Challenge Four: Reduce the Grocery Bill

Operation Goodbye Magpie is well underway now and so far it is going really well!  The next challenge is to reduce our annual shopping bill.  In the previous 12 months we spent £6,937.18 on groceries and in the next year we want to reduce that figure down by over £2,000 to £4,856 or less. 

The first move we have made is to commit to using our local bulk buy warehouse more.  So today we renewed our Costco membership and set off to make some savings.

The membership renewal cost £20.00 and for that we get access to thousands of products at discounted prices.  We made a big list before we left the house and then piled our trolley up with all of the everyday items that we use all the time, such as baked beans, loo roll, washing liquid, shampoo, razor blades, toothpaste, dishwasher tabs, cans of soup etc.  We really loaded up:

We spent a total of £270 (including membership), and when I got home I whipped out the calculator to see how much we were saving on all that shopping!

I double checked everything that we bought against the same item I would buy in the supermarket.  Everything was cheaper, ranging from .24p saving per pack of loo roll, .17p per tin of tomato soup, a .42p saving per roll-on deodorant, through to more substantial savings.  The basmati sack of rice was a whopping £2.56 cheaper per 100g than it's supermarket equivalent, the laundry liquid was a massive £4.72 cheaper per litre than the same brand in store and the dishwasher tabs an eye-watering £10 cheaper than the equivalent supermarket buy.  Every day items such as the baked beans were also .25p cheaper per tin, which soon adds up to a good saving, (a pound on every weekly pack of four).

We also bought some fresh vegetables for the guinea pigs and calculated that we saved £3 on their week's supply of spinach and cucumber, which over the course of a year would add up to a tidy total saving of £156.00.  So, we have agreed that my husband will swing in past Costco on his way back from work each week to pick up fresh goodies for the piggies.

The key to making the trip worthwhile is to take a list and stick to it.  Don't get distracted by all the other items on offer such as the golf clubs, fancy electricals, super skincare gift packs and the like, have fun browsing but don't splash the cash unless you actually need to.  Watch the fresh goods, as they come in such large packs you need to be sure you will get through them before they go off.  And only buy what you actually use regularly, keep a note of what you are always buying at the supermarket (loo roll and cans of soup for example) and when you do get your bulk buys home, don't use more of it than you usually would simply because it is near at hand.

The only downside for me is that they don't have more of the vegetarian staples that we eat regularly, such as quorn products, kidney beans and pulses and more tinned fruit (I am not too sure why).  It is also tricky to get organic produce, but there is some starting to appear (tinned tomatoes being one).  A huge upside is that I now won't have to hand carry heavy items back from the supermarket each week!  So my wallet is heavier and my weekly shopping bag lighter, what a bonus!