stocking up while it's cheap, how much have you got?

hornetgirl

Tesco had some men's deodorant reduced to 30p yesterday, so I cleared the shelf - all two cans of it!! I would have bought more if there was more there.

Ticklemouse

When I go to Costco, I buy loo rolls - 60 at a time, as well as fairy D/W tabs - 4 x 75 tab boxes. Meat - as much as I can fit in my freezer, along with their part cooked baguettes. I always buy whatever works out cheapest either pence per unit or pence per lb.

I don't often buy the BOGOF's or 3 for 2 as they tend to be on ready meals or cooking ingredients that I don't use. However, just after Christmas, Tesco had an offer on their Xmas range of decent quality kitchen roll. 3 rolls for price of 2, initially £1.28, down to 64p, so just over 20p per roll. I'm still using them - I don't care about have Santa kitchen paper in the summer. I still have at least 8 rolls left I also still have lots of Shredded Wheat left, from the £2.20 worth of coupons on the back, but I'm working my way through that now the weather's warmer (so no porridge)

I'm lucky - I have a large garage and my attic is walk in as opposed to up a step ladder. If you walk in there tonight, you'll be confronted by loo rolls, tissues, wrapping paper and a whole host of stuff for car booting.

I also have cupboards full of shampoos and shower gels from the mag. subscriptions and lots of assorted Boots items picked up when offers on. My personal downfall is cosmetics/skincare etc. I'm making a concerted effort to use it all before I start buying more.

crazyhazy

Don't tend to stock up much as we don't have much space left to store anything! But before we actually moved in co-op had an offer on surf, the huge packet for £1.49 and we bought 3, well we finally moved in October and I still have about another 5 washes left in the last packet! The only other things I tend to but alot of on offer is toilet rolls, everything else like shampoo/shower gels etc, I like to change every while anyway and there is always an offer on somewhere so don't feel the need to bulk buy them.

Queenie

Saving money is the priority of this site.

In theory, your "bargains" sound ... GREAT!!!!

In practical terms, shower gels, washing powder tablets and dishwasher tablets really do fall way down low on my priority list!! LOL Plus, you only have to read some of the ideas, tips and threads within Old Style to realise that those particular items are not only overpriced (yes, even on BOGOF!) but can be substituted by much, much cheaper products!!!

Please do not think I am being disrespectful to your example. We all save money or want to cut our bills for whatever reasons and we all have "standards" which we would not compromise on.

Clearly, when it comes to food (which we cannot exist without) there is a "lifespan" to be considered; therefore, it's only practical to store a certain amount.
I do have a store of tinned items (which have a few years shelf life) which I store in my Utility Room in a larder cupboard. I keep a stock of bottled water (which we use and rotate); the freezer is stocked with a mix of raw foods and HM cooked items.

I would guestimate that we could survive a minimum of 6 -8 mths on our basic food requirements based on the larder/freezer alone.

If the shops closed tomorrow ... I have a few odds n sods of soap heals which would sub that shower gel, approx 3 pks of soda crystals to sub your washing powder tabs and ..... dishwasher (?) .... hubby still has a good few years left in him yet

Trow

I currently have about 2 months of toilet rolls, probably a year or mores worth of shower gel and 6 months of shampoo (2 x zest £3 offer and a loaded £1 offer - would be very difficult to get much cheaper even with HM products), we have loads of Somerfield apple and orange juice (buy 3 for £1 instead of about 60p each) and I am today to take delivery from our local wholefood co-op of a six month supply of things like lentils, chickpeas and boullion powder.

I find that stocking up on things like crisps is a REALLY bad idea because they don't last much longer - I only do that at Christmas (I start buying Xmas stuff early) when I have a hidey hole that no-one is allowed to touch. It doesn't seem to work any other time of year....

Josie_Jump_3

I was in Farmfoods yesterday and found WeightWatchers Chocolate & Marshmallow Ice Cream tubs at £1 each, usually over £2.00 in supermarkets if they actually have it. As I'm a Weightwatcher, have a sweet tooth and love this ice cream I bought all 5 tubs that were left, use by date is Jan 06 so I should be alright !

squeaky

Until the 6th Jan? They wouldn't last me 'til the 6th MAY!

I've worked in a couple of areas in the food industry and can tell you that responsible companies give their product a safe use before date. Not to keep you safe but to keep themselves safe!

Then there are the con merchants who put short shelf lives on their products in the hope that you'll buy more, and more often.

Either way - I reckon your use by date will be perfectly OK.

System

My personal downfall is cosmetics/skincare etc. I'm making a concerted effort to use it all before I start buying more.

I can soooo identify with that!!! I have a toolbox i picked up from B&Q about 18 months ago that at one point was filled to the brim with eyeshadow and lipglosses. The eyeshadows are great, i must have some sort of fettish for eyeshadow and use them on a regular basis - but it got to the stage where i had almost 20 lipglosses before i realized i prefer lipstick. I mean, how many shades do Chanel do?

Skincare was also an expensive mistake too, i have tried all the major skincare ranges - including buying a pot of Creme DeLaMer which cost over £100 a small pot and was a nightmare to apply and did nothing for my skin.

I am a lot more disciplined now, and i have found more or less what suits me from the cheaper end of the market (except for spf for the face) - but i do pig out occasionally. I paid £100 for a Guerlain face powder at christmas and although i love it, i still feel as guilty as heck.

lswwong

I am looking forward to go to Boots this weekend and get some of their current BOGOFs - the ones that I use like cucumber face wipes - and get triple points on my purchase. I also have some High Street Vouchers earned through doing online surveys that are accepted in Boots. This should bring my spend there well down!

I once bought a year's worth of dishwasher tablets from John Lewis when they cleared their stock that had old packaging. It was like £2.50 for a box of 40 tablets or something really good like that. It was great!

Curry_Queen

Judi wrote:

I can soooo identify with that!!! I have a toolbox i picked up from B&Q about 18 months ago that at one point was filled to the brim with eyeshadow and lipglosses.

You been spying in my bedroom by any chance

Even worse is that I still have one of those toiletry bags somewhere (like the ones you get full of shampoo/shower gel etc at xmas) that is full of cosmetics I had 20 years ago!!!

Having been an Avon rep a couple of times over the years I've collected my fair share of cosmetics and creams, lotions and potions, all of which are probably no good to even use anymore. Think I read somewhere recently that a lipstick for e.g. should only be kept for 6 mths :eek:

Considering I rarely wear make-up these days and my "current" make-up bag consists of the basics ... foundation, eye-liner, mascara, an eyeshadow and some lippy, all of which is at least a year old ... I think I should throw everything else out really

It's the same in the bathroom with facial washes, shampoos, conditioners, shower gels etc ... I reckon I could probably stock a supermarket shelf with everything that's in there :rotfl: ... does anyone else have a habit of starting a new bottle of a different brand cos they're bored with the old one which then sits there a third full forever and a day

The only things I really stock up on with BOGOF's is toilet rolls (almost out of those now and no deals on at Tesco yet!) kitchen roll, tinned tuna, baked beans in 4 packs, coffee, rice/pasta and cat food/litter. I did buy a load of shower gels, handwashes, toothpastes etc from Boots a couple of months ago, but then you usually find those on offer most of the time anyway so I don't think I'll bother again.

It does pay to shop around though as I've just got caught out on buying a load of BOGOF basmati rice from Iceland, thinking it was a good deal, but then realised I'd have paid less in Tesco for it at their usual prices :rolleyes: