Thinking of "decentralising" my shopping - any tips?!

[ttttired]

I need to reduce the bill and the amount of headspace/time/effort it all takes. Instead of doing big expensive online orders, I was thinking of getting 3 months' worth of household/cleaning stuff in and then getting a meat delivery once a month. Then popping to the small Tesco or Aldi a couple of times a week for the day to day stuff like bread, milk, fruit, veg etc wouldn't be such a faff because the other stuff would be taken care of.

Does that make sense? Does anyone else do it this way? Or is it a false economy and I should just suck it up and do a big online shop every 7-10 days or so?

Is it cheaper to go to a cash and carry for the household stuff? What about butchers/farmers for monthly meat? Or do the supermarkets just win hands down?

Bump. I know it's a bit boring.....

I definitely think buying in bulk costs less. I do it for products I like and use a constant amount of, so paper towels, toothpaste, detergents of all kinds. Food-wise anything with a long shelf life.

But you do need a place and a system to store it all cleanly and safely. Especially if you start bulk buying for the freezer. Throwing away an expired joint of meat because you forgot it was there would be an expensive mistake.

So I advise creating an area for your bulk shopping to avoid making an annoying mess in your living space. I once bought about 100 pocket packs of paper hankies and it was like a scene from "Gremlins" with them breeding in the cupboard. Never again, now 20 is my limit!

I bulk buy but you do have to be organised with food products.

Things like baked beans in our house will always have a high turnaround and so will always be eaten well before the expiry date. Pasta will last for years, honey and sugar literally never go off and you could keep them for hundreds of years.

Other stuff will deteriorate though and so you need to keep track of what you have so that you don't end up throwing stuff away because you forgotten about it. If you bulk buy meat you might have to have an afternoon prepping it into portions before freezing it.

Cleaning products though are obviously different. I often bulk buy them when they're on special offer (I like the method stuff but its very expensive full price) and buy big multipacks of things like toilet roll, kitchen roll, washing powder etc.

I agree with Sgtmajormummy, you need to be organised and disciplined - I too was overrun - but by loo rolls. I use Costco for cleaning stuff, wine, beer, bottled water etc. but only if I know it's cheaper than the supermarket.

I also buy my meat there - it's possibly not always cheaper than the supermarket but it is very good quality and I like batch cooking.

I keep a spread sheet inventory of what's in the freezer because it's so easy to forget what I've put in there.

Thanks! What and where do you buy in bulk?

I use Makro for a giant washing powder box - the type housekeeping in hotels use, lasts me 3 months.
Also tin foil and cling film, caterer sized ones.
Toilet roll is another bulk buy - stored on a shelf in the garage and top up each toilet once a week.
Cleaning products I have started using only zoflora and stardrops, both of these watered down can be used for anything and everything.

Our local butchers offer a free delivery on orders over £25 so have a fortnightly order with them - check through on a Sunday what we need (sometimes don't use everything we have in) and call in an order Monday for delivery Tuesday.

I have been made aware of a local farm shop doing the same with a fruit, veg and eggs delivery so need to look into that. Then its just everyday breads, milks etc which we have a local aldi or mini Tesco for.

Q that is just the kind of thing I'm imagining. It annoys me that we run out of stuff and that it's then something else that needs to be remembered! Quite often I'm on foot with the DC and the buggy when I nip to aldi so don't have the ability to get a huge shop home so just having to do top ups of fresh stuff (or even getting them delivered) would be ace.

I find it useful because I don't seem to be constantly shopping, I used ot go and do a big shop every Sunday but would then find I'd missed something and would still end up popping into the shops on a Tuesday or Wednesday anyway.
At least with household stuff it's already all there, The washing powder and fabric softener can last around the 3 month mark depending what we are doing - Foil and Clingfilm probably lasts longer if I'm honest. Our cash and carry is open until 10pm and is on an industrial estate close to work so I will just pop over after work one night and stock up again when I notice i need to.
i don't know how economical it is doing it this way to be honest but I definitely feel a lot more time rich. And honestly think DP and I are eating a lot better too, butchers meat (or musclefoods if I miss the butchers, they only deliver in my area one day a fortnight) seems to go further and be pumped with a lot less water than the supermarket equivalent - 1 large chicken breast does the 2 of us for a meal, whereas we would need a full pack of the 3 asda ones.

That's what I'm thinking re having less to get. Plus less random trips to the shop would be good so that we don't impulse buy crap.

I do this but tbh it doesn't really work too well at the moment because

I haven't meal planned.

If you work out in advance what meals you intend to cook it makes the whole system work much better.

So for example I get some lovely carrots in my veg box, but I end up eating them in random way as snacks, rather than knowing they are meant to be in a stew or a soup. And then when I want to make a stew, my carrots are gone and I've only got Kale left, and end up buying more carrots (and the Kale goes off)

I do like popping in for 4 days worth of meat to Morrisons or butcher.

And my milk is delivered by milkman. I have cheddar cheese fortnightly with my veg box. One chicken twice a month.

There is always something to eat in the house but I feel it could be more efficient this system....ho hum.. Nevertheless I've found internet deliveries are always a failure..I stock up enormous quantities of the wrong food, and then the parsley is missing when I want it or the meat has gone off. It works for dried goods but for the other stuff only a few days' worth of groceries seems to defeat the principle of the Big Shop. And my fridge ends up with a lot of corpses. And I'm tempted to order wine which I never drink normally

I believe in your method, but I still have to refine it

I used to buy washing powder, fabric conditioner, loo rolls, kitchen rolls etc in bulk when Costco first opened near my work.
However, when I worked it out, it wasn't actually cheaper than stocking up when these are on offer at Tesco or Asda.
Nowadays I do a 20-min weekly shop at Aldi for fruit, veg, meat, milk etc then a monthly online shop for the non-perishables such as washing powder, booze, shampoo etc.
I meal plan religiously though and when online shopping only buy whatever products are on offer.

I usually meal plan, but have been a bit slack about it lately. This is a good reminder for me to do so again.

I do a general shop weekly, but have been looking at going back to monthly for non-perishables. I buy fruit and veg at the supermarket weekly, although I've sometimes topped up at the market if I'm in town on the day it's open. I buy some meat at the supermarket, but most of it at the butcher, as it's just around the corner from our house. It's a small shop, and I like to support local business. Our local "bakery" is Greggs, so I don't worry too much about supporting them. If, however, we had a small local bakery nearby, I'd definitely use it.

Every few months I do a big Costco shop. I buy cleaning bits, toiletries, jars, drinks and fill up a freezer with meat.
I buy fruit and vegetables from a farm shop each week and each fortnight get ham, cheese etc from aldi.

I have done this in the past in a bid to be more organised but it doesn't work so well in a small house with not much storage. It's great not to have to remember toilet rolls and washing powder for months but I couldn't store it all. Now I have a great shopping list app and add to it throughout the week. It has a pantry list so you can check what you need. I'm finding it cheaper now, I was easily seduced into buying non essentials in Costco.

I just buy everything I can from Aldi including household stuff but top up on naice foods from sainsbos (next to Aldi) or m&s (love £10 meal deal). I get butchers meat and fishmongers fish as an irregular treat. It is way better but if I ordered more of it I'd spend £££.

I like the idea of river ford or similar delivery but with 2 young dc and a pt but full on 4 day a week job I don't have time to cook. I'm just making do for now...

I guess it would depend what you stockpile. The times I start building up supplies for Christmas / Easter / a party, I find it gets raided.

It might have worked in the past but I'm not so sure now. A lot of the supermarkets do a "when it's gone, it's gone" i.e. get in a limited stock of bargain stuff. If that coincides with your three-monthly shop then that's fine. But if the whole idea is to cut down the frequency of your big shop then the chances are you will miss these one-off deals.
Unless your CostCo or whoever is always, reliably the cheapest then it could backfire. There again if headspace is the important thing, instead of saving money, then it won't matter too much to you.