Foodbank thread - please link to any suitable bargains for bulk purchases 31 March 2014 at 10:17AM edited 31 March 2014 at 10:20AM in Gone off! 29 replies 9.5K views

bluep

Our town has recently opened up a food bank and I've been keeping an eye out for any bulk buy bargains and coupons to make the most of the cash I have to spend on donating food. They do such important work - some of the stories of how little people have to live on or feed their children due to unforseen circumstances are heartbreaking. Even if you can't afford to donate food, help me and others by signposting bargains that we might have missed.

So, I thought it would be really useful to have a thread where we can link to absolute bargains found on this site and elsewhere for anyone that wants to get involved (http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects has a directory to find the nearest one to you and local churches often act as drop off points).

It would also be really useful to have links/suggestions as to any Aldi/Lidl/Supermarket Basic brand replacements that are REALLY cheap but still great quality.

Food that is suitable:
- in date and not going out of date quickly (tinned and dried goods)
- cheap bought in bulk but easy to split into separate items (i.e. 2x 250g of pasta better than 1 x 500g!) - this often makes the food more expensive which is frustrating

Items suggested by Trussel:
milk (uht or powdered)
sugar
fruit juice
squash
soup
pasta sauces
pasta/rice
tinned sponge or rice pudding
tinned tomatoes or other veg
cereals
tea bags/instant coffee
instand mash potato
tinned meat/fish
tinned fruit
jam / spread
bisuits/snack bars

soap
toothpaste

Thanks!!

bluep

For example:
15 jars of nutella from Amazon £1 each
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nutella-deals-15-200g-glass-jars-nutella-hazelnut-spread-for-15-with-free-delivery-1866770

Rice half price £1 each in Tesco:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/uncle-ben-s-long-grain-rice-500g-uncle-bens-wholegrain-rice-500g-better-than-half-1866432

Chopped tomatos 50p per tin in Tesco
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/parioli-chopped-tomatoes-4-x-400g-parioli-peeled-plum-tomatoes-4x400g-reduced-from-1866426

Tea - 80 bags for £1 in Spar
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/yorkshire-tea-40-40-free-1-spar-1866241

bluep

1litre of Vimto for 44p at Tesco
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/1-litre-vimto-44p-tesco-instore-1865459

Colgate toothpaste 97p at Superdrug
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/colgate-triple-action-toothpaste100ml-0-97-superdrug-1865328

although Farmfoods has some 100ml colgate twin packs for 89p as posted by Welshee on MSE

2 boxed of Kelloggs rice crispies / cocopops cereal bars for £1 at Farmfoods (thanks to Mummybeth on HotUkdeals)

Jaffa cakes 2 x 24 for £1 at Farmfoods
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/48-x-jaffa-cakes-mcvities-for-1-00-farmfoods-1866047

Various Kellogg's/Nestle Cereal half Price at Morrisons (thanks to oscarcat at HotUKDeals)

Nestle Chocolatey Cheerio's (330g) - £1.24

Nestle Cheerio's (330g) - £1.24

Kellogg's Just Right - £ 1.57

Kellogg's Fosties (500G) - £1.14

Rice Krispies Multi Grain Shapes (350g) - £1.14

bluep

Standard prices Sainsbury's basic range which are apparently decent substitutes:

Rice pudding - tray of 12 at a time which is currently £1.80 (15p a tin ) compared with ambrosia which is 94p a tin

50p tomato pasta sauce

Basic tea bags - about 30p for a box of 80

Coffee - In a packet instead of a jar for about 50p

Tesco: (from Polaria's shopping list!)
EV tinned mandarins in juice: £0.26 ?
EV Pineapple Pieces in juice: £0.36
EV sultanas: £0.84
EV Chopped Ham and Pork: £0.67
Tesco Sardines in Sunflower Oil: £0.50
Oriental & Pacific Tuna Flakes in Brine: £0.49
EV Tinned carrots: £0.19
EV Tinned peas: £0.20
EV Tinned potatoes: £0.15
EV Chopped tomatoes: £0.34
EV spaghetti: £0.20
EV white rice: £0.40
EV cornflakes: £0.31
EV Jam: £0.29
EV Rice Pudding: £0.15
EV toilet paper – 4 rolls: £0.67
EV 20 nappies - £1.41

Lidl: (Polaria again!)
Own brand baked beans: 4 for £1
Own brand spaghetti hoops: 4 for £0.60
Own brand kidney beans: £0.27 ?
Half skimmed milk UHT 1L: £0.55
Sardines in oil £0.42 ?
White Rice: £0.40
Tinned carrots: £0.20
Tinned peas: £0.20
Tinned potatoes: £0.15
Passata 500g: £0.32
Chopped tomatoes 400g: £0.34
Ginger nuts: 0.25
Curry sauces: £0.79

Aldi
Instant Noodles - 12p per pack

DomRavioli

There's 2 massive Aldi/Lidl and Basics threads on the food board - try looking there for what to buy.

bluep

Thanks Dom - I'm trawling through the basics/aldi/lidl threads, picking out and posting in the couple of posts above - just useful to have it all in one place as to what is specifically useful for the kind of things that the foodbanks need.

Scritti

What a nice thing to do! Thanks mate.

The 160 Yorkshire Tea Bags at Spar for £1? Thought that was too good to be true, it's actually for 80 bags (40 + 40 "free"). Still a bargain though.

I can remember many years ago having no fridge and having to live off of less than £3 per week for food and had beans on toast every single day. Once a month I had enough coppers saved to get a bag of chips from the chippy and treated myself. Had half a bag with beans and had the other half warmed up the next day. Was looking after a bedridden partner and we were extremely poor to say the least. A food bank back in those days would have been very welcome indeed.

I'll definitely donate as soon as I'm debt-free later this year.

Polaria

Hello,

I have become quite savvy at purchasing food for my local food bank (sadly it is not the case anymore as I have moved a few months ago ). I used to buy at Lidl and Tesco.

Prices at Lidl may be slightly different; those are the prices I remember.

Please also note that some food banks accept fresh vegetables and fruit with relatively long shelf life such as onions or apples (this was the case for my local food bank).

Lidl:
Own brand baked beans: 4 for £1
Own brand spaghetti hoops: 4 for £0.60
Own brand kidney beans: £0.27 ?
Half skimmed milk UHT 1L: £0.55
Sardines in oil £0.42 ?
White Rice: £0.40
Tinned carrots: £0.20
Tinned peas: £0.20
Tinned potatoes: £0.15
Passata 500g: £0.32
Chopped tomatoes 400g: £0.34
Ginger nuts: 0.25
Curry sauces: £0.79

Tesco:
EV tinned mandarins in juice: £0.26 ?
EV Pineapple Pieces in juice: £0.36
EV sultanas: £0.84
EV Chopped Ham and Pork: £0.67
Tesco Sardines in Sunflower Oil: £0.50
Oriental & Pacific Tuna Flakes in Brine: £0.49
EV Tinned carrots: £0.19
EV Tinned peas: £0.20
EV Tinned potatoes: £0.15
EV Chopped tomatoes: £0.34
EV spaghetti: £0.20
EV white rice: £0.40
EV cornflakes: £0.31
EV Jam: £0.29
EV Rice Pudding: £0.15
EV toilet paper – 4 rolls: £0.67
EV 20 nappies - £1.41


Pol

bluep

Thanks Polaria - that's really useful. I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about on one hand wanting to buy as much as I can quantity-wise for my money to donate to the food bank but on the other hand why should people have to eat really rubbish food!?! So I'd rather pay 13p for a tin of rice pudding instead of 96p but not if its not very nice to eat at all!

bylromarha

I think most people on this website are already savvy shoppers and good at getting value for money.

Why not do what I do and just pick up extras of what you're buying for yourself? I know I'm getting a good deal anyway, so have no qualms about putting in extra tins/packets/loo roll for foodbank.

Our local Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys all have collection points after the checkouts, as well as the church who run it. Dead simple to bag up the goods purchased for foodbank, then drop it off after my shop at Aldi.

Polaria

bluep wrote: »

Thanks Polaria - that's really useful. I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about on one hand wanting to buy as much as I can quantity-wise for my money to donate to the food bank but on the other hand why should people have to eat really rubbish food!?! So I'd rather pay 13p for a tin of rice pudding instead of 96p but not if its not very nice to eat at all!

I buy most of the items on this list for my household as well, so I know their quality is fine.