How do you plan ahead to buy in bulk?
In the final post of my day devoted to organization, you the reader can help me become more organized and more thrifty in the process. I need your help. I’ve come up against a budgeting conundrum. I want to buy things in bulk when they are cheap (or just because I can get a much better price on some things) yet, I can’t really afford to. Small things, yes, like the huge hoard of Diet Mountain Dew that resides in my garage. But more expensive things, I’m not figuring out how to do it and it is driving me batty.
For example, one of my cats takes this homeopathic medicine called Cosequin once a day. Buying it online is a LOT less expensive than buying it from the vet, and I have a few options in doing so. I can buy 80 capsules at a time for about $13 with $4.95 shipping. But if I buy 2 packs, or 3 packs, or 4 packs… it is still a $4.95 flat shipping fee. So if I can order more at time, I save $4.95 in shipping for each additional pack I order over the first.
But I order them one at a time, because I can’t afford to buy more than that. I could save so much money in shipping buying multiple packs… but I don’t. That’s a whole lot of money I am wasting! And this is just one example. How do I figure out how to work bulk buying into the budget? If you bulk buy (I know there are many frugal readers out there) how do you work it into your budget? I’ve thought of the simple answer of saving a little money at a time for the above case of the cosequin (if I can find a little money that is). But that doesn’t factor in being able to take advantage of a big sale. If something is on sale, do I blow the entire grocery budget buying a ton at once? Where do I make that up later? It seems there is always something on sale I could stock up on. Do I make a separate “stocking up” budget? This is probably simple but I am banging my head against a wall! I need ideas! Sometimes I hate being broke. 
~J
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September 13th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Hi there,
This is where your emergency fund should kick in. I think most people want to leave that money in savings unless something truly awful happens (major car problem, huge medical expense, job loss). In fact, the best bet is to build up the emergency fund so it could cover 3-4 months worth of basic expenses, just in case.
But I think the emergency fund should also be your cushion that keeps you from living paycheck to paycheck. In fact, I’m going to call it the cushion fund from now on, just to keep us on track.
Let’s take your medicine as an example. I don’t know how long 80 capsules lasts, but let’s assume that it lasts one month.
In that scenario, you know that you’re spending $13 + $4.95 per month on this expense. If you decide to buy 5 boxes of 80, you should spend $17.95 from this month’s expenses, and then an extra $52 from your cushion fund. Then each month you snowflake back $13 into your cushion fund (in addition to however much you normally add each month).
This gives you five boxes of medicine, saves $19.80 in shipping, and doesn’t destroy this month’s budget. You also know that $52 won’t destroy your cushion fund.
The other alternative is to try to budget an amount for bulk items that is separate from your regular grocery budget. For instance, we go to Smart & Final (a local warehouse store like Sam’s Club or Costco, except without an annual fee) about once every month or so. When there, we buy large amounts of staples such as toilet paper, olive oil, and spices. (What an image!). If we’re good about regularly going to the warehouse store, we’ll see our regular grocery shopping expenses go down.
But I think it has to be a separate budget item. If I were being realistic, I’d say that we spend at one trip to the bulk warehouse store about half of what we normally spend on a regular trip to the grocery store.
Good luck!
September 13th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I don’t buy in bulk much anymore, be cause we have a serious lack of storage space. In the past, I’ve cut the grocery budget to the bare bones and created a little surplus for myself. Then I’d use the surplus to buy stuff on sale.
It’s a hard thing to get started when you’re broke, but once you have a system going, it gets easier, because you’ll find you pretty much only buy things on sale.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
You know, I figured it might be this way. It takes money to start and then works out over time to less money overall.
Yeah… that’s simple. But not feasible at the moment I think. Except maybe when it comes to Mountain Dew. lol
September 13th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I know that you love your Mountain Dew but would it be worthwhile not buying it the next time you normally would and hanging on to that money until you have enough saved for say a double order of the cat’s medicine? The most painful part is starting (as Lynnae said). The thing is that MD is your treat and everyone needs a treat/reward item (IMHO).
September 13th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
I am not the one who loves the (diet) mountain dew. That’s my spouse.
And he says if I take it away, he starts going to bed at 8pm and never getting up with the kids at night if they get up.
So um….
September 13th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
@William
This sounds complicated but not so complicated. I must think on the separate budget idea… and also on the “cushion” fund idea. These sound promising.
Thanks!
September 13th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
I have a lot of trouble with this too. Stocking up when something is on sale is one of the main reasons that I have trouble staying within my grocery budget. So I pretty much stopped buying in bulk, which for some reasons irks my husband. LOL In a perfect world, I’d tack on a food storage budget to each month and any time I’d really stock up on something it’d go into that category. But when I recently re-worked my budget, there was no money for that. Someday that’s what I’ll try though.
September 14th, 2007 at 9:23 am
In the beginning, I’d just suck it up and deal without something else in my food budget to buy the bulk items. But much of what I eat can’t be found in bulk (gluten free pasta), or I just can’t store it in bulk (fresh produce). I do buy my meat in bulk and now that I’ve been doing it for a while I’ll find that the closer I get to needing an item, the more extra money I have in my food envelope. And with buying bulk, I of course spend less overall, so I may even be able to lower my food budget and put a bit more into paying off the credit card.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I have a special amount each month for things I buy in bulk at BJ’s. It’s not part of my normal grocery budget. I found I could then lower my grocery budget because I wasn’t buying those things at the regular grocery store anymore. Also, I try to only buy things on sale. So if it isn’t on sale, we arn’t eating it for dinner. This doesn’t always work but it does keep costs down. I find sometimes I spend over my weekly budget and under but in the end it usually works out for the monthly budget.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I’m starting to buy in bulk as well, and what I did was added $20 to my monthly grocery budget (removed from our eating out budget since we’re trying not to do that as much to save money and lose weight), and each week I try to keep our necessities down to the bare minimum and any great deals I find up to that limit. As time goes on, our necessities should go down since I have a stockpile at home and free up more money for great deals I find in the future, so we’re always eating our meals at the absolute lowest price possible.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I was in a similar situation when I started Sam’s club shopping. I had a membership card from my employer at the time (and although now I have moved on and have to pay for my own membership, after looking at the costs, it still saves me money yearly to have the card.) But, I digress.. This is how I started and stayed within my $150/two weeks grocery budget.
On the first shopping trip, I bought 1 thing (chicken breasts in my case), spending only about $20, but which lasted for almost 9 meals. And then did the rest of my shopping at the grocery store.
On the second shopping trip, I bought 4 things (beef, mac & cheese, green beans, corn) spending $40 (the same $20 out of my budget as the last time plus the $20 i would have been spending on chicken if I had to buy it at the grocery store again this week), all of which was enough to last about 2 months.
And I just kept going from there. Now every time I go grocery shopping, I spend approximately $75-100 at the warehouse store and $75-50 at the grocery store.
This are the two things to remember, DON’T buy it if you are not going to use it, and make sure that is is worth buying in bulk. Compare the per unit price to that of the regular grocery store. On a rare occasion, I have found one or two things where there is no benefit in buying in bulk (usually milk is similarly priced).
Hope that helps!!
September 14th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
@alison: it doesn’t irk my spouse that we don’t stock up (he is completely uninvolved and uninterested in groceries lol) but it sure irks me!
@crazypumpkin: my envelope is always empty. I have got to figure out this grocery budget thing. ugh.
@layla: that sounds good. I wonder if I could figure out a separate budget for bulkness. if my spouse was not so picky we might only eat what was on sale..
@rete: every time I have tried this it doesn’t work for me, my budget just increases permanently. I never get to the magic point where I am living out of my pantry. oh wait, maybe that was July, the only good grocery budget month…
@heather: that is helpful!
Thanks to *everyone* that responded I have many ideas to think about and mull over and try tofigure out. I’m sure I’ll have more to say on the issue soon!!
September 16th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
I think Bob is onto something.
Quick idea outline:
1. Use money from your emergency fund to buy in bulk for a certain period, say 6 months.
2. Figure out how much that comes out to per month’s supply.
3. Add an item to your monthly budget “Pay back emergency fund for medicine” or somesuch equal to that month’s worth of medicine, from step 2.
After all the medicine is in your budget anyway, so you can afford to pay back LESS than it normally costs. Even frees up a little money.
That’s what I would do, but it might not work for you. Hope it’s helpful anyway.
September 16th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
It is helpful! I am compiling a list. I am working things out in my head. Expect a post sometime in the future (or a few posts) about suggestions and actions I decide to take. It is a good exercise and hopefully will end up saving me money
September 18th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I hope you’re not actually paying for a “homeopathic” medication, because if you are, you’re wasting whatever money you’re paying for it. Homeopathic treatments are made by diluting drugs with water or other inactive ingredients to the point where no or almost no molecules of the active substance remain. If you’re paying for a homeopathic treatment, you’re buying an overpriced placebo. And if you’re buying a drug that calls itself homeopathic but is not made this way, I would be very suspicious, because the manufacturers are clearly trying to capitalize on a trendy fad and on consumers’ ignorance about legitimate and illegitimate forms of alternative medicine.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Homeopathic is probably the wrong word. It is an actual medication to treat joint pain. There is anedoctal evidence that suggests that it also treats the problem my cat has. Basically, my cat is a hypochondriac and gives herself symptoms of a bladder infection without actually having a bladder infection (we’ve had several urine captures/blood tests to prove it). And then she pees on everything we own.
I am not really a believer in ancedotal evidence but we were desperate so we tried the supplement and… no more peeing on stuff and no more psychological bladder infections. So I keep giving it to her. I allowed it to run out because I wondered if it was coincidence and within a few days, she was back to peeing on everything.
And, honestly, even if it is a placebo if it was fooling my cat I am all for it. I can’t live in a world where everything we own is peed on.
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:24 am
I buy in bulk quite a lot but I don’t rely on spare money all the time. I buy in bulk with my girlfriends. We’ll chat about specials we’ve seen and if possible organise our buying at the same time, getting the benefit of bulk buying but spreading the purchasing across several families.
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:41 pm
@MomsFinance - that’s a great system!