Just a quick post today to help you save money on groceries.
As you know I am big into taking control of your own income/debt situation by focusing on giving yourself a raise. By this I simply mean slashing expenses, reducing your debt load, and saving some for emergencies as ways to increase cash flow on your terms.
In the spirit of these principles I wanted to offer you a specific example of yet another way we save money to give ourselves a raise…
Save money by buying bulk items while on sale
Although I don’t always do it, last night I accompanied my wife on her trip to the grocery store. We had our list and were only in need of a few items, although we always check our frequently purchased items to see if they are on sale or not. Well… they were.
Since changing our diet over a year ago now, we focus on eating healthy and have cut out virtually all junk foods. Prior to the change ate a ton of “snack foods” like Triscuits®, Cheez-Its®, Doritos®, etc. Knowing that we had to replace these snack foods with a healthier option we turned to organic blue corn chips and fresh salsa instead. *Note: Some may think of Triscuits® as healthy but remember that they are made with GMO wheat.
We did grow a garden this year and were able to make about 20 jars of homemade salsa, but that was consumed rather quickly and now we have to purchase that as well. Because we eat chips and salsa so often, we always buy it in bulk when it goes on sale… and last night was a perfect example.
Buying in bulk is fun…
My wife and I got a HUGE laugh out of stuffing 10 bags of chips and 14 containers of salsa into our cart. As a matter of fact, we had to go switch carts half way through shopping because the short cart we started off with was no match for the bulk sale we discovered half way through shopping. 🙂
We ended up clearing the store out of their stock of each item, and laughing as we walked through the store getting strange looks from other shoppers.
How much did we save?
Here is a break down of the savings from this purchase:
- Chips: regular price = $5.69 | sale price = $4.49 | $1.20 savings per bag times 10 bags = $12.00 in savings
- Salsa: regular price = $4.00 | sale price = $2.00 | $2.00 savings per salsa times 14 salsas = $28.00 in savings
- Total money saved = $40.00
As you can see… buying staple items in bulk, while on sale, is just one more way for us to win at money!
We store all bulk item dry goods on shelves down in our basement, and we freeze refrigerated items… like salsa.
Money savings adds up fast
We adopted this way of thinking and have applied it to all areas of spending. As you can imagine, it builds upon itself and over time adds up to quite a bit of money saved.
Thinking like this and shopping like this is just one more example of how to take control of our own money situation and give ourselves a raise!
Wow, that’s a lot of chips! Looks like you’re ready to host a massive super bowl party now! I hope you don’t get sick of those chips – cause you’re gonna be eating them for a while! haha..
Oh my word… we LOVE these chips. And we love the salsa too. We use the salsa for MUCH more than just dipping the chips in… like cooking, condiment, etc. We think they put some kind of addictive elements in the chips because we love them so much. 🙂
Great tip, Matt! I love buying in bulk when I find staples on sale. My wife thinks I’m funny though because I can go overboard occasionally. Where do you keep 96 rolls of toilet paper? 🙂
Ha ha, funny you mention TP Paul… that was another reason we had to go back and get a bigger cart – we also had a HUGE package of TP. 🙂
Yup, the TP, combine the right sale, CVS rebate, and coupons, and I stuff a closet with the stuff.
My bulk fail – the gallon of mustard. At $4, it was like paying 25 cents for the 8oz container instead of $1.29. I think Jane’s exact words were,”Promise me you will never buy a gallon of any condiment ever again.” Yes, dear.
ha ha ha ha!!
I can picture that conversation exchange in my head… and I always come out laughing.
Too funny — I thought WE were the chips-and-salsa hoarders! Got some salsa for $1 the other day, total score. I will also buy other things in bulk, such as toiletries (deodorants, razors), especially if there’s a great sale and I have multiple coupons, which my grocery store doubles up to 99 cents.
I don’t consider $4 for chips or salsa a deal. I can get Food Lion brand chips cheaper, at regular price, and they’re quite good. I make my own salsa with jalapenos I grow from the garden and canned tomatoes (not the entire recipe). It costs about $1 for way more quantity than your $4 salsa.
Sure… you can get generic non-organic food cheaper. You can also save money by shopping at Walmart, but is that what’s best? Remember… price is not the only consideration of purchasing. Supporting health and/or local economy (when possible) are factors we hold very dear – hence for us – healthier, slightly more expensive food is well worth the extra $. For more info read our Frugal and Sensible Weight Loss Mindset.
To put things back on track… remember the subject of this post is about saving money by purchasing common items in bulk while on sale, not amounts paid for chips and salsa. 🙂
The biggest problem is that after I demolish the $4 bag of chips…..I have spend $100 in time to work it all off. I’m a big fat Pilgrim…
Everything in moderation Mr. Pilgrim. 🙂
Yes, we have had a lot of experience with shopping for groceries in this way. Buying in bulk when the item is offered at it’s cheapest sales price and using a coupon helped us really see some big grocery savings. We were able to build a small stockpile of items at home. In short, the idea is go to the stockpile when you need something versus that quick trip to the store. When you go to the store when you actually need an item you mostly likely pay top price. Anyway, I learned all of this by playing the Grocery Game (grocerygame.com) which is built around buying in bulk and stockpiling. Thanks for raising this subject because I think it is the #1 way to saving money on groceries.
Exactly Jason… now that my wife and I *think* this way, we not only save a ton of money… we save a lot of time on grocery trips too!
While I do love those Garden of Eatin’ chips, I question why you’d say that Triscuits are made with GMO wheat. Currently, there is NO GMO wheat grown anywhere in the world, except in some labs (http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/grocery_shopping/crops/22.genetically_modified_wheat.html). So, it’s not possible that Triscuits are made with GMO wheat. The only widespread GM crops in the U.S. are soybeans, corn, cotton, and rapeseed (canola). We’re talking upwards of 70% of all of those crops.
Oh… cool. Thanks for that info Bonnie. Duly noted. I still will avoid Triscuits based on the fact that they are not produced from organic crop. Unless you can prove that point wrong too of course! 🙂
Cheers.
20 jars of salsa consumed by Christmas – I’ll say y’all like salsa! We save a ton of money buying meat in bulk; we buy half a cow that will last 18 months. It’s locally raised, antibiotic, growth hormone free for half the price of similar beef in the grocery store. Same with chicken. And I stocked up on turkey and ham after Christmas. Needless to say, a big freezer is a must.
Oh heavens no Karyn… we’re not eating it by Christmas! We just like to buy things in bulk when they’re on sale.
We also purchased a local, healthy, grass-fed cow this year. The beef bought in bulk winds up being cheaper and 10x better for us! Glad you have discovered the blessing of GFB too.
My biggest bulk failure was HUGE jar of pickles. I must have been really hungry to think I could ever eat that many pickles, EVER!
Biggest bulk successes for hubs and I is peanut butter. They sell one at our Costco that doesn’t have the hydrogenated fats (trans fats), unhealthy tropical oils, or sugar that the big name ones do.
PS, it’s going to take us a year to get through all of the TP that we got recently at a very reasonable price. We’re lucky to have the storage space!!
Ha ha… my wife and I buy 5 pound buckets of organic peanut butter from a local organic farm and believe it or not, we go through each bucket in about 3 months!