Never Buy Unless on Offer

[2006hildy]

What items do you never buy unless on offer?
Mine is coffee. When it is on offer I stock up and save considerable amounts of money. What is your item you buy?
I have noticed many threads what is cheaper Asda or Aldi? for my basket it is always Aldi. But I do notice, (certain items which may be the supermarkets lost leaders) chicken fillets, tinned tuna , baked beans, shampoo, and washing powder maybe cheaper on special offer elsewhere.
Tell us what to Never Buy Unless on Offer.

As always cutting back not cutting out.

Coffee here too! Never really thought about it or done it consciously BUT mentally going through my cupboards I only ever buy cheese, peas, washing up liquid, washing powder, handwash and knickers when they're on offer!!

Shampoo and conditioner
It's always on 2-4-1 sooner or later.

I dont buy anything that isnt in offer. But I use mysupermarket website that tracks prices so I can work out good price guidelines. Eg, Finish dishwasher tablets must be 8p each to be a "good" price ( no Aldi here!), laundry must work out at less than 10p a wash etc

Clothes, appliances, toys, gifts etc- all picked then I find a way to reduce the cost. Cashback sites, voucher codes, haggling etc. and always use cashback card ( well, mine earns tesco points)

Biscuits,
Fairy platinum dishwasher tablets as they are significantly better than any others IME
Toothpaste
Shower gel
Biscuits

If it's a brand name I want (like Fairy) then I only buy it when it's on offer. But, I rarely care about brand names and so things on offer generally don't make a difference to me.

I tend to keep a per-unit price book in my head and I know when cheese is a good deal or not because, for example, I have a benchmark of not paying more than £6 a kilo.

Sometimes I'll see a brand name on offer of something I really like but ordinarily don't get and then I'll get it. Like maybe Oreos on offer or something.

bluecarrot - how do you do that?

Do you work out your basket and then request price alerts for the items choosen? You then receive an email when one of those products the price has dropped is that right? Is there an easier way of doing it?

Coffee, shampoo and conditioner, handwash, tinned tomatoes, cleaning products, baked beans, pesto, particular brands of pasta, olive oil, facewipes and nappies. Probably more, but I never buy any of these things unless they're on offer.

I use a Tesco credit card too, for as much as possible, to collect the points and then pay it off each month. I also go through nectar.com to collect nectar points online.

I've never used the cashback websites. Are they really good?

When you buy cheese on offer do you freeze it or is the use by date long enough to buy several packs.

206, I generally do the price alert emails for more expensive things that I dont buy regularly and things I have a voucher for (washing powder, for example. It went on half price offer and I had three £5 off vouchers, so I bought 3 boxes, which is a years worth for us, for £2 a box. Ditto Andrex loo roll. I have about 3 years worth and I didnt pay more than 2p a roll. Most were free. If I lived in the US I would be one of those crazy couponing ladies.

The price tracking I mean is the little graphs they have for each item. I can see how often something is on offer so I can figure out how much to stock up on each time (unless its a crazy deal like I mentioned above)

For example, I know my favourite soap (a lot make my hands sore and dry) is on offer approx every 3-4 weeks in my local supermarket, and I know one bottle will last me 6 weeks. The graph tells me the average sale price is £1 where non-sale is £1.98. If Im low on soap, I add it to the list so I can remember to check for offers next time im making the shopping list.

Being aware of the sale price is helpful if you use poundland type shops too.

And I do freeze cheese, grated :)

bit bewildered - def sign up for topcashback if you shop online, research insurance online etc. Theres no outlay on Topcashback, (quidco costs £5 a year, taken from your earnings) so really you have nothing to lose.

Lets say you are going to shop at x fashion store online. INstead of going straight to it, you log onto your TCB account and visit X through a dedicated link on the TCB site. In a few weeks (may be months, depending on retailer) you will get a percentage of your purchase back into your TCB account. You can then have this into your paypal account or as an amazon voucher (which earns you a 5% bonus iirc)

Ive earned a lot over the years, and its all on stuff I would have bought anyway.

Quidcos redeeming feature is its check-in app. If you have a smartphone you can "check-in" to physical retailers for a small reward. Lets say I go to carphonewarehouse, I go into the app, click a button to say im there (gps checks that i really am) and then I get a 10p credit (cant remember exact reward atm). Usually I can recoup my train fare on a trip to nearest city by checking into all the stores. You dont have to buy anything. sometimes you can just loiter outside and "window shop" ;)

Ribena
Washing powder (buy whichever biological one is on offer when I run out)
Butter
Multipacks of crisps
Instant coffee
nearly everything really

Thanks bluecarrot I'll have a look at the cashback sites. The nectar thing is similar, you go to the retailers website via a link on nectar.com. If you buy something you get the nectar points. I just got 4000 nectar points from buying my house and car insurance through confused.com (they were the best quotes anyway) too. Also if you do a search through their Yahoo search facility you get points. I love the idea of getting rewards just for standing in a shop!

I've never used the price comparison sites either so I'll give them a go too.

I shop at Aldi so I no longer have to look for offers. When I shopped at the other supermarkets, toilet paper is one thing I would only buy (and stock up on!) when it was on offer.

There are excellent articles and discussions on the cashback sites on Money Saving Expert.

Rattitude I shop at Aldi a lot, too. Mine is directly across the street from Asda, and I'll buy some things on offer at Asda, but the backbone of my grocery shopping is Aldi.

I once took a big shopping list into both stores: everything I normally buy. I wrote down the unit prices of everything and Aldi was cheaper on every single item.

Butter/Marg always get a kilo wichever one is on offer
Yoghurts
Coffee
Tea
Nappies
Wipes
All snacks crisps/biscuits
Washing Powder
Fabric Conditioner
Toothpaste
Cleaning Products
Toilet Roll

Everything really even fruit and veg and meat. I choose which are on offer I online shop only so they are easy to find for me. Things like cleaning products, coffee, washing powder amd non perishible I bulk buy so that I rarely run out. I buy on a rota so usually have a little extra to get what item is on offer this fortnight if I need to. If its not on offer for a few weeks I habe enough to tide me over.

Pretty much everything but especially
Wine
Coffee
Teabags
Cheese
Spread
and sell buy reduced items for dinner/freezer

Nappies
Washing powder
Dishwasher tablets
Shampoo / conditioner