Grocery Shopping – Bulk Buying Versus Stocking Up

Grocery Shopping – Bulk Buying Versus Stocking Up

You’ve probably heard a lot of people talk about how they save a ton of money shopping by buying in bulk and stocking up on things. The trouble is that the two aren’t always exactly the same thing. Let’s talk about the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Buying in bulk, to begin with, is usually all about buying one huge container of something. A lot of times, big warehouse clubs, or even regular grocery stores, offer a bulk product, like a five pound bucket of peanut butter, for example. There are two things to consider about bulk buys.

The first thing is that buying in bulk used to be a great bargain. However, these days many stores have actually made bulk products more expensive than the same amount of product would be if you bought it in smaller quantities. So, you should look out for that.

The second thing is that, when you buy in bulk, you need to be able to use in bulk. For example, that peanut butter I mentioned wouldn’t keep forever. Unless you plan to bake a ton of peanut butter cookies or you have a very large family, you should avoid buying such products, since they’re likely to spoil before they’re used up.

As for stocking up, that just means buying a lot of a certain product when it’s on sale. Certain products are easy to stock up on, like canned vegetables. It takes them a very long time to go bad. Other products, like frozen dinners or meats, are not as easy to stock in your house, unless you are fortunate enough to have a large freezer. So, it’s up to you to determine what you can and can not stock up on, based on your available space at home.