Bulk-buying in France?

lemonade_money

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum but this site is excellent :money: and has helped me in many ways over the past year or so.

I wanted to ask your opinions please, we are thinking of stock-piling a few bits which we constantly use (toilet roll, toothpaste, washing powder, nappies, etc - feel free to recommend useful things I should stockpile!) and I wondered if anyone had any advice to pass on? Is it cheaper to buy these bits from France (we holiday there so the ferry crossing and petrol price would be spent anyway) or maybe at Makro or just watch out for the offers in local supermarkets?

crompton

Do you have a makro card? We have found that Makro are very good for toilet rolls and everytime we go up to makro we get some. A lot of the things are only marginally cheaper

taxiphil

We regularly go over to Calais and stock up on basics from either Carrefour or Auchan. Generally we find "essentials" between 10-25% cheaper than the cheapest typical UK supermarket price. Look out for Carrefour's "1" range - it's the equivalent of Tesco Value / Asda Smart Price, but the quality is generally higher.

People only really associate French supermarkets with cheap booze, but there are huge savings to be had on other things too. For example, own brand pure orange juice is 0.43 Euros per litre carton, which is about 30p. Compare that with 57p which is the cheapest you can get the equivalent product from the budget ranges in Tesco/Asda/Sainsburys (proof that we're being spectacularly fleeced by a supermarket price-fixing cartel in Britain). We drink lots of orange juice so buy about 100 cartons on every trip as it doesn't go off for months - the saving on that alone is nearly £30.

We also make good savings on their own brand washing powder, household cleaning products, carbonated drinks, mineral water, pasta sauces in jars, jam, and tinned veg like asparagus and sweetcorn.

And the French versions of everything tend to taste nicer, because French consumers demand far higher standards than we do.

spuds_2

Coffee and olive oil are usually a lot cheaper. We have had decent clothes from Auchan too.

thefirs

Grand-dad was a very clever man, and he found out all this stuff a couple of years ago, but it always bears répétition...

lemonade_money

Thank you for your responses, all very useful :T, especially taxiphil for the orange juice tip. We too drinks lots of this so it's definitely worth the savings there.

Elljay_2

We also buy Olive oil, coca cola/pepsi, cheese, mustard, Dove liquid hand soap (comes in refillable little pouches -v. Env Friendly), deoderant, toothpaste and L'oreal face wash and eye make up remover. I always stock up on their toiletries. I love getting a bargain!!

christineperseus

Not forgetting Diesel is only 1 Euro a litre - so if you fill up there you have paid for your crossing

bernesemad

Just looking on the Carrefour website and you can sign up to receive regular news and even vouchers

http://modulosite.opalenews.com/modulosite/fiche.php?id=152&fr=0

This should come in useful...every little helps :rotfl:

tweegirl

I picked up a brill bargain on the cross channel ferry - my boyfriend - very money saving as he's a fantastic cook - conjures up a meal out of anything and makes a £4.00 joint last for four days for four people.

Elljay_2

tweegirl wrote:

I picked up a brill bargain on the cross channel ferry - my boyfriend - very money saving as he's a fantastic cook - conjures up a meal out of anything and makes a £4.00 joint last for four days for four people.

That is soooo lovely!! Is he French?