Where to buy vegan / wholefood ingredients

KajiKita

Evening All,
I have been tracking my spends for a couple of weeks now after setting a budget based on the last 6 months or so of spending.
One thing I am noticing is how much I am spending on vegan / whole foods over and above what I am buying in the supermarket (which is a whole other challenge I am working on!  )  It's things like ground flaxseed, farro wheat, dried pulses, cacao nibs, unami stockcubes  etc. - does anyone have any ideas on where the best places, websites or times to buy these items are? 
KK

pumpkin89

All the things you mentioned are available in supermarkets.  Larger stores will have a dried wholefoods section, a world foods section (where you'll find things like umami stock) and a free from section (where some of the different grains can be found).  Cacao nibs can be cheaper from the home baking section than the wholefoods one, depending on offers.

Sometimes they will use different names e.g. farro wheat is a generic term for three plants (spelt, emmer, einkorn) so you might need to look for those separately.  It's worth investing some time on Google to find out the different ways these are marketed, as prices can vary quite a bit.

Mnoee

Seconding supermarkets. I've searched for similar things online, and found supermarkets are almost always cheaper per kilo. If you're currently shopping in store, maybe have a look at their websites to see what's available instead of browsing aisles where it's easy to miss things.

I've also spotted some bargains in the discount shops like poundstretcher/b&m etc. I wouldn't have expected to find beluga lentils in them, but there they were, and much cheaper than online. 

littlegreenparrot

This depends a bit on where you live, but if you can access a large supermarket in a big town that caters for different ethnic groups it's worth having a look.
In my experience there is often an aisle set aside specifically for brands and groceries from other countries. Bulghar wheat for example was in a bigger packet for a cheaper price in that aisle, than it was was elsewhere in the shop. The same was true for dried pulses, spices etc. 

maman

If you have an Asian shop near you, they sell large bags of dried pulses. 

MrsStepford

It really depends where you live. In a city, you will find a lot more choice than in a village or an average town. Have a look online as there are wholefoods, vegan, organic, Chinese, Japanese, Europen delis etc. It's pointless buying in bulk unless you can use the product before it goes off/stale. 

scrimperjan

I occasionally use Buy Wholefood Online for the more difficult-to-find stuff as I don't live near a large supermarket. They offer free delivery if you order over £25 worth of products, and if you sign up for their email you get some really good special offers - this week it's 1kg organic quinoa free if you spend £30.  I tend to wait until there's an offer I really want and then stock up on dried beans and anything else I need, maybe once every couple of months.  

jeffwest2

Second call out to Buy Wholefoods Online, We buy a lot of TVP and other things from them, works out cheaper for the larger bags of TVP rather than the very small, if you can find them, ones in the supermarkets.  Some things on the site are more expensive than in shops, you just have to be careful on that, but otherwise have liked almost everything we have bought from them.

[Deleted User]

Do you have a Grape Tree near you? Failing that, they have a website (https://www.grapetree.co.uk/) I find them to be very reasonably priced.

Mnoee

Deleted_User said:

Do you have a Grape Tree near you? Failing that, they have a website (https://www.grapetree.co.uk/) I find them to be very reasonably priced.

Ooh! They do have some good deals. Some gaps of things I'd like, and some things are more expensive than the supermarket, but when they sell halva I'm happy to just buy as much of that as needed to get me to the free delivery point. Thanks.