Are bulk-buying and offers just a false economy?

[LovingTheseAutumnSnippets]

I am just taking a break from spring cleaning my kitchen. One of the reasons I am doing this is to take stock of what I have.

I've run down my cupboards of food and just started on the herb/oils/tea & coffee cupboard of which there are 2.

For some reason I have 4 bottle of Rapeseed oil, 4 bottles of Olive Oil, Olive oil with garlic and 5 bottles of coconut oil. 50% of them are half empty. Then there are quite a few boxes of tea bags I forgot I had.

I'm pretty sure that I bought these either because they were on offer or because I felt under pressure to have them incase WW3 happened.

So, it got me thinking. If I was running a shop, I'd probably go out of business because my stock control is bad. Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden would hand me my arse on a plate. It's money in the cupboard, not working effectively for me. It is not worth anything until I use it, or bin it as the date has gone.

How do you effectively stock control your kitchen so you don't run out, but then aren't wasting money? Any tips?

Also, is bulk buying just a false economy? Are we better off and waiting till we need it, even if it costs 20p more?

Hmm my aim is to bill buy what I do use when on offer. - tea, coffee, cat food, soup etc. rather than trying to beat price rises, I do it in case I can’t go shopping/get a delivery due to being ill, poor weather, unexpected things happening, etc. I try to have only what I need for 28 days ahead.

WTF are you doing with all those kitchen rolls? That amount would last us about 10 years.

I would say a kitchen roll lasts a month at least

Thank you @ThomasHardyPerennial I think I was harbouring some plan for a venison casserole with them and it didn't happen. I need to revisit it.

Ive got a cheap open shelf unit in my garage where I keep tins and bulk buys. I can see at a glance if I'm running low .

My herbs and spices are easy to see in my kitchen and I keep packets of rice, flour, pasta etc... in a kitchen cupboard.

I only tend to buy more of something that I know we'll use regularly, if it's on offer eg tinned tomatoes, coffee, tea etc...

It isn't a false economy, especially with inflation as it is, but you do have to do it properly.

I also think some people have a natural inclination towards it more than others. I just survey what I have in my kitchen and make sure nothing ever goes our of date, but I find it hard to explain how, if that makes sense? In the same way as eg my spatial awareness is crap and I struggle to get my head around how other people are so good at it.

Your problem is stock management, not the bulk buying. Why are you opening new oil when the old one isn’t finished - is it that you can’t find the old one? The old one isn’t immediately visible? DH being annoying? You need to identify the root cause of these issues and fix them.
You said you have 2 tea/oil cupboards - do you have all like items grouped together? Ie tea in one, oil in one. That will help you see what you have.
Most cupboard stuff is fine for ages past its best by date. I never go by dates on that sort of thing, just nose/eyes.

Sorry, meant to add to my first sentence - but the bulk buying might need to be paused until you get the stock management under control. Dana K White on YouTube has a theory that everyone has a clutter threshold that of the amount of stuff they can deal with in their house, you may have stocked past yours.

I bulk buy everything that I can. We have plenty of storage space and a large family so it makes sense for me. I use the Stock It app to keep track of things, it's really useful.

We have a small house and limited storage. That said I always buy a few more of things we get through a lot of. At a push I can store them in the boot of the car. We are still working our way through the hill of tins I bought in the first pandemic panic but I will be much more mindful about quantities in the future. I panicked a bit during lockdown and now we're eating a load of godforsaken combinations that we shouldn't have to if it weren't for my panic buying.
So yeah - I now buy the following if I find them cheap but nothing more:
Black beans
Microwave rice ( .35p per packet at the moment)
Coconut milk
Lentils
Granola
Loo roll
Kitchen roll
Spices

I don't have room for more than that,

I keep an ikea plastic box (yes I am classy) on the work surface and it contains the oils that I am currently using (ie they are open) and also salt, pepper and spices that I use very frequently. As it’s all in a box it doesn’t look like a huge load of clutter.

Things that reside in the cupboard are things that are not yet open. So I won’t end up having 2 identical bottles of olive oil both opened and both half used.

I’m lucky in that I have storage space, but if I buy something new I make sure I move the older pack to the front of the cupboard/fridge/freezer. Some items I keep the new one in my utility room and only bring out when the old one is finished.

This works great except when DH puts stuff away and just shoves it in wherever and messes up the system!

Can anyone suggest a way of identifying what is a good price without using your memory please?

I have a form of dyscalculia which means I can't memorise numbers.

It is so frustrating when I'm grocery shopping as I can't compare prices to 'expected' prices as I can't remember what the usual price is. So sometimes I think I have a bargain but I'm mistaken and I have to be very wary of being taken in by 'offer' and 'best buy' signage.

I usually just compare the different prices of the available items per 100g, litre or whatever (I am fine with calculations and maths it's just number recall that I can't do).

I do have notes of the prices of some of the basics that I buy regularly but I can't list everything.

I wondered if anyone knew of a website, app or similar that can help with 'average' or 'expected' prices so I can compare offers. Or maybe something that helps track which shops have reductions on particular lines on a particular day?

It depends really. If it's a consumable that doesn't expire for a long time and that you use and will continue to do so then it can be worthwhile. It's still important to check the price per unit though as often the bigger packs aren't necessary cheaper (although I always assume they would be!). I tend to buy toilet paper, dishwasher tablets, washing powder in bulk but rarely food. Pasta and rice being the exception as we get through a fair amount.

I have one in the cupboard and one in the utility room. Two during the pandemic. It's my freezer which is the mess.

@freckles20 I have a spreadsheet
of key items. Also I shop either online (so have email receipts) or at Lidl (so have receipts on the app) which is quite helpful for checking prices.

The kitchen rolls are in the paper, wrapped in plastic and then tightly wrapped in black plastic. They are kept in the loft and will last for years. We will never have to but then for years so it's not only saving but means that's one less thing to include in the shopping. Got a similar amount of bog rolls as well based on the same principles. White vinegar is my other big hoarding - got a load from Tesco when it was 27p I think and you can use it for so many purposes. It really is a cheap wonder product.

www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/cleaning/news/a97/9-surprising-uses-for-white-vinegar/

Adli Almat clothes liquid is another good hack - better than Ariel which I used before thinking whilst it might be pricey was worth the extra it isn't. Indeed Aldi for everything and top-ups elsewhere as necessary.

www.which.co.uk/news/article/ariel-laundry-detergent-beaten-in-which-test-by-supermarket-own-brand-a1R1H8C8cdrz

I have loads of oils and herbs because me if my DC fancies themselves as a bit if a chef, and when I am at work, regularly ropes my DH into going to the supermarket without looking in the cupboard first.

Obviously I’ve got to sort that.

Bulk buying is time saving as well as money.
Things like toilet rolls or cleaning things I try and buy only every 6 months. Means it all gets delivered at once, and away. Then weekly shops include none.

I know roughly what’s an offer for main things I buy. Mutti Tins of tomatoes were 2 for 1 recently so I stocked up as we use a few each week sometimes.

@ThomasHardyPerennial thanks for your chestnut and stew tip. Someone gave me three 180g vacuum packs of Merchant Gourmet whole roast chestnuts and I didn't know what to do with them.

I'm going to plan carefully and eat them in a venison or game bird stew (Sainsbury's do packs of both in the autumn and they are often yellow-stickered) and make some soup out of the ones that are left for another day. My friend made a creamy chestnut soup ages ago and it was so delicious I still remember it. She said it was easy. There's also a recipe for chestnuts with brussels sprouts and bacon on the packet.

This involves waiting at least a month until the weather gets cold enough for that sort of thing and they went out of date on 31 August. I will risk it.😀

I don't have a lot of space but bulk buy on a small scale when things are on offer and that generally tides me over until the next offer. Because of space I can't overstock or lose sight of things.

I generally like own-brand just as much as branded so there aren't many things to look out for - coffee; pasta - I like De Cecco but if it wasn't there I'd buy own-brand - Walkers crisps Green & Black chocolate; Maille mustard; Hellman's mayonnaise; McCain's Gastro Chips; Fairy Liquid; HP sauce (though I prefer Sainsbury's own-brand ketchup and baked beans to Heinz). I always get wine when it's 25 per cent off which works out at almost a free bottle of wine in every six.

Sainsbury's often do offers on their Taste The Difference meat and on frozen fish and seafood. I never buy fresh fish from the supermarket now - from the fishmonger yes, because his is better, but frozen is fine and cheaper for a normal meal. Their shell-on jumbo prawns are really good - better than the naked prawns. They haven't had those for a while and I'm getting low. Every time I go in I visit the freezer aisle. One day I hope they will be back. Ditto most frozen vegetables like peas, broad beans, broccoli, cauliflower, sliced peppers and sweetcorn. Frozen spinach is okay in curries.

I buy the biggest sizes of some things I can reasonably store so that's 24 packs of loo roll; 4kg bags of rice and 2L bottles of cooking oil. Any bigger looks like I'm prepping for a siege.

It doesn't save me much but makes me happier.

I forgot about frozen beef or lamb mince. I was a snob about it but though it looks like pink worms in the bag it is no different to the fresh mince. I wouldn't eat it otherwise. It's cheaper and there's no waste. You take a handful or two from the bag and put the rest back. You can cook from frozen.

It depends on what it is. I bulk buy rice, small bags of the brand I buy are much more expensive per kilo than the large bags.

I bulk buy spices, which is a lot cheaper, but they do go off very quickly, so no point buying them if you don’t using then regularly.

I only bulk buy stuff that is used all the time.
Rice
Loo roll
Cat food
Tea bags and coffee
Shampoo and conditioner
Pasta

I do sometimes buy stuff on offer