Frugal Buying in Bulk, Etc.

I know I promised to post my birth story, and I'm working on it. It will be ready soon. Its such an amazing story, one full of God's goodness, that I want to do it justice.

As you know, from yesterday's post, we're trying to be more frugal around here. One of the ways we stretch our dollars is buying in bulk. This started slowly, about two years ago. First, we started shopping Sam's Club for many things that we had been purchasing at WalMart. We buy pasta, cheese, sausage, bacon, butter, margarine, frozen veggies, frozen fruit, chicken, spices, yeast, honey, olive oil, brown sugar, and powdered sugar at Sam's. These things are much cheaper, and they don't get purchased every month. Some things are not cheaper at Sam's and we try to stay away from those. If I used white flour to bake with, I would purchase it there too. If Sam's sold brown rice in bulk, I'd buy that, but that only sell white.

Then, I started making our bread. For that, we began purchasing wheatberries in bulk from a local health food store. Currently we have 200 lbs of wheat. We stocked up in May when we heard that wheat prices were going up. Having the wheat makes me feel a bit secure, because I know it lasts forever and its a healthy, versatile food that the family could live off of if needed.

Our plan is to begin purchasing one bulk item each pay period (or every other, depending), which I anticipate costing from $30 - $50. My list of items to purchase is: oatmeal, brown rice, popcorn, lentils, pinto beans... I'll purchase the oatmeal this month. I can buy 50 lbs for $32, that's $.64 per pound. When I buy it at WalMart, its $2.22 for 2 lbs, which is $1.11 per pound. I bet you are wondering why I'd buy popcorn in bulk. I grind it for cornmeal. It makes great cornbread, plus you can dress up popped popcorn with caramel coating or sprinkle ranch seasoning on it for a great (cheap) snack!

The only problem with bulk buying is storage. We don't have a garage, which would be the perfect storage solution. We really don't want to use our shed, as the temperature varies a great deal. We will store the food in 6 gallon buckets with airtight lids, but I'm not sure where to put all of those buckets. We have three in the laundryroom right now, and its getting pretty crowded.

I want to buy in bulk not just to save money, but so that we develop a small stockpile of food. I'm not living in fear of the economy or what might come, but I do think its wise to be prepared. If we buy one item a month, then each year we could buy 12 items, restocking them on a yearly basis. I'm sure it will take our family a year to go through 50 pounds of lentils. :)

If you don't have a local place to purchase things in bulk, then it may not save you any money to buy in bulk. When buying from the internet you have to pay shipping and these items are usually pretty expensive to ship, considering their weight. But you can stock up on things like rice and beans at WalMart. Share your grocery tips or link to frugal posts on your blog. The best way for homemakers to do their job well is to learn from others.

11:43 AM - Oct. 16, 2008 - post comment

Great ideas

Great ideas about buying in bulk. I wonder where to put the items as well. I have two bins of grain in plastic buckets. And we have a garage, but it separate from the house so it's temperature varies a lot, plus it has a lot of my husbands farm stuff in there so it gets rather dirty. I guess the solution on that is to clean the garage - but it is a challenge. I wonder if the temperature really matters much as long as it stays above freezing and you have your stuff in sealed food safe buckets. Do you know?

basketflat - 8:48 PM - Oct. 17, 2008

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Hi

Yes, please share your birth story! I'm expecting my 4th in January, and while I haven't had previous c-sections, I have had epidurals for my 3. I know from following your blog a little bit that you had c-sections, and therefore obviously had epidurals, so I look forward to learning what you did before birth to prepare for the big day!

Jen - 2:17 PM - Oct. 21, 2008

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