Buying in bulk / stockpiling ....is it really worth it?

Bekibuns

Found this useful thanks, but how do you get a cash and carry card if you do not have your own business? Bekibuns

freyasmum

Hiya Beki,

You do need to have your own business to get a cash and carry card. You need, from what I remember, two invoices and possibly i.d.? Or you could borrow someone else's card.... but I didn't tell you that, lol.

I would probably just keep buying the value flour or whatever you buy atm because, as others have said, there would be a problem with storage until it got used up.

Lx

Dijoy

Wrights flour will sell you flour through the post without delivery charge if you buy so much
Diane

ChocClare

Beki - I have a cash and carry card (Bookers) which I got because my husband has his own business, and it is true that Tesco's is cheaper on many things, particularly if you buy their value brands.

However, they are brilliant for certain things, particularly if you've got room to store in bulk (and enough money to buy them LOL), so I do use it quite regularly.

If you haven't got a business, then how about being a guider? (And why not, we need more guiders: there are thousands of girls on waiting lists for Rainbows, Brownies and Guides!!!) Our local Brownies buy sweeties in bulk for their tuck shop at Bookers (the sort you get in the local corner shop which are 1p each). The lady who buys them always gets a day pass - she doesn't have an actual cash and carry card. I'm not saying you actually need to go and volunteer to run the Rainbows or the Brownies (though you'd be very welcome if you did). All you need to do is go and say that you need to buy stuff for Brownies (or youth club or whatever) and could you have a day pass? When I was waiting to go in the other day, the woman in front of me didn't even bother with that, she just said that she had an account with Makro, and could she have a day pass to see what Booker's was like before she went to the trouble of opening an account. They seem to allow you to come in for a one-off shop. Obviously, it wouldn't work if you shopped there every week, but if you're only going to go every couple of months (or if you just want to see whether the prices are worthwhile) you may well be able to do it. Good luck!

angchris

i am guilty of bulk buying anything if its a bargain and i`m going to use it (eventually :rolleyes:) food and toiletries being the main offenders. however oh pointed out to me the other day after taking a quick look at my rammed cupboards/shelves, every orifice and the 2 freezers that actually i had a fair amount of cash tied up in my "bargains" and that in this day and age we would hardly be likely to die of starvation from a potato famine or the like and maybe my bargains would be better off kept in the bank earning interest.
now being an oldstyler at heart i find it hard to walk away from reduced bargains etc at 10p a shot but now when i look at my sacks of rice etc maybe he has a point as they will last me...ahem..cough quite some time
how do you guys justify your old style ways of stocking up on a bargain?

pigpen

I don't justify them.. but I know in the long run I am saving money because..

I only buy stuff when I have run out
I stock up when it is on offer
I bulk buy because there are so many of us I need more than the average in a normal meal.
I don't buy stuff in bulk that is cheap or something similar is always on offer anyway.. frozen veg, cat food for example
I buy a lot of value brands.. I stick by the thinking they have less of everything including the nasties we don't really want in our food anyway!

Hence I have.. 23 bottles of fabric conditioner, 19 packs of bedwetter pants, 2 frozen ducks, 8 frozen chickens, 12 bags of flour, 11 boxes of tea bags, 6 boxes of beef mince, 94 tuna steaks, 4 tins of salmon, 6 boxes of pork steaks... and that is after using loads of them lol.. it ensures we won't go without even if I can't go out for a few days.. or whatever.

I can't resist a bargain either but I only buy stuff I know I will use.. eventually!

jak

Hey that'sfab! My cupboards sound just like yours. I stiock up on toiletries whenever they're on offer as we are a bit fussy when it comes to some things...
Rice, pasta, and anything that will keep are bought by the sackload but by my thinking, you are never truely skint if you've food in the cupboard and a roof over your head...

sunshine6650

Ive been thinking the same thing.. we have a budget each week/month but surely by stocking up your saving in the long run?

jacksons_mum

its a good idea as the price of basics like flour, pasta and rice are shooting up at the moment, so you will have saved more by buying them when they are cheaper than you would have earned in interest in the bank

weezl74

Hiya,

I think it very much depends where that money would be if you hadn't spent it on food earler, if you see what I mean. Someone who has no debts and has filled up their ISAs for the year, and other high interest savings, and is getting a clear bargain by buying now, is clearly wise to stockpile food.:money:

I guess my concern would be if someone had debts they were servicing at, say, 8% were to stockpile £200-300 worth of food stuffs ahead of time, they'd be better off throwing that cash at the debt.

So I think we each need to evaluate where the money would be if it wasn't sitting here in my kitchen cupboards.

My mum doesn't stockpile food, just has a very large kitchen, and I once did a rough calculation that she has around £350 of food stuffs almost perpetually in:eek:, with just topping it up to that level. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case in a lot of homes. When you think of it like that, maybe we're like little old ladies hiding cash under the mattress rather than trusting it to the bank!;)

What a thought- provoking thread! Thankyou for raising this OP.:T

Weezl x