Grocery Wholesalers

I have been inspired by Babe's blog and a very sad looking bank balance to look into buying our groceries in bulk. However I can't really find any wholesalers apart from Gilmours and Mum thinks they aren't cheaper than the supermarket anyway.

Can anyone recommend some grocery wholesalers? Preferably West Auckland, or Central or the Shore

The supermarkets are pretty tough to beat on price, they often undercut the wholesalers anyways.

The places to save money if buying in bulk - is places like Bin Inn or similar.

Our local one sells hubbards cereals and a lot less than the packaged item on the supermarket shelves.

We have a toops card but we find it no cheaper for 90% of things unless you wanna buy in mega bulk. Prices on the shelves are cheaper but then you get to the checkout and gst gets added and its no different

Moore Wilson is just in Wellington and Toops only in the Lower Nth Island. I googled and it appears that everywhere has a heap of wholesalers except Auckland!

I was actually looking for a bulk buy as in 3 or 6mths work. Sad I know but I was starting to look forward to the idea, getting my brain working to calculate quantities and using a spreadsheet! Looks like it will just be monthly shopping still

Peachy I have seen that place but haven't been in. Doesn't look like they have everything so maybe I go there before the supermarket and get what I can, get the remainder from PnS

Thanks for the suggestions ladies

have you tried reduced to clear? google it

I do most of our shopping at Mad Butcher and Pak n Save. I find them the best value. My bulk buying tends to be for non-perishables that I see on special at PNS that I know we'll definitely use but they won't be eaten any faster just because I've bought lots. For example, if chocolate is on special, buying a whole heap means I'm just gonna eat a whole heap! But if sugar is on special and I do a lot of baking, it may pay for me to get an extra one in advance of needing it.

In saying all that, I don't think that makes a huge difference. The biggest changes I made when I needed to get our grocery bill down was to limit the amount of cheese, ice-cream and treats. e.g. we would go through a block of cheese in a week but I would only buy it fortnightly because we would still be okay if we didn't eat it every second week. If ice-cream's in the freezer, we'll eat it. If it's not and it requires a special trip, we'll usually skip it. Only you (and your DH/family) know what you can do without, or less of, but that makes a bigger difference IMO than bulk buying.

I started keeping a spreadsheet of our weekly/fortnightly shop to get an idea of what we buy each week and how long it takes us to go through stuff.

I discovered we used lots of tinned tomatoes, and would stock up on these when they were on special.

Pak n Save do have the cheapest prices and have good specials, when you see the local dairy owners shopping there you know your on to the best price.

If you have access to the Fruit and Vege markets try them, I've seen apples and kiwifruit for 98c a kilo this week, and carrots and brocolli the same price.

sarahm wrote: I went to reduced to clear yesterday n Hendersen and it was mainly chocolate and lollies! Got some cheap lemsip and nurafen and toothpaste but nothing else was really stuff we use (weird caned sausages in grazy, expired relish etc) or you could get cheaper at Pak n save (washing powder, wet wipes, shampoo etc)

my friend goes there to get napisan & was told last time they would be out of it soon, so she got 4x worth.

It is too far for me to go & save as I would spent too much in gas to get a few cents of stuff I don't usually use.