Save money on "3 for £10" etc

Ogboston

Not sure of this is the right forum, but anyway, this can be my introduction to you all!

A great way to save money!

When a shop offers deals such as "3 for £10, or £3.99 each" on for example Wine, boxes of chocolate etc,

JUST BUY ONE! In that example you have saved £6.01 already.

Sure, you have less wine, but less means that people tend to be more frugal with it anyway, ie consume less, so no real loss.

Unless it's something you actually need- and you are unlikely to use more because you have more (such as soap) "Three for X" type deals are often false economy.

If you buy more, you tend to consume more, which has no benefit other than makes you fatter!

Thats what I did with wine. I used to buy 3 for £10, and drink them all- often having the extra glass that I didn't really want, simply because it was there. Before these 3 for £10 deals came in, I'd NEVER buy 3 bottles- usually 1 or occassionally 2. So in fact their "offer" was costing me more money.

Now I buy one bottle, enjoy it more as a treat, and save myself £6 a week. Thats over £300 a year.

Its even worse with packs of sasusages, cheese etc- they are like £2.59 each or 2 for £4. We were buying two, and ending up throwing half a packet away a week!

Now we just buy one cheese and one packet of sasusages (which is all we need, really) and save about £3 a week- £150 a year.

dnomyar

This isn't very good money saving advice, is it! Do you not have a freezer or cupboard space for non perishable items. If these are items you would normally buy each week then it does save you money if an offer is on by buying 3 for 2 or bogof or 3 for £10.00, and freezing the items or storing away. With regard to the cheese, most cheese has a couple of months before the best before date so again keep them it in the fridge. With regard to the sausages, seperate them and freeze, then once frozen bag them up and again you only take out of the freezer the exact amount you need. Not much hard work is it.

Not too sure how you can save £300.00 per year by not taking up offers. If you just want to be frugal, then cut back on everything not just the special offers, buy cheaper brands, recycle, keep left overs for soups or stews or caseroles. Make soups with vegetables that are in the fridge and getting close to going off and then freeze the soups in handy 1 portion containers. When making curries, or chilli use extra tomatoes (the cheap 33p ones) and extra onion for the sauce and again freeze the left overs for an other meal!

hieveryone

I sort of get what the OP is saying, but my downfall is with big premium beauty brands and such with things like 'bonus time' etc. I'll pop in to buy a bottle of eyemake up remover, and they will have 'bonus time' on if you buy 3 products, so I end up spending £50 just to get a free gift when I only went in intending to spend £11. LOL.

dnomyar

I get your point a bit Ogboston, but your post is quite open to interpritation. If you had stated that you are in a shared flat and have no will power, then in the short term not buying in bulk saves you money by not haveing the extra items taken by your housemates or eaten or drank or used by yourself. My point was quite specific that if you buy the said products that are on offer then you can make a saving by buying in bulk and taking up the offers and most people who have the will power and storage space and freezer capacity can make the savings only if they usually buy the product on offer or even if the product on offer is cheaper than there usual brand or even if the offer makes the items cheaper than there usual brand. OK I know its not always a good idea to buy compulsively as this is what the supermakets are hoping you do. But if you want to go further, you make a shopping list and even a list of items you usually buy and have in stock, check out the usual prices from the shops site or supermaket comparison and go to where they are cheper and if the offers are on either list you have then you have made a saving over the long term. If you shop at either netto, lidle or aldi, then you can sign up to there weekly emails and you get informed before hand what offers are going to be on the following week.

RoseFairy

iswum - it mainly depends on the items on offer - the original price if you are saving a significant amount - and if you really use up or need the product on time.
eg there's an offer at Tesco's for Acitivia yogurt ususally £1.58 for pack of 4 pots and the offer is £3.00 for 2 packs. if you have a family large enough to finish all 8 pots by the best before date then saving a mere 16p will probably be ok. however, if your unlikely to finish it then is it really worth spending an extra £1.42 just to save 16p!
and if its cosmetics/toiletries, it's best to calculate if you really need the products -eg as above in bonus time - its best to make a list of items you need and buy it just at bonus time rather than any other time.

also i tried to work out that bogof offers are the best - as for half the price you get extra and i think the worst offers would have to be the 3for2 and the buy one get one for half price.
1.with bogof - the items are 50% of the originaly price
2.with 3 for 2 the items are about 66% of the original price
3.and buy one get one half price is about 75% of the original price

for my above calcualtion i assume an items is £1 - and with offer 1. each item works out 50p
for offer 2. i will be paying £2 for 3 items - so about 2/3rds of original price about 67p
for offer 3. i will be paying £1.50 (ie £1 plus another at half price of that is 50p) for two items so each works out at 75p.

so when out shopping i think twice about the last two types of offer unless i really need them - why spend more just to save a bit - thats what they want us to do - and we should avoid falling in their trap!!

ktuludays

first post fail!!!