Flashback to my mother buying entire brown cardboard shipping boxes of cereal out of the back storeroom of the grocery store and storing it in her basement pantry 😀❤️
For those of you who have the luxury of buying in bulk, what do you buy in bulk when it’s cheap? Do you do it because it’s always going up in price, because it’s seasonally expensive, or because it’s a staple item that you always need. To what extreme do you go with your bulk purchase?
Examples from my own life,
- toothpaste and mouthwash, buy when cheap store extra tubes, usually no more than 5-10
- cleaning supplies, chemicals and towels. Enough to keep a backups closet stocked.
- pasta, probably have enough for a couple of months
- coffee, ten to fifteen bags
- shoes, buy multiples if I find ones I like
- consumable hobby items like bike intertubes
The basic idea is to identify the items I will almost certainly decide to buy then snag them up when they’re at their cheapest to achieve long term frugality.
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In my city, there are only two products where it’s really worthwhile to seek out major bulk purchase. Otherwise it’s kind of an opportunistic thing you just get a deal when you can find one.
The two things are unsalted roasted hullled peanuts and cane sugar.
Coffee goes bad faster than you think unless properly sealed and stored.
- Rice
- Dry beans
- Jarred Tomato Sauce
- Instant noodles
- Pasta (like you)
- Freezer vegetables
how do you store your dry beans? I always end up with my beans getting too dry and they stay hard even after lots of cooking, dry beans have become something I can’t buy in bulk and only fresh.
Your beans are still dry after soaking them for 24 hours before cooking? Or you just rely on the cooking itself to hydrate them?
yes, even with soaking before cooking they remain dry. Even after boiling for an hour, cooling, and then simmering for hours. Even after simmering for multiple days - they just remain hard and never fully soften or cook.
Weed. Up to 35% cheaper when buying on bulk.
Flour, sugar, yeast
Anything we regularly use if I can afford it. We save loads by just going to cheap shops, sales and thrifts. Wife found the Arm & Hammer toothpaste I like, typically kinda high-priced, for $.50 a box at a garage sale. At another garage sale she found a dozen bottles of hand soap for $.50ea. and got them cheaper than that buying them all. Still using those! One time I got a 8-month supply of shampoo for $3 from a garage sale.
I buy shoes at the thrift if they’re nice and a good fit, no matter how many I have ATM. OK, for awhile I quit, but I wore out several at once and I’m back to checking every time we’re in the store.
Powdered whole milk! Forgot to mention that. If you dilute it 15% less than the directions state and chill it overnight, it’s very satisfying and tastes similar to fresh milk. I mostly use it as a powder in baking recipes and stir it into tea.
I keep powdered buttermilk around for the occasional time I need to dredge chicken
Canned soup. Huge difference in price from summer to winter.
Rice
