I’m saving about £600 a month on not eating out/going for drinks…. girlfriend is saving a similar amount
That's just having a life. My credit card bill has taken a dive in the lockdown months even with all the food shopping online beer shopping and bored purchases (who really needs a sub in the kitchen, me apparently).
I bought 25kg of a really specific flour (Campillou) back in October last year as I really like the bread the bakery makes with it, seemed mad to have so much flour at the time, it's come in very useful though.
Cider/Wine - bloody loads of it. I bought some which would've kept me in wine/cider for 6 months and then got bombarded with too good to refuse offers, I've now got a garage full of the stuff.
Got a bag of pasta, but that'll get eaten in due course, might be some rice left too.
Bar that, I've got a few cans left of the 24 slab I bought, but only as I've been drinking fresh draft beer from the local brewery instead.
Didn't panic buy but did bulk buy flour as it was the only way to get it. Baking sourdough nearly every day though with great flour mostly from small traditional millers.
I'm also saving a scary amount on eating out, but eating better than ever at home.
I was fortunate in that a week or two before the panic buying started I did my monthly Tesco run and ‘stocked’ up on a 16 packet of loo roll, 2 carex hand wash and a packet of the pasta I prefer. The loo roll and carex were on special offer at the time...
I subsequently panic bought a jar of uncle bens sweet & sour sauce (there wasn’t anything else) and a couple kilo of coffee beans (more due to max for postage... only got about 1/2 kg left).
Don’t think I’ve run out of anything essential.
I have had to make a couple of essential purchases due to lockdown; a 4g mains powered router, a jabra monoset, a docking station and wireless mouse/keyboard for my laptop, and a couple caps with mesh as lockdown hair means my normal cap is to hot in the sun.
Not so essential purchases; feedback sports bike workstand (old wheels were boostinatored so to change I needed one to sort the gears, honest!), a Patagonia jacket or two, a sleeping bag liner (hooded), a looper pedal, a guitar stand, several chunky wtb tyres, some northern Spanish guidebooks and language books, an iPad Pro & pencil, about a dozen cds and last but not least 21 bottles of wine... (hic)...
Worryingly I have a Sonder Camino Al sitting in my basket (all that’s stopping me pressing buy is waiting to hear availability of the ti one... 🤫 )
An Olympic bar and 100 kgs of weights bought straight after the gym at work closed, still being used and been a good buy. Still a couple of packs of long life gnocchis and a few tins of macaroni floating around in preppers cupboard. Never really had any problem buying stuff, the Waitrose near my office was usually stocked and empty. No flour or yeast but then there was never any shortage of bread or cakes so no need to bake anything
Panic bought some Gravel Huggers that I haven't put on yet.
An iMac. No regrets.
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Food wise we’ve grazed down the Brexit store cupboard and I’m going to have to restock. Although the carefully stockpiled European imports are going to be a bit trickier for the foreseeable. Hopefully there will be a window in the autumn when we can fit in a beer run to Belgium before the government commences part two of ruining the country. </span>
A road bike. It's ace.
As far as perishables go, I literally did one Panic Buy- was in the supermarket, being normal, then I saw a lady tear the last box of bags of rice apart like she was the Hulk, and basically run off with 4 bags. I got caught up in the moment and grabbed a bag. Still got it.
I have bought the following:
Pizza Oven
SUV it’s due in September
Raybans
and a few other things mainly from working extra hours but in part due to savings made.
Oh and also due to savings made and as there’s rarely a queue we’ve started shopping at M&S. 😳
came up trump’s
Came up Trump's what? No wonder he has that funny look on his face.
We didn’t panic stockpile anything although there was a bit of panic ordering on Ocado Zoom (refreshing the ‘buy’ button bang on 7am or whenever the daily slots opened up) when the Sainsbury’s delivery slots couldn’t be found for love nor money.
If there’d still been rollers or something like that in stock by the time I got round to thinking about it I’d probably have got some, but by the time they were available again riding outside was all good. I’ve definitely upped my spend on beer and coffee (buying it from independent breweries/Pact rather than the supermarket) but the savings made in not socialising and not travelling easily covers that. Not to mention the absence of nursery fees, but they’ll start up again next month I reckon.
Bought a breadmaker a couple of months ago, it has been used regularly. My brother works at the wholesalers, so got me a 16kg sack of flour. Think have used up most of that now.
I bought a skipping rope and a slackline, more options for exercise in the garden. Though need more practice with both.
I would like a rowing machine, as I'm missing doing that at the gym. But they are rather expensive, and not sure if I have any space for one.
40kg of '00' flour
25kg bread flour.
I already bought a panasonic bread machine and an ooni pizza oven several years ago.
I now make amazing pizza as the kids are guaranteed to eat it.
Ive also put on about 2kg this summer from stuffing my face with fresh pizza, fresh bread and beer.
lessons learned
1) When we're all at home Toilet Paper consumption doubles. No amount of pleading will make my family do a single thing to reduce use.
2) If you're facing a crisis that might involve not being able to leave your bed, let alone house for weeks means stockpiling 2 weeks worth of food and basic medicine is sensible, not greedy or stupid.
3) Really greedy and stupid people will, at the first sniff of something a bit non-standard on the horizon will buy everything in sight, which creates the panic, which makes point 2 harder. You can sit about complaining, or pointing fingers as the screaming 'Karens' of the world get into a punch up over loo rolls and beans, or get there first. I used to think my Grandparents were a bit nutty with their 10 year old tins of beans and weird old people food (Tinned Steak, WTF is that?) at the back of the cupboard "just in case" but they were in their late teens during rationing and the memories of that shaped them. I'm noting going to go 'full prepper' but there's a value I think in having a bit extra stashed about. Maybe when my kids are grown up and I'm an old Man they'll think I'm a bit nutty for it, but this has lifted the veil on how fragile our society is.
Nothing. Only thing I couldn't get for a few weeks was potato salad. I didn't cry.
I certainly didn't learn that the majority of the general public are panic buying, reactive ****ing morons, cos I knew that already.
I’m noting going to go ‘full prepper’ but there’s a value I think in having a bit extra stashed about.
Probably a fair point
No wonder he has that funny look on his face
🙂
I’m noting going to go ‘full prepper’ but there’s a value I think in having a bit extra stashed about.
I've got two bags of Huel for when the real disaster sets in 🙂
We often shop at Costco so often have 3-4 weeks supply of some items, less so of others as the supplies are run down.
When there was nothing on the shelves at Tesco, Costco still had a fair amount of stock (fresh foods too).
We've always kept a couple of weeks worth of food and stuff around. During the silly period we just ran it down, that's what it was there for.
