After reading a few Blogs yesterday I noticed that there were mentions of T*sco having a '3 for 2' offer on a lot of their baking ranges so I nipped over to a browse the website and then quickly made the decision to order enough flour and yeast to keep us in bread for a year.
12 bags of Strong White Flour
12 bags of Stoneground Wholemeal Flour
(I need both as I mix half white with half brown)
6 tubs of Yeast
The price for all the above, thanks to the '3 for 2' offer, came to just £18.48 and will make us around 72 loaves, which after adding in the cost of a spoonful of sugar, another of salt and a dash of oil, will work out at less than 30p a loaf. Not bad considering the price of a similar, although not as tasty loaf made with cheap ingredients and additives would set us back in a supermarket at today's prices £1.30. So a saving of £1 per every loaf made which equals £72 over the year.
I am going to start a stand alone page charting our money saving for next year so this is going to be the first item listed.
Because I ordered online (to save petrol and the chance that when I got there there would not be enough of what I actually wanted to buy) I also trawled around for other other savings and came upon this one. Ten kilos of aged Basmati Rice for just £8, (available for online orders only, although you can get similar for £9 in store.
Now this will keep us in rice for the whole of next year, allowing us just under a kilo of rice per month at only 80p per kilo. Comparing it against T*sco's own Basmati which is currently £1.57 a kilo this is a saving over the year of £7.70.
If you compare the cost against these microwavable packs (which I do own up to using on occasion), at a cost which works out at £6.36 a kilo, yes you read that right, as there is only 250g in each pack!! It would be a saving of £55.60 over the course of the year....WOW!!
This little plan ahead experiment has inspired me to have a look around at what else is on offer that we can stock up on to save money for next year. I am going to make a list of everyday essentials and necessities and see what we already have in stock, then I will make a list of what we would need to see us through the year and if I spy anything on a good offer I will buy enough for the year. Luckily as we have cleared so much of our clutter we are freeing up space in the spare room which could be turned into my store for the year.
As of now every penny must count, so if we can save on the day to day necessities as well as cutting back on unnecessary items we will be able to give our savings an even bigger boost in the year to come. And I thought this year was the 'frugal' one, it's not going to be a patch on next year!
What items would you or do you stockpile to last an entire year.
Sue xx
I've been to Tesco too : ) I've bought enough white bread,wholemeal bread, plain and SR flours to see us through 9 months. If it lasts longer without weevils, then great! Also yeast, golden syrup and dried fruit enough for the year. All on 3 for the price of 2 and Mr Tesco was kind enough to send me a voucher for £6 off a spend of £40 (which I managed as Iams for the cats was on BOGOF and I had a couple of coupons for it) so I came home happy : )
ReplyDeleteMr T*sco gave me a voucher too, but I threw it away so I wouldn't be tempted to go all the way back, then I put in the online order.....duh!! What a twit!!
DeleteSue xx
thanks...will go and look at Tescos now
ReplyDeleteThe baking aisle will be picked clean by us!!
DeleteSue xx
I have been stockpiling for about 4 years now, and I can't think of shopping any other way. I too, try to purchase a year's worth of grocery staples. Just the other day, I noticed that a pound of butter (4 sticks) was on sale for $1.99 each if you purchased 10 of mix and match participating items. I purchased 20. That's the lowest price I've seen in a long, long time. I do have the luxury of having two freezers, however. The meat I purchase on "manager's Special" markdown goes in my freezer as well, and I also always check the clearance bin for discontinued items from the store they try to move out quickly. If it is something I can definitely use, then I usually buy all they have. The other thing I do is to purchase things out of season. For example, most of the candy consumed in our house is purchased after the major "candy holidays" of Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's and Easter. The manufacturers always have special packaging, so anything left over goes on sale at a steep markdown. It goes into the freezer and it seems to last us until the next holiday. I do the same for things like BBQ charcoal and fire starter logs for the fireplace, etc. Charcoal at the end of summer, and logs at the end of winter. They are stored in the garage until needed. If I see a good price on anything we use regularly, then I grab what I can afford at the time, because I know with a certainty that the likelihood of getting it at that price in the foreseeable future is virtually nil. We all must do whatever it takes, don't we?
ReplyDeleteI've got quite a bit of butter in the freezer too, it's always good to get when it's on offer.
DeleteOut of season sweeties and chocolate are definitely the way to go, we loved eating our chocolate santas at Easter the other year!!
Sue xx
Jo
ReplyDeleteIf you have the space, freeze your flour for 72 hours. It kills off anything that may be lurking in it and then store as usual. I But my flour in bulk and have never had any trouble with it.
Also check Mr T for Big bags of Chappati Flour also known as ATTA as it can be used for bread and works out Quite cheap. Last one I got was Elephant Brand..
Hope this helps
Hi Kim
DeleteThanks! When I have enough freezer space I'll give that a try. At the moment, I overwrap each bag in plastic and then in an empty bread bag. Seems to work mostly and if one bag develops weevils, they don't spread so easily. Horrible things! If I get a bag with weevils, I make a treat for the hens with it - they are quite happy with the extra protein : )
Oooh Weevil Pastry....my hens would looove that...lol!!
DeleteIf any of you live near me, please don't go and clear the shelves, I'm one of those who mentioned this deal and I fully intend to continue taking advantage of it tomorrow morning! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe money off a litre of fuel when you buy £8 of dairy also has my name on it - step away from the cheese and value butter!
Tesco are sending out vouchers for money off if you spend £8 on dairy with the quarterly tesco vouchers : ) Double whammy!
DeleteWe promise we'll leave you some - thanks for letting us know. We should all spread the word whenever we can, we have to stick together.
DeleteSue xx
We stockpile firewood...don't want to run out of that in the winter!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Oh yes, that's Lovely Hubby's favourite stockpile, he's out adding to it whenever he can.
DeleteSue xx
I am still using flour I bought 2 years ago from AF, I did store it in the freezer and so far have had no trouble at all with it. Yeast keeps well some may well find its way into my basket....... I have in the past bought enough toilet rolls to last a year and stored them in the attic, I got caught out once. OH had used the last roll and did not tell me, I found out too late!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm on the hunt for a toilet roll bargain at the moment then I will stock up too. Thanks for the tip, I'll tell Lovely Hubby exactly where they are stored (he'll still forget though probably....men!!)
DeleteSue xx
we too buy bulk items my favourites are rice, pasta and chappatti flour (makes an ideal half and half loaf)
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you are aware but amazon do food and some of there deals are good
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=rice
Approved foods have some really good offers on egg noodles at the minute too
http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/?pid=51159
thats a lot of stir fry!
sue re the ready cooked rice dont forget some of the weight is water so it's even more expensive........we too use it occasionally :)
You know I had never even considered the weight of the water in the microwave rice. I'll never buy it again. I didn't realise how much it actually cost in comparison to buying dried rice until last year when I started reading shelf edge labels for the price per 100g, which is how I check the price of EVERYTHING now. Ridiculous price, but folk will pay for convenience.
DeleteI think I'll try cooking large pan fulls and freezing some in individual portions, as you long as you heat it high enough it should be safe to eat that way
Sue xx!
Just got back from getting shower gel with my points, now I need to add rice to my T*co order...what would I do without you :) :)
ReplyDeleteI think I'm nipping back to see if it's still on offer today, at that price I may as well stock up for a year.
DeleteWithout me you'd probably shop less....lol!!
Sue xx
We are still eating our way through a 20kg sack of Basmati rice we bought in Sept 2011! It was decanted into two plastic boxes and now only part of one is left; we obviously eat a bit more rice than you, but either way it's a great saving. As I avoid wheat, we eat gluten free pasta and I have tons of it bought at 2/3 of regular price from Approved Food.
ReplyDeleteI love Approved Foods, I have lots of their Cous Cous and pasta too.
DeleteSue xx
Great savings! I grind our wheat so I actually buy it in bulk as well as rice and a few other grains (like oats, popcorn, spelt, etc). Whenever I find a good sale on sugar and things of the sort I buy in bulk and store in food grade buckets...same thing with rice. I've had one bag of yeast go bad when I over bought, but that has been the extent of loss. I think we are stocked well on grains for the next year with the exception of possibly rice, but I am finishing up a bucket now.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever buy beans in bulk?
We're not big bean eaters really but I do have some in stock. I have just ordered some Aduki Beans from Approved Foods so we have a good stock of those.
ReplyDeleteNext on my list of things to find are tinned tomatoes at a good price, my own tomato crop was dismal this year and we are coming to the end of last years homemade sauces, so the hunt is on.
Sue xx
I once ended up with about a years supply of toothpaste. Not on purpose, it was just that my husband seemed to get it stuck in his head that we needed some, and every time he went shopping he would pick up a couple of tubes! Didn't take long before we had a years up ply tucked away!
ReplyDeleteHaha...brilliant, that's the way to do it!!
DeleteSue xx
I don't stockpile flour as I had pesky weevils once in my cupboards - makes me itch thinking about them. Where do you store all that flour?
ReplyDeleteI store in in plastic lidded boxes in the spareroom. But a brilliant tip if you are worried about weevils is mentioned in a comment above, simply put your flour in the freezer for a while this will kill off any dormant eggs in your flour and they won't hatch out.
ReplyDeleteAnother tip from above, if you do have weevils in your flour make pastry up with it for your chickens they love it, all that extra protein!!
Sue xx