View Full Version : Stocking up on sale items OR just buying what you need for the week
Which one do you think actually cost the least?
I've read that making a menu and just buying just what you need for it each week actually cost less than buying sale items and stocking up, even when you end up paying full price for your menu items because there is no waste.
I have tried it both ways and I'm beginning to think I do save more by not tying up my money in food stock, even though it was bought on sale and just sticking to weekly shopping. Of course, I do read the adds and try to plan my menus around things I find on sale.
What are your thoughts on this?
I doubt there is a clear-cut answer to this, so to me the answer is 'it depends'.
There are sales, and there are Sales. If you aren't getting that good a deal on something, it might not pay to buy and store stuff - storing stuff does take space and time to rotate/organize.
As to tying up the money, how much money is one talking about, and what else would you be doing with it? If you are a saver, putting it in the bank wouldn't give you much these days. If you are a spender, keeping the money in 'goods' you'll eventually use might be considered indirect savings. ;)
If you buy things on sale that you'll never really use, or they go bad, it doesn't matter how good the price was, that's a total loss of money.
I personally am a stocker. I do it for several reasons. It's what I learned growing up so it's habit. I like having lots of extra 'just in case' here in 'The Acts of God Themepark' (SoCal) - I consider it food insurance in case 'the big one' hits.
I also believe I save money,though I've never kept track, but I do consider myself a wise shopper. There also are a couple things that have gone up significantly in price and the extras I have on hand have become an even better deal. :)
Bastelmutti
1-26-11, 2:33pm
I kind of do both. We have little storage room and no extra freezer or anything, so stocking up might mean an extra couple of packages of meat in the freezer or 5 boxes of pasta, no more. I try to vary the stores I hit each week so that I can get the best deals from each, esp. on bread, snacks for school, staples like pasta, tomatoes, etc. The ethnic stores have the best prices on produce, so I try to stick to those for fruit and veg as much as I can.
I have seen people with enormous pantries stocked with flats of stuff from the club stores and stuff like that & just can't see all that stuff getting used up.
"I have seen people with enormous pantries stocked with flats of stuff from the club stores and stuff like that & just can't see all that stuff getting used up."
I totally agree with you there. That would be a nightmare to deal with.
If I see an absolutely phenomenal buy for something I know we will use, I will stock up. Mostly though, I buy what I need every week so that I can keep the monthly grocery expenditure under budget. I have stocked up in the past and for whatever reason, don't always end up using the product and it takes up too much space.
Mrs. Hermit
1-26-11, 10:53pm
I "stock up". I put it in quotes because I'm feeding 3 teens and a young 20's, and friends too. Somehow no amount of food lasts long around here.....
I do some stocking up. Cases of canned non-fat beans, soup, pasta, coffee, pasta sauce, tuna fish, and butter, all from Costco. Then we augment with fresh stuff from the co-op, and baking at home.
I am probably giving up the Costco membership now that the teen are grown & gone, as we aren't going through the quantity we were. Though my builder husband does joke about bringing home a six pack of circular saws...
I've found it goes something like this: I buy a stock of a "backup item" ... maybe a somewhat less than desirable dishwasher powder because it was such a great sale. Then I wind up buying the variety I really like anyway. The stocked product sits there taking up shelf space. I guess if there were ever shortage of dishwasher powder I'd be sitting pretty, but it hardly seems worth it.
With a few exceptions that I will stock up on, like canned tomatoes and wine, most of our food products are perishable. We just don't do a lot of beans and grains. Even things I didn't know are perishable, like nuts, eventually get rancid and inedible. Spices get tasteless. Coffee and tea can also get stale and flavorless. I don't really like having back up storage of rice, flours and beans because we don't ordinarily eat those foods and having a rotation means yes, we have to eat lots of them.
loosechickens
1-27-11, 12:19am
We stock up when we find something we use regularly at a really good price, but we don't just buy something because it's on sale, it's got to be something we would be buying at the regular price. We are also very careful about rotating and using our food supply, so food is very seldom wasted or allowed to go stale.
If you can discipline yourself to buy only what you know you will use, and then rotate your supply so nothing goes out of date before use, I don't see how you could NOT save money. If you buy something for 99 cents that is normally $1.29, you've saved money, whether you buy one, six or enough to last for a year, to me.
happystuff
1-27-11, 8:04am
I also do both. I'll stock up on those sale items that we definitely will use and I'll buy what I need for the week. I've been on a very limited grocery budget since before the holidays and really need to take advantage of sales, but still stay within the budget.
goldensmom
1-27-11, 9:04am
I definitely save by stocking up. I buy in quantity if I know an item will be used within the sell by/expiration date time. I've shopped this method for at least 10 years, write down every penny I spend and know that I've saved a lot of money over the years. Some items are bought as needed (i.e. milk) and when needed and not on sale but that is the exception. I'm a disciplined shopper, rarely buy anything not on my list and try ever so hard to shop alone (no husband). It really works for our budget.
Becky33850
2-9-11, 12:55am
I tend to do both as well. I buy a few things name brand but tend to stick to generics.
I prefer to do OAMC so I tend to stock up on items I need for that. If there is a great buy on pork shoulder or butt, I'll buy 2 or 3, knowing that they will be in the crockpot overnight during the next session.
I belonged to Sams Club back when we lived on the farm in DE and I'd do OAMC for 6 months. Here in FL, it's just the two of us, and I no longer belong to Sams Club although my pantry here is much bigger! I want to do a session but we are planning to move (and praying the house sells in the next 5 weeks) and I don't want to cook all that and have it go to waste -- we will be living in our RV and won't have the room for it all.
Becky
I have done both and I actually save money but just buying for the week. For this to work I:
1) just go to one or two stores weekly, but they consistently have the lowest prices
2) I look at what is left in the house and plan my menus around those items first
3) All leftovers get eaten. Sometimes as another family meal, sometimes as an individual breakfast or lunch
4) I cook for the people that live here, i.e what their taste buds prefer and what their body type needs. For example, I as a 51 year old woman do not need the calories that my 15 yr old track running son does. If I make a big old casserole so that he can get protien and carbs, I will take just a small portion of that for myself and make most of my dinner salad or veggies.
I prefer fresh food for nutrient and taste reasons, which is one reason that I don't stock pile alot. Plus, we lost a whole freezer of food when we lived on the farm and the power was out for 5 days. It takes alot of penny saving to make up for a catastrophe like that.
We mostly just shop for what we have planned for the week, but occasionally will stock up. For example, two weeks ago pork roasts were $5 through our grocery delivery. We picked up a few.
We do go to Costco once every few months but only for specific items and only for things we would buy anyway: TP, lunchmeat (DH eats daily - ew), sliced cheese, laundry/dish/dishwasher soap. We try very hard not to buy something simply because it's at Costco, because it's not always a savings. Usually where we get in trouble there is on a pie or something waaaay too big for the two of us. We have found good buys on some dog stuff like rawhides, sometimes not. Occasionally we get hygiene items like lotion. My in-laws let us use their membership so we can go as often or as infrequently as we like and aren't out anything on the membership cost.
Something that I almost never see mentioned is the difficulty of buying only what you need for the week if you live alone like I do. With the exception of fresh vegetables, most things are packaged with families, or at least couples, in mind. Even if there are smaller packages of meat, it's almost always at least 10 cents a pound cheaper to buy the "family pack". I sometimes wonder if this is discrimination against single people. I mean really....isn't it already bad enough that I didn't have a date on Valentines Day but on top of it I have to have the F word (Family) bandied about on my meat lables everytime I go shopping? but I digress. I have no choice but to split up whatever meat purchases I make and freeze them in smaller amounts for the weeks ahead.
Something that I almost never see mentioned is the difficulty of buying only what you need for the week if you live alone like I do. With the exception of fresh vegetables, most things are packaged with families, or at least couples, in mind. Even if there are smaller packages of meat, it's almost always at least 10 cents a pound cheaper to buy the "family pack". I sometimes wonder if this is discrimination against single people. I mean really....isn't it already bad enough that I didn't have a date on Valentines Day but on top of it I have to have the F word (Family) bandied about on my meat lables everytime I go shopping? but I digress. I have no choice but to split up whatever meat purchases I make and freeze them in smaller amounts for the weeks ahead.
Think how bad it would be if you had to have a whole pig to get bacon.:laff:
I stock up but it is not really to save money, it is to save time and frustration! I absolutely hate having to go to the store just to get ingredients for dinner or a cake or brownies. I want to be able to just go into the pantry and be able to whip something up when the fancy strikes.
I always thought stocking up saved money, BUT IT DOESN'T! I think realizing that stocking up does not automatically equal money saved is a very very good point.
I mean, think about it, why do stores have buy one get one free or one half off etc. ???? Because they know you won't be back to buy the 2nd one!!!!! OR, why does it cost less to buy 200 of an item ? Because they know you won't be back!!!
If I have 200 things of whatever in my cupboard, I garantee you, even if unconsciously, that I will use more of it and I will use more of it faster! If I only have ONE, then I won't be so quick with it.
This is even the case with food. I always thought "food is food" but it isn't! I use less food if I only buy what I NEED for the week. If I have a cupboard filled with food, I WILL EAT IT ALL!!!!!! hahahahahhaha.
Often times I will buy a small bag of chips for 1 buck instead of buying a great big giant bag for 2 bucks. 2 bucks is the better deal. but I'll eat the big bag just as quick as the small bag SOOOO the 1 dollar bag is actually the better deal when it comes to saving money. (and chips do not make me full so i end up eating all the rest of my stuff as well - eating that big bag doesn't stop me from eating all the rest of my stuff).
Good thread!
I actually started saving a ton of money when I stopped stocking up.
ALSO, stocking up never lets you see what you are actually paying. If the cans are 2 cents cheaper, where do you draw the line? I never did. I'd buy as many as I could get a hold of!!!! And that meant I'd pay hundreds and hundreds.
But....if you are only buying a certain amount for the week, you can actually say "hey, 200 bucks for food for one week is insane! what should I re-think?"
and that really helps you to ground yourself in real numbers and real time.
Yeah, somehow I eat less when there is less food in the house, though I don't seem to be losing weight, so it just costs me less.
I love Iris Lily's quote from the previous boards: "I realized I don't have to pass all this food through MY digestive system."
I don't stock up. I've done the warehouse club thing and I think I spent more money, not less. Plus, I don't like to store it. However, I do like to be sure I have certain pantry items in stock. If they're on sale some weeks, I'll take advantage, but I don't have cases of anything.
Part of it has to do with the idea if you're buying tons of cans of stuff and bags of grains, you're buying less fresh. I'd rather just see what fresh stuff is on sale and build my menu around that.
Also, rightly or wrongly I take "Give us this day our daily bread" to heart. I feel like being over-prepared is being over-anxious about the future.
It is like the washing machine. Do people SPEND less time washing clothes than before when they did it by hand? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
All we do now is wash our clothes more.
screamingflea
2-16-11, 7:31pm
I'm a stocker. When I see my resources get low I tend to get a little anxious and then overbuy as a fear reaction. The simple visual of "lots of cans" stops me from doing that so I shop more mindfully.
Years ago when I lived in a city and ate more packaged foods I tended to make a list and buy what I needed for the week. I have shifted to cooking more from scratch. I also live in the country far from stores.
I keep certain things in my pantry and freezer all the time: whole grains, legumes, spices, baking ingredients, oils and vinegars, cheese, yogurt, butter, grass fed beef and chicken. I buy these things in bulk from Azure Standard Food Co-op, amazon.com and a few other places. We also raise our own goat milk and eggs. A couple of times a year I will go to Whole Foods ( in a big city 90 miles away) and stock up on a few things there. I have been buying produce from Azure now too. I regularly order cases of things. Last month I ordered a case of Grapefruit and a case of Apples. We love grapefruit and have had at least one everyday. I ordered another case to pick up tomorrow....buy the end of that case we will probably have had enough of grapefruit even though we love it but they will have something else. We have eaten a lot of apples too but some of those I have dehydrated to use in the future. We are planning to expand our garden this year to try and grow more of our own produce.
I do not think I spend more this way. I think I spend less. I regularly rotate my stores and I keep a good inventory. I don't buy things that we don't eat or like.
I have 80 rolls of Seventh Generation toilet paper. Kroger marked it 1/2 off because SG changed the packaging. I don't normally stock up but this one I couldn't resist. I'm sure people in the store thought I was a nut. I was so excited!!
The more I stock up, the more I end up not using, so I don't. I think this is true because what I need changes often with continuing to learn what's healthy or useful-for me, DH, dogs and bird.
It was physically painful for me to pass on the 3 for $8 sale of Tombstone pizzas the other day. We have meals all planned out for the rest of the month w/ supplies on hand so they weren't need. It was just such a good deal. Oh well.
The longest length of time I will stock for is a month. Then its only things like coffee, canned tuna, dried beans , cereal and paper products. I make a monthly trip to Aldis and a farmer's market kind of store called Sprouts to do this. Everything else is bought weekly at my local grocery.
We always stock up. When you live 75 miles one way from a grocery store, having food on-hand helps tremendously. We do not "do" weekly shopping, we shop usually every three weeks for fresh veggies and milk.
I disagree that it costs more to stock up. We actually spent less last year than the year before, and I think it was because of stocking up.
We buy from Costco, Winco, Walmart for the stocking up. We buy from local grocery stores when we don't stock up. We occasionally get food stuff from natural food stores and very rarely from farmers markets because there are none where we live during the summer (Canyonlands National Park, Needles District).
We typically stock up for 3-6 months. One of the things people forget about grocery shopping is the amount of gas used for multiple shopping trips. If you are doing only a shopping excursion once a month, the gas/diesel price isn't so bad. But if you are going shopping every week, the savings need to be pretty tremendous to offset the added gas/diesel prices. And of course, they are going up. We saw in California $5 gas for a gallon of the cheap stuff! Just this week! Yikes, glad I do not live there.
Related to this, I was fascinated to see some of the pantries of the "extreme couponers" on TV. Some had entire basements, or garages, or bedrooms filled with their purchases. Baskets full of deodorants, toothpaste, shampoo, mountains of toilet paper and paper towels, racks of canned goods, etc.
While I have no reason to doubt they've "saved" money, I'm wondering 1) how long these products actually last, and 2) how can a normal-sized household possibly use them all up anyway?
I did hear of one extreme couponer who donated their stuff to the local charity, and that made sense. But finally, I also wonder how does the regular couponer feel when they see the extreme couponer cleaning out the entire shelf of the couponed item? If it was a smaller town and that was me, I'd be pretty ticked that I never got a chance to get any coupon deals.
I will buy extra of what's on sale - if it's something I use, not quickly perishable and it's actually a good sale, but no more than like 2 or 3 extra - is that stocking up? I like to get items before I run out of them - hate running out of something at home. But I found that doesn't work well with perishables.
I like to restock - I made up a grocery list document, which basically lists everything I want to aways have in the house. Print a copy, walk through the kitchen, check off everything that I'm missing and use that to go shopping. I shop about once a week and very little of what I buy goes to waste.
jennipurrr
2-20-11, 6:13pm
I have a small house/small kitchen without much storage space for a huge stockpile, but I have found that I am spending significantly less stocking up on items that I know we will use and last a long time. I've been doing the couponing thing for a few months now and have really been able to save $$$ on staples...pasta, frozen veggies, canned soups, toothpaste, etc. I've also been stocking up on meat and putting in the freezer when it is at rock bottom prices.
I am with the group who tries to use foods up quickly. I aim to use everything within two to four weeks. It's not that easy!
We still have items which are well past their sell buy date. Our household has improved a lot in terms of looking for things to use up and not wasting them. I have tried to buy more fresh produce and to remember to it and not high calorie stuff in packaging. I
would say we are spending a little less on food than four years ago and getting fresher food. There is no Costco or even
Walmart close by in our built up area of the Delaware Valley (PA).
I have to admit I don't coupon. I can never get that organized and more than half the stuff I see in coupons is stuff I wouldn't buy. It doesn't seem like stores here do double coupons and it also seems that less will do price matching. So, the whole getting it for nearly free thing kind of eludes me. However, I do like the idea that should I fall on hard times I could depend on some stockpiled foods to get by. By stockpiling I mean 5 to 6 of an item, not 15. I've tried to make a point of looking for sale items and buying one or two extra. I think I go through whatever canned/boxed stuff I have within a year for the most part, so for canned I think that's fresh enough. I guess, I also feel that if I do this kind of stockpile, a small one, then if a Japan/Katrina like emergency were to occur, I would be set for a week or two.
I sort of do both. Once a month I go to WalMart and buy a month's supply of all the nonperishables (and slo-perishables like eggs) that are notably cheaper there, plus produce.
Then each week when the ads change I go to Winn Dixie and buy any meat that is buy-one-get-one-free, (plus any other good prices I will use before it expires, like 2/1 salad dressing or canned tomatoes). I usually cook it that day or crock pot it the next day and freeze in individual portions. After a while it builds momentum so that I always have a big variety of meat on hand and all of it was half price.
Where I depart from the couponers is that due to allergies I simply don't use commercial grooming and cleaning products and processed foods, so there are whole aisles I never go down and there are rarely coupons for things I actually buy.
ApatheticNoMore
4-26-11, 3:53pm
Actually I have taken lately to buying food every 2-3 days (what's this buying for a whole week business about?).
My biggest sin with food is letting it go bad. It happens. No more. The buying every other day or so is actually an attempt to not waste food and control cost to some extent (well cost depends on what I buy too, but at the very least to not *waste* food, so at least save the cost of wasted food, plus I can easily try to stay within a budget each shopping trip - if I buy the expensive fruit I'm getting the cheap protein and vice versa - not both today :P).
And if I buy lettuce I'm going to eat salad in the next few days (no ifs ands or buts - well I'd probably make an exception if I got sick or something but not otherwise ...). If I buy fruit it has to be eaten in the next few days. Etc.. And the most perishable stuff gets first dibs. I'm ok with making an exception for something that really does freeze well (like ground beef for example), if I really am not craving it.
I'm a little lost about what I'd stock up on food wise. I keep some spices on hand of course (they were all bought for particular recipes though, I'm not bulk buying them). I keep tuna fish, and oatmeal on hand sometimes (but I don't buy it in bulk). Canned soup for when I'm really desperate. Often have an onion or a garlic lying around, olive oil, vinegar, sometimes canned tomatoes, wish I kept fruit juice on hand, I crave it once in a while, have some nuts on hand but would never buy them in great bulk (they would go bad). Do have some frozen meat in the freezer but it tends to get forgotten about :(. Sometimes have kept individually wrapped cheese like string cheese in the fridge, it's very un-green, but it doesn't go bad easily. Have found tortillas to freeze when I buy them and have frozen Parmesan cheese blocks before, have frozen pesto and fresh fruit juice before.
I'd buy pantry items on sale right now but we're trying to clear out large and small freezers to get ready for summer produce. Also keeping freezer off one month would be good on electric bill.
I'm becoming more of a stocker lately. The size of my family has almost doubled in the last two years with my dad moving in and the two little boys. Pantry stocking seems to make more sense for us now that we have a lot of people here. Things get used up pretty fast and going to the store is kind of a pain. I go once a week for perishables and do one big stock-up a month.
We kept pretty close track for several years, using a simple spreadsheet to track prices, and estimated that we saved between 40% and 50% by stocking up when staples went on sale. We had a very large pantry, basement storeroom and unfinished space over the garage at the time so it was not a burden to find the space. Our house looked nothing like the extreme coupon crowd, but it did add to the sense of security to have a significant back-up throughout the year. A worthwhile note is that we bought very few things from warehouse stores. A FEW items from there were very good deals and we could get good prices on SOME specialty items (especially from Costco), but for most every day kind of things the good sales at the grocery store were much better deals.
Actually I have taken lately to buying food every 2-3 days (what's this buying for a whole week business about?).
My biggest sin with food is letting it go bad. It happens. No more. The buying every other day or so is actually an attempt to not waste food and control cost to some extent (well cost depends on what I buy too, but at the very least to not *waste* food, so at least save the cost of wasted food, plus I can easily try to stay within a budget each shopping trip - if I buy the expensive fruit I'm getting the cheap protein and vice versa - not both today :P).
And if I buy lettuce I'm going to eat salad in the next few days (no ifs ands or buts - well I'd probably make an exception if I got sick or something but not otherwise ...). If I buy fruit it has to be eaten in the next few days. Etc.. And the most perishable stuff gets first dibs. I'm ok with making an exception for something that really does freeze well (like ground beef for example), if I really am not craving it.
I'm a little lost about what I'd stock up on food wise. I keep some spices on hand of course (they were all bought for particular recipes though, I'm not bulk buying them). I keep tuna fish, and oatmeal on hand sometimes (but I don't buy it in bulk). Canned soup for when I'm really desperate. Often have an onion or a garlic lying around, olive oil, vinegar, sometimes canned tomatoes, wish I kept fruit juice on hand, I crave it once in a while, have some nuts on hand but would never buy them in great bulk (they would go bad). Do have some frozen meat in the freezer but it tends to get forgotten about :(. Sometimes have kept individually wrapped cheese like string cheese in the fridge, it's very un-green, but it doesn't go bad easily. Have found tortillas to freeze when I buy them and have frozen Parmesan cheese blocks before, have frozen pesto and fresh fruit juice before.
I too have a hard time deciding what to actually have on hand....I've settled on evaporated milk, tuna, tomatoes, pasta, pasta sauce, canned broths, canned tomatoes, chile peppers, cereals that we do eat, crackers, rice, oatmeal and beans, oil, vinegar, salad dressing and some bottled water and whatever meat goes in the freezer. Rice and beans are in the freeze.
It depends on what the item is.
I am not going to use more toilet paper to wipe myself just because I bought more on sale and stocked up on it. It's silly to think that I would.
I will not use more shampoo to wash my hair. I use a pea sized dab of it already. The same goes for toothpaste.
I might use more canned corn, but in turn, I would use less of some other veggie, which would have had a higher price. I'm not going to "eat" more because I have an extra case or two of a vegetable on hand.
I'm not going to drink more coffee just because I have 4 extra tins of it on hand. I'd be dizzy if I did.
I'm not going to use more laundry soap just because I have two extra jugs. I measure how much soap I use and use a tiny FRACTION of the amounts they tell you to use. (About 1 Tablespoon or less per load)
Now, if I bought 40 bags of chocolate chips, someone else in my household might eat more of them just because they were here. The same would be true of other junk food. Someone here might eat more because it was here. The same holds true for some convenience foods or luxury foods.
Personally, I have the self control not to go through these faster. Other people in my household don't.
For me, I can stock up on most anything and I won't go through it faster. For others in my household, it's fine to stock up on basics, but not junk foods and treats.
Look at it this way:
I bought several tubs of coffee recently on an incredible sale. I got large tubs -- expiration dates 18 months out -- of name brand coffee for 4.99. Folgers and Maxwell house are currently selling at well over twice that and coffee prices are projected to continue to rise in the next year or two, not decrease. Thus, I have earned 100% increase on that money. I sure won't make 100% on that money by leaving it in my bank account. I'd make only a couple of percent or less. Heck, even if I had put it on a credit card and paid it off in a month or three, I'd have STILL saved money given the great sale price I got on that coffee. (Normal sale price for coffee here lately has been 8.99 or 9.99)
I don't feel I use more of anything because I have it.
the only bulk item that we buy (right now) is laundry detergent -- and I don't think 5 liters is considered bulk anywhere but here. LOL Anyway, that and all purpose cleaner for the business.
everything else we buy week-to-week. we eat mostly fresh food (nothing canned or boxed), and we have a small fridge/freezer -- so we can't store more frozen meat/fruit/veg than what will fit, which is usually a week's worth (and then there is also our "fresh" which is the fruit bowl, the fresh veg, eggs, and milk/yogurt/butter. I think the only thing we buy that is a "packaged" food is mayonaise and mustard.
yeah, so, we don't stock up. :)
I buy household items that we use over and over in bulk to reduce packaging and cost. We are a family of 5. Shampoo, conditioner, vinegar, olive oil and castile soap by the gallon, toilet paper in a cardboard box instead of plastic packs. Flour and sugar in 25 pound bags. Baking soda and laundry detergent in cardboard boxes. We are trying to eat fresh, using mostly local ingredients and minimize processed foods so that really eliminates buying a lot of bulk food. We do fill our freezer with local meats (beef, chicken and pork) so that would be considered buying in bulk. I can fruits and vegetables for the winter so I will buy local fruits and vegetables in bulk over the summer. I find that we waste less and are spending less $ even thou we still eat the same number of meals in a week. I guess we buy fewer items in greater quantities.
Depends on how good the sale is and if the items have a short or long shelf-life! I tend to just buy what I need for the week though, in order to spread the cost of groceries.
I've done my stocking up of main pastas, beans and the few canned goods....I don't know what to get now.
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