Taking bulk buying to an extreme! Strange behaviour.

A slight smile of amusement here; although our household is now down to fairly normal proportions with just 4 of us most of the time, I still buy certain things in bulk. For example, a full tray (12 tins) of tomatoes, or chick peas, a sack (25Kg) of spuds or jumbo oats, and 8kg sacks of the flours that we use the most.

There are reasons for this; I do have storage space, and I don't have easy access to inexpensive supermarkets. They are 5 miles or more away, down in the city, which is also a busy port with multiple heavy lorries hurtling to & from the docks at all hours. So I'd rather go down there just once a month, and stock up. A sack of spuds, bought from the farm shop en route to my mother's, will last us 6 weeks-2 months now, and I have a cool dark place to keep them. They work out considerably cheaper than buying multiple small bags, and we do use them up before they sprout. The oats, bought online & delivered, live in a small "dead" vermin-proof freezer out in the garage, and I buy a sack two or three times a year. That's no cheaper than supermarket's own brands, but they are better oats! Ditto the flour, which comes from a local mill and is a treat to work with.

We do have two small & expensive local supermarkets, and I do use them from time to time, but can think of many things I'd rather be doing with my time than trotting up & down to them. We also have an excellent market, which is where I buy most of my perishables on a weekly basis. I've found that most things do store well once you've worked out how best to store them - for example, tomatoes taste better out of the fridge, with air circulating, courgettes don't like the cold, parsnips & carrots do, potatoes need to be cool & dark, onions cool & light.

12 tins of tomatoes will only just get us through the month. We used 2 tins tonight; I made chilli con carne, and DD2 made herself chilli sin carne, with sweet potato. Both dishes were eaten with rice tonight, but the leftovers will reappear later in the week alongside baked potatoes and any other leftovers-in-sauce - I'd expect there to be some of Monday's chicken Jalfrezi left over, too. DD2, pescatarian, goes through chickpeas like there's no tomorrow, in falafels, hummus, chick-pea burgers and all sorts of other meat-free culinary delights. Much cheaper than "vegetarian" sausages, Quorn etc.

I'm aware that some people might consider my buying habits to be hoarding, judging by the looks I sometimes get at the checkout. But to me, it's a huge time-saver to have the ingredients to hand, and often a money-saver too; I do rotate my stocks, only buy what we need (for the month) & will use, and hardly anything ever goes out of date.

I got into this habit when feeding 7+, and it still works for us. However, I do know I'll have to re-think it when the girls finally spread their wings & fly! Provided none of their brothers have "returned" again...

I struggle with this so I'm kondoing things and am limiting my stockpiling to ground coffee (we go through a 250g packet a week so I can never have too much!) and one extra of anything else. When I open the "last" packet of something then I'm "allowed" to buy another. It's stopped me hoarding and wasting stuff.

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I usually buy DE instant when it's £4 for a 190g jar, so stock up then. It lasts me 3 months, £12 pa vs goodness knows what you must be spending!

(Feels like a v smug moneysaver ).

each to their own VfM, Nothing wrong with buying luxury if it falls within the personal budget

I have always overbought, coming from a background childhood of post war rationing, even string was saved and wrapping paper was ironed for re-use. When items becam freely available, then many of us stockpiled, it was a psychological thing. Most of us have done it, when it came to a bargain in something we use eg I am still using stockpiled toothpaste but I am in process of using what I have and not replenishing until every last one has gone. I still have enough stocks for a considerable time but spaces are slowly appearing. Upside is that I am spending very little money and so have available money for some luxuries, like extremely good coffee beans

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Wow! That is a big luxury.

I usually buy DE instant when it's £4 for a 190g jar, so stock up then. It lasts me 3 months, £12 pa vs goodness knows what you must be spending!

(Feels like a v smug moneysaver ).

Yep, it's mostly my OH, he drinks gallons lol! Ground coffee works out cheaper because u can get 4 cups out of the same volume of instant for 2 cups and I know where to get ground coffee for £1.29 a pack - hence the stocking up as even the budget supermarkets charge between £1.90 & £2.50 per pack!

So it only costs me about £5 a month compared with £12 if I bought it from a big-4 supermarket.

kboss2010 wrote: »

Yep, it's mostly my OH, he drinks gallons lol! Ground coffee works out cheaper because u can get 4 cups out of the same volume of instant for 2 cups and I know where to get ground coffee for £1.29 a pack - hence the stocking up as even the budget supermarkets charge between £1.90 & £2.50 per pack!

So it only costs me about £5 a month compared with £12 if I bought it from a big-4 supermarket.

Coffee is one thing we absolutely refuse to compromise on; we buy a 1kg bag of Guatemalan Elephant Beans roughly every six weeks; we grind them as we want to use them.

Mr LW and I both really enjoy this coffee, so we feel it's justifiable.

I can't abide instant coffee _pale_ - I can drink it if I'm out and have to in order to be polite, but I'd far sooner not; I drink my coffee black and unsweetened, so I probably notice the difference more than people who have sugar and/or milk/cream in theirs.