Three things you should always buy at The Range, and the three items you should get elsewhere

THE CLUE is in the name when it comes to shopping at The Range – there’s too much stuff on offer for bargain hunters to browse.

But the trick is to load up your basket with only the best things to make a saving. We reveal what you should and shouldn’t be buying.

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The Range sells everything you could possibly want for your home and outdoor space, from fun kitchen gadgets to DIY craft materials, as well as decor, furniture and garden statues.

You can even pick up a pot of paint, repair tools, and stock up on snacks on your visit.

The weird and wonderful range is available online and in-store too – just use the retailer’s store locator to find your closest, or log on for a browse.

Just don’t rush to add EVERYTHING to your basket, as there are some things you’re just better off picking up elsewhere.

Here are the three bits you should always buy at The Range and the three products to avoid.

Here’s what you should buy

A garden bargain

The Range is known for its budget furniture options, but this time of year most consumers will be focusing on doing up the garden.

The store has plenty of bargains to suit every kind of outside space, and often you can find goods much cheaper than garden furniture heavyweights like Aldi, or B&M.

For example, The Range launched its own tiki bar for you to bring a slice of the tropics to your back garden on a budget.

The item cost £319.99 when it landed in stores and online, which is still a lot to splash out for some, but it meant it was £29.01 cheaper than a very similar garden tiki bar three piece set that Asda stocked.

Tonight’s dinner

It’s not something that springs to mind automatically when you think of visiting the largely homeware centred shop.

But you can actually buy your favourite foodie products at the store too.

That’s because in some The Range stores there’s a “secret” shop within the shop.

You can purchase Iceland products in more than 85 of the retailer’s branches.

So to save you a separate trek over to the frozen supermarket, wasting time and precious petrol money, you can pick up goodies like the Greggs range, and TGI Friday treats whilst browsing home bits.

Not every The Range will have the mini supermarket line though, so it’s best to check ahead before you decide that’s where you’ll complete your grocery shop.

Your bedding

Another aisle that seems to go on for miles in the mega-store is the one solely dedicated to all things bedding.

You’ll certainly get a good night’s sleep knowing you managed to knock a couple of pounds off the price of your new duvet set anyway.

The designs are similar to what you would expect to find at a posh department store like John Lewis – but on much more of a manageable budget.

Sets start from around £6 at The Range, while you can expert to fork out almost double, as prices start from at least £10 at the posh store.

And it’s not just the decorative bits, as you can get pillows, duvets and mattress protectors, and even the beds themselves at The Range, all on your lemonade budget.

Here’s what you shouldn’t buy

Back garden bubbles

Even though the store is known for its bargain back garden buys, there’s one product you might want to give a miss at The Range.

Hot tubs are flying off the shelves at a whole host of retailers, but The Range hasn’t quite caught up to the competition yet.

It’s cheapest offer online is for a £400 tub.

Bargain hunters over at B&M meanwhile can score almost exactly the same product for £150 less – as the budget rival has slashed the price of its own version to just £250.

But if you are looking for the lowest price on the market you might find a cheap hot tub costs you more in the long run anyway – especially when it comes to your energy bills.

That’s according to the energy saving experts at Loop who say the least energy efficient models – which are often the cheapest ones – could add a whopping £300 per month to electricity bills.

So if you’re trying to keep costs down, you might be better off giving the buy a miss from the store

Your greens

When we say The Range stocks everything, we mean everything – the store even has its own dedicated garden centre section, much like B&M.

But you might be better off heading to a dedicated garden store instead if you want to make a saving.

Garden and DIY specialist B&Q for example has its own sitewide 10% off sale on right now until the end of May.

That means you could pick up similar products at a fraction of the price.

Bits for man’s best friend

The Range even has something for man’s best friend, as there’s everything your pet could ever need at the store too.

But you might be better off doing your cat and dog’s shop along with your own grocery shop as you’ll probably find cheaper products on the supermarket shelves.

For example, cat lovers can expect to fork out £14 for a £3kg bag of Purina One adult cat food at The Range.

But Tesco shoppers, equipped with their trusty loyalty Clubcard, can bag the exact same product – even in the same salmon flavour – for £1 less.

If you’re trying to cut down your spending, we’ve also looked at the six things you should always buy at B&M – as well as the items to avoid.

And a Costco expert tells you the eight times you should shop elsewhere.

This article and any featured products have been independently chosen by The Sun journalists. All recommendations within the article are informed by expert editorial opinion. If you click a link and buy a product we may earn revenue: this helps to support The Sun, and in no way affects our recommendations.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk