Comments on: Trash Frugal Living by Buying in Bulk

By: Andrew @ Financial Services

Andrew @ Financial Services — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:59:33 +0000

Bulk is probably not advisable for food stuff, but for cleaning chemicals, soaps and shampoos anything which doesn’t have an expiry date is a good idea. Then again some people tend to be a bit wasteful when they know they have a lot of it.

By: 444

444 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:46:55 +0000

You make a few points that I can agree with. I can admit to throwing out some things that expired because I bought too much/too many of them. And I can admit to consuming some food that would normally be too “expensive” for me but it seemed less expensive when presented at the warehouse store in a large quantity.

But even after accounting for all of this, we’ve found that warehouse shopping definitely saves us a significant amount of money over shopping at even the cheapest supermarkets (with the caveat that there are select items that are only practical to buy at the supermarket for quantity reasons – we don’t want a years’ supply of yeast for baking bread, for example, or five years’ worth of razor blades. Or for the reason that the warehouse store simply doesn’t stock some items.)

The difference her probably is due to you and your readership most likely being primarily comprised of singles or couples or very small families, whereas we have six people in our family – two adults and four kids, three of the kids being teenagers over 100 lbs. each – you can only imagine the amount of food consumed here.

By: Wilson Pon

Wilson Pon — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:34:11 +0000

David, it seems that we both having the same problem, as I also love to pill up many stuffs in my house, especially the painkillers (Gosh, my head starting to pain, when I saw all the expired painkillers in the cabinets)…

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:08:12 +0000

Very true. Just because there’s MORE of something doesn’t make it a better deal. We consume more of it when there’s a ton. When there’s less, we ration ourselves. Great post.

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:06:09 +0000

Good point, David. Perhaps a better wording would be to “consider” buying in bulk for certain items where a guaranteed saving can be had. I don’t drink soda, but I do drink an awful lot of coffee… so when I see “buy one get one free” or similar, I do tend to buy then.

By: David@DINKS Finance

David@DINKS Finance — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:58:50 +0000

You have to consider the counter-argument, tho. I have a friend who never buys 24 packs of soda. I do. We both drink it nearly daily or at least every other day. My cans end up costing something like .30, sometimes closer to a quarter. Instead he goes to the gas station and spend $1.50 on a soda.

Then again I might have just proved your point – Only buy in bulk when you were already planning on it (as I usually “plan” on drinking one soda a day).

By: Alex Burda

Alex Burda — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:06:24 +0000

In Australia the major supermarkets now have unit measurements on their price tags so that consumers can easily work out what they are paying per unit. Packaging thesedays can be very deceptive as products vary in weight so the packaging does not always provide an easy way to verify a good deal.
For example we now have products that display the cost per 1oo grams. This way it make it more simple to compare a similar product in weight terms without having to use a calculator everytime a product is purchased.
http://www

.financeloans.quoteplease.net/

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:08:08 +0000

Another classic example of buying in bulk and wastage is grocery shopping. While most people think that buying in bulk saves them a whole lot of cash, they end up buying more than they can consume, and this leads to wastage. Some people, including myself, are so anxious to get their grocery shopping done, that they purchase things that they already have! I have lost count of the number of bottles of vanilla essence I have stored in my pantry.

By: Greg@eliminatethemuda.com

Greg@eliminatethemuda.com — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:35:14 +0000

David – excellent post! You cite perfect examples of the wastes (muda) of inventory that people create. I am sure to quote a few of these in a future post on my blog.

Wastes of inventory, time, motion, rework, over production, processing and transportation are the 7 sins to Living a Lean Lifestyle.

The pills hit close to home. While on a trip recently, my wife informed me that she cleaned out our vanity. There were hundreds of dollars of old make up and personal care stuff some of which was very old! It was painful to even think about.

Keep up the great work!

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:45:19 +0000

I actually experimented with this when I was finding my financial feet, and found NOT buying in bulk, worked out cheaper for ME (I acknowledge everyone is different though…).

I buy what I need, with the shortest possible shelf-life (for cooking in batch and picking up on the cheap), and then freeze. That way I don’t end up buried under mountains of ’stuff’ that may or may not use before it goes out of date, and usually pay significantly less due to the price reduction than even if I’d bought under “buy one get one free” or similar.