We are due some money soon, what should I stockpile?

[PinkyU]

We are due to receive a back payment of a few hundred pounds, as we’re really struggling with food bills I want to stockpile a number of essentials.

I’m unsure where the best place to look is. We’ll get cleaning and hygiene supplies from Costco in bulk but I’m not sure they’ll be the cheapest for food.

I’m thinking:

Frozen meat and fish
Frozen veg and fruits
Passata
dried herbs and spices
rice
pasta
potatoes and onions (storage bags)
eggs (how best to store)
noodles
flour
peanut butter
oil
cereals/porridge

I’m also thinking of buying clothing bundles on eBay or vinted in the next size up for my dc as it’s unlikely we’ll manage new clothes over the coming year.

Anything I’m missing?

I'd stockpile any long lasting things that you love that are on offer at the moment, so a bargain e.g. oat milk cartons, coffee, big tubs of peanut butter, cans of tuna, pesto, oil, plus household stuff like kitchen towel and bin bags, washing powder, also things like blocks of cheddar and butter will last a while.

There’s definitely a concern that the money won’t get used as effectively as it could when it’s not ear marked for specific things. We’d never waste it but given how tight margins are I want to make sure we use it to the optimum advantage.

The money saved on weekly shops in can be saved for rainy days and more frivolous things like swimming etc as it’s “extra” we’d not expect to have.

Regarding eggs: if you separate them you can freeze them. Dried eggs are also surprisingly good.

I would add cheese and long-life milk to your list, OP.

I’d be wary of investing too much in frozen foods, our freezer broke recently and if that happened or even a long power cut you could lose it all.

Why do you need to stockpile? Can’t you just put into an easy access saving account and top up your grocery budget each week? Costco only sells brands so for cleaning and washing stuff like shower gel Aldi or Lidl is a lot cheaper. It’s worth buying big bags of pasta and rice in supermarkets, look at the price per kg to get best value for money.

In our house the more food we have in the more we eat 😀stockpiling wouldn’t work for us.

It sounds as though this money is burning a hole in your pocket. I think you'll end up with a lot of 'bargains' that will go off or that nobody will want to eat.

Why don't you save it and allocate an extra bit of money per week instead?

I’m with @Lasereyes12 why would you need to stockpile on this scale? Sure buy an extra bottle of olive oil or tinned tomatoes when on offer, but if you buy what’s in season you will eat better and it will be cheaper.

I'd go for canned and shel stable foods rather than frozen things because they'll be fine even if the freezer breaks down/power cuts. Obviously thats going to be things like veg and pulses, tuna, sardines etc. Although you'll need to make sure that you have a suitable storage method for things like roce/pasta in case of rodents or insects. Cleaning, laundry products, toiletries.

I'm not sure about the kids clothes, but then whenever I bought ahead for ds they'd fit him in the wrong season!!

Costco may not always work out to be the cheapest option but it is possibly if you throw quality into the equation . I always buy Costco large packs of haddock and salmon and split and freeze in portions and the quality is excellent .

After the Great Covid Toilet Roll Saga (ha!) I went to a nearby cash and carry and stocked up on a few things. No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I did realise how easily panic buying can tip us into temporary shortages!

So we now have a couple of large boxes in a cupboard with some supplies in case of any temporary emergencies

Bought...
Loo rolls (2 x 46)
Tissues
Matches
Batteries (for various devices)
Candles
2 x giant bags of pasta
Various powdered sauces which can be made up to go on pasta
Tinned beans and other tinned things like cherry tomatoes, veg etc
Flatpack of shampoo, soaps, shower gel and washing up liquid and deodorant and toothpaste

Friends call it our Armageddon stash. 😂😂

I did a Brexit stockpile and have finally nearly finished using it although if things only had a few weeks left in date I did a food bank run.
It takes a lot of organisation and you have to ignore dates too.
Personally if it’s for monetary reasons I would stick to things like toiletries and cleaning products as they don’t expire, are relatively expensive and will always get used.
For food I would get a few multipacks of tins eg tomatoes, tuna and some dry pasta etc.
Buying good quality clothing and shoes in the next size up for children is a good idea but bear seasons in mind.
Try and do some Christmas and birthday shopping now?

Costco is often cheaper for branded items but if you’re not bothered about brands then you’re far better off using Aldi or Lidl for things like toiletries and cleaning supplies.

We buy chicken fillets to split up, toilet rolls, kitchen towels, tissues and chopped tomato cans at Costco on every visit to last for a period of time. Yeh buy big bags of lentils and herbs, etc at the shops in the world foods aisles work out better value.

re getting onions, fresher produce, I’m finding both Costco and all the supermarkets are hit and miss as a lot of the stuff seems to be rotting already. I think it’s because the fresh food stock is not moving fast enough.

I always have good stocks of tinned and dried foods as they last, together with other pantry ingredients. Make sure you only buy things you know you will use though. I have various types of dried beans, lentils, dried fruit, sugar, flour, cocoa, tinned baked beans, spam, tuna, tinned vegetables of various kinds including lots of tinned tomatoes and passata, herbs and spices, rice, dried milk, oil, soup in tins and packets, some tinned ready meals for my husband ( he particularly likes steak and kidney pudding) instant coffee, tea, oats, pasta of several kinds, cous cous, polenta, semolina, golden syrup, peanut butter, marmite, bovril...... I think maybe I have too much..... but I know that I could eat from my cupboards for quite some time

what is the stock in your cupboards like? I run on one in use, one spare (for cereal, pasta, toiletries), sometimes 4 in use, 4 spare (baked beans, soup) - and then once the spare is in use I can get the new spare when on offer. If your cupboards are fairly empty I’d use the cash to top them up and then work on them not running down.

If you stock up on tinned foods make sure its something you actually like. I'm using tins from our pandemic stockpile now to lower the weekly shopping bill and while most of the tins are fine some of the tinned meat is horrible, insanely salty, and I wish I had just bought extra corned beef instead of getting these other kinds of tinned meat (though OH likes them just fine)

I second what @Natsku says - only buy stuff you know you will want to eat. In my long list of things I forgot to add nuts! We have lots of those as well, whole, chopped and ground. I add chopped to flapjacks or a crumble topping. Ground almonds to thicken a curry or for low carb baking, whole nuts to snack on. And I have lots of jars of preserved fruit that I did with excess fruit in autumn. I would stick up on things like paracetamol as well.

You have to make the most of special offers, which means you might need to spend this money over the course of weeks or months to get the best return. I never pay full price for toiletries, hair products, loo rolls, laundry detergent, cleaning sprays. Instead I buy more than I need when they are on offer, so I can wait till the next time they are on offer to buy again. The same for canned things, and good offers on meat and fish which can go in the freezer.

With energy bills as they are, weigh up the cost saving between dried and canned versions of beans and lentils - the energy costs to cook dried ones are likely to wipe out or be more than the difference you’d save over canned ones.

Buying things like reusable kitchen roll is good ( I have 18, ok cat and I) an outlay about £20 for six sheets, cotton/ bamboo towelling, wash well and reduce the need for far less paper makes sense.
Probably get slated for this I’ve used Ecover and now bio d washing up liquid as shampoo for years ( great stuff, esp bio d) very gentle, I only ever use enough for one wash, and only use conditioner that comes with a colour.
canned things like fish are handy as is frozen veg.
i buy all my cleaning stuff, health food shop or online, I like my eco stuff.
soapnuts very cheap ( best made into a liquid for lightly soiled clothes , about 4p a wash.
Good luck xx

Check out Indian/Middle Eastern grocery shops for bags of rice (much cheaper than the Costco tilda mentioned above), pulses, oils, spices, tinned tomatoes and so on. Chinese supermarkets for cheaper soy sauce, hoisin, noodles and so on.

Tinned potatoes

Tinned mixed beans / taco beans

Tinned tuna

Lentils - dried and or tinned

Tomato puree

Vinegars

You can also use the vouchers they send you when you sign up by email. I think it's £2 off 25 , £5 off £60 and £9 off £100. You can get some AMAZING bargains at farm foods. I love it as you never know what you are going to find. Last week I got 2kg of southern fried chicken goujons for £6.99 and they are absurdly delicious. Really Herby and moist, much nicer than I was expecting. And 99p tubs of been and Jerrys and magnum ice cream!

Online or high street butchers often do good bulk buy prices for meat and that's far and away the priciest so I'd fill my freezer with that! You're not going to make much saving on bulk buying ingredients which are cheap to start with.

You shouldn't.

You should save the money, spend normally and have an emergency fund. You could have loads of pasta and no emergency fund if you don't....

Being a little blunt, if you are worried you will fritter it, that's a separate problem to address.