Buying in Bulk
Buying items in bulk is said to be the best way to save money. We pay for yearly memberships in order to shop at stores that sell family size products. The more you buy, the more you save. Right?
Issues with buying in bulk:
Expiration Dates
Forgetfulness
New Discoveries
Expiration Dates:
Most kitchens, other than those in New York, are built with large pantries and enough cabinet space to survive a Blast from the Past. The more space we have, the more space we need to fill. How much peanut butter can we eat before reaching the expiration date? I’m not sure but most of us are willing to find out as long as it’s on sale. A year goes by and we still have two jars of peanut butter in the pantry stamped with a date of a week from now. We’re left to admit that the buy 3, get 1 free deal maybe wasn’t such a good idea after all. Instead of saving money for the sake of not running out, we’re now forced to throw out full, expired jars. Wasteful.
Forgetfulness:
How many times have you gone to the grocery store and bought an item only to get home and realize you still have a backup or two? Great, you now have 3 bottles of lotion under the sink and your house guests assume you have a serious issue with dry skin. Accidentally overbuying one thing isn’t the problem. The problem is our tendency to stock up on every product we regularly use. The more items we buy in abundance, the more likely we are to forget what we have in stock and the more money we have invested in goods that we may or may not ever use.
New Discoveries:
After trying new products or reading a few of my blogs, you may realize there’s better products on the market than those currently in your pantry. The only problem with switching over to the new product is the amount of money spent building your own convenience store. Ok, so you now know to buy peanut butter with only two ingredients: peanuts and salt. Unfortunately, you may not want to purchase the better, healthier option until your family size jar, with ingredients consisting of peanuts, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil and salt, is empty.
Health aside, there’s always the possibility of finding a product you just like better. Many times I’ve made the mistake of stocking up on a variety of products, including shampoo, lotion and other beauty items, only to discover another brand that works better. Instead of discarding, I decided to repurpose shampoo in place of hand soap since it made my hair feel coarse. I now try my best to wait to replace products until I'm near empty.
Now What?
I understand some things are better to buy in bulk, e.g, toilet paper since it actually is cheaper to buy in large quantities and has no expiration date. Also, in the case of large families, family size products may be necessary. I come from a family of eight; I remember my mom used to purchase 100 case packs of feminine products at Sam’s Club for the five of us girls. TMI?
Now would be a good time to go through your pantry and take inventory. You’re probably not saving as much money as you think.
- Mallory
