Buying in bulk

[kylesredapple]

I was wondering about any items people buy in bulk and how much you save by doing this?

I buy whole wheat, whole corn, toilet paper, candles, rice, oats and a few other things and save between 20 and 30 percent compared to being bought little by little.

[oldminkman]

Excellent topic ;D
I always try to buy in bulk; especially on the high consumables or items that you mentioned that have a long shelf life. The savings are great as long as you'll consume it before it goes bad . The biggest things I concentrate on lately are:
canned goods,dry goods (rice,pasta,boxed dinners) soap,TP,(dishwashing and hand) and any homestead type items like you mentioned-candles,oil for oil lamps,oil lamps,wicks,matches,propane,canning supplies,ammo.

Oldminkman-

[kylesredapple]

I have been tracking itemized spending (reccomended everyone does this so you can see where exactly your money goes and how much of it) for eighteen months. By buying in bulk I have saved $1535.00 last year buying things in bulk compared to the previous six months of the year befores consumables.

[kylesredapple]

I'd like to push the thread a little farther, how much do you save or spend on items?

[Admin]

I do like to hear about people making an effort to stretch their money ;D Good job man ;D Have a karma.

We only shop the wholesale clubs when we have a free trial membership or someone visits that has a membership there. I'm too fricken cheap to blow the 50.00 or whatever on the membership. We do buy in bulk however and I'm shopping in a whole different train of thought than the norm. Here's something to chew on...

Figure up how much time we waste each week at the grocery stores. A few cans of this, a few boxes of that, jar of this , bag of that and do this crap week after week burning up an hour + over and over. The missus and I no longer do this.

Last month I signed up for a new rewards card, 2% back on groceries with 0% interest for 12 months. That means I can feed off of their money for a year.

We went and bought 464.00 worth of canned goods and dry goods. Mushrooms, soups, Dinty Moore, chili beans, tuna etc by the case. A years worth of condiments and paper products and pasta, sugar, flour, etc in large amounts. We had 3 heaping carts and paid them with the 2% card which right away earned us 9.28 in cash back rewards and we had 8.00 in cupons which in combination with the earned rewards dropped our bill from 464 to 446.72 before we even left the store. ;D

When we got home I put that credit card in a folder and that's where it will sit all year. As the bill comes in every month I will pay it back in dribbs and drabs ENTIRELY with rewards earned from other cards.

This is free money earned everytime we buy gas, food, traps, T shirts, beer, phone , electric, car insurance, H/O insurance, chinese buffet, postage stamps etc etc etc.

Free money comes in and goes right back out paying off our years worth of staple foods and paper goods.

So yes... we buy in bulk and have a whole year to pay for it at 0% interest and pay it with free money.

Because of our BULK stock up, our weekly grocery store excursions are reduced from an our long game of bumper carts to
a quick in & out for weekly perishables ;D

So how'd I do?

[badger]

You did well Jc!

Another pro in buying bulk, is you aren't making multiple trips to the store and wasting gas just to buy one package of toilet paper. Make one or two trips every few weeks instead of daily trips.

[mike692]

Let me think....oatmeal, flour, sugar, rice, and a few other things are bought in bulk from a Mennonite store not far from here. I'm not sure what I save, but the oatmeal is ten dollars or so for a 25lb bag. You'd use that up quick buying Quaker Oats in those little cardboard tubs.

[patricimo54]

No doubt JC you are the master of bulk buy. Karma to you.
One thing I have found, just because the package is bigger, doesn't necessarily mean that it is cheaper per unit. It still pays to do comparative shopping. For an example I have found 1 # packs of beans cheaper per # than 10 # packs in the same store.

[Admin]

Thanks for the karma ;D

You are absolutely right about the prices not always being cheaper per unit in large packages. The grocery stores all have both prices (per unit and per item) listed on the tag and it is a good idea to pay attention to it. At Walmart, the Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque was cheaper (per ounce) in the small bottles than it was in the big restaurant size tub.

This is a good thread ;D

Remember folks, the more money you save on everyday expenses - the more money you will have to buy the things you really want. Little things certainly do add up.

[kylesredapple]

That's what I'm talking about guys! In addition to our savings from buying in bulk we have also cut our trips to the store down to twice a month for milk and cheese. This also cuts down on the end cap spending (the stuff you don't need, never thought of but looks so tempting while waiting in line to check out. Man you guys are good, keep the thoughts flowing, and for all of you viewing and not posting, get in here and let us know whats happening with you! ;D

[ninedeer]

;D We have a store Indianhead Foods that sale in bulk.That we buy cheese,butter,catshup,beans,etc. We also have Weavers store that sale dry good in bulk.Soups,noodles.beans,rice,flour,cornmeal you name it.We vaccum seal it,freeze it,can it.We have 3 freezers,0ne 23 cuft and 2-14cbic foot.And I kid you not they are always mostly full.I love to eat

[johnporter]

Having to take a fulltime job because of the recent break-up in family matters, I took a job working for a wholesale distributor of food. I passed up alot of better paying jobs to get this one but my reasoning is to save money. I can buy anything that is sold at a grocery store at cost of the company. I usually spend about 50 dollars a month shopping in the warehouse and in another month, I will have 18 months of food saved up.
john

[patricimo54]

That is outstanding!