Inflation vs. 'Investing' in dry foods

[Deleted User]

Having a convo with my parents a few days ago, regarding current savings rates and the current rate of inflation (2.75%) it made sense to me that unless one's savings rate was above 2.75% that one might as well 'invest' in dry goods and non-perishables as the rate of inflation will probably rise a bit before it falls (hopefully) in the long term. Otherwise further bank savings are losing value!

Using sites like Approved Food & MySupermarket it's possible to stock up on stuff like basmati rice (the longer it's kept the better it gets, seriously), soy sauce, pasta etc etc.

Thoughts on 'investing' in dry goods at the moment to avoid inflated prices and low savings rates.

Thanks thassorl for now!

Living_proof

I think Kittie had a thread in this vein. She invested in furniture and other goods rather than specifically foods. I can't remember what it was called, sorry.

7_week_wonder

Hi! At the beginning of December I got a one-off payment of £200, and I did pretty much what you are suggesting. Together with a couple of friends we did a huge bulk order from the local whole-food co-op. Off the top of my head I got: 16kg bread flour, 25 kg rye flour; 15 kg porridge oats, 10 kg pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds 3kg of linseeds, poppy seeds, 25 kg basmati rice, 10 kg arborio rice, honey, unrefined sugar, couscous, bulgar wheat and loads other stuff that I've forgotten about! For me it has worked in at least 3 ways

1. Because we bought in bulk it was cheaper than the supermarkets
2. It is avoiding food inflation
3. It is keeping me out of the supermarket so I don't buy other stuff I don't need.

I only bought stuff that I knew we'd use regularly and I'm storing it all in a spare room in some enormous plastic boxes that we already had. My husband rolled his eyes initially, but sort of sees the logic of it.
So for me it was definitely worth doing, but I guess it varies depending on circumstances. I'll be interested to hear what other people think.

craigywv

i too have invested in loads of dry foods, cereals, honey,sugar,flours which i have frozen in 1of my freezers,lentils,rice etc...also all toiletries . everything is rising price wise so tomeit only makes sense to stock up. I also buyit back off myself and keep it in a seperate purse so i can rebuyit quickly hth.

Pitlanepiglet

I do bulk buy flours, rice, tins of tomatoes, porridge etc. when they are cheap, especially because of the forecasts last year (and the year before) that wheat was likely to be more expensive because of the poor weather.

For me it's less about beating inflation generally and more about buying things when they are cheaper (like the wheat) and more about buying when I have some money. I've had a couple of periods of unemployment and a general fear of not being able to get by so having a stash of foods makes me feel more secure.

Not really an answer to your question but perhaps another reason why you might want to bulk buy.

[Deleted User]

I don't bulk buy, there are only the two of us and the lurcher but what I do and always have done is to put in 'Futures' whenever I have housekeeping left at the end of the week. Even if this is only a couple of pounds I try to buy something useful and not always food. I have enough toothpaste, soap, shower and bath products to last for at least a year. I have Tea, coffee,cooking oil,the usual rice and pasta stash and also things like stock cubes, dried herbs, gravy granules, sugar, oats, crispbreads and many, many tins of various kinds. The prices only go upwards, I would rather have a well stocked storeroom than have to pay more each time I visit the shops. It certainly gives us a better and more varied diet than if I only shopped for just what I needed for the week. I think it is a money saver in the long run as well as being on hand to make life easier and not having to run to the shop for extras which often leads to buying more than you intended. It works for us, Cheers Lyn.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the replies

Seems that great minds think alike!

I guess my caveats/limits are:

• do I/we use this regularly? (2 of us, plus cat and visitors)
• will it have a shelf life once in the house of minimum 1 year?
• Do I have the proper conditions to store it in?

I like MrsL's name of 'Futures' above - when in an inflationary environment it makes sense to stash when goods are cheap(er).

I'm forever working out price per kg/L (online converters help)

My current store stash includes: decent basmati rice (OH is from S.Asia so we eat loads, and it really improves with keeping) at 80p-£1 per kilo; Amoy soy sauce at 19p/100ml; tomato paste cans (800g - open and freeze into 5-6 portions); plain dried noodles, foil packet soups, cornflour, milk powder etc. Haven't paid more than 60p/kg for dry pasta for couple years now but I'm not fussy about the shape!

In some cases buying nearing/past 'best before' dated goods has meant extra cheap store cupboard stuff, even including delivery charges.

[Deleted User]

I totally agree JOOLZ take every opportunity that presents itself to add to your store and the future will certainly be more comfortable, it is common sense to do so,Cheers Lyn x.

nearlyrich

I buy things like dishwasher tablets and washing powder when the brand I like is on offer, also shower gel, toothpaste etc. I don't overbuy food anymore now it's just two of us, we try to stick to what we can use in a few weeks.

Katzen

Hmmmmm, I can see the sense but wouldn't do it myself as it presents problems. Firstly, we have a colony of mice that live in the crawl space under our house, which would make it difficult to reliably store large amounts of dried stuff. Secondly, I think you run the risk of constantly keeping your stockpile high thereby wasting things that get lost at the bottom of the pile (obviously doesn't apply to rice but I've no idea how many times my mum has emptied her tins cupboard and found stuff pushed to the back that's years past its best). Did anyone see that programme about hoarders where one lady collected tins of food and had more than could ever reasonably be eaten, total waste of a small fortune there!

sparrer

The only thing I don't keep a big stock of is flour. It's okay if you have enough freezer space but I've heard too many stories on here of weevils in flour to want to keep more than I can reasonably use. I did have some bread flour for about a year and when I used it in the bm with some fresh yeast it didn't rise, so presumably it had lost its strength

Although there's only me I do keep a good stock of packet rice, pulses etc, as well as tins and jars. I don't worry if they go a bit out of date, I've just used a 2009 jar of Korma and it was very nice!