Shopping Around

macapple

Hi Everyone, i hope you don't mind me posting. I'm a long time lurker deciding to dive in.

With my eldest child starting school soon, i will only have a toddler at home and so hopefully a bit more free time. I've decided to try shopping around our town to try to reduce our grocery spends or rather stop handing over a large portion of my husbands paycheck to Mr T.

So, we have Wilkos, Savers, Iceland and 99p store. I'd think i'd like to use these to stock up with and do a weekly tesco shop for fresh stuff etc. What would you consider the "Best Buys" in each of these shops? Toddler will only be content in the pushchair for a certain amount of time so would like to be armed with knowledge before i get there.

Thanks for reading, MacApple:)

Piggo_2

Savers is good for things like washing up liquid, toilet roll, hand wash soap and other cleaning & toiletries. They also have Sugar, buscuits at a decent price in ours. In wilkos you can sometimes get loaves of bread reduced which is quite good, obviously thye too are good for all your toiletries though we find the washingupliquid/toilet roll cheaper at Savers!

Do you have a market - you could always get fresh fruit & veg there.

macapple

We do have a market but the last time I went there, I was charged £1.10 for a parsnip and 3 carrots! Vowed to keep away after that. Thanks for replying.

Piggo_2

Wow, that isn't too great. Our market is great with lots of local produce as well!

JLL

You just have to have a look round and see. But beware with the 99p stores, you can sometime get things cheaper elsewhere. You have to know how much you pay for stuff. I.E. i was in the queue at my 99p shop last week and there was a women in front of me with 4 packet of Bell's healthcare Ibuprofen tables 99p each. You can buy them in Tesco's for 28p each. I was buying 2 packets of Ryvita for 99p, they are 86p for 1 in Tesco.

Middy

I have seen a bottle of Sarsons vinegar in a 99p shop. Sainsburys sell the same size bottle for 75p

emmamed

JLL wrote: »

You just have to have a look round and see. But beware with the 99p stores, you can sometime get things cheaper elsewhere. You have to know how much you pay for stuff. I.E. i was in the queue at my 99p shop last week and there was a women in front of me with 4 packet of Bell's healthcare Ibuprofen tables 99p each. You can buy them in Tesco's for 28p each. I was buying 2 packets of Ryvita for 99p, they are 86p for 1 in Tesco.

in my £1 shop the tablets are normally 3 for £1, so maybe they are priced at buy 1 get 2 free

eandjsmum

I use my local Market generally found fruit and veg cheaper. I also use aldi for some things , drinks for packed lunches and crisps are half Asda price also washing up liquid , washing powder and fabric conditoner are cheaper, I use Wilkinsons for laods of cleaning stuff as we dont have a Savers. We also have a store called the Range which can be cheap but no Band M of Home bargains

Lugh_Chronain

Welcome to the MSE boards macapple!

Might help if you try searching HotUKDeals, they also have a groceries section which can be found near the top of their page. Amazon can sometimes be cheaper too but don't purchase until you've checked all your options.

For supermarket shops try mySupermarket, they only include the top 4, Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Waitrose/Ocado. No need to register, just click on Browse around. You could also try searching Mad About Bargains though mySupermarket and HotUKDeals tend to be much better in my opinion. Mad About Bargains also has a Babycare section if it's any use to you, you'll also see a button for baby stuff near the top of mySupermarket as well.

Incidentally, click on the images on mySupermarket to see if any items are cheaper elsewhere, sometimes works out a bit quicker doing it this way.

Worth checking the MegaShopBot for anything else as well. And there's always the I wanna buy-it or do-it board if you can't find what your after.

I've also notice people on here mentioning local markets, yes they can be much cheaper but make sure to double check beforehand. Might sound like a load of hassle but I sometimes go armed with a list of groceries, after checking online which are cheapest, and include the prices on the list as well just incase they may not be cheaper in some of the other stores, etc.

Good luck!

Living_proof

My OH sometimes thinks I am barmy shopping around, researching on the web, etc. and there is an old joke in my house that if it's not half price or BOGOF then it's not here! Once I explained to him that after my fixed costs (mortgage, council tax, fuel, etc.) food is one of the biggest items of expenditure and would be much more so in a bigger household with say, a teenage family. If you can always get something at least half price or better it's as though you earn twice as much money as you really do. I don't think you would find many folk, even the most extravagent, turning down a wage increase of that magnitude, and yet the net result is the same.

Lugh_Chronain

That's interesting you should mention that, I have a tendency not to purchase luxury items if they're not on offer. Magnum ice creams are currently on offer for half price until 27/09/2011 at Tesco's but would never buy them if they weren't. Some stuff, but very few, I'll get even if they are just a little bit reduced like Kiplings cakes, Tesco & Sainsbury's currently have the slices reduced to £1 from £1.15, also until 27/09/2011, but never buy if they are not reduced. It doesn't take much discipline as there's always something on offer; I'm hoping to get some tins of Ambrosia rice soon from Tesco which are currently on offer for 2 for 1, and also hoping to get some Barmbrack which is currently reduced from £1.50 to £1.

My point is, is this necessarily a saving? If they weren't on offer I'd never buy them but I do love a bargain!

Incidentally, Mad About Bargains has a Half Price or Better section, also a BOGOF and 3 for 2 section, and there's also a button for Top Offers on mySupermarket which can be found near the top of the page. Worth pointing out, not all offers are mentioned on the Top Offers section on mySupermarket.