Bulk buying - shopping

ToejaM

ToejaM

ToejaM

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Joined
12 Jul 2011
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Funkotron
Bonjourno folks. I have a bit of a financial question for you savvy folks.

Does anyone here bulk buy anything from costco or similar? Other than queen wasps and letterbox forceps.

I was wondering are there any gems that you can pickup in costco, something that you religiously buy that over the course of the month/year/life? would add up.

There must be some kind of relevant savings to be had or I imagine costco wouldnt do so well as a wholesaler right?
 
Some things are great value from Costco. My staple items from Costco

- Bottled water (costco own brand is dirty cheap)
- Nappies (£10 for 136 at the moment)
- Baby wipes
- Pizza
- Danish pastries

The meat isn't that great there, my local Oriental supermarket does 5kg of decent breast for £20.
 
I never found them that cheap for food. Occasionally found Macro good for bulk olive oil, ready made curry, sandwich fillings, Gillette razor refills, toilet rolls.
 
Yeah I had a wander round today and I wasnt that overly impressed.

I assume the nappies/wipes you buy are pampers/branded right, I couldnt see anything other than the big brands there. We use the Aldi ones, just found them the best and they're half the price.
 
I'm a member but struggle to justify buying there as I'm comparing the prices to Aldi which even in bulk is similar. We use it to get brands however I'm interested to see what other people get from there :)
 
We tend to just buy a load of stuff for convenience sake. Like sheds loads of washing capsules, dishwasher capsules, bleach. Then buy huge piles of food items on a whim. Have to be careful with Costco as stuff isn't always cheaper.

Saves on visits to the supermarket all the time but unsure we save any money. Just need lots of storage space. :)
 
See if you can can find a local food co-op (not the Co-Op!). We used to use one with Essential Trading. Quality is top notch. We used to bulk buy all the dry stuff, flour, rice, cereal, nuts etc.
 
Our costco staples:

Loo roll
Kitchen roll
Bottled waters
Beer, cider, wine
Meat (the local competition is all supermarkets)
Fruit


I'm using it more for the convenience of bulk buys rather than price comparing with the likes of Aldi. We have 'executive' membership and the cashback over a year pretty much covers the membership fee.
 
I have enough loo roll and washing liquid now to last me in to my fifties as a single bloke thanks to Costco :D
 
Loo Roll,
Kitchen Roll,
Washing Powder
Occasionally decent offers on cider, Stella Cidre for £1 a bottle for example (when you buy a box of 12).
Energy drinks and sports drinks
Coffee (the giant jars)
Pasta Sauce
Herbs

And the food courts are generally good. Decent pizza for £1.50 a slice.
 
Now Aldi are offering lots of various items for similar prices than a wholesaler, i don't see a wholesaler as being much benefit. Loo rolls/kitchen towel etc are about on par. Even the supermarkets regularly offer laundry detergent etc at very good prices, the problem is you have to bulk buy a good 10+ to last until the next time they're discounted.

A few things i've noticed our wholesalers being quite good for is alcohol (lots of offers on beer/wine/cider), large cakes (frozen/fresh - enough for 20/30 servings), and meat (very large cuts of steak for ~£100, cut them up into a good 15-20 pieces and you've got plenty of steaks for the next few months.

The problem comes down to storage and rotation. Dry foods aren't too bad of a problem, a shelf in a garage should probably suffice. But things like large cuts of meat and large cakes, need lots of fridge/freezer space.
 
LiE said:
The meat isn't that great there, my local Oriental supermarket does 5kg of decent breast for £20.
Click to expand...

I generally find their chicken really nice! Their premade burgers they sell are also lovely

When I go Costco I will generally buy:

  • deodrant
  • toothpaste
  • water
  • cans of pepsi (saves buying at shops for high price)
  • chicken (then frozen)
  • burgers (then frozen)
  • a few big boxes of cereal
 
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Aldi do toilet paper in 9,12,24 roll packs at uber cheap prices and it's better than the usual supermarkets cheap stuff.

Also big boxes of Surf, Daz, etc are always on offer at the usual supermarkets and you don't usually need to buy bulk unless you are fussy and only buy one brand.
 
Costco for kitchen towel and water, which is now 40 bottles for £3.30 which is extremely cheap. They always have offers as well which make some things good
 
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