Stock piling and bargains and freebies to help with the cost of living crisis

[Deleted User]

@London_1 you sound very savvy, Poundland have some great bargains sometimes especially with the seasonal clearances. I buy a lot from charity shops to keep for gifts.

Florenceem

I scored some Waitr... free range eggs when I popped into SA - we get their stock that is going out of date. There were 6 boxes but I only took 1 half dozen.

-taff

[Deleted User] said:

@London_1 you sound very savvy, Poundland have some great bargains sometimes especially with the seasonal clearances. I buy a lot from charity shops to keep for gifts.

She's right up here in the Royalty of Savvy on these boards..I'd say the queen but Mean Queen [Ilona] still reigns supreme I think...although it might be a joint crown...

[Deleted User]

@-taff I have just been watching Ilona's Youtube channel from the start and her blog is still up.

Slinky

I do a bit of stockpiling. When the Tesco Clubcard challenges were on last year I managed to snaffle an extra £60 of points, which are worth £120 when spending with one of their partners.  They are running the scheme again at the moment, but it's not as good. Only branded products in my offers this time.

One thing I have discovered recently is that Topcashback give instant cashback on giftcard purchases. A Tesco giftcard gives 2.5% back, Sainsbury's 2% and B&M 5.5% amongst many others. I just buy myself a giftcard before setting off to the supermarket, load it up onto my smartphone, and wave my phone at the card reader to pay. I try not to leave too much on the card in case of a business going bust (you'd end up being an unsecured creditor and unlikely to get your money back), but think that's pretty unlikely with the big name brands. If you don't have a TCB account already, find a friend who has who can give you a referral and you (and they) will get a bonus when you hit £10 payout. I've just referred my friend and she'll get an extra £30 when she qualifies for £10 cashback, and I'll get £25. Not sure if the giftcards are qualifying spends, but I've saved £800 with TCB across the years, and likely to save much more now I've spotted the giftcard thing. Sometimes TCB will give you a £2 or £5 bonus if you spend a set amount with a qualifying retailer. The giftcards count, so I got an extra £2 for buying a £10 Tesco giftcard (25p cashback) on Friday.

MattMattMattUK

There are items I almost always have plenty of stock of, clothes washing liquid, dishwasher tabs, bleach, cleaning products, toiletries etc. and because of that I never buy them at full price, only when they are on a genuine offer price. There are other things I will only buy when reduced and I always make sure that they are genuine reductions. I buy some yellow sticker items but as I eat very few UPFs that rules out most of them, though I have picked up several Charlie Bigham meals which I think are delicious and well made, although I would not pay full price for them. 

[Deleted User]

@MattMattMattUK I am with you on the UPFs, my yellow sticker shopping today was a pack of boneless chicken thighs for £2 and 1kg of carrots for 43p

sheilavw

MattMattMattUK, I think the Charlie Bingham's meals are nice too. Only ever bought 2 or 3 , always reduced. I picked up a cottage pie last week half price at £4.75, no way would I pay £9.50 as nice as they are

MelenHirren

Our local Tesco has a reduced section but they don't really cut prices that much, they give a lot away to charities and Olio later in the day. But I have had a couple of Charlie Bingham's meals reduced to half price. Nice... but still prefer homemade. The more meals I make at home, the less I enjoy processed foods. I think my taste buds have changed over the last few years.
And Cadbury's chocolate!! What have they done to that? Its like eating sweetened fat... it just doesn't taste of chocolate anymore. 

ButterCheese

By far the best money saver I've had so far, is Slimfast powder in the big tubs.  Home Bargains sell it for £7.99.  The next cheapest is Boots who charge I think £9 for a smaller tub.  On Amazon it's £12 for the same thing!  So every time I buy a 3 tubs, by going to HB which is a 15 min drive, I'm saving £12