Buying in bulk,,,,,part 1

Greetings!!

I am going to start my series on buying food in bulk.  Buying in bulk is going to be different for each household depending on your needs, size of family, type of dwelling and food budget.

Why buy in bulk?  The most obvious reason is it saves you money on your food budget in the long run.  It is also good to have a supply of food stocked up for emergencies.

In my lifetime I have been through or seen numerous floods, ice storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters which left it impossible to get to the grocery store for days or without power for days or even weeks in some cases.  That surplus of food sure came in handy!  There was also the time I was injured on the job with no work comp insurance to help cover the bills and keep food on the table.

Just as there are varying degrees of budgets to work with there are varying degrees of how much you buy in bulk.  One key thing to remember, "it's not a bargain if you can't/won't use it".  In other words don't go off willy- nilly and buy things just for the sake of buying them!

Planning your bulk purchases takes careful consideration.  For example, if you are a family of 2 or 3 you would not want to buy the #10 cans of vegetables, they would go bad before you eat them all!  But buying several 1 lb cans on a particularly good sale would be a good thing.

Checking expiration dates when you make your purchases is very important.  Most new inventory will have an expiration date that is at least 2 years or 3 years beyond your purchase date.  Always buy items that have at least 2 years on them giving you time to eat them before they expire and rotate your stock.

Keep good track of the items you tend to eat a lot of and that is what you will want to buy in bulk.  For example, we eat a lot of soup in the winter time.  I will buy in bulk when it is on a good sale, even in the summer and put it back for winter use.  I also make some of my own soups and can them.  I bake so therefore I buy my flours and baking supplies in bulk.

Not everyone has a huge amount of money laying around that they can just go out and buy a bunch of stuff in bulk.  And not everyone has the storage room for a huge amount of stuff.  We'll talk about ways to get started buying in bulk without breaking the bank account and creative ways to store your purchases whether you live in a house with a basement or an apartment in the city in my next post.

Until next time,,,,,,Blessings!!