When Buying In Bulk Just Means You Eat More ~ Make Allotments
Buying grocery items in bulk when they are at a rock-bottom prices can be an excellent way to save money on the things you would be buying anyway. Most of us have heard (or learned from first hand experience) that buying things in bulk only works when the items will last - buying perishables in bulk that you can’t freeze or otherwise store safely just wastes money. But I’ve found, in my busy household of four, another item that I can’t buy in bulk without a very specific game plan for how to deal with the items at home - snacks. Without a plan for how to deal with the items once they enter my house, they might as well be classified as perishables because they certainly don’t last. But for a whole different reason - the whirling dervish that is my family eats them as fast as possible.
We have a collection of items we generally snack on, and for the non-perishable ones like granola bars or pretzels, I used to buy an extra or two when the items went on sale. Then when I got home, I would put them away in the cupboards I usually stored them in. But I noticed that instead of not having to buy the item again the next week, my family just ate more of it. That’s been controlled somewhat with the onset of my spouse’s meal plan, but it still happens with my son and now daughter. They don’t have free rein over snacks but somehow if there is extra in the cupboard, extra gets eaten.
I resolved to just not buy snacks in bulk, but the sale-loving money-saving part of me just couldn’t hack it and I knew I had to find another way. The straw that broke the camel’s back was this past week’s “Mega Event” sale at Kroger. Not only were two of the most loved snacks here on the Mega Event list (pretzels and Goldfish), they were 50 cents a package. I had never before seen either item sold anywhere for less than $1. So I needed to stock up. But how to actually make this a frugal purchase?
I hid them. We generally go through one bag of pretzels a week (it is one of the snacks in my spouse’s meal plan) and when we have goldfish in the house, one package per week is sufficient. So I put a bag of each in the cupboard, and then made space in my under-stairs closet and hid the rest of the packages. Every week, I will take one package out for general consumption, and if the package runs out before the next week, the family will just have to go without until it is time for the next package. That was the problem before, if we had it on hand, I would just replenish the supply no matter how many had already been eaten. But no more. That doesn’t save money, it just costs more money. And we eat too many pretzels. 
Now if I could just manage to be so disciplined with ice cream…
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April 14th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Oh God, I have this problem. Not necessarily buying food in bulk because I buy only for myself since I have a roommate, but eating things if they are in the house. I can’t let myself buy certain food anymore because if I know it’s in the cabinets… it’s going to be consumed.
With that said, I binge on strawberries and yogurt now.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I remember growing up and the favorite treat in the house was Oreo cookies. We (5 of us kids) would inhale the things. We found out later, my Mom would hide the packages in an empty cereal box - not the good cereal - the “old people” cereal, you know, Bran Flakes and stuff like that. She knew we would never looked in there for them!
April 14th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
You are right about buying nonperishables. The next key is also lowering your spending for the next X number of grocery trips, where X = the amount of extra stuff you bought.
My wife bought us 10 cans of our favorite spaghetti sauce because they were buy one get one free. I tried to get her to buy the whole shelf, but she wouldn’t… I figure, hey, we use it all the time, and it’s 50% off. Can’t beat that.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:00 am
I have found a clever way of not eating (or drinking) stuff bought in bulk: Store it away from the kitchen, in the basement or similar. When you want a snack you generally want it now, and you do not want to scale stairs or otherwise comit work into getting them. Presto: Problem solved
April 15th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Unfortunately, I always know where I hide extras I buy and no matter what I tell myself, I can be there in a second, grabbing a treat, if I know it is in the house! For me, less is best, Then, if I really want a treat when we are out, it means a trip to the store and that makes me give it a second thought. Of course, I don’t have small children at home any more and my Goldfish days are a thing of the past…although, I do still love those little fish.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:44 am
It interests me that so many people snack so much. I very rarely eat any snacks, and for the most part I have always been that way. I think the one exception was during part of college when I had an apartment and a job working from my dorm. I noticed that I would often go to the kitchen and graze on whatever was there while I was working in lieu of having a hearty meal (though as often as not this turned out to be cheese or something out of the fridge rather than chips or something since chips never stayed around more than a day or two with four guys, two of which could annhilate some chips [I had to hide my personal stash]). I consciously stopped grazing though because I started to get concerned about gaining weight through it. I am going off on a tangent, but I have thankfully been around the same weight since I stopped growing. I control this solely by keeping myself eating for the sake of eating and eating until I am satisfied rather than stuffed at meals.
Anyway, so the problem with me with snacks is that they tend to go stale if I have them around if they aren’t something my wife eats. I usually end up having to plan “sandwich and chips” lunches to eat them up before they go bad.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
@ Brandon - my spouse actually snacks more on the meal plan - it is designed to have three meals and three snacks a day. I think he snacked less often not on it, but ate a lot more when he snacked
April 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Yes, but where could you hide the ice cream?
April 15th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Ice cream is my vice! If we have it in the freezer I will eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks (I know, I know- NOT healthy). So now I no longer buy ice cream at the store. I used to buy maybe one half gallon a week- so say $4. And I would EAT then ENTIRE HALF GALLON!!! Now hubby and I grad drive though ice cream maybe one a week and the total is usually a little less than $4. In terms of what I get for my money - not a great deal, as far as my waistline, this plan works out very well! (Especially when I get buy one get coupons for Marble slap we can both indulge for $4!). Did I mention I love ice cream!
April 17th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
LOL! Ice cream is my downfall, too.
And chocolate.
I just have to not buy it.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I can vouch for the dangers of buying in bulk. If you buy snacks in bulk for my household, this disappear twice as fast.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Buying snack foods in bulk can get you into trouble. You think buying in bulk is your insurance policy for your food budget but not so all the time. You eat the food that’s available and that always leads to trouble.
Jerry