BOG OF

It's far easier to check value if you shop online, it saves me a fortune. They give the price per kilo or litre and I just bring up the whole list and see which is the best value. Doing it that way, it makes you feel quite triumphant if you manage to catch them out if they have got the pricing wrong for the sizes. I think if I were to stop shopping online, I would still make a shopping list and check the prices online before I went, it would save so much time.

I love bogofs, I just bought 3 large head and shoulders for £10 and they cost almost £5 each on their own. Perishables just get frozen or dried until I want them.

I just ignore all the offers, When I shop I have a list, buy the items on my list and ignore everything else.

Apricot It really is not always cheaper to buy the larger packs as I have found in my post below.
The supermarkets tend to play on that idea, as well as making it convenient for people to grab a prepack quickly instead of looking at the prices by weight.

You really do have to keep on the ball with regard to any products in the promotion bins in supermarkets.

I have noticed that with ASDA and probably all the other supermarkets.

Asda seem to sell bagged up packs of bananas for a pound which when you weigh them work out almost twice the price of the loose products.

As they often sell them by number of fruit, they do not have to quote price by weight, which means you have to weigh the pack of six, then translate that into weight per KG before you can get an idea how expensive it really is.

I find that with packs of tea bags some weeks the large packs are on offer and at other times it's the smaller ones. They usually quote the price per 100g but you do need to check regularly which is the best deal.

IMO there should be a law requiring all pre-packed food products to show price by weight in easy to compare units either 100 gm or 1kg.

Ginny, I can sometimes agree, but if you live in an area where it seems to be pure chlorine, it's not so good. X

I think you have to be careful to check 'bargains' in any of the supermarkets. I tend to think that offer means , this is what we are offering but it doesn't mean it is cheaper !

No offence J52 but I have found the cheapest water comes out of my kitchen tap !

Yes, they are J52 and sometimes they seem to be deliberately confusing.

They do a lot of Mix and Match 3 for 2 type offers - but you have to be absolutely sure you have picked up the right kind of tomatoes-on-the-vine and the right kind of green beans and the right kind of potatoes, otherwise you risk getting to the check out and finding the stuff you've picked doesn't actually qualify for the offer.

Quite often they have two or more 3 for the price of 2's placed right next to each other on the shelves and it's very easy to pick two things from one offer and one thing from a separate offer, also disqualifying you, so you have to check that out as well.

Then you have to work out whether you're actually going to be able to use the stuff up or freeze it or have time to cook it and freeze it and what else you need to make a meal out of it, deal with the offers they have on those items, then work out whether you wouldn't in fact have been better off just picking out what you went in for in the first place.........

Recently in Waitrose they had an offer on litres of water. It was cheaper to buy 6 small bottles in a pack. So they are just as bad as the others. X

Our local Waitrose do BOGOFs apricot Would a shopper on wheels thingy be of any use to you for getting heavy shopping home.

I always look,out for BOGOFS. Toiletries, kitchen/loo roll and household cleaning products which I will be buying anyway. I have a freezer in the garage and any food bargains, something I would have bought anyway, are bunged in there.

I also take the time to work out if I really am getting a bargain.

Waitrose doesn't seem to do these offers but it annoys me that it's always more economical to buy large sizes. I shop on foot and cannot fit gargantuan packs of loo rolls or packs of 4 beans into my trolley.
I never throw away food (remember the starving babies in Africa we were warned about!) I buy fruit and veg from the market and freeze all excess or bulk cook then freeze individual meals.
Supermarkets are not run for the convenience of solitary consumers.

Just because there is a BOGOF on something you buy doesn't mean you have to buy 2.

If apples are £1.50 a bag, 2 bags for £2, you are actually wasting money if you take up the BOGOF if you know you cannot consume the extra fruit and will end up binning them.

Obviously on non-perishables it is not a problem. I have a couple of extra tubes of toothpaste in the cupboard, bought on a BOGOF, but when it comes to food, I ignore them.

Sainsbury only seem to do that with household products like washing up liquid so that's Ok for me - otherwise I just buy what I want. Any excess of anything gets frozen.

Tesco do that sort of thing too. Quite often it's cheaper to buy two smaller items than the 'special offer' large one! I always look at the price tags where it says how much the price is per 100g or whatever.

Trouble is, some of them are very low down...[creaking knees emoticon]

J52, Asda do that a lot. I`ve found it with the low fat spread that I buy, also with Nescafe coffee, now, this week, with Weetabix. It pays to check the weight and do the maths. I do buy the 3 for £10 chicken breast fillets, and freeze them.

I agree about perishables, but Boots have buy 2 get the 3rd free on a lot if stuff which is very good for things like toothpaste which you've got to buy anyway.

The offers are not always what they seem to be. Yesterday in Asda, a 3L bottle of sensitive Comfort fabric conditioner was on offer at £5.00. The 1.5 L bottle was £2. !!

I agree with Ana. There seem to be fewer offers around and not many at all on perishables. I buy bogofs on things like loo rolls, kitchen rolls, soaps and dishwasher tabs. I sometimes buy Sainsbury's chicken packs when they are 3 for £10 and freeze some or all of it! And, I buy the gf sausages when they are 2 packets for £5.

Holland and Barrett usually have buy one get the second for a penny.

I don't think there are that many BOGOF offers around these days. I never bought perishable products when there were, but two bottles of washing-up liquid etc. for the price of one isn't a bad deal even if there are only two of you!

Why don't you freeze the 'free' one, Kiora?

Yes. The good thing about Lidl and Aldi is what you see is what you get and at a cheaper price than the bigger supermarkets. No BOGOFs or Three for £10 malarkey which just encourages to buy more than you went in for.