to support not make anything you can buy/afford? Almost all of them have a PayPal account you can send funds to as and when you see fit, even if it’s just a couple of quid. As I mentioned before, it all adds up.

If PayPal isn’t your thing (or theirs), see if there are other ways you can send them some cash.

Share their work!

A lot of people don’t have a disposable income to support creatives financially for a variety of reasons and that’s ok! There are other ways you can do it. People tend to use all sorts of social media, and if you think someone isn’t getting the recognition they deserve then share their work. You never know who might be following you. They might end up interested in someone’s work and be able to support them in any of the ways I’ve mentioned.

Whatever your main social media, follow your favourite creators if they have a profile there and share their content. If they don’t, post their work with credit and try to either include their @ from Instagram, Twitter etc or a link to the best place to view them. You’re a part of the media and, whether you choose to believe it or not, people listen to you and care about your opinions. They usually also have things in common with you, which is why they follow you. So chances are if you like something for whatever reason, some of the people following you will too! It doesn’t matter whether you have 10 followers or 10,000. You’re important to your followers and to the people you amplify and share the work of.

As well as purchasing items from my store, you can also support my other projects by donating via PayPal or pledging via Patreon. Patreon pledges start from just $1 a month (around 80p)!

Allowing Yourself To Rest

 

Going back about as far as I can remember I’ve struggled with sleep. I’ve never given it much thought because I always just kind of got on with things regardless of how much (or how little) sleep I was getting.

Through therapy I discovered I might have a phobia of sleep. Anyone who follows me on Twitter will regularly see me awake and posting until I basically can’t stay awake any longer. I fight it for as long as I can and I find my anxiety levels massively increase if I reflect on how long I was asleep when I wake up. This is exacerbated pretty intensely by my medication making me drowsy and needing to nap quite regularly. It resulted in a small crisis the other night when I felt like I was letting myself down by not being awake at the most opportune times for me to advertise work to people (I’m yet to find a free Twitter and Instagram scheduling app that I like using).

For months, maybe even a couple of years now, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of not needing sleep because it somehow means I’ll be less successful if I sleep as much as I need to. Reinforced by the amount of people on social media who talk about how they’re always grinding/hustling/working, I find myself comparing my perceived work rate with how those people present themselves, which is very understandably detrimental in both how it impacts my mental health and my overall motivation levels.

Shortly after my crisis, I was awake and writing the blogs I posted on Thursday and Friday until around 4am. I tweeted after finishing those that I’m starting to realising it’s more to do with how we use our time when we’re awake. The next day Gary Vee posted the image below.

This made me realise that, at times, sleep isn’t “avoiding The Hustle” but is instead part of it. How useful am I to myself, to my creative process, to my marketing approach, if I’m depriving myself of sleep? Constantly being awake doesn’t somehow result in success. If you’re awake for 20 hours a day and can only manage to concentrate well enough to complete four high-quality hours of work, then by many people’s definition of The Hustle you’ve not utilised those remaining 16 hours.

At present I’m sleeping around 8-12 hours a day but still managing to fit in 5-8 very high quality hours of work-related output. Right now it isn’t always things my customers or followers will see, I’ll be making lists, researching new distribution channels, new suppliers, new product/packaging ideas. I’ll sometimes spend a whole day just thinking about how to act next. To me, that’s adding value to my brand. The changes I made, which I detailed the other day, came from social media engagement and a whole day of thinking of ways to act on the responses I received and conversations I had.

It’s taken me a while to reach this point, but I’m trying to remind myself not to shoehorn myself into a routine that doesn’t suit me just because it works for somebody else.

As always, if you want to support me you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon page, where you can pledge from just $1 a month (around 80p), donating via PayPal or by purchasing through my store.

Future Plans For Mr Crypt!

Here’s something I haven’t mentioned on my store yet! My future plans for Mr Crypt’s Curiosities.

Let’s go with the obvious stuff that I’ve discussed previously. I’m currently planning a podcast with my mate, Paul. We’ve had a few chats about it and we’re slowly working out what we need and getting everything lined up for it. At the moment it sounds like we’ll loosely try to stick to a topic while Paul gets increasingly frustrated at me for constantly going off on tangents. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

The details of this blog post as well as yesterday’s will end up as a series of videos up on YouTube too. Each section will have it’s own specific video so you can watch whatever’s most relevant for you rather than skipping through to try to find the right part. I’ll also be uploading the same videos to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I plan on making more video content like time-lapses of me making new products. I’m still getting used to it but expect more soon!

As for products, I’ve got some ideas for bamboo and wooden items that have been laser cut and engraved. These include phone cases, keyrings, toothbrushes and even some “prints”. Some of these items will be limited in number but I’m very excited to get them made. I’ve spoken to my potential supplier about providing me with some engraved faux-leather wallets too, but that needs some more research.

On top of those, I’m also looking into getting some patches, pins and badges made. It’s generally a matter of affordability. In an ideal world I’d be able to order everything in at once for a totally new range but we’ll see what happens there.

And finally, I’m looking into improving my packaging situation. I currently send items out in plastic postage bags with loads of sellotape etc and I hate it. At the moment it’s the most cost-effective way to do it so I’m using those up while I look into more sustainable packaging options. Any help in regard to that would be much appreciated. My aim is to be totally plastic free in terms of products and packaging by the end of 2018!

If you want to support these plans and ideas you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon page, where you can pledge from just $1 a month (around 80p), donating to via PayPal or by purchasing through my store.

I’ve Updated My Store!

If you follow me on Twitter may have noticed I’ve mentioned some updates on my store recently. As well as them being there I figured I’d give a brief rundown of the main things I’ve added and the reasons why.

I’ve found Eric Thomas’ videos and stories hugely motivational and driving for me to improve and find ways to succeed and thrive in all aspects of my life. Knowing January was around the corner I started to think of how best to utilise the time I’d have available and remembered one of the first videos of his I watched. The title is “Work On Your Work” and is available below.

Having seen that, and with that phrase resonating with me for so long, I decided to take a step back and evaluate my brand. What am I doing well? What can I improve on? And, perhaps most importantly, does my brand reflect me as a person? What can I do to make my brand stand out that isn’t just chucking some swearing on a mug?

Payment Options & Reserving Items

The first thing I thought of dates back to a thread I did on Twitter in August. I feel like that page and the thread sum things up quite neatly, but if you don’t want to click away here’s a quick rundown of the feature.

– I’m happy to take payments via PayPal or bank transfer, but at present I’m not sure how to implement a way to make nominated payments using card details. I need to check safety measures with Big Cartel first.
– This function is available for ALL products available at Mr Crypt’s Curiosities. Want to send £10 a week to pay for a £100 woodburn? Go for it! Want to send £2 a month to pay for a mug or phone case? Send away!
– All payments are non-refundable apart from in exceptional circumstances.
– All conversations will be kept private and I’ll attempt to tailor things to meet your requirements.
– I don’t post anything out until I’ve received the full payment, including postage. This is simply to cover myself, as when I first started this business I used to do commissions without taking deposits and had three people ask me to make them something but they never paid.
– Underneath each product listing on my store (and elsewhere) there’s a tab clearly marked for PayPal contributions. Once you’ve sent the payment I get an email detailing who sent the funds and how much they sent. I don’t get any notification about which item it is in regard to. Please contact me to let me know what you want to reserve and I’ll mark it as sold out so nobody else can order it before you’ve paid for it!

One of the major benefits of this function is that, as a small business, I’m able to make my work as accessible to people as possible. This includes people who, for whatever reason, have limited finances. Everyone deserves to own stuff they like and want and I’m hopeful I can make that happen for more people by introducing this!

Commissions & Custom Orders

This one feels fairly straightforward but it bears repeating. For the time being, all my printed items (mugs, phone cases, coasters and keyrings etc) are customisable to a degree. There’s already an option to order a custom keyring, but not for the other items. However, if you have a custom phrase or idea that you’d like me to make for you just let me know and as long as I have time I’ll be happy to work it out!

Some of the more complex designs for phone cases and mugs might come at a higher cost if it takes more time for me to finalise. Probably best to ask me about that and we’ll discuss it before you commit.

As for commissions, you can see all the stuff I do and make over at my Instagram page. My commissions open/closed information is usually displayed wherever I remember to change it on social media. I only close it when I get too busy with additional projects, if my list gets too long, or if I somehow find myself on holiday at some point!

If you’d like me to draw, burn or paint something for you, drop me a message with your budget and your idea and we’ll take it from there. I’ll usually request 50% of the quoted price as a deposit before I begin working on anything.

Name Changes & Dead Names

This is my favourite new addition because it’s such a simple thing and it can mean so much to people. Simply put, if for any reason you want or need to change your name because it doesn’t match your payment information (particularly in the case of people who may not be able to afford, or may not be old enough, to legally change their name) then just message me.

You can contact me to update it via your preferred social media channel, through the contact tab on my store, by updating your billing information or by making use of the order notes as you complete your payment!

For some of you it might be the first time you receive something in the post with your changed name on it, and although this is in no way about me it would still be amazing to be a part of it.

Support

If you want to support these plans and ideas you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon page, where you can pledge from just $1 a month (around 80p), donating to via PayPal or by purchasing through my store.

Vegan Tips

There’s a lot of tips about going vegan floating about at the moment, so here’s another one. Even though I haven’t written this yet (I don’t really do planning or editing) and have only read two or three others, this is definitely the best one out there.

I’m going to start by pointing out the obvious. I do not know you, I do not know your circumstances and I do not know what you like to eat. So this is going to have to be pretty general.

The only real tips for anything are planning and education, and a lifestyle change like going vegan is no different. Read blogs, watch discussions and documentaries on Netflix/YouTube/etc, get onto Google and look at pictures of pigs. Try to get a well-rounded view on how animal agriculture, and a diet and lifestyle involving animal products, impacts the environment, your health (generally speaking) and people on a global scale as well as the obvious unnecessary cruelty to animals. Maybe also try to see how the lifestyle might intersect with other interests you have. Last year I wrote a piece for Mad Rabbits about how I feel veganism aligns with the punk and hardcore scenes.

Long and short, do your research to find your why.

That’s your education sorted. Onto planning. In my last post I wrote about shopping on a tight budget. Veganism can be expensive; the same as any diet/lifestyle. But it doesn’t have to be. Before you go out shopping, you’ve looked into educating yourself and found your reasons for going vegan. It can seem daunting at first, you might think you’ll have to fill your cupboards, fridge and freezer with all new items, but you’ll find it’s easier than you thought. You’ve probably already got some spices and herbs around, and some tinned stuff. You’ve probably got a handful of fruit and veg you really like too. The foundations are there; it’s just a matter of building on them.

The first thing I want you to do is think of three favourite foods/recipes for each meal of the day and five snacks. They’re probably not vegan, and that’s fine. See what you can swap for vegan ingredients. Does it involve minced beef or turkey? Swap it out for veggie mince, or more vegetables. Stick with what you know and focus on making your favourite comfort recipes vegan friendly first. That way if you’re ever struggling or having a rough day in general, you’ve always got those to turn to. Rather than making a whole new internal menu, try to adapt the internal menu you already have.

If you follow some vegans on Twitter (or pages dedicated to vegan food/clothes etc) you may see certain words pop up that you’re not sure about. At times this can be a bit intimidating, as it can seem like we have our own dictionary. I get you might not want to message someone about it. We’d love it if you do, it makes my day to be messaged out of the blue by people looking for information of advice, but if you’d rather Google something to see what it is then do some further searching to see what can be made with certain things then that’s perfectly fine too. Go with what feels comfortable for you.

And, most importantly, I’d say. Do not be afraid of fucking up. We all do it from time to time. You might buy something you’ve been told is vegan, eaten it and then found out there’s been a change in recipe/ingredients and it now contains eggs. You may have just not checked the label on some soup and not realise that some vegetable soup contains cream or whey powder. You haven’t failed. The vegan police aren’t going to come to your house and ban you from carrying on your journey. It’s part of learning, and as with all learning it gets far easier the more you do it. Something I still do when I’m in a supermarket is check packaging to see if a product is vegan, despite having no intention of buying it. That way I can combine education with planning. I know what new products I can use in future, and start to think about how I can use them.

It’s a really good time to find new things being released, so see how you get on. If you’d like to get in touch to either ask questions or just tell me you’re planning on trying a couple of meals feel free to DM me on Twitter!

Shopping Smart

Last night I did a quick walk around a supermarket on Periscope to provide people with some little tips on starting your vegan journey on a budget or if your mental health means you don’t really want to spend a lot of time cooking but still want to give veganism a go. This is mainly a summary of that discussion (and a later one I also had on Periscope). I’m also considering doing a brief food diary a couple of days a week to show people what a depressed vegan eats and how I shop etc, but for now let’s get into it.

Firstly, this is working on the assumption of you having a freezer and some cupboard space, as well as being able to get to and get around a supermarket. This is purely because it’s most reflective of my circumstances and I don’t want to make any guesses about what it may be like for people not in this position, but I do have intentions of speaking to people for whom any or all of this is not true to gain some perspective from them.

The first thing is the old faithful reduced section. When I was at uni around 146 years ago we used to do our food shop at a nearby 24-hour Tesco after midnight. It was always very quiet and the reduced sections for the bakery and veg aisles were fairly well stocked. Reduced sections are generally hit and miss so you may have to get creative, and I by no means suggest always doing your shopping at 2am, but if you’re able to get to a nearby supermarket a little later in the evening (for example, if your nearest shop shuts at 10pm, try getting there for 9ish) you’ll find more items are reduced and the shop will be much quieter. It’s great if you’re anxious in busy places or if you simply hate queuing.

The next thing I brought up was brand label items compared to a supermarket’s own brand. This is most noticeable for things like tins of baked beans, chopped tomatoes etc. The product is often more or less the same, maybe a “premium” brand like Heinz use a slightly different recipe but the majority of the time the extra cost you’re choosing to pay is for the name on the packaging on the product rather than the contents. It may seem like a small saving but consider the fact that you might buy, say, one tin of beans a week. If you pay 35p for a supermarket’s own brand instead of 70p, over a year that’s a saving of just over £18. Quite often the “premium” brands are shelved at eye level, so look at the items above/below them. Those brands pay for their space at the end of aisles and their position on shelves. It’s no coincidence that the cheapest stuff is usually in the most basic packaging on the bottom shelf. There’s been less investment in the product itself so whoever makes it can afford to charge far less, but it’s the same basic product on the inside. Give it a go, if for whatever reason it isn’t for you then you can go back to what you know.

As well as reduced items, look out for discounts. At this time of year loads of veggie and vegan stuff is discounted to take advantage of people partaking in Veganuary. They want you to try their products and alter your buying habits so you purchase their items on a regular basis. If you know you like something and have the space, take the time to stock up. Last summer a supermarket by me messed up massively and had Linda McCartney sausages priced at 45p for a few weeks (they’re usually £2). Needless to say I got through a load of boxes around that time.

The next thing is to buy frozen fruit and veg when you can. Provided you have space, it won’t go off and it’s so convenient. If you have a few days where you feel awful and just eat crisps and cereal then that’s fine, but if you then feel the need to make a smoothie you’re either confronted with a trip to the shops or a trip to the freezer. I know which I’d prefer. Same with veg. Most places offer all sorts now, from frozen onions and mushrooms to avocados and butternut squash. I love getting packs of mixed veg and heating some up with some chopped tomatoes and having that makeshift sauce with pasta. It’s cheap, it’s quick and it’s pretty good for you too.

Another thing I’d suggest is using things like coupons and loyalty cards. It gets a little bit 1984 but using a loyalty card means that a supermarket can track your buying behaviour. They’ll see which stores you go to most and what you buy from them (if you have a bigger store for your “proper shop” and a smaller one a bit closer to home where you go and get a few bits every few days etc), they’ll also know if you’re loyal to specific brands or if, like me, you bounce from offer to offer. They use this information to tailor your coupons and shopping experience. I highly doubt everyone who shops at my local Sainsburys gets coupons for money off or bonus points when they buy Alpro products, but I do. Alpro will probably have paid Sainsburys to give me these discounts to keep me as a loyal customer because it’s on their database that I’m a shopper who buys whatever non-dairy milk is cheapest. If your local store sees a shift in the purchases of “free from” items or sees a maintained high level of “free from” purchases, guess who’ll be getting the new products and expansions on those sections first.

Not only that but you’ll build up points as you shop, and at some point you’ll be able to use those points to pay for your shopping. Back in November I spent less than £2 on food shopping because I decided to use up all my available points and start afresh.

One thing I forgot to mention last night was the inclusion of lists. I know a lot of people always make lists for everything, and it’s something I’m still getting used to. My short term memory is pretty terrible and I wish I had £1 for every time I’d gone to buy food and come home to realise I forgot something because I forgot to take a handwritten list with me. I’d recommend making the list on your phone if you can, purely because it’ll probably be with you when you’re out shopping. Most smartphones have an app for notes or Word documents etc so it won’t cost you anything extra to set it up and it may end up saving you quite a bit of time.

It’s also a good idea to do some product research before you go. On most supermarket websites now you can search “vegan” in their products and be provided with a list of things you can buy in store, some of which you may not have known are vegan friendly! There’s also an Instagram account called accidentallyveganuk which lists snacks and new products released by loads of supermarket chains across the country. Give them a look to make the list and see how you get on.

I’ll do another post later this week about specific tips for people who are new to veganism and may be struggling, and for products and recipes. As always my DMs on Twitter are open to anyone who has any questions or suggestions 🙂