Are there any bulk buying discounts to be had on food in the UK?

Sky_

LadOnTheHill said:

Asian supermarkets are a good source for some bulk products like rice, spices, etc. I often see big 20kg bags of chapatti flour for pretty cheap,  though I don't know whether you could use it for making leavened bread. There's probably a YouTube video that shows you how to do just that. 😁

During the first lockdown I could only get chapatti flour (I make all our bread, pizzas etc at home).  It used it in place of bread flour, plain flour and so on in my usual recipes.  It worked fine and tasted like a nice light wholemeal flour.  

gattona_2

If you enjoy vegetarian and wholefoods, it's well worth getting a food coop together and using Suma https://www.suma.coop/

Snapdragon

If you are considering the planet and willing to buy food that is close to, or gone past it's best before date, then somewhere like this place https://www.facebook.com/rogerswholesalebilston may help you a lot.

They have a few warehouses across the country. We found the Bilston one in the Midlands about 18 months ago and now use it regularly and save an absolute fortune. I'd certainly recommend them. MUCH cheaper than Approved Foods, which is a similar concept but online. We shop for friends and family when we visit too. 

They specialise in gone past before products, which prevents food that is still fine ending up in landfill which I appreciate. Whilst you have to buy in bulk you can split a pack with friends and family to save money. They do have a lot of what I'd class as junk food; crisps, sweets, fizzy drinks, which we totally ignore, but they also have real food dried goods like cereals, rice, pasta, tea bags and tinned goods which last years. We've also bought coffee beans and packet foods, soups, cook in sauces, ready meal pouches (Dolmio bolognese), microwave rice and quinoa pouches. Stock changes all the time, and we've found it really helps the budget.

One or two products we have taken a chance on, having not seen them in the shops before, and unfortunately not liked them, but it was just a matter of personal tastes, not that there was anything wrong with the product and there is usually a friend who'll gratefully take them off your hands.  We have never had a quality issue with anything we have bought so far and although mostly 'gone past' products, some items are actually well within date. Spaghetti had 2023 date and they had something recently with a 2030 date!

From their site:

We are a wholesaler to the public like no other! We are the UK's Biggest Gone Past Best Before Warehouse, and we sell products past there best before date that are perfectly safe to eat at prices you wont believe. A best before date is a guideline to quality meaning after that date a product may lose taste, texture or colour, but with modern packaging this rarely happens. 

Hope that helps

Frugalista

Snapdragon said:

If you are considering the planet and willing to buy food that is close to, or gone past it's best before date, then somewhere like this place https://www.facebook.com/rogerswholesalebilston may help you a lot.

Thank you so much for posting this.  We went there yesterday and got some real bargains.  I also told the lady on the till that It was posted on moneysavingexpert and she said her boss would be chuffed to bits!

Elisheba

Frugalista said:

Snapdragon said:

If you are considering the planet and willing to buy food that is close to, or gone past it's best before date, then somewhere like this place https://www.facebook.com/rogerswholesalebilston may help you a lot.

Thank you so much for posting this.  We went there yesterday and got some real bargains.  I also told the lady on the till that It was posted on moneysavingexpert and she said her boss would be chuffed to bits!

Oh yes, I meant to say thanks as well!  Its only about an hour from me so I'm going to do a trip there at some point to see if I can stock up on anything 

Snapdragon

Elisheba said:

Frugalista said:

Snapdragon said:

If you are considering the planet and willing to buy food that is close to, or gone past it's best before date, then somewhere like this place https://www.facebook.com/rogerswholesalebilston may help you a lot.

Thank you so much for posting this.  We went there yesterday and got some real bargains.  I also told the lady on the till that It was posted on moneysavingexpert and she said her boss would be chuffed to bits!

Oh yes, I meant to say thanks as well!  Its only about an hour from me so I'm going to do a trip there at some point to see if I can stock up on anything 

Glad it was a help.

Worth noting: they usually do a live run through about 8am on Saturday morning highlighting recent deliveries and a selection of what's in stock and they post the video afterwards. It helps to get a feel for what might be in stock and whether it is time to make a trip, but the warehouse is massive so the video doesn't cover everything by any means. As I mentioned they do sometimes push the fizzy drinks, sweets, crisps, which whilst a great saving, if you are on a tight budget you are more likely to be interested in the cooking and food aisles which offer some great bargains.

MovingForwards

I use Asian and Chinese supermarkets to bulk buy from and the world foods sections in regular supermarkets.