I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Bulk Buying: My Next Steps

So I’m convinced buying in bulk is a good and worthwhile thing. I have reservations about how effectively I’ll be able to manage it, but the risk is worth the rewards I think so I’ve decided to put more effort into it and really give it a try. Every journey begins with a single step. My single step is making a list of all the further steps I will take to start incorporating bulk buying into my shopping and take advantage of saving money. So…

Step One: Make this list. A step I’ll be done with by the end of the post. How’s that for motivation :).

Step Two: Construct a price book. I have been doing this informally but I need to start consistently entering all the prices from my receipts by date into my spreadsheet. To get the best prices, I need to know what the best prices are.

Step Three: Separate items bought in bulk each week into a separate category in my grocery tracking to determine the amount spent just on stocking up on items.

Step Four(a): Start getting the Sunday paper to get coupons. Not directly related to bulk buying but will help save even more money when items are at that lowest price determined by the price book.

Step Four(b): Start using a service like CouponMom to help match the lowest prices at the Kroger across the street from me with my coupons. I don’t want to have to go to Kroger myself every week to see if anything there is on sale if I can get CouponMom to do it for me for free.

Step Five: Track the actual money saved over the long term by buying in bulk every time bulk items are bought. Apply that savings directly to debt as a snowflake. Example: I buy 10 bottles of Diet Mountain Dew for $1 each (regular price $1.38). We (meaning my spouse) use 2 1/2 bottles of this a week. That means I saved $3.80 for the 10 bottles total buying at this price over the regular price. So now I have $3.80 available to snowflake at the end of a month’s time (10 bottles divided by 2 1/2 bottles a week is 4 weeks to use all 10). This will probably be a pain to track but I like a challenge, and I can’t snowflake it all when I buy it initially because that would put too much strain on the budget.

The ultimate goal here is to turn those savings I get from bulk buying into debt reduction, which is the goal of all my savings right now. When I see that happening, I’ll feel like I’ve turned bulk buying into a successful venture.

And now I am done with Step One! On to Step Two….

Share This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• My Bulk Buying Leads to Lifestyle Inflation
• Pre-travelling Groceries
• Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps: M-Network Style
• Smart Couples Finish Rich: Final Thoughts
• Smart Couples Finish Rich: Step 8 Review