Sunday 12 August 2012

Spending to Save


Sometimes it's worth spending a bit of money to save in the long term. 

When refuelling the truck last week Lovely Hubby got a coupon from Mr Sainsb**ys that was for £8 off a £40 shop.  Now at first I thought 'we don't need anything', so I simply tucked it into my purse (I never throw coupons away until their date is up).  Then as we ran out of shower gel on Saturday morning I decided to go and see if there were any brands on special offer and to have a look at what other bargains of things that we actually needed were there.

It's a good job I did, although I had decided not to spend for August I reasoned that this was an opportunity to stock us up on things that would save me money for the next few months.


So now my little stash is bigger, although I did spend £47 pounds of my housekeeping money in the process, (I also got some fresh fruit and veg while I was there).

I've decided that once my 'No Spend' August is out of the way I am going to start 'shopping from home', that is stockpiling bargains whether it be food or household essentials when they are really cheap and then instead of shopping at the shops whenever we need something, shop the stockpile instead.

It will mean a gradual outlay each week for certain things, but then we should manage to save even more money.  And as our new veggies will all be ready for picking at a similar time I will also be able to fill the freezer up and have all our own veggies for Winter already tucked in the deep freeze.




We are very lucky in this little bungalow that the spare room has a HUGE bank of fitted shelves, not pretty to look at but extremely useful for storage.  This is going to gradually become my 'home shopping' area.  For now while I am just beginning this idea it is possible to hide the stash behind pretty baskets of things,  and no-one would ever know that this is Sue's Shop but soon I may be mistaken for a mini mart!!

Do you stockpile ....  and if so what?


Sue xx

14 comments:

  1. Hi Sue, yes I do stockpile, mainly because the prices here for some items are shocking! Mainly I buy things like toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, shower gels when there are special offers on because they don't really go "off". On my last trip to Scotland I was amazed by how much cheaper a lot of things are in the UK. Cyprus is extremely expensive for a lot of things, ever since we joined the Euro. A lot of people are now turning to online shopping so hopefully in the long run that will drive the prices down. Good luck with your mini-mart, I am sure you will save so much in the long run. Yvonne xx

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  2. Not so much nowadays. Over the years I've come to the conclusion that there are *always* offers on certain things (shower gel, soap powder, loo rolls). I choose not to tie up the money and the storage space on such things. My mother is probably spinning in her grave but it works for us :-)

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  3. I agree with Wanda. Worse still, is that I have boxes of stuff that I haven't gotten to unpack with stuff I stockpiled before we moved. There are always deals so now I buy when I need. Or if I don't get a deal at least I'm not stressing on matching up a coupon and sale, etc. Not stockpiling has been *very* cathartic for me. Some people do well with it but it just made me feel like I was filling my house with stuff.

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  4. Perhaps you have a point there Wanda and Alex M, I may have to rethink. The only thing is I only go to supermarkets on average once a month.

    Thinking!!

    Sue xx

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  5. If it is about going shopping less often, I am all for it! I have two old wardrobes in the garage which I use to store my stash in - my OH put shelves in them, and now I shop from the garage for dried, tinned, packet, jar, etc items, and save on diesel going to the shops, but more importantly for me, I save lots of time, and because I have children, it also stops them asking for things in the shops because they rarely get near a shop in term time! I can nip into Lidl for fresh fruit, veg, cheese, etc once a week or so, and I'm done! It is so liberating not to have to shove a trolley around Tesco/Sainsbury/Asda once a week.

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  6. I stock pile dried foods like pulses, pasta, rice, some tinned items I always use, like chopped tomatoes, baked beans, also salt, flour, porradge oats and sugar. These are things that have a longish shelf life. It saves me pennies in the long run.

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  7. I stock pile wine, when we go to France, we get it for less than half the cost of here, so we buy enough for a bottle a week.

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  8. Yes, the French wine, despite making my own, we do a mini-cruise about once a year to stock up, sparkling and reds mostly, we find they're always well received for birthdays, Christmas, Thank-you's, etc.

    Anything that will last a long time, tins and dried goods, usually Approved Food clearance lines.

    And freezer stuff like meat, last-minute supermarket mark-downs when they're available.

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  9. I stock pile freezer items and canned foods. Always handy to have things around for cooking.

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  10. Thinking about what some have written re not stock-piling.

    Can see the sense there, and agree it's sometimes too easy to go overboard on special offers, bogofs, etc.

    But my thinking would be that, as the value of my money is only going down, and the cost of the stock-piled stuff is usually going up, it might be better to have the stock-pile.
    As long as you use all the stuff.

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  11. I often stockpile when there are offers - but then go and forget about it when something needs replacing - so I'm not sure it works for me. On the other hand I often repeat buy without realising it - like oh we need mustard, so I buy some then the next week I think oh we need mustard and buy it again. Doh. I really must use a list!

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  12. I stockpile a few items, mainly tinned food, but only if it is very cheap. I buy toilet rolls and washing up powder in bulk from a cash and carry, and have about five years worth at the moment. I like to run down my food stockpile every so often, or I forget what I have.

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  13. We stockpile and find that the average shopping bill is down because of it. Tesco usually do an offer of 3 for 2 on their baking goods and spreads in November - even on their economy range. I suppose that is for people who are organised enough to bake their Christmas cake then but I just stock up on the things that keep like Marmite, peanut butter, flour and dried fruit.

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  14. I stockpile things like toothpaste, shampoo, canned and boxed non-perishable food items, as well as things I find in the clearance/discontinued section of my grocery stores. I get most of the candy we consume on clearance after major holidays when the manufacturers have seasonally decorated bags that become dated. I also purchase things out of season and keep it stored until the time to use it rolls back around, like fire logs and BBQ briquets. With the prices of everything going up and less and less really good sales, one must take every opportunity to save. Even with that, I'm seeing that my stash is slowly but surely diminishing. I'm all for stockpiling if you know you will use the item. As I see it, it will be years before the prices come down, if at all, so as long as you can afford to put things aside, what you are doing now is money in the bank. I use coupons when I can, but don't purchase the Sunday paper anymore just to get the coupons, as the price of the paper has almost doubled this year.

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