Buying in bulk to save money

Hannimal

What tips do you have for buying in bulk to save? What do you buy in bulk?

I have just bought a huge bag of rice in the world food section in ASDA and it's saved me a lot of money and will probably last me the whole year. I also buy toilet rolls in bulk once or twice a year - compared to 58p per roll (buying 9 rolls of Andrex from Tesco) buying 135 rolls in one go from Groupon comes to 26p per roll if buying Freedom branded toilet roll and just 14.4p per roll if buying Renove - and this includes postage.

I'd also like to buy soap, washing up liquid, shampoo, conditioner etc in bulk and I am happy with cheaper brands, but I haven't found where to source these really cheap. The £1 standard bottles of shampoo and soap are pretty tough to beat!

balabooberlies

Hi Hannimal

I do buy Napolina tinned tomatoes in vast amounts when they are reduced to 50p, also Heinz baked beans. Won't buy them full price. Also any good olive oil......... I use loads of it as I mainly cook with it........and then there are salads to be dressed.........

Never thought of Groupon. Thank you for that.

thriftwizard

We got into bulk-buying when there were 7 or 8 people living here - family, plus the odd teenage "lodger" - and some things I still buy in bulk as we use them up fast. A 25Kg sack of potatoes, currently £8 from the farm shop or £6 from the local market, lasts us about 6 weeks. I buy a sack of oats & 3Kg of raisins from an online supplier about once every 4 months, and flour by the 8Kg bag direct from the mill. There are just 4 of us living here full-time now, variable up to 9 on weekends & holidays, and 11 on New Year's Eve, including our ex-lodger & his partner! But we cook just about everything from scratch & bake a lot - 3 out of 4 of us bake regularly.

The oats, raisins & flour aren't necessarily the cheapest available, but they are the best for our purposes, significantly cheaper than buying the same quality on the High St., & it makes sense to buy enough to qualify for free postage provided we'll use it all up in good time. Which we do! Cat food comes in big boxes via Amaz0n, or from one of the online retailers, and poultry feed from the farm shop in 20Kg sacks, which last about 6-8 weeks for 12 birds. The sacks are about £7, but a 1Kg bag from the pet shop is £1+...

I also have a card for the wholesalers, thanks to my small business, and regularly buy large tubs of dried mushrooms, 5L bottles of olive oil, bags of French cocoa powder (DD1's brownies are to die for, and regularly requested by her friends & workmates) tubs of herbs & spices, which we go through as quickly as some restaurants, and trays of tins of chick peas, when available - two hungry vegetarians to feed!

There are plenty of other things I could buy in bulk & save on, but we'd struggle to use them up before they are past their best. Big tins of instant coffee are a case in point; even if I decant them into smaller jars, the taste & smell just - goes - in a few weeks. So not worth it, for us.

I do also pick up some humungous fruit & veg bargains at our local market, if I think i can store, use or preserve them as quickly as necessary. We're currently eating our way through an entire box of parsnips - 30+ - bought just before Christmas. Luckily our conservatory's ideal for keeping fresh produce cool in winter, although I still have plants producing tomatoes out there!

The key is knowing that you WILL use it within a sensible timeframe, and that you have appropriate storage - cool & dark for potatoes, cool & light for onions, for example. And strictly rotating non-perishables like tins & packets, moving the oldest to the front to be used up first as you acquire newer stuff. All common sense stuff, really, but not if you've grown up buying just what you need every day, or don't have much storage.

For me, the biggest saving from bulk-buying is the fact that I rarely have to run up to the supermarket - a mere 200 yards away - because it's very hard to just buy the one item you need.

baggins11

I am the same with Napolina bala! They are so much nicer but I only buy when 50p! Its mainly my preferred brands I stock up on when they are on offer. Beans, Mayo, Coffee, Green tea.

Also I tend to do a bulk buy at wholefoods store for flours, dried fruit, pulses, porridge. When I do this shop I stock up on some of the more unusual things you can't always find in the supermarket. Some of it is just about saving delivery/hassle as I would otherwise have to source the various flours etc. from lots of different places.

I would buy toilet roll in bulk but have no storage room and thought they might go damp in the garage. I am a bit of a hoarder so I have to watch that I don't get carried away and buy things that will get wasted.

balabooberlies

WOW !

Now that is what you call 'The Good Life'..............

balabooberlies

Hi Baggins

Well I forgot what I was going to say.

So............nice to meet you............:eek:

kimplus8

I bulk buy for my family of 10
nut milk when on offer as we all drink it.
oats (3 or 5 kg sack from market shop
potatoes from a local farmer
toilet roll from 'who gives a crap', not the cheapest but great toilet roll and it's all recycled, comes in paper/box to save plastic waste and 50% of the money goes to charities.
rice
pasta
spices

baggins11

Maybe there are lots of us out there Bala.. they are lovely rich tomatoes but really who pays more than 50p for a tin of tomatoes!?!

balabooberlies

I am going to hang my head in shame.

I am not a great cook...........use tomatoes in so many things..........and like the richness of Napolina the best.

This bit gets more shamefull...........

Before I knew any better I used to pay a WHOLE pound for them.

AAaaaaarrrggghhhhh:(

baggins11

At least you are brave enough to post about it bala. I am ignoring the impulse buys thread as I dare not even think of some of my impulse buys of the past.

I wish £1 for a tin of tomatoes was my worst money saving sin!

Hannimal

These are great ideas! I forgot to say that I also bulk buy chinchilla sand for my hamster - that was a huge thing to discover. I bought 20kg of sand for £5, normally 700g in a pet store costs £3.99!