Advantages To Buying In Bulk

For a number of years now consumers have enjoyed the convenience of buying in bulk. Without a little practice buying in bulk can be a bit of a hit and miss adventure. However if you know what to look for and what products to buy there are many advantages to buying in bulk.

Sometimes items are only available in bulk so if you want that particular product you won’t have a choice other than to buy it in bulk. But for most products there are bulk and prepackaged varieties available. One big advantage to bulk is you get to control the quantity you purchase. Whether you need more or less than the average package size it doesn’t matter.

Another big advantage is price. You aren’t paying for all that fancy and most often useless packaging. You get a simple plastic bag or plastic container and your product. No excess packaging so you’ll do your part for the environment and recycling and save money. Now that’s a win win!

Many bulk products have less preservatives and additives then prepackaged foods. This is a real advantage for those that suffer from allergies or food sensitivities. MSN is one common preservative that bothers many people.

Bulk also offers more variety and more choices. You are likely to find healthy alternatives that you wouldn’t be able to purchase in a prepackaged form. This is a real advantage!

When you buy in bulk you also get to see the actual product which means you can see if it looks good, fresh, appetizing, appealing, stale, or old. You can visually inspect it and make your decision based on that. With pre-packaged foods you have not idea until you open it. And let’s be honest many times the package is much more appealing than the actual item is. Some times don’t you wish they’d put all that marketing money into the product so it tasted better than the package looked rather than the other way around?

When you buy in bulk you aren’t just doing your part for recycling at the store you are also doing it at home. Suddenly you are using recycled jars and plastic containers to store your bulk foods, as well as bags that can be resealed. You can use these containers over and over and mother nature thanks you for doing your part!

The most important thing with bulk that you put in containers at home is to ensure the containers are air tight, dated, and labeled properly. Dating will let you know when the item needs to be tossed if you haven’t used it up. Labeling is critical. It’s amazing how so many products look alike when you remove the labels. It will take some of the guess work out of it for you. And of course air tight containers are critical to ensure food stuff is stored safely and not contaminated.

Do you have any idea what foods you can actually buy in bulk? You’ll be pleasantly surprised as the selection is quite large. You can buy all sorts of baking goods such as flour, cornmeal, spices, sugar, raisins, carob, peanut butter, chocolate, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips.

You can buy grains such as granola, oats, all kinds of cereals, and all kinds of rice. You can also buy pasta including lasagna, spaghetti, macaroni in all shapes and sizes, and egg noodles in a variety of sizes.

You can buy dried fruits such as bananas, raisins, pineapple, apricot, prune, apple, dates, papaya, and many others. You can also buy sun dried tomatoes and peppers.

You can buy all kinds of members of the bean family including navy beans, soup blends, kidney beans, soy beans, split peas, pinto beans, and soy beans. You can also buy members of the nut family including sunflower seeds, peanuts, walnuts, cashews, and almonds.

You can even buy meat in bulk and then freeze it. You can save a lot of money doing this. Either buy a half of beef or pork or both from the butcher or watch for sales on grocery store cuts then stock up. You can purchase bulk quantities at a reduced price almost always but it’s nice if you can combine it with an in store sale and really save.

Then all you need to do it repackage the meat in smaller family portions using Ziploc freezer bags and then marking each bag with permanent marker.

There are many advantages to buying bulk that may or may not appeal to you. But the one advantage that appeals to everyone is the substantial savings you can have. If you don’t believe it try buying bulk for 3 months and then decide for yourself.