Whats worth bulk buying online?

Fromply

Any suggestions for making savings by buying online instead of in the Supermarket?


My experience of this started when I started to buy Chicken Breasts online. I used to get through a lot of frozen supermarket chicken breasts until I discovered the amount of added water and salt in them and I started buying chilled chicken breasts online. The pricing was similar, but they were chilled instead of frozen (I could freeze them after delivery) and didn't have any added salt or water - they are a little bit more expensive than the supermarket frozen chicken breasts, but a lot cheaper than the supermarket breasts without salt or water and a lot cheaper than my local butchers (who charge £12 per kilo for Chicken Breasts!). I used musclefoods initially, but from 3 deliveries I had, 2 were over a safe temperature on delivery and 1 was marginal, so I switched to WestinGourmet (a little but more expensive) and so far their deliveries have been far better chilled and I've had no problems.


My next experiment was catering bags (3-5 KG) of linseeds and desiccated coconut for my morning muesli. The Linseed on Amazon cost me £2.07 per kg instead of £4 per kg in Tesco and the coconut cost me £4.14 per kg (Not looking such a good deal - I see an offer on at Tesco at the moment for £3.75 per kg). I expected to find a better deal on Walnuts (£11 per kg in Tesco), but they were cheaper in Tesco than online.


But the latest one I tried is arguably the best! I have been getting through a lot of Hoisin Sauce recently(I've been eating a lot of this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/how_to_make_chicken_stir_01397 ) and I have been buying the Tesco Ingredients Hoisin Sauce at £4.76 per kg, but that has been out of stock for a few weeks now (discontinued?) so I bought some large catering packs from Amazon at £3 per kg - a nice saving, but that's not the main thing - what I have received is so much more concentrated than what I bought from Tesco, the consistency is so much thicker and I realised then that a lot of what I was probably buying from Tesco was actually water and their hoisin sauce was probably heavily diluted - so what I am buying is cheaper, and seemingly substantially better.


So I'm now on a mission to work out what else I buy regularly from the supermarkets (Tesco) that I should be buying in bulk online. Obviously it cannot be anything that is perishable and I would imagine postage costs will exclude a lot of heavier/low value items. But if I now believe I should be able to get a lot of things online instead of from the supermarket that are cheaper and/or higher quality.


Any suggestions for what is worth buying online?

Fromply

Just noticed there is an error in my maths for the Hoisin Sauce - I have mixed up my units of measurement.


The Tesco price was per litre, not per kg.
The catering pack I bought was 2.45 kg or 1.8 litre.
The price of the catering pack is therefore £4.01 per litre.
The price of the small bottle at Tesco was £4.76 per litre.


To be honest, with the difference in the consistency/density, I'd pick the catering pack one every time even at the same price.


I'm thinking Cajun Powder will be my next target ... I'm sure that's massively overpriced at a best price in Tesco of £22.73 per kg. (Schwartz - they don't appear to sell an own brand). This is another favourite recipe of mine! http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1162644/spicy-cajun-chicken-quinoa


I imagine that mixing it yourself would be better than Schwartz, but I'd rather the convenience of pre mixed .... just need to be careful I think, some of the mixes on Amazon have poor reviews (or more specifically the one I picked out initially had 2 reviews - one was 5*, the other was 1* saying it was overbloated with fennel!)

WantToBeSE

I suppose it depends on the person/family.


Some people like to stock up on the supmarkets '3 for £10' offer on meat and fish. I prefer to buy my meat every month from the butcher. Not only does it taste so much better, but when I cook the meat it doesn't have much (if any, with some pieces like chicken breast) water coming out of it.


Some people eat a lot of tomato based things, so stocking up on tomatoes/tinned tomatoes would prove useful.


Others rely on beans/pulses and stock up on those.


Different strokes for different folks

dlusman

You shouldnt necessarily presume that bulk buys only = online. Have you any local ethnic stores ? You can often buy large qtys of rice/pulses and other bits and pieces from Indian , Chinese and other similar stores.

Fromply

dlusman wrote: »

You shouldnt necessarily presume that bulk buys only = online. Have you any local ethnic stores ? You can often buy large qtys of rice/pulses and other bits and pieces from Indian , Chinese and other similar stores.

Good point - ty


I'm pretty rural and am not aware of anything like that on my doorstep, though I'm sure there is not too far away .... I'll have a look.

MrsWassire

I use my Costco membership for this sort of thing. Huge tubs of cinnamon, curry powder, etc for a few £. Big tubs of maple syrup (which we use a lot) for under a tenner. Bags of chia seeds, etc - all ridiculously cheap compared to supermarkets!