Does anyone buy in bulk?

[nvmommyx6]

We have Winco food stores here in Nevada, and I know they are not just here!
I buy a lot of our stuff in bulk there, spices, drink mix, cereals, pasta's...There are better deals on the flour and sugar to be had at Costco and of course between sales and regular store prices, couponing...I was just wondering if any one else bought in bulk, what items do you buy in bulk, how do you store them..??

I store everything, even items bought in packaging in bins, 5gal. buckets or canisters!

[McD]

I was given a Costco membership for Christmas and I love it. I use it to buy in bulk--things like meat, pop, various snackies, etc.

It comes in quite handy.

[nancycg56]

I buy flour, sugar, vanilla, meat and maybe a couple of other things in bulk on a regular basis. I find it's cheaper for those things to buy them in bulk.

[wanderinggrandma]

I buy everything but fresh produce and dairy in bulk. Sometimes it seems a little crazy now that it is just DH and I, but I guess old habits die hard.

I purchase from Winco--case goods, Costco--baking supplies-yeast, vanilla, choc chips, that type of thing--Bob's Red Mill--specialty type grains and cereals--and go to our Dry Pack Cannery for basic type stuff-flour,sugar,rice,beans,macaroni, etc, in #10 cans.

We just shuffled storage rooms yesterday. I was tripping over stuff and having a hard time locating what I knew I had. Moved it to a small bedroom now I need more shelving but it is much easier to find stuff.

I discovered I need a Costco trip now.

Does anyone have a "good" way to store cases of T.P. ? Once I open the wrapper those little sucker take on a life of their own!! I'm tired of chasing them down and returning them to there "spot".

[zakity]

I do that at Winco. I just did a stock up. I bought 15 lbs of rice, 40 lbs of noodles, and 50 lbs of flour. I bought smaller amounts of other things. I have about 10 buckets with gamma lids to store things.

It is lovely to not have to worry about running out of things. I stock up twice a year.

[WV_mom_of2]

I buy canned goods in bulk when I run onto a good sale (green beans, corn, peas, etc.). I also buy yeast in bulk from a store here. We don't have anything like Sams or Costco in my area so my bulk buying comes from regular grocery store sales.

[Grainlady]

Some things I purchase a years worth (or more) at a time. I do this when I have enough unspent money left in my grocery cash for the purchase. ALL food purchases are based on a $50/week budget - bulk purchases or otherwise. The FIRST way to keep costs down is to control the amount you spend in the first place - while getting the best food for the best price possible.

These are things I normally purchase in bulk:

-agave nectar (a natural, low-glycemic honey-like sweetener) - when I find a great price on it - usually on-line - I buy up a bunch. It has a very long shelf-life and doesn't crystalize like honey does.

I use very little sugar, but do have it in storage since it's a cheap sweetener. Sugar keeps indefinately - as we found out recently when my husband's brother passed away. He had a storage unit and the things in it had been there since 1995. Even though the mice had been in the storage unit and did a lot of damage, they never touched the 5# bag of sugar - and we eat this stuff!

-Morning Moo's (a whey-based milk substitute) I keep a 24# bucket of it for regular use, and 2-years worth in #10 cans in long-term storage.

-grain by the hundred-weight once or twice a year. I mill my own flour from a large variety of seeds/beans/grains.

-grass-fed beef from a friend (usually in the fall) I save money in the food budget when we eat out of the garden and I don't buy as many groceries, and use that money to purchase the beef.

-nuts - when they go on sale after Christmas, I purchase as many as I can afford and vacuum-seal them with the FoodSaver in canning jars. We use LOTS of nuts in our diet.

I built my home storage up over time, so I'm on a use/rotate/replace schedule - so there's no need for large quantities of something at any one purchase. I NOW try to purchase items with use-by dates that are in 2010 or 2011.

What I rarely ever do is purchase something like 24-cans of something that all have the same expiration date. I'd need to be sure we could realistically USE 24 of something by the use-by date. I'd never purchase 24 of something just because it was a bargain - it would need to fit into our plans for use.

For instance, we regularly use 18-oz. of peanut butter each month, so I can track the use-by dates and know how far out I can purchase peanut butter. I'd never purchase a large amount of it at one time with all the same use-by date. On-Sale peanut butter often has a use-by date that is in the near future, so I track those dates very carefully.

I have a storage room in the basement, complete with can holders that rotate the cans automatically, and large rolling shelves to accomodate everything big and little. Our room is stacked nearly to the ceiling. I keep 5-gallon bottles of water on racks that hold 3 bottles each, and have a number of these racks in storage. Plus eight 3-gallon bottles I use for daily use for drinking water and water for the humidifiers (I make our own distilled water at home).

For the most part I try to store the least-processed foods possible. For instance, I was storing tomato sauce and tomato paste and other tomato products. Now I store tomato powder (which takes up only a fraction of the space) and make my own tomato sauce and tomato paste, pizza sauce, etc., from tomato powder.

Instead of cans of yams/sweet potatoes, or sweet potatoes parked in the freezer, I dehydrate inexpensive cooked/mashed sweet potatoes on fruit roll-up sheets, and when it's crispy dry, I run it through the blender to make dehydrated sweet potato powder. It takes up a fraction of the space. It rehydrates with hot water to make mashed sweet potatoes. Lots of foods we have in storage are dehydrated at home. You'd never believe how many tomatoes you can put in a quart jar until you dehydrate them.

Instead of cornmeal I store corn and mill my own cornmeal. Corn has a much longer shelf-life over cornmeal. Degermed cornmeal is an inferior product over freshly-milled. Degermed cornmeal has most of the vital nutrition removed from it.

Wheat has a 25-year shelf-life, while flour only 6-12 months - so wheat always wins out for home storage over flour. As for nutrition, white (unbleached and bleached) flour is "dead" food - basically empty calories and little else. I can make a plethora of foods from whole grains - even "fake" meat (aka gluten or seitan). I don't store many foods void of nutrition.

I don't consider free-standing freezers a good place for home food storage. That's lost food should the power be out for any length of time.

If free-standing freezers are placed where the temperatures can get extremely hot, then you probably spend more for the additional electricity it takes to keep them cold than you saved on the food inside. Freezers are designed to be used at room temperature (75°F), not 135°F (or hotter) sheds and garages. Old freezers are energy hogs - period. Freezers are a wonderful convenience, but rarely save money after you consider the additional utilities. I only have the freezer on my refrigerator.

[checks]

I love buying in bulk when I can. The only thing that I will not buy in bulk is snacks. Chips or doritoes or cookies etc. My family tends to eat more, if it's available and it's gone in no time. I have all older children and I work full time, so I can not regulate what and how much they eat. So, I only buy smaller bags of snacks on occaision. But, most other stuff is great in bulk, when I have the extra money.

[IntlMom]

I used to shop at Winco for bulk (and will again when I get out to CA again)....I store mine in large rubbermaid contaiers or canisters - but I'm gonna need to think BIGGER for the future!

[HisDaisy]

I am just rediscovering Winco after living in the mid-west for 9 years.
I buy flour, sugar, pasta, rice, spices, and other item that I can't think of in bulk. I store them in 'tupperware' containers.
I have not had a chance to compare costco and winco prices yet.
Winco is more convient, so I shop there more.
I miss Aldi a lot, but Winco helps a lot.

[pat in east texas]

We only have Sam's here - wish we had Costco. I buy anything we use a lot of - TP, paper towels, laundry and cleaning stuff, some vitamins. And meat. Sam's has the best meat in this area. And hard cheese, Parmesan and romano. I use the parmesan rind in vegetable soup.

[Grainlady]

Do you folks have a "strikepoint" for bulk purchases or for certain items? Will you wait until the case price is lowest possible before you buy large quantities of non-perishables - or do you just like the convenience of the large purchases and don't track the price?

My SIL has a strikepoint for purchasing pop/soda. When it's low enough, she'll stock-up bringing large quantities home. I doubt she has EVER paid regular price for it. It's the one item she has a strikepoint for.

Our local grocery store occasionally has special "stock-up" prices for purchasing a whole case of canned fruit or vegetables. That's when I'll purchase canned goods for donating to the Food Bank and the local Mission for the homeless. I've noticed the use-by dates of these particular food items are never out very far, so the store is shifting food out of their warehouse.

I keep a Price Book, so all food purchases are based on unit prices for me.

[BlessedMomof2]

We have a membership to Sam's Club, and shop there every couple of weeks. I buy whatever is cheaper there verse the local grocery store on items our family uses the most of. I really enjoy being able to have the option to buy in bulk and it saves our family quite a bit of money throughout the year.

[Judi Dial]

I bought a 25# bag of winter wheat berries last fall, we're nibbling away at it. I had bought 50# of broken jasmine rice about 5 years ago and we'll probably have to get some more by the end of this year. (The rice was a great deal, but it needs to be "cleaned" that is, have non rice particles removed.)

Aside from the grains, there isn't anything I store for longer than 2 years.

I regularly (monthly or quarterly, depending on need or my pocketbook) give away boxes of food to friends or family or the local food pantry. This eliminates things that have been hanging around and makes me pay attention! The last item that got shipped out of here was pasta. There was a buy one, get 2 free sale and the 2 were given away.

I don't have a basement or garage. This is a log home, so there's no extra nooks and crannies. My pantry is a closet and I have additional storage over the washer/dryer, but that's it. [Part of the kitchen redo, phase 2 is to turn the laundry room into the pantry, which I am looking forward to!]

Judi

[Laura2]

We have a Costco membership. We buy our cheese, beverages, and snacks there. But we mostly use our Costco membership for non-food items like contact solution, photos, glasses and contacts.