Before Buying in Bulk, As Yourself These Questions

Everyone knows that you can save big money by buying food in bulk. You can waste a lot of money, as well as a lot of food, if you don’t do so mindfully. As with any other shopping, you should have a plan (and a list) before you head out to make purchases, and avoid impulse buys. Here’s a list of questions to ask yourself before investing in any sort of bulk foods.

Am I Sure I Like It?
If you know you love corn flakes, eat them every day, and pretty much live for the corn flakes, then you’re safe heading to the warehouse shore and buying the giant multi-pack. However, if you eat Brand A, and the bulk pack is Brand X, don’t assume they’re the same. They may be cheap for a reason. If possible, but a smaller quantity of Brand X to try and see if you like them. If you do, great, back to the warehouse for a truckload. If not, you haven’t wasted anything other than a little time and a small amount of money.

How Long Will It Last?
Unless you’re planning for the apocalypse (which is a whole other conversation about bulk foods), I’m assuming that you’re going to be actively eating this stuff. If you eat rice a few times a week, then you know the bulk stores will get eaten more quickly than if you eat rice once every couple of weeks. Dry rice keeps pretty close to forever, so it’s not a big deal. A 20 pound sack of potatoes, on the other hand, has a definite limited shelf life. If something goes bad and you end up throwing a significant amount away, it’s not worth buying.

Where Will I Store It?
Some of this ties into the last question. If you eat a lot of something, it;s worth the space it take up. If you eat it infrequently, it’s going to be in the way and occupy space that could be used for other things.
All of us have finite space in our kitchens and pantries. Think about this before you bulk shop. Have an idea of how much room you have to devote to bulk foods, how much room your purchases will take up, and plan accordingly. I tend to clean and organize before I do regular shopping, so it’s easier to put things away when I get home, so you can imagine the preparations I make before big bulk purchases.

What Will I Store It In?
We eat enough rice in our house that buying a 50 pound bag is a reasonable purchase. It’s difficult to work from a bag that large, though. It doesn’t reseal, it falls over and the rice spills out, and it can turn into a comedy of errors. It’s also easier to store things that stand upright on their own, or can stack. Invest in airtight, watertight containers. Even if you buy a cheap trashcan to set the bag into, your life will be filled with less cussing.

Bulk purchases can also be broken down into smaller units. I repackage meats into ziplock bags in single-meal portions before stowing them in the freezer. I empty the contents of large bags of frozen vegetables into ziplock bags simply for the ability to easily reseal it after get out as much as I need for a given meal. I keep rice and dried beans in airtight plastic pitchers in a cabinet because they’re easier to work with, and refill them from the bulk stores as needed. I will point out the potential to go overboard and get OCD about this; my grandmother would divide a loaf of bread up into sandwich bags, 2 slices per bag.

What Happens Once It’s Opened?
You can buy pinto beans in what seems like a gallon-sized can at the dollar store. That’s awesome. Once you open it, what do you do with it? How long will it last? What will you store it in? Some things can be safely kept in the refrigerator for a week or so, and some things can be frozen, but some thing you’re going to have to eat pretty quickly before they go bad. If you’re not prepared to eat it several days in a row, or at least a few times over several days, it may not be a bargain.

Think about what else you can make with it. Using the example of the pinto beans, they could be served as a side dish, go into burritos, or put into soup. They’re pretty flexible, and you could do a lot with them and not feel like you’ve been eating the same thing over and over. That’s probably a safe bet. Something like mayonnaise, though, isn’t worth buying in bulk because it simply does not keep long enough for you to eat a gallon of it before it spoils.

Freezing is an option, but I would recommend making no assumptions and buying a small quantity first and seeing how well it freezes and defrosts. I know someone (no, not me; I’d own this one) who bought a giant jar of mayo once, with the brilliant idea of transferring it into smaller containers and freezing it. The problem is, because of the oil content, it separates. When it thawed, it was a gross mess that would not reconstitute no matter how much is was stirred. Ick.

Do It Right
The right way, of course, is doing what is best, easiest, and most manageable for you. There are always factors beyond cost — time, effort, and space are only a few. think about the problem you’re actually solving for before jumping to a solution. When you make the plunge into buying bulk, do it wisely.

Iron Rations is an irregular column about eating well and eating frugally. You can read more articles in the series here. To subscribe to a Iron Rations-only RSS feed, click here.