As an American I can assure you it never stops sounding weird no matter how many times we say it.
We also have a TGI Chilibees-esque national restaurant chain called BJs.
Suggested to my boss last week that we 'go get BJs across the street' which is especially funny, because there's a massage parlor in the same shopping area as the restaurant
Oh man. Somehow I got ahold of a restaurant sized thing of aluminum foil. It was thick, quality foil. It wasn't new - the font on the box just seemed... 1970's. The roll was like almost a yard long and maybe 10 inches in diameter. It was so big, I stored it on a shelf in a garage.
I used it all the time for cooking. It was great! It literally lasted YEARS.
But one day... It was all used up... Gone... There was no more.
It was a sad day. I... I wasn't the same after that. Such a loss.
Two things.
1. That 70s looking roll of foil is still what they look like.
2. Find a Gordon Food Service - you can buy that and film (saran wrap) on commercial rolls. No membership needed.
My family didn't buy trash bags for years because we'd use the grocery store plastic bags instead, but now we finally have to because of Canada's ban on single use plastics lmao
>now we finally have to because of Canada's ban on single use plastics lmao
I had so many stored away that I was still using them over a year after they were discontinued in northern Iceland
Nobody, but the cost per unit goes way down and unlike a lot of bulk goods they dont take up much more space. Same with stuff like cling wrap and foil and resealable baggies.
So crazy to read that when living in south Texas. Replacing filters monthly in the summer is almost not often enough, and replacing them monthly in the winter is wasteful. The AC and furnace are a single unit.
but your a/c still uses the filter, doesn't matter when you change it. the filter is actually for your blower/air handler. it's not purely for your heater.
Personal Hygiene stuff.
You will use it for the rest of your life, lasts for practically ever and doesn't take up a ton of space. So buy it when it's on sale.
As for "use it for the rest of your life".
My in-laws were big fans of buying in bulk. We inherited enough saran wrap (Costco brand) to last probably thru my lifetime (and I don't use it anyway, my husband does I suspect in his effort to honor his parents 'gift'). Dishwash & body soap as well. Disposable roasting pans. Etc, I'd be awhile to try list it all. Most of which is not to my liking (I don't care for Dial soap brand as example).
I mean yeah, don’t buy multiple lifetimes worth 😅
But a case of 12 shampoos can easily save you 100 bucks compared to picking one up at Walgreens every time you run out.
I'm a sucker for "Buy X get a $X Gift Card" deals at Target. Which is why I have six sticks of deodorant, three bottles of shampoo, and four bottles of laundry soap in my closet cupboard right now.
But seriously - if you want to know how much is in your cart, count the number of items and multiple by $15. It'll get you within 10% unless you're buying a laptop or something.
When I first started going there 20 years ago, it was $10.
All fun and games until you end up absolutely jacked from carrying just a little bit more each time, Holes style, and next thing you know you're walking out with a 2-pack of flatscreen TVs in one hand and an entire display of rotisserie chickens in the other.
My wife and I have "Costco dates" and we'll often use the same strategy. We'll come for 1 or 2 things we actually need, but if we have a cart we'll end up getting a dozen things that we'll ultimately use but were nonetheless impulse buys.
I kid you not, our "this is getting serious" moment was going in together on a Costco membership about ~7 months into our relationship. We tried to get our wedding website to list a Costco registry but unfortunately there's no good way to do it that we found.
There's definitely some things that are worth buying and not buying at Costco. Cleaning supplies, toiletries, and paper products are definitely in the worth buying category. I easily make up my membership fees in savings on deodorant, face cleanser, soap, and laundry pods. A stick of deodorant is like $5 or more now, the men's deodorant at Costco is like $15 for a 5 pack and is frequently on sale.
Edit: to the point of things not worth buying, I'd probably say most kinds of produce. To my understanding it's typically not much cheaper than buying at the grocery store, and now you need to figure out what you're going to do with 10lbs of broccoli before it expires.
Speaking of, we frequently buy the vacuum packs of chicken. It's insanely useful for a 2 person household; most packs of chicken from the grocery store are much too large for a 2 person meal, and then you're stuck with an open pack of chicken in your fridge that you have to use the next day. We just throw the whole Costco bundle in the freezer and cut off one pack to thaw the day before.
Yeah we constantly have costco cooking oil of whatever type. They stopped selling the 1.5l bottles of Spanish olive oil but did sell it in a bulk container, so I bought the bulk size and just refilled the 20% full bottle we still had in the kitchen.
I just went, $800. No junk food, no extras, just things we actually need. Mind you, our Costco is 1.5 hours away so we only go once a month or two. $200 of that was a giant beef tenderloin which turned into serious savings per steak after we cut it up. Tasty cow, Aunt Meg.
I was floored to learn I could buy a 20lbs bag of flour for $10, when I've been buying 5lbs bags for $5 all my life. Same with sugar and rice, all staples really.
It sounds like a huge pain in the ass to store 20lbs of flour. That much flour would last me a ridiculously long time as well. I'll stick with paying a little more for a more reasonable sized amount.
I just had a great convo with a baker about sourdough. She told me that you can freeze your starter when you don’t want to be slaving. Then thaw it out and it will come back to life a lot faster than dehydrating one or restarting from scratch.
Costco sells bigger houses to store your freezers in.
Costco sells bigger neighborhoods to fit your houses in.
Costco sells bigger cities to…..
This is starting to feel like a children’s book or something.
If you are going to use that much in a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise you will be needlessly taking up valuable cabinet space just to see it spoiled in the end.
My local grocery store has started selling some spices in "bulk" where you just scoop the amount you need from a bulk jar. So now instead of spending $4+ on a jar of spice that I might use 1/4 - 1/2 of, I spend around $0.60 and get the amount I need for a recipe or two.
I do this, though I buy much bigger amounts than you because I use spices like my health depends on them, but I've noticed bulk spices are usually fresher than the prepackaged kind and you save a decent amount for not needing to pay for the jar every time you get one.
I think for most people it's probably a better way to buy spices.
That's interesting, the freshness. I would have assumed they were less fresh as they might be sitting in a non-airtight container for lord-knows-how-long.
I've found they're usually much fresher. It think the way supply chains work, the bulk spices in the bigger packages get to market way faster than those in small jars in boxes.
“Stored properly” is a key phrase here, and flour definitely goes bad. Even if it’s still edible, it can develop some rancid off flavors, and if you put years old flour baked goods by fresh flour ones, you can absolutely tell the difference. And that’s not even taking the possibility of a grain beetle infestation that destroys whole bag into consideration (and you literally have to store things in hard airtight containers to prevent these in places where they’re common). I personally wouldn’t buy more than I’d use in six months to a year at most, which is still bulk for a lot of things, but not 50 lbs of flour bulk.
>“Stored properly” is a key phrase here
Also, handled gently. I bought large bags of flour a couple times and the paper bag rips and then there's a huge mess and a bunch wasted.
That's a feature, not a bug. You get to take pictures of them, then head to one of the many bug subreddits in exchange for sweet, weevil-obsessed karma.
My dad used 5 gallon food grade buckets to hold flour. I found it in the garage a few years after he passed away. The weevils hatched and were nicely contained.
This is where a vacuum sealer and a basement freezer come in handy. We buy the 50-pound bags of flour and divvy them into 2.5 pound vacuum sealer bags with an oxygen absorber. Loaded into the freezer, the shelf life is 10 years at a *minimum*, and up to 25 years if you can minimize defrosting and temperature swings. Same with rice and dry beans.
Our flour normally gets used before it lasts that long, but I've opened a six-year-old bag of flour that was stored this way (we try to rotate, but one went unnoticed at the back of the freezer), and it had zero rancidity. It was indistinguishable from fresh flour.
My parents used to have a literal Rubbermaid container FULL of rice, complete with a measuring cup that was specifically for that bucket. I always found it fucking bonkers because who the fuck needs that much of *anything*, let alone *rice*.
A few grocery shops after moving out on my own, and I have my own literal Rubbermaid container full of rice. If you can manage to store it, do it.
I live in 550 sq.ft and literally cannot buy in bulk.
Having to buy in small quantities is like an added tax to being poor and not able to afford space.
For all the shit white rice gets compared to brown, white rice properly stored will last **decades**.
https://extension.usu.edu/preserve-the-harvest/research/storing-white-rice#:~:text=When%20properly%20sealed%20and%20stored,for%2025%20to%2030%20years.
Look very carefully at you rice if you buy in bulk. Especially if you've had it for 6 months or more. It might be full of tiny insects.
I wouldn't recommend buying those massive sacks of rice unless you plan on eating a ton of rice every day.
Most rice already has the eggs of pests on it when you buy it. If you freeze the rice for 24 hours before you store it then they won't ever hatch and they just wash away when you wash the rice. Eliminates basically all rice pests in my experience.
the trick is being able to store it but if you have the proper containers and/or vacuum sealers etc, you can save a shitload of money and only have to buy these things once every few years.
Close to it. Note that **brown rice** does go bad after a few months, because the outer layer is more prone to spoiling, but dry white rice is shelf-stable pretty much indefinitely.
I bought some food storage containers with tight-fitting lids. A 20 pound bag of rice fits nicely into four 4-quart containers, which are large enough to be efficient for storage but still small enough to be convenient when cooking.
I've used better than bouillon in my cooking for a while, and while it isn't as good as normal stock/broth, it's excellent at fulfilling those recipes that call for, like, ½ a cup of stock that isn't worth opening then wasting a whole bottle for.
We've been using the same Kirkland cling wrap for probably about five years. My mother in law has a bigger one that used to be her mother's lol, probably been using it for fifteen years!
My Kirkland cling wrap has moved houses with me 3 times, attended my wedding, and celebrated my divorce with me 3 years later. That was 3 years ago and it's still in the pantry today. Probably going on a decade now.
We bought the 3000' Kirkland stuff when we bought our first house and that was back in the mid 2000's so now we're getting close to the 20 year mark. We'll probably still have it in another 20 years and at that point I'm going to put it in my will to pass on to the eldest child because it's basically family heirloom at that point.
Same - the little slide clipper thing broke before we ran out of cling wrap - now it's just a big honkin' roll in a box that I just cut with scissors. I feel I need to add it into my will somewhere because I think it'll outlive me.
I got the same one and we've had it for nearly 15 years. The cling wrap is almost as old as my marriage. It was like $30, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be wrapped it in when I die and my kids with have to split up the last half of the roll; it's in my will.
It’s actually cost concerns, but it’s easy to make the case that vinyl polymers are bad for the environment, because they generally are.
Saran (PVDC) is waaaaay more expensive than normal polyethylene cling wrap; it also has massively better air barrier and sticks to other things besides itself effectively. Industrial customers using a layer of it in multi-layer bags (for air barrier) drive the price up further through demand
I mean, yeah ideally there’s a lot of stuff that would make economic sense for individual people to buy in bulk. The problem is not everyone lives in a warehouse. Take a look at your bills though and whatever you’re buying all the time, which would last in storage long enough for you to make use of it, that’s something that’ll save you money by buying in bulk.
I am still working through bulk paper towels I bought over two years ago. I moved them from one house to another, one state to another. Paper towels don’t make sense for me.
In the summer of 2020, when everything was locked down and we were buying everything online, I realized that we needed more conditioner. So I went to Amazon, looked up the usual basic Suave conditioner we buy at the store, and bought it.
Two days later, a rather large box shows up. I opened it to find *six* bottles of conditioner. I didn't notice the quantity when I was buying it, and the price didn't even tip me off. It's one of those things that's so cheap I don't even notice the price at the store, and apparently even a half dozen of them is still cheap.
Anyway, I'm on the last bottle of Pandemic Conditioner now. I'll feel a little sad when it's finally gone.
ye, the replies to this question are really underwhelming and dont compel me to change my shopping habits at all. Run the risk of having mites in my year old rice, so i can save two dollars? Wow *great*
What I buy in bulk
Toilet paper
Paper towel
Dish soap
Laundry detergent
Shower gel
Hand soap
Tooth bushes and floss
Rice
Flour
Dried beans/lentils/peas
Sugar/honey
Vinegar
Plastic wrap
Dog poop bags
Cat litter
Some canned meats and fish for work lunch sandwiches
Some canned soups again work lunches.
Dried pasta
I'm probably missing a few things on that list.
Honestly anything that you use, that has a longer or infinite expiry date, and that you have space for.
I keep them at work, at home and in my car. I actually don’t have headaches or migraines often but taking some excedrin when I do feel a migraine coming on really helps to nip it in the bud.
Toilet paper.
Hand and bar soaps.
Canned food.
Shelf stable milk cartons (can be left in the fridge until needed, not forcing you to use it in 2 weeks like regular milk)
And my personal favorite: $500 worth of quarters so that I can do laundry for years without having to run to the bank.
> $500 worth of quarters so that I can do laundry for years without having to run to the bank.
We bought a small washing machine for less than that. The time and space we gained from that purchase was worth it. We don't need so much space for dirty clothes anymore, and we have smaller wardrobes because we can just wash things more often. The time saved by not having to go to the laundromat is a huge bonus!
Happened to me once, that episode in step brothers really hit home. I shop at Sam’s/costco now keep an active case that we are using and a backup in the garage. Never again.
Also a LPT- if you or a friend is moving into a new place take a roll of TP, paper towels, and hand soap to the new place right away. It always gets forgotten about and it’s always needed
TP was on sale last week when we got groceries. Normally 21 bucks for the huge package, on for 14 bucks. Bought two of them. We're shitting on the cheap for a while!!
I grew up as an only child and my parents always bought TP or paper towels in bulk and just kept it in the basement. Load up when there’s sales. As a single guy, I always just bought the big pack and had one or two on hand. Didn’t get the whole shortage and realized then not everyone just has extra stock
After I got a bidet a single roll of cottonele tp could last me two weeks. I bought one on Amazon for $19 and it lasted me two years until I moved out (I left it because I didn’t want to disconnect it). It paid for itself in probably two months.
I'm surrounded by people that buy in bulk when they shouldn't. My dad is the worst. He buys things in bulk, even when he's not sure if he likes it. Then he gives them to me, so they don't go to waste.
I found a cheaper alternative to the litter I was buying at the store at a Tractor Supply Company. 40 fricking pounds of cat litter per bag for 6 bucks. I buy two at a time. I’d buy more but I live in a tiny house. It’s the feline pine litter… just not dressed up as fancy lol
Every few weeks I'm at TSC buying 4-6 bags of pelletized horse pine bedding.. Now I actually have the ideal amount of litter boxes spread through the house and don't stress like I'm spilling liquid gold every time it's soiled
I bought about 500 back in 2019, I expected them to last about 5 years since I frequently wrote my grandmothers letters. Then they both died during the pandemic. I hadn't used a single one for about two years, so I decided to start sending out holiday cards for the first time ever this year. Still, I'm unlikely to ever run out.
Out of principle, I refuse to pay the "convenience fee" for my gas, electric and water bills online. It's just as much as a convenience for them as it is for me. So I mail those fuckers a check each month. I buy tons of stamps.
My grandpa lived in the country and operated a small-ish farm. He would buy gasoline and diesel in bulk because he used it with farm equipment. He invested in a tank and an electric pump similar to what you see at the gas stations but without the fancy touchscreens and credit card readers. He paid a service to come out and refill the large tanks when it got low or empty and he paid a fraction of the retail cost at the pump. This was in Tennessee in the 1970s and 80s. I think now there are EPA regulations around approved storage and such. But if you could figure it out, I bet you could save a bunch on weekly fillups.
I know ag diesel is dyed but I assume guys use it in personal trucks too as I doubt anyone checks their tanks. Always curious if that’s the case of people taking the risk
I’ve been pulled into weigh stations where they checked fuel. Heard lots of truckers used to run on home heating oil when it was much cheaper than diesel. A diesel pick up could probably get away with it easier
Regular gas also has a shelf life of [3-6 months](https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-long-can-gas-sit-in-a-car-before-it-goes-bad). And the average consumer uses somewhere around 500 gallons per year. Depending on the size of the tanks you are getting (which I was struggling to find many options below 300 gallon), the gas is likely to go stale before it's time to fill up again. So I'd say for the average consumer this is just impractical since most people's fuel usage isn't going to justify it.
I worked at a government agricultural research station and we had our own pumps. You had to enter a personal ID, vehicle ID, and mileage so they kept an eye on it, but it certainly saved time and money driving across town every week.
My favorite bulk purchase is Bic lighters, I buy the big display looking one, I think it’s about 50 lighters, each display unit lasts me about 2 years and for some reason it seems like I don’t lose them as often and it’s way cheaper than buying them for $3 each at the gas station
I don't smoke, but I used to camp a lot. Prior to Covid I never bought a lighter.
Instead I always used to find them in parking lots. I feel like it was a skill I picked up while working at a gas station.
If you shave, try an old school Double Edged Safety Razor, then buy the razor blades in bulk. Buy 100 for $10. Contrast that to plastic cartridge razors where each cartridge costs $4.
So cartridge = $4, bulk DE razor 10 cents. No brainer and you get a closer shave too.
Batteries. Just buying that 8 pack will do for now, but what about extended power outages when you need all your flashlights working for extended periods of time
I had to buy some recently and was annoyed that an 8 pack was only a dollar less than a 16 pack. I don't need that many and i'd rather have a cheaper option.
Pretty much anything you need to get through a cold: Tissues, medicine, cough drops, tea. Nothing worse than having to drag your plague-ridden ass to a pharmacy when you feel like you'll never not have to blow your nose again.
My problem with having a lot of cocaine is instead of doing small lines, I'll just do bigger lines. Having more cocaine sounds like drug deal suggestive selling.
Laundry liquid detergent
Dishwasher tablets
Toilet paper
We are a 2 person family and I buy these items in bulk, they last us ages and I only have to buy them once every couple of months.
Trash bags
I buy one box of trash bags from BJs per year!!
For an ignorant Brit: What’s the current BJ to trash bag ratio?
Whoops that’s some unfortunate phrasing on my part. BJs is like Costco with a much more suggestive name.
I like to go to BJs, then Dick’s and wrap it up with a burger at Fuckrudders.
Don't forget to stop for gas at kum & go
If you are in South Carolina, you can then go and shag the night away.
I grew up in SC. I told my oldest sisters British boyfriend that they teach us to shag in the 6th grade and he was mortified
As an American I can assure you it never stops sounding weird no matter how many times we say it. We also have a TGI Chilibees-esque national restaurant chain called BJs.
Suggested to my boss last week that we 'go get BJs across the street' which is especially funny, because there's a massage parlor in the same shopping area as the restaurant
TGI chilibees made me laugh way too hard 😂😂
This is the funniest question I've ever read. The market is tough. I give BJs for a couple 13 gallon trash bags.
The same as unicorns to leprechauns
Curious as an american, how big of a difference is that in elephants?
North American or European elephants?
It's not a question of how he grips it, it's a simple matter of weight ratios...
Per year!? I had a box from Costco last me for a little over 3 years. When we finally ran out it felt like the end of something.
Oh man. Somehow I got ahold of a restaurant sized thing of aluminum foil. It was thick, quality foil. It wasn't new - the font on the box just seemed... 1970's. The roll was like almost a yard long and maybe 10 inches in diameter. It was so big, I stored it on a shelf in a garage. I used it all the time for cooking. It was great! It literally lasted YEARS. But one day... It was all used up... Gone... There was no more. It was a sad day. I... I wasn't the same after that. Such a loss.
Two things. 1. That 70s looking roll of foil is still what they look like. 2. Find a Gordon Food Service - you can buy that and film (saran wrap) on commercial rolls. No membership needed.
Haha, someone once gave my mom a giant roll of plastic wrap that nearly outlived Queen Elizabeth.
My family didn't buy trash bags for years because we'd use the grocery store plastic bags instead, but now we finally have to because of Canada's ban on single use plastics lmao
>now we finally have to because of Canada's ban on single use plastics lmao I had so many stored away that I was still using them over a year after they were discontinued in northern Iceland
Who buys one trash bag at a time?
Nobody, but the cost per unit goes way down and unlike a lot of bulk goods they dont take up much more space. Same with stuff like cling wrap and foil and resealable baggies.
Forced-air heater filters. They need replaced regularly and actually having some around would encourage you to do it.
Remember to change them in the summer during air conditioner use. A much overlooked home maintenance item.
So crazy to read that when living in south Texas. Replacing filters monthly in the summer is almost not often enough, and replacing them monthly in the winter is wasteful. The AC and furnace are a single unit.
Replacing filters **monthly**? uh, what?
Air conditioner filters in the south. Yeah, monthly replacement in the summer for sure.
"The South" and "south Texas" are *vastly* different environs.
but your a/c still uses the filter, doesn't matter when you change it. the filter is actually for your blower/air handler. it's not purely for your heater.
Personal Hygiene stuff. You will use it for the rest of your life, lasts for practically ever and doesn't take up a ton of space. So buy it when it's on sale.
As for "use it for the rest of your life". My in-laws were big fans of buying in bulk. We inherited enough saran wrap (Costco brand) to last probably thru my lifetime (and I don't use it anyway, my husband does I suspect in his effort to honor his parents 'gift'). Dishwash & body soap as well. Disposable roasting pans. Etc, I'd be awhile to try list it all. Most of which is not to my liking (I don't care for Dial soap brand as example).
I mean yeah, don’t buy multiple lifetimes worth 😅 But a case of 12 shampoos can easily save you 100 bucks compared to picking one up at Walgreens every time you run out.
I'm a sucker for "Buy X get a $X Gift Card" deals at Target. Which is why I have six sticks of deodorant, three bottles of shampoo, and four bottles of laundry soap in my closet cupboard right now.
Don’t forget tampons
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If I get out of Costco spending less than $300, I'm ecstatic.
Costco is 100% minimum $300 every single time. Doesn’t matter if I need one thing or 15.
But seriously - if you want to know how much is in your cart, count the number of items and multiple by $15. It'll get you within 10% unless you're buying a laptop or something. When I first started going there 20 years ago, it was $10.
$150 is a low end trip for me. Trick is to go in without a cart. Then you’re limited to what you can carry.
All fun and games until you end up absolutely jacked from carrying just a little bit more each time, Holes style, and next thing you know you're walking out with a 2-pack of flatscreen TVs in one hand and an entire display of rotisserie chickens in the other.
My wife and I have "Costco dates" and we'll often use the same strategy. We'll come for 1 or 2 things we actually need, but if we have a cart we'll end up getting a dozen things that we'll ultimately use but were nonetheless impulse buys.
Honestly couple goals
I kid you not, our "this is getting serious" moment was going in together on a Costco membership about ~7 months into our relationship. We tried to get our wedding website to list a Costco registry but unfortunately there's no good way to do it that we found.
This is adorable. Congrats on finding your Costco buddy!
There's definitely some things that are worth buying and not buying at Costco. Cleaning supplies, toiletries, and paper products are definitely in the worth buying category. I easily make up my membership fees in savings on deodorant, face cleanser, soap, and laundry pods. A stick of deodorant is like $5 or more now, the men's deodorant at Costco is like $15 for a 5 pack and is frequently on sale. Edit: to the point of things not worth buying, I'd probably say most kinds of produce. To my understanding it's typically not much cheaper than buying at the grocery store, and now you need to figure out what you're going to do with 10lbs of broccoli before it expires.
They have the best grapes though.
and if you buy 'em in bulk, you can start a winery.
Often the quality of the produce is so good that it’s worth playing use-it-up chicken.
Speaking of, we frequently buy the vacuum packs of chicken. It's insanely useful for a 2 person household; most packs of chicken from the grocery store are much too large for a 2 person meal, and then you're stuck with an open pack of chicken in your fridge that you have to use the next day. We just throw the whole Costco bundle in the freezer and cut off one pack to thaw the day before.
Bro, we open the family packs with 1000 chops and re bag the meat in seperate freezer storage bags round here. 4 porkchops to a baggie. Ya feel me?
They have Avocado oil 1.5L for I think it was 12.99$? Absolutely a good deal. The grocery store was selling 750ml for 15$
Yeah we constantly have costco cooking oil of whatever type. They stopped selling the 1.5l bottles of Spanish olive oil but did sell it in a bulk container, so I bought the bulk size and just refilled the 20% full bottle we still had in the kitchen.
I just went, $800. No junk food, no extras, just things we actually need. Mind you, our Costco is 1.5 hours away so we only go once a month or two. $200 of that was a giant beef tenderloin which turned into serious savings per steak after we cut it up. Tasty cow, Aunt Meg.
is the gravy practically a food group?
Did you see my cows out front?
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I find it's closer to $20 per item on average these days, especially in Canadian dollars.
I was floored to learn I could buy a 20lbs bag of flour for $10, when I've been buying 5lbs bags for $5 all my life. Same with sugar and rice, all staples really.
It sounds like a huge pain in the ass to store 20lbs of flour. That much flour would last me a ridiculously long time as well. I'll stick with paying a little more for a more reasonable sized amount.
You clearly are not a slave to sourdough starter.
I just had a great convo with a baker about sourdough. She told me that you can freeze your starter when you don’t want to be slaving. Then thaw it out and it will come back to life a lot faster than dehydrating one or restarting from scratch.
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Ah, but I don’t have space in my kitchen or garage for a chest freezer. Do they happen to sell sheds?
Costco sells bigger houses to store your freezers in. Costco sells bigger neighborhoods to fit your houses in. Costco sells bigger cities to….. This is starting to feel like a children’s book or something.
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
Why yes they do!!
But where to put *that*?
In your garden, and if you don't have that, Costco will sell you one!
You're not making enough crêpes.
I find this is true of most people.
If you are going to use that much in a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise you will be needlessly taking up valuable cabinet space just to see it spoiled in the end.
My local grocery store has started selling some spices in "bulk" where you just scoop the amount you need from a bulk jar. So now instead of spending $4+ on a jar of spice that I might use 1/4 - 1/2 of, I spend around $0.60 and get the amount I need for a recipe or two.
I do this, though I buy much bigger amounts than you because I use spices like my health depends on them, but I've noticed bulk spices are usually fresher than the prepackaged kind and you save a decent amount for not needing to pay for the jar every time you get one. I think for most people it's probably a better way to buy spices.
That's interesting, the freshness. I would have assumed they were less fresh as they might be sitting in a non-airtight container for lord-knows-how-long.
Most places that have bulk herbs & spices have pretty good volume. Pro-tip: buy spices whole whenever possible then toast and grind at time of use.
Yes! I go through a fair bit of smoked paprika, and the bulk is like 1/30 the price, and doesn't have the caking additive.
Smoked paprika is where it’s at!
I'd worry that the bulk jar was open to the air too much and the spices would already be going bad.
I've found they're usually much fresher. It think the way supply chains work, the bulk spices in the bigger packages get to market way faster than those in small jars in boxes.
I think you gave the reverse answer
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“Stored properly” is a key phrase here, and flour definitely goes bad. Even if it’s still edible, it can develop some rancid off flavors, and if you put years old flour baked goods by fresh flour ones, you can absolutely tell the difference. And that’s not even taking the possibility of a grain beetle infestation that destroys whole bag into consideration (and you literally have to store things in hard airtight containers to prevent these in places where they’re common). I personally wouldn’t buy more than I’d use in six months to a year at most, which is still bulk for a lot of things, but not 50 lbs of flour bulk.
>“Stored properly” is a key phrase here Also, handled gently. I bought large bags of flour a couple times and the paper bag rips and then there's a huge mess and a bunch wasted.
You say wasted flour, I say ghost party.
I say... EXPLOSION
I say…weevils
Grandma used to call them "speckled biscuits," when she made them with weevil infested flour.
That gets a near-vomit upvote.
That's a feature, not a bug. You get to take pictures of them, then head to one of the many bug subreddits in exchange for sweet, weevil-obsessed karma.
I would recommend 5 gallon food grade buckets with the screw on gasket lids.
My dad used 5 gallon food grade buckets to hold flour. I found it in the garage a few years after he passed away. The weevils hatched and were nicely contained.
This is the way. I once found two and just ate the smaller one, it was the lesser of two weevils.
This is where a vacuum sealer and a basement freezer come in handy. We buy the 50-pound bags of flour and divvy them into 2.5 pound vacuum sealer bags with an oxygen absorber. Loaded into the freezer, the shelf life is 10 years at a *minimum*, and up to 25 years if you can minimize defrosting and temperature swings. Same with rice and dry beans. Our flour normally gets used before it lasts that long, but I've opened a six-year-old bag of flour that was stored this way (we try to rotate, but one went unnoticed at the back of the freezer), and it had zero rancidity. It was indistinguishable from fresh flour.
Exactly. Buy a supply that goes bad in twice the time you plan to have it on hand. What are we talking about? Just a few cent difference a year?
My parents used to have a literal Rubbermaid container FULL of rice, complete with a measuring cup that was specifically for that bucket. I always found it fucking bonkers because who the fuck needs that much of *anything*, let alone *rice*. A few grocery shops after moving out on my own, and I have my own literal Rubbermaid container full of rice. If you can manage to store it, do it.
I live in 550 sq.ft and literally cannot buy in bulk. Having to buy in small quantities is like an added tax to being poor and not able to afford space.
Get rid of your bed and put your mattress on a tower of pasta and toilet paper!
We have a bunch of canned goods under our bed. It's a great way to store a bunch of stuff.
Under my bed is my linen closet.
Under the bed is where the monsters live. You trying to evict those poor monsters? Where they going to go live then?
Yeah, the two big barriers are a place to properly store it and the money all up front to buy it.
Yeah I wouldn't buy 50 lbs of flour but I buy the biggest bag I have space for. When pasta is on sale I buy 4 extra boxes for my closet.
For all the shit white rice gets compared to brown, white rice properly stored will last **decades**. https://extension.usu.edu/preserve-the-harvest/research/storing-white-rice#:~:text=When%20properly%20sealed%20and%20stored,for%2025%20to%2030%20years.
Look very carefully at you rice if you buy in bulk. Especially if you've had it for 6 months or more. It might be full of tiny insects. I wouldn't recommend buying those massive sacks of rice unless you plan on eating a ton of rice every day.
Most rice already has the eggs of pests on it when you buy it. If you freeze the rice for 24 hours before you store it then they won't ever hatch and they just wash away when you wash the rice. Eliminates basically all rice pests in my experience.
the trick is being able to store it but if you have the proper containers and/or vacuum sealers etc, you can save a shitload of money and only have to buy these things once every few years.
I have two huge cereal dispenser containers that I filled with bulk white jasmine and short grain rice SIX YEARS AGO and are still a third full.
> rice does not go bad Brown rice goes rancid
Is rice non perishable???
Properly stored in a cool, dry, dark place, free of vermin, most grains remain viable, essentially forever. The same goes for honey and vinegar.
Close to it. Note that **brown rice** does go bad after a few months, because the outer layer is more prone to spoiling, but dry white rice is shelf-stable pretty much indefinitely. I bought some food storage containers with tight-fitting lids. A 20 pound bag of rice fits nicely into four 4-quart containers, which are large enough to be efficient for storage but still small enough to be convenient when cooking.
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I've used better than bouillon in my cooking for a while, and while it isn't as good as normal stock/broth, it's excellent at fulfilling those recipes that call for, like, ½ a cup of stock that isn't worth opening then wasting a whole bottle for.
Bouillon?
What did you call me?
You heard.
Cling wrap, I got a box of the cling wrap we use in restaurants for my house and I think it’ll easily last me over a year.
We've been using the same Kirkland cling wrap for probably about five years. My mother in law has a bigger one that used to be her mother's lol, probably been using it for fifteen years!
My Kirkland cling wrap has moved houses with me 3 times, attended my wedding, and celebrated my divorce with me 3 years later. That was 3 years ago and it's still in the pantry today. Probably going on a decade now.
Like a cling on family member
Your cling wrap has a much more exciting life than I do 🙄
We bought the 3000' Kirkland stuff when we bought our first house and that was back in the mid 2000's so now we're getting close to the 20 year mark. We'll probably still have it in another 20 years and at that point I'm going to put it in my will to pass on to the eldest child because it's basically family heirloom at that point.
Ha! My mom is the same and already told me that I'm inheriting hers.
Same - the little slide clipper thing broke before we ran out of cling wrap - now it's just a big honkin' roll in a box that I just cut with scissors. I feel I need to add it into my will somewhere because I think it'll outlive me.
I got the same one and we've had it for nearly 15 years. The cling wrap is almost as old as my marriage. It was like $30, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be wrapped it in when I die and my kids with have to split up the last half of the roll; it's in my will.
Before right now it has never occurred to me that people use that much cling wrap. A regular $2 roll lasts me about 3 years.
Real cling wrap is inferior too, citing environmental concerns.
It’s actually cost concerns, but it’s easy to make the case that vinyl polymers are bad for the environment, because they generally are. Saran (PVDC) is waaaaay more expensive than normal polyethylene cling wrap; it also has massively better air barrier and sticks to other things besides itself effectively. Industrial customers using a layer of it in multi-layer bags (for air barrier) drive the price up further through demand
My MIL bought one of those restaurants size cling wraps about 15 years ago. Still going strong.
Tampons. Every single time they're on sale at Costco.
There's some things like that which seem to always be on a sale at Costco. Deodorant and laundry pods come to mind.
Like that [scene](https://youtu.be/nQI79SYhNQ4?t=90) on The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon tells Penny to buy 30 years worth of tampons.
switching to a cup was one of the best decisions I've ever made, economically, environmentally, and comfort-wise.
I mean, yeah ideally there’s a lot of stuff that would make economic sense for individual people to buy in bulk. The problem is not everyone lives in a warehouse. Take a look at your bills though and whatever you’re buying all the time, which would last in storage long enough for you to make use of it, that’s something that’ll save you money by buying in bulk.
I am still working through bulk paper towels I bought over two years ago. I moved them from one house to another, one state to another. Paper towels don’t make sense for me.
In the summer of 2020, when everything was locked down and we were buying everything online, I realized that we needed more conditioner. So I went to Amazon, looked up the usual basic Suave conditioner we buy at the store, and bought it. Two days later, a rather large box shows up. I opened it to find *six* bottles of conditioner. I didn't notice the quantity when I was buying it, and the price didn't even tip me off. It's one of those things that's so cheap I don't even notice the price at the store, and apparently even a half dozen of them is still cheap. Anyway, I'm on the last bottle of Pandemic Conditioner now. I'll feel a little sad when it's finally gone.
"Pandemic Conditioner" Omg 😂😂😂
ye, the replies to this question are really underwhelming and dont compel me to change my shopping habits at all. Run the risk of having mites in my year old rice, so i can save two dollars? Wow *great*
What I buy in bulk Toilet paper Paper towel Dish soap Laundry detergent Shower gel Hand soap Tooth bushes and floss Rice Flour Dried beans/lentils/peas Sugar/honey Vinegar Plastic wrap Dog poop bags Cat litter Some canned meats and fish for work lunch sandwiches Some canned soups again work lunches. Dried pasta I'm probably missing a few things on that list. Honestly anything that you use, that has a longer or infinite expiry date, and that you have space for.
Headache meds. It's an election year.
I keep them at work, at home and in my car. I actually don’t have headaches or migraines often but taking some excedrin when I do feel a migraine coming on really helps to nip it in the bud.
Toilet paper. Hand and bar soaps. Canned food. Shelf stable milk cartons (can be left in the fridge until needed, not forcing you to use it in 2 weeks like regular milk) And my personal favorite: $500 worth of quarters so that I can do laundry for years without having to run to the bank.
> $500 worth of quarters so that I can do laundry for years without having to run to the bank. We bought a small washing machine for less than that. The time and space we gained from that purchase was worth it. We don't need so much space for dirty clothes anymore, and we have smaller wardrobes because we can just wash things more often. The time saved by not having to go to the laundromat is a huge bonus!
I'm guessing OP is in a flat with a shared washing machine and no space for their own. But the real pro tip is to buy a key.
Toilet paper. Running out results in a real shitty situation
Happened to me once, that episode in step brothers really hit home. I shop at Sam’s/costco now keep an active case that we are using and a backup in the garage. Never again. Also a LPT- if you or a friend is moving into a new place take a roll of TP, paper towels, and hand soap to the new place right away. It always gets forgotten about and it’s always needed
That and a plunger. You usually don't buy one until you really need one.
In college we would get down to a single roll for 2 bathrooms. "Crisis mode" was our name for it. The Step Brothers scene hits hard for me as well.
TP was on sale last week when we got groceries. Normally 21 bucks for the huge package, on for 14 bucks. Bought two of them. We're shitting on the cheap for a while!!
Remember 2020 where having abundant toilet paper was a flex?
I grew up as an only child and my parents always bought TP or paper towels in bulk and just kept it in the basement. Load up when there’s sales. As a single guy, I always just bought the big pack and had one or two on hand. Didn’t get the whole shortage and realized then not everyone just has extra stock
After I got a bidet a single roll of cottonele tp could last me two weeks. I bought one on Amazon for $19 and it lasted me two years until I moved out (I left it because I didn’t want to disconnect it). It paid for itself in probably two months.
Lots of mfers with storage space here :(
Reading this thread from my 575 sq ft apartment and feeling all envious.
Same. I'm especially envious of the pantry space people have. We've just got one small cabinet.
I'm surrounded by people that buy in bulk when they shouldn't. My dad is the worst. He buys things in bulk, even when he's not sure if he likes it. Then he gives them to me, so they don't go to waste.
I buy cat litter in bulk and it saves a ton. Also cleaning supplies used regularly
I found a cheaper alternative to the litter I was buying at the store at a Tractor Supply Company. 40 fricking pounds of cat litter per bag for 6 bucks. I buy two at a time. I’d buy more but I live in a tiny house. It’s the feline pine litter… just not dressed up as fancy lol
Every few weeks I'm at TSC buying 4-6 bags of pelletized horse pine bedding.. Now I actually have the ideal amount of litter boxes spread through the house and don't stress like I'm spilling liquid gold every time it's soiled
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> items that you use up before they run out My brain is stuck in a loop on this phrase
I glanced over it, then went back to it after reading your comment. Now I’m stuck in the loop.
The trick is to encourage your parents to buy in bulk. That way you can just take what you need when you’re at their house.
Pads/tampons. Though that may be because of how fucking expensive they are.
Diva cup yo
Forever stamps
I bought 100 of these last year for like $32. Will likely last forever.
I bought about 500 back in 2019, I expected them to last about 5 years since I frequently wrote my grandmothers letters. Then they both died during the pandemic. I hadn't used a single one for about two years, so I decided to start sending out holiday cards for the first time ever this year. Still, I'm unlikely to ever run out.
Out of principle, I refuse to pay the "convenience fee" for my gas, electric and water bills online. It's just as much as a convenience for them as it is for me. So I mail those fuckers a check each month. I buy tons of stamps.
Dish soap in 5 gal bucket
just looked up runs about 40-50$ thats very low considering a small bottle is like 7 dollars. will definitely be getting this when mine runs out
My grandpa lived in the country and operated a small-ish farm. He would buy gasoline and diesel in bulk because he used it with farm equipment. He invested in a tank and an electric pump similar to what you see at the gas stations but without the fancy touchscreens and credit card readers. He paid a service to come out and refill the large tanks when it got low or empty and he paid a fraction of the retail cost at the pump. This was in Tennessee in the 1970s and 80s. I think now there are EPA regulations around approved storage and such. But if you could figure it out, I bet you could save a bunch on weekly fillups.
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I know ag diesel is dyed but I assume guys use it in personal trucks too as I doubt anyone checks their tanks. Always curious if that’s the case of people taking the risk
I’ve been pulled into weigh stations where they checked fuel. Heard lots of truckers used to run on home heating oil when it was much cheaper than diesel. A diesel pick up could probably get away with it easier
Regular gas also has a shelf life of [3-6 months](https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-long-can-gas-sit-in-a-car-before-it-goes-bad). And the average consumer uses somewhere around 500 gallons per year. Depending on the size of the tanks you are getting (which I was struggling to find many options below 300 gallon), the gas is likely to go stale before it's time to fill up again. So I'd say for the average consumer this is just impractical since most people's fuel usage isn't going to justify it.
I worked at a government agricultural research station and we had our own pumps. You had to enter a personal ID, vehicle ID, and mileage so they kept an eye on it, but it certainly saved time and money driving across town every week.
I buy 3 items in bulk always. Paper towels, toilet paper and trash bags. Everything else is as need basis.
Deodorant
My favorite bulk purchase is Bic lighters, I buy the big display looking one, I think it’s about 50 lighters, each display unit lasts me about 2 years and for some reason it seems like I don’t lose them as often and it’s way cheaper than buying them for $3 each at the gas station
I don't smoke, but I used to camp a lot. Prior to Covid I never bought a lighter. Instead I always used to find them in parking lots. I feel like it was a skill I picked up while working at a gas station.
You know that pink Himalayan salt that’s $10 an ounce in the spice section? It’s $1 a pound in the bulk section. Same stuff, different package.
If you shave, try an old school Double Edged Safety Razor, then buy the razor blades in bulk. Buy 100 for $10. Contrast that to plastic cartridge razors where each cartridge costs $4. So cartridge = $4, bulk DE razor 10 cents. No brainer and you get a closer shave too.
Batteries. Just buying that 8 pack will do for now, but what about extended power outages when you need all your flashlights working for extended periods of time
I had to buy some recently and was annoyed that an 8 pack was only a dollar less than a 16 pack. I don't need that many and i'd rather have a cheaper option.
Batteries expire. You should always have a spare, but you'll waste money overbuying. I prefer to keep a set of rechargables.
Pretty much anything you need to get through a cold: Tissues, medicine, cough drops, tea. Nothing worse than having to drag your plague-ridden ass to a pharmacy when you feel like you'll never not have to blow your nose again.
cocaine you know you hitting the plug up again that night
My problem with having a lot of cocaine is instead of doing small lines, I'll just do bigger lines. Having more cocaine sounds like drug deal suggestive selling.
Me and my partner buy bulk toothbrushes. Just a huge box of wooden toothbrushes that last us a couple years a time. So cheap too.
Dental floss. Buy them when you see some on sale. They never get cheaper and it always sucks when you realize you've ran out.
Laundry liquid detergent Dishwasher tablets Toilet paper We are a 2 person family and I buy these items in bulk, they last us ages and I only have to buy them once every couple of months.
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Rice. I can eat 2000 of those in a meal