March 2023 Grocery Challenge

KajiKita

joedenise said:

@KajiKita - I use my bulk fund to buy trays of UHT milk; tomatoes, baked beans etc.  I also use it for buying a month's worth of sausages and burgers at a time.

Thank you 😊 

Where do you buy these things in trays from? Standard supermarkets or elsewhere?

KK

joedenise

Standard SMs.  Tomatoes from Lidl; baked beans from Sainsbugs.  Can't always get trays so just pick up 12 or 24 cans at a time!  

I buy 12 litres of UHT milk at a time which lasts anything from 4-6 weeks.

Sausages and burgers come from our local butchers as he makes lovely low fat ones which are low syn on Slimming World!

zafiro1984

KajiKita said:

Question for the board …..

I see people posting on these threads periodically about having a separate ‘bulk purchases’ budget. Could those that do use this system share some more insights about it?

I'm a great believer in bulk buying but I can only share with you what I do. It may or may not suit your lifestyle. 
I do not bulk buy at places like Costco, Bookers. I know they have very good prices on some things but once in the place the temptation to browse and buy is too great.
I don't have a bulk buy budget I just have a weekly shopping amount which covers groceries, toiletries and cleaning. Any money not used goes towards bulk buying. 

1)I use the 'offers' from the supermarkets and usually buy them online.
2)It does take a while to build up stocks.
3)A pantry and freezers help with storage.
4)Get an idea of how much/many of your basic items you use in a week eg:- how much bread, how much pasta, how much washing-up liquid, how much shower gel etc
I use the websites of the supermarkets and look for good offers, some can be up to half price. Depending on what it is, depends on how much I buy. If food, and I can freeze it, that's a bonus. It is quite amazing just what can be frozen. However, I only buy offers if I know they will be used and not tucked away and forgotten.

Non-food items are a good way to start, washing up liquid, dishwasher stuff, toiletries and cleaning things. The reason being, you use them at a set rate. For example if crisps or biscuits were on a good offer - say half price I would open an extra packet or put extra in a lunchbox where as you are not going to wash your dishes or clothes twice.
Think laterally on how items can be used

My recent 'bulk buys'  -
A Flora plant based butter £1, it's now £2, I bought enough for 6months and froze it.
Dishwasher tablets - half price, I bought enough to last 12months. - the same with laundry liquid.
Cartons of chopped tomatoes - half price, used for cooking or turned into soup which was cheaper than buying a tin of soup. 
Hope this helps

JingsMyBucket

Soontobeoap said:

@JingsMyBucket have you tried Aldis Harvest Moon oat bars. Very nice and much cheaper than brand names.

Thanks for that tip @Soontobeoap. I'll check next time I'm in there. I'll also start looking for low sugar oat bar recipes as well. The Nairn's bars are only about 6.5g of sugar per bar when lots of other snack bars are 12g - 18g of sugar. 

£10.80 on Amazon for KIND Bars. It would normally be £12 but I asked Mr. Jings to put it on subscribe and save so it dropped the price. He set it to every 6 weeks and I've added it to our Google calendars to remind us of the charge. @Suffolk_lass
thanks for that tip.

£18.70 on H & B click & collect for Swiss Marigold bouillon powder, 2 packs pistachios, steel cut oats (coarse oatmeal), and a case of 6 jars of almond butter which I also put on subscription and saved another 15%. The almond butter will renew every 5 months. There's a current H & B discount code for 10% / 15% that I applied along with a £3 points voucher. This dropped my total price by about £10.

£26.35 at the Twinings Tea site for a bulk order of several teas that aren't being sold locally to us anymore. Thankfully they were all on 33% off sale so got a good deal. 

£26.64 at Farmfoods this afternoon. We got their flyer last week and I immediately spotted 2 100-count boxes of Finish dishwashing tablets for £20. So, 200 tablets total. Mr. Jings figures we won't need tablets until December. I also picked up rinse aid, some discount Maldon salt and a couple other items. I also used one of their £2 of £25 coupons that were in the flyers as well. 

£130.47 spent so far. £319.53 / £450.00 remaining 

A lot of spends in the first couple of days but they'll literally last us 4 - 8 months going forward. We have a Morrison's order coming on Saturday evening which may run about £100. After that we'll likely do a small Tesco order in a couple weeks but go week by week throughout the month. Mr. Jings is onboard with running down the freezer and pantry this month. I'm going to ask him to put his money where his mouth is and help me do a freezer and a pantry inventory.

KajiKita

Thanks @joedenise and @zafiro1984 😊 Appreciate your input. 

And I totally get the browsing temptation risk …..! 😉

KK

joedenise

DH bought a Starbucks TGTG bag last night but that came from his personal spends not the GC.  What a waste of money he won't be buying from there again!!!  Whilst we were in the area we popped into Morrisons as I had a few things on my list which we needed to save me going out today while he's playing golf.  Another £11.41 spent, also ordered a Gousto box using a 70% off code on here and bought 4 x 4 meals for a total cost of £14.36, so about 90p a serving.  Will be cancelling future boxes as not paying full price for them!  Have now spent £28.86/£200 leaving me with £171.14.

Nelliegrace

I had a bulk sack of SR Flour from my son in law for Christmas. I could not have been more delighted in a present. I keep him supplied with home made marmalade. 
We bought 5kg sacks of sugar for jam just before the price went up last year. We got free food grade 10kg plastic containers from Asda in store bakery.

I stock up on essentials when they are on special offer. I have never paid full price for Ecover washing up liquid. I refill a small bottle because DH fills the washing up bowl with suds if he gets to squirt a large bottle. Everything gets scraped and put to soak immediately ready for washing up. My Granny would say, “Let the water do the work.” The safe food scrapings go in the dog dish, bacon rinds, chicken skin, gravy, etc. 

Nelliegrace

17% sugar sounds a lot for a lower sugar version of a cereal bar. Nairns Gluten Free Oat Bar Apple and Cinnamon. £1.72 per 100g (Waitrose Website.)
40% less sugar may just be that the bars have got smaller for the same price.

Nairn’s do Gluten Free Oatcakes with 0.8% sugar, 98.6p per 100g.(Waitrose Website.)

Making people Type 2 Diabetic is big business for the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Low fat adulterated food makes them billions. Ever been had?
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Michael Pollan, In Defence of Food.

Gettingmyshiztogether

Hello,

First update of the month is here.

L!dl today, £74.08 spent. My goal was £85 in there for this week, to ensure that we hit the £250 mark for the 10% off voucher for week 4 or 5 shop, where I'll top up on all of our monthly staples. 

For those who don't know, I ve split my £400 food budget into 4 weeks, £85 + £85 +£85 (= 10% off voucher) + £160 (-10% = £144) (how's that for an algebra equation!?) So will need to take roughly £10 from week 4/5 Budget to accommodate us in week 2 and 3 to hit the 10% off voucher. I think that's about right. 

I ve topped up our tins for this week and toilet rolls too. I also was able to shop a bag of food from my pantry today.

Does anyone know if the 10% off voucher can be carried forward into a new month? Eg if I only spend £250 one month, could I use the 10% off voucher the following month? 

I also have spent £10.75 in s@!n0s. Two bags of 5kg sugar (works out to be 75p a kg rather than 95p per kg in the kg bags) and a wrap as was caught on the hop and hadn't prepared any food.

Running total for this month; £84.83/ £400

joedenise

Not certain but I thought the 10% off in Lidl was for the next month as you have until the end of this month to spend the £250 which means it's a bit pointless spending it this month as you wouldn't get much value from it.