Buying in Bulk

Buying in bulk is something anyone can do- it just takes a few tricks and some space to do so. I'll share some tips I use when buying in bulk.

Check the price. Seems obvious, I know, but hear me out. In our current economic climate, even I am getting weary of buying in bulk because I worry the price will go down. If I find something at a price I haven't seen in a while, I will buy the product. My attitude on this is that even if I do end up inadvertently spending more now on, say, Kleenex, if I find a sale for even cheaper I'll get more then. Meantime I doubt I'll find as good a sale any time soon.

Buy things with long expiration dates. Kleenex does not expire. If I buy something that has a short expiration, I make sure to process it as quickly as possible to preserve it. I recently bough ten pounds of chicken for 49 cents a pound, an awesome deal in my area. As soon as I got home from the store, I divided it into freezer bags and put it in my chest freezer. Now in a few months when all my vegetables are ready for harvesting, I'll be ready to make and can soup.

Plan ahead. Make sure you know ahead of time where you'll put items that you buy in bulk. Before I left for the store I checked to make sure I had room in my freezer for my chicken. I have a designated place for Kleenex (I actually usually buy Puffs), toilet paper, shampoo, et cetra. Make sure you're organized! Also be sure you have all the equipment you'll need to process your bulk purchase. I bought a peck of apples this summer to process into canned apple sauce. I already knew I had the cans, the water bath pot, and so on.

Do the math. This goes back to my first point, but do be sure you are getting an awesome deal. I recently got toilet paper at half it's regular price, so I got a few packages. I know I probably won't find it cheaper any time soon. It's the probably part that kept me from getting more packages.

Tips for beginners. First of all, before you start bulking up, make sure you are well-aware of current prices. How good of a price can you get on toilet paper or chicken? Is that the absolute lowest price? Make sure you know. Secondly, don't bulk up all at once! You'll have no money left, and you'll most likely have to buy all that stuff again all at once because you'll run out of everything all at once. Use coupons whenever you can. My motto is, a dollar is a dollar. If you use a fifty-cents-off coupon on a $20 worth of hot dogs or whatever, you not only saved money on the hot dogs by buying that much all at once, presumably, but you still saved fifty cents on top of that.

Finally, just so we're clear, I'm not talking about walking into some wharehouse club and getting agiant pack of toilet paper just because it's in a giant pack. You're usually better off getting this stuff at your local grocery store in small packages. The trick is to get a large quantity of smaller packages. Say you buy 4 packs of Kleenex for a super good price. If you have four fifty cents-off coupons, you saved yourself two more dollars.

I'll be back in a few days with more money-saving tips! Enjoy your Monday!