Bulk buying toiletries

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I need to buy a load of toiletries for our homeless shelter. Does anyone have any ideas where might be the best (i.e. cheapest without being terrible quality) place for shopping?

We need a load of different stuff: shampoo, shower gel, shaving foam, toilet paper, san pro etc.

I'd prefer to get everything in one or two places rather than have to spend all day getting bargains in different stores, which I don't really have time for.

We've got a Costco card. Aldi and Lidl close by. A few Poundshops and similar. No real street markets (they've all gone over to artisan cheese and cakes).

I would go the poundland, aldi, lidl the same as you have suggested. Costco I find is not particularly cheap for most things and the type of toiletries and quantity you need is better from places you have suggested. Home bargains and b&m are both good for cheap toiletries.

I go to Savers to buy my toiletries, they're usually cheaper than most other shops.

I'll have a look out to see if there's a Savers, B&M, or Home Bargains around here. Thanks.

Most supermarkets will have a branded shower gel and all the other stuff on offer, so you could just buy whatever is on offer and best value.

Aldi and lidl own brand are all nice enough and cheap, so that's another option.

Costco is probably best for toilet paper, so I'd probably get that from there.

I think Aldi and Lidl are even cheaper than Poundland. I can’t remember which one they were from but I’ve bought own brand shower gel that looked like original source, and shampoo and conditioner that looked like Pantene (and was really good) for about 79p. Looking at the Aldi website now they have bodywashes which sound a little like Dove for 89p, nice looking handwash for 75p and 4 packs of soap for 59p. I haven’t tried the bars of soap, but we’ve had shower gel, shampoo and hand wash from there in the past, and it’s nice quality.

For sanitary stuff, you need to go to Asda. Their sanitary towels are 60p a pack (and don’t have the vile smell that other brands have) and tampons are 80p a box for applicator or non applicator. I think these things are brilliant and buy them through choice for my daughters and I.

Poundstretchers are cheaper than the pound shops and do branded stuff (if this is important) - Radox etc shower gels for 90p. Otherwise definitely Aldi/Lidl as far cheaper than anywhere else.

I'd suggest Savers, always seems loads cheaper than anywhere else.

It depends. You can buy basic bars of soap at Tesco for around 15p. You are likely to pay less for brands in places like Home Bargains. Aldi's own brand is usually better than supermarket basics and less expensive than supermarket standard stuff.

If you check out mysupermarket.co.uk you can get an idea of different costs across stores, including places like Aldi.

When you say you are buying a load of toiletries, is it eg four bottles of soap, three washcloths, two tubes of toothpaste or is it large quantities? It may be worthwhile ringing ahead to make sure that they have quantity in stock, as a lot of places don't carry huges amounts. If you let them know what the purpose is, you may be able to get a discount or some extras.

Good luck, and thank you for doing this.

Definitely Savers! Their Inecto coconut range is very good and not expensive at all.

Or maybe Amazon? I'm sure the toiletries are included in Amazon Pantry.

Aldi and Lidl are the cheapest by me

I buy toiletries for the refuge. Wilkos is amazing, particulalry for sanpro.

Thanks all, lots of good suggestions.

In terms of quantity, some things we don't get through a lot of, e.g. sanitary products (there's two places I help with - one is a day time drop in centre, mixed but 80% men, the other is a night shelter, men only). Stuff like shampoo we get through quickly and it's worth buying a dozen or so bottles. It's a constant battle between limited storage space and not wanting to go shopping every two minutes.

I find poundstretchers to be really cheap on some branded things. But aldi and Lidl own brand is good quality so if they are nearer to you then you have to calculate your time and effort into the total costs.