We buy in bulk what we use all the time. The past few months we have bought (outside of the normal grocery trips) Himalayan Salt, vitamins and supplements, organic oats, organic raisins, organic seeds for the garden, laundry soap, organic garlic and the latest-40 pounds of coconut oil.
There are a staples I buy about once a year from Azure Standard. They are basically an organic online grocery store. You can order whatever you want off their site if you are willing to meet the truck in Sioux Falls. If you don't want to mess with that, or just want a little, you can pay attention to what you order and have it shipped UPS (there are notes in the item detail when it can't ship UPS). Once a year I buy laundry soap (BioKleen), raisins, and garlic. Last year we also had diatomaceous earth which is fossilized remains of some sort of bug crushed up (technical terms LOL) that kills creepy crawlies. It will tear into the exoskeletons of the creepy crawlies making it so they can't breath. We have luck with it for flea and tick control with the animals, but we have so much left we didn't need more. It's also good for a detox drink (not tasty good, just useful)...if you do that, my husband says that guzzling is the only way. Next year I need to remember to buy more raisins because they taste SO GOOD. I love their garlic and the smallest amount, which gives me about 8 cloves-a six month supply in our house, is around $5. One of those will be sacrificed to grow my own. The oats and seeds were a new thing this year. We are loving the oats and the seeds have been planted and are growing near my window sill to be planted outside if it ever warms up. You can check out Azure Standard at www.azurestandard.com
When we stock up on vitamins and supplements we get prices from Vitacost then we start surfing the web to see if a different site has a cheaper price. I thought I had my list all ready for this order..but since we ordered we have ran out of 3 different supplements so far. So we are taking what we have and those are back on the list for when somebody else has a sale.
The Himalayan salt was something new for us. In our quest to eat healthier we have found that salt IS good for you, as long as you eat the right kind. Himalayan salt has vitamins and other vital minerals that white table salt does not. And it's REALLY good. According to my 2 year old, it's also pretty. It's pink. But beware, it's strong, a little goes a long way. The first time I put some on my eggs I discovered this the hard way.
We started on coconut oil two years ago. We started off just here and there, mostly using it for dry skin and diaper rashes. Then, after my husband was reading posts online, I now do almost everything with it. Diaper rash cream, lotion, all natural antibiotic ointment, oil pulling, nipple ointment now that I'm nursing all the time again, ear infections, bloody noses... The kids eat it straight out of the container when they can get into it, it's like contraband candy to them. I cook with it, season my cast iron pan with it. I'm sure I use it for much more, but that's all I can think of right now. There are many more uses for it and it's naturally antiviral and antibacterial. What we purchased is 40 pounds of machine pressed coconut oil. It should last awhile. I'm guessing at the very least a year. It cost us $60 plus S&H from www.bulkapothecary.com. To us, it's worth it. We started off with 5 gallons last fall sometime, when our bucket ran out we decided to get the big size. If you start with coconut oil, you might want to try both hand pressed and machine pressed. Hand pressed you will be able to taste coconut, which makes it great for a butter substitute on toast or just eating plain. The machine pressed you can't taste the coconut, which makes it great for cooking when you don't want that coconut flavor but need the oil. The only cooking I don't use coconut oil for is spaghetti and rice. Those two things just taste better with olive oil. The oil will be solid in cold temperatures, mine actually froze when it was below zero for what seemed like a month straight, the bucket was against an outside wall. But it will melt at 76 degrees, so if you need it in a liquid or soft solid state, just put it by someplace warm.
One of the tricks I have discovered with bulk buying is to make a note of when you buy something, that way you know how long it lasts and know when you will need to buy it again so you can fit it in your budget. I made a column for this in my pantry stock spreadsheet.
I have been buying more and more in bulk. It saves us money in the long run. It may seem like a lot to begin with, but it is better on the budget than continuously buying small amounts at a higher cost. You just have to remember the most important trick (in my mind) of buying in bulk, make sure you figure the cost per unit versus a a regular size. Sometimes it LOOKS like a good price when it's really just the same if not more.
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