[viettaclark]

I've always bought in bulk but the prices have gone up so I've been looking around as I need to top up my raised beds.
It always used to be dearer to buy small bags but if my maths is correct, the deal at Homebase (buy 3 get 4th free) works out at the same price per litre as I pay for a cubic metre and it's less hassle than having to manically wheelbarrow loose stuff from front to back (150' down a narrow sideway, down steps etc.) in a short space of time to clear the drive. The topsoil is sterile, screened and already in convenient bags for storage. The manure is rotted farm-yard manure which has probably got more nutrients in it than the mushroom compost I usually buy.
Unfortunately I've not been lucky enough to get topsoil from Freecycle and there's no local source for well-rotted manure.
 (Did I read on here somebody gets given a couple of tons of manure, delivered, for £20?.....bargain!! I'm green with envy!!))

[chriscross1966]

Here in Swindon we can get compost and/or topsoil from a local yard for 28 UKP a ton.... a ton of compost is about 3000 litres, using my van and a 500Kg rated trailer (each with three dumpy bags not quite half full in them) I can get about 800Kg in a load before it gets too difficult to get the shovel up high enough to get it in the van and so that it doesn't come over the top of the trailer sides (16" sides on an 8x4 platform....that's an awful lot of compost for a bit less than 25 quid..... I only use the shopbought stuff for seeds as the recycling yard stuff is a bit coarse. Next year I plan on putting half a load in the bottom of my bean trenches and the other half in with my spuds, and I'll split another load between my onions and the GH/polytunnel....

Manure I get for free from a stables but I have to load it ....

chrisc