Stockpiling stuff from Tesco to beat price rises

[FreeLatte]

Is anyone else doing this?

Now I do have a bit of a stockpile of tins, long life milk etc as a just in case kind of thing. (bad weather, civil war, me getting sick).

However I am starting to stock up on stuff that I know I will use on the assumption the price will be higher in 6 months or 3 months or probably next week.

So just things like toilet rolls, washing powder, dishwash tabs, anything on special that can be frozen. I'm also doing it with things like hair dye - buying 6 boxes rather than 1.

Since prices are just going one way I thought this couldn't hurt.

Now there is a cost of this of course - your house being more cluttered for one and two no point doing it if you end up paying credit card interest so cash only. Even then of course you are losing interest on your savings but I still reckon it's worth it.

I am just getting so mad seeing prices go up and up. So Lindt 90 chocolate. Used to be under £3. Now it's £3.5 but on special in Tesco for £2.75 so I have 9 bars in my cupboard which will last a while.

I just wondered if anyone else is doing similar?

I do wonder sometimes if I do have a case of having to have items in due to my childhood. We went through some very tough times when I was a kid, and at times there was no option but to go without some items. I remember clearly washing dishes with a bar of soap.

Now you also mention this, I think the fact I have to have spares in, is a result of being without in the past.

The impression I've always had is that it's quite common. If there's an unexpected job loss or benefits delay or whatever, you've got things in the house to tide you over even if you might not have anything in the bank. Whatever the week ahead holds, there are the tins and the spare bags of pasta and extra soap in the cupboard. It maybe is an emotional thing as as much as logical.

We have a big dry cellar which was very useful for storing stuff during Covid. Plenty of items still being brought up to the surface, whisky, Madeira plus more utilitarian things. Only just started to have to buy loo paper.

Yes, I ordered 8 dishwasher cleaners on offer on Amazon, that means I don't have to think about getting dishwasher cleaners for ages now, they are often very expensive as well if you wait until you need it. I do the same with lots of stuff like this that I know I will use.

If you looked at my garage you'd say 'stockpiling'. In truth, I've always had a small supply of stuff in there so that, for example, if I ran out of olive oil I knew there were a couple of spare bottles. I did expand the stockpile considerably in the run-up to Brexit, and had maintained those levels when covid-19 came along, so we were well placed.

But it was never really about trying to beat inflation per se, and I'd certainly never pay full price for something I use every week just because I figured it would go up in price. It was more about taking opportunistic advantage of temporary drops in price.

So, if a staple which stored well was on a special offer I'd buy lots: 96 cans of tuna when Lidl were offering a special deal on cases of 48 which made it virtually half price. In the run up to Eid-ul-Fitr or Diwali the supermarkets often have decent special offers on spices, dried chickpeas, 10kg sacks of rice and 5l bottles of cooking oil. When Lidl have Latin America week they tend to have packs of dried beans which are not regular product lines and usefully cheaper than Asda or Tesco, so I'll buy 15 kg or so. And if I see a dozen whole chickens in Aldi with a red 50% off label, I'll buy as many as I can fit in the freezers at the time.

Finally, with the Lidl Plus app they give you 10% off all non-alcohol purchases when you hit £250 spend for the month. That's when I'll buy a month or two's worth of full price things which never go on offer: tinned tomatoes or passata, frozen tuna steaks

I grew up rurally, and thus always have a milk and a loaf in the freezer.

My urban friends at uni were always forgetting their milk etc, but when you live 5m from the nearest shop, you don't just never forget milk, you have a spare in the freezer in case you're stuck in snow or floods for days!

I have always been a bulk buyer if stuff is on offer It’s not because of fear of war or lack of money. It’s just savings on essentials, as I was raised to look after pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

DH orders shampoo and cat litter off Amazon on the subscribe and save so it’s always 15% off. We do have the room to store stuff.

£1.70 now. So in 1997 you spent £1118. Same today 4300x1.70 is 7310.

City rat here, but that makes a lot of sense!

Not to beat price rises but I used to keep everything bursting full of supplies 'just in case'. Then my freezer broke and i lost 3 huge bin bags of food, chicken breast, joints etc. Totally changed attitude to keeping £££ of stuff when i could just keep my money, anything could happen and you lose it all. Now I mostly keep 1 extra of things we use a lot of & toiletries and replace when the 2nd one is opened.

@FreeLatteI agree police have dropped the standards for recruitment, but to have a dig at beards and tattoos is wrong. Sikhs have beards, as do some Muslims, but so do some of the nicest guys and girls(yes, some are bearded due to syndromes) around, that includes those with tattoos. As long as they are fit and intelligent, that is what counts!

you are absolutely correct and I salute anybody brave enough to do this job.

I was just making the point that the police used to be able to say nobody under this height or over this weight. No beards, no tatoos whereas now they have had to drop all that to recruit more people.

I guess I hanker back to the old time policeman who always seemed tall and slim and smart and not bearded of yesteryear. That might just be my age showing.

To all the brave men who do this job and keep us safe I meant no offence. Fit and intelligent is definately the most important qualities over superficial ones. The only thing I would say is I have seen some that do look a bit 'chubby' and I wonder how that works in an active, potentially dangerous job like that.

I'm carrying too much weight myself so perhaps I have no right to say that but it must be more difficult to deal with drunk awkward people or run after someone if you are overweight.

Sorry to our brave policeforce. We really do appreciate you.

The thought about the freezer breaking down does cross my mind especially just now as I have it stuffed full of venison. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen!

Mind you it's meant to be cheaper to run isn't it (a full freezer, rather than an empty one)

I do this, and also stock up on loo roll, mouthwash and toothpaste when on offer (the ones we use cycle half price offers and the full price is ridiculous!)

Just thought of another one - I stock pile Baileys at Xmas when it’s half price, probably get about 6 bottles, as I like a baileys at the weekend. I consider stock levels at Mother’s Day when it’s half price again.

I did this once when I was in a very bad place mentally, I stocked everything including long life milk, milk powder, tinned fruits and vegetables that I don’t even eat but “just in case”. When I got better I was shocked at what I’d hoarded and also how much needed to be thrown away, years go quick and of course we can say tinned stuff doesn’t technically go out of date but I hadn’t needed it or wanted to eat it in the years it was so why would I when it wasn’t.
It was an awful waste both of money and the food and I was incredibly embarrassed.

I still have to be careful mentally and not catastrophize everything I see, hear or read. We have enough for a week usually, I don’t have a big fridge freezer, again I had a separate one in the shed and when that broke the waste was horrendous. It’s a very thin line between being resourceful to being obsessed and eventually wasteful of the products, your time and money too.

I keep it fuller with cheap bits like bread for toast and I prepare chips when potatoes are cheap and stick them in there. I do keep a couple of spare meals worth of food in there just in case but I'd rather keep my money and buy as and when now.

I don't stockpile anything that needs freezing. It is way too risky for us, as we have a history of very unpredictable electricity outages.

Although I suppose I do buy slightly in bulk, I have enough meat for 2 to 3 weeks at any given time.

I do have a full freezer though, like pp, that is filled with fillers. Bread, frozen veg etc. And I always have multiple 2l bottles of water frozen. For two reasons. If the power does go out, it helps so much to keep the freezer temperature from dropping too much. And when its really hot, I take one out in the morning and when its half defrosted it is perfect ice cold water for drinking.

You could just switch to a cheaper supermarket especially for boring stuff like loo rolls and canned goods?

Sadly they're not stockpiled now, so I'm going to have to buy some more!