I must confess I am unable to pass up a bargain. This trait in me does not make me popular when at airports as I can’t resist the Duty Free section. Every time I go to visit my family in the States I stock up on anything that is cheaper over there.
Now that the Credit Crisis has truly hit me, I am very happy to have been gathering and hoarding. I have a bag of my ‘necessities’ tucked away in the back of my closet. The things I have been gathering are the things that I feel I cannot skimp on – mascara, deodorant, perfume, Tampax (much cheaper in the US), lipstick and t-shirts from the Gap outlet. My favourite place to visit when I am in the States is Costco, the warehouse store. If you ever get a chance to go to Costco, you will be amazed at the oversized bargains but make sure you have a big enough suitcase and watch the weight for the flight back.
The other things, I always need to have in my house are basics – pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, toilet paper, cat food, good white wine etc. when ever these go on special offer I buy as much as my budget allows since I know I will always need them.
My new favourite hoarding activity is at 6pm I will pop into Waitrose, follow the person that is doing the markdowns and pick up fabulous food bargains as they are labelling them. This is a great way to bring a bit of luxury into my (at the moment) slightly dull life.
What are the things that you cannot live without? Do you have any tricks to make your life more fun without adding expense? What do you hoard for a rainy day?
To be honest, I have stopped hoarding and have adopted the policy that if I don’t need it this week, I don’t buy it. Last week whilst doing the shopping online, I ordered olive oil and was just about to add cooking oil as well, but checked the cupboard and decided I wouldn’t need it before this week so left it off. I do make exception when walking round Tesco at 8pm and can pick up bread and rolls at 13p each! – then am happy to hoard, but no longer buy things that are on special just because I will need it sometime soon, the idea for me, is to spend less money each week.
The things I hoard are the items that I use regularly, so it is cost efficient to stock up when they are on special offer.
The extra sort of luxury items I am buying in Waitrose or even Tesco are things that I would not buy at full price. I have recently bought a stuffed de-boned duck for £4, marked down from £8.99 at Waitrose. I popped the duck in the freezer to serve when I had dinner party; it was if the Credit Crisis was not present at my house.
At Tesco, I have found that the customer at my local one are not buying into the ‘Meal for 2 with wine for £9’ so the components go into the discount bin at a very low price.
I have found that olive oil is much cheaper at ethnic stores, by almost 50%. I wrote about this in Think Ethnic.
Thanks for reading!
I’m a horrible shopper .. too lazy for coupons or bulk shopping. I hoard junk that creates clutter in my life..good tip above about olive oil..never thought about shopping ethnic… I’m just trying not to run completely out of things that I must have … dog and cat food …my cereal and milk, diet coke… I sometimes wait until they are completely gone to get around to buying them again booo!!! on me
Hi Lisa, thanks for taking the time to comment. I do a lot of my toiletries as bulk buys on Ebay. I agree with you that you want to keep the basics in for me it is cat food too. Try keeping a list of the stuff you use for a week and you will probably find out what you need to keep in your cupboard.