We’ve all been there. You’re at the store, and you see a great deal on a large quantity of your favorite food item. So you buy it, thinking you’re saving money. But when you get home and realize you only needed a fraction of what you bought, you start to wonder: did I really save any money by shopping in bulk?
The answer, it turns out, is not always clear. It depends on a few factors, including how much you pay for bulk items, how long it takes you to use them up, and whether you would have bought them anyway.
Let’s say, for example, that you’re at the store and you see a 10-pound bag of flour on sale for $5. You know you’ll use the flour eventually, so you buy it. But if you only use one pound of flour every two months, it will take you over a year to use up the 10-pound bag. In the meantime, the flour will likely go bad. So in this case, it might have been cheaper to buy just the one pound of flour you needed.
On the other hand, let’s say you’re at the store and you see a two-pound bag of flour on sale for $3. You know you’ll use the flour eventually, so you buy it. But if you only use one pound of flour every two months, it will take you six months to use up the two-pound bag. In the meantime, the flour will likely go bad. So in this case, it would have been cheaper to buy the 10-pound bag.
Of course, these are just examples, and your own situation will be different. But the general principle is that shopping in bulk only saves you money if you would have bought the item anyway and if you use it up before it goes bad.
So the next time you’re tempted to buy in bulk, ask yourself: do I really need this much? And can I use it up before it goes bad? If the answer to both questions is yes, then go ahead and buy in bulk. If not, you might be better off buying just what you need.
