A reader wrote to me making a suggestion that this holiday season do something called “Buddy Bonding”. It’s where you shop together, especially at Costco or BJs and split purchases. We all know Costco/BJs, the bargain bulk item store. You get great deals on most everything.
The problem? Using it before it goes to waste. Thus my reader suggested that perhaps you should split all deals at Costco/BJs with a like minded “frugal” friend. She says that not only will you be able to buy more at these bulk stores, but by shopping together you can make it a “date” with a friend and save on gas by carpooling together. The best deals are obviously the non-perishable splittlable items.
I love Costco. As a DINK though I seriously have to reconsider purchasing any food items except for meat because we might not use the product because it goes to waste. However I do use things like shampoo, toilet paper, etc. I found it actually the best deal when I lived with multiple roommates. Living with 3-4+ people, meant there were people constantly running through toilet paper, paper towels, etc. So we’d actually be buying a case of each a month!
I guess you can say we were splitting it 4 ways! This reader says with tough times coming, now’s the time to strech your dollars. Thus being able to buy things in the bulk store without worrying about wasting it, is a great way to go!
Do you love bulk stores?
12 responses so far ↓
1 Beef Up Your Piggy // Dec 7, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I lost your link for awhile when I transitioned my blog template…found you again.
I love doing the split thing with meat as well. I can’t possibly use tons of meat before the it gets frostbitten. So this is great for splitting up meat as well. Thanks!
2 frugal zeitgeist // Dec 7, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Hell yeah, I love bulk stores. When I’m visting my mom, I take a mostly empty bag so I can go to Costco and stock up on toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, almonds, tampons, and coffee. It makes a huge difference to my bottom line relative to buying those things here in New York.
3 LivingAlmostLarge // Dec 7, 2008 at 9:44 pm
I’ve found that I plan meals around one type of meat for the week. This week, we bought chicken. Meals for the week will be chicken and pasta with pesto sauce, teriyaki chicken/broccoli/rice, tandoori chicken, and finally massaman curry with chicken.
That’s the meals for the week, all chicken will make a dinner for 3 and lunch the next day pretty much. It’s a bit of a pain to prepare but I’ve divvy up the meat and started marinating, etc.
4 fengshui // Dec 8, 2008 at 1:52 am
I’ve never shopped at a bulk store. I’m not even sure if we have a Costco here. We have a Sam’s Club, but I won’t shop at Wal Mart on principle. So, I buy most household things and food at my local co-op, and meat from a local farmer, and we have a deep freezer. We live in a tiny house and storage is at a premium, so I generally don’t buy in bulk because I have no where to put anything……
5 LAL // Dec 8, 2008 at 8:55 am
I still shopped at Costco when it was just the two of us in a 500 sq foot condo. We always had space for stuff. That’s space at a premium.
But one of the best deals to be had at Costco is the gas.
6 Tim // Dec 9, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I love COSTCO. we normally share a membership with someone else or we split bulk purchases for perishables.
7 fengshui // Dec 9, 2008 at 8:57 pm
We don’t have a pantry and have tiny closets. I seriously don’t know where to shove anymore “stuff”….. We don’t even have anywhere to put our coats.
8 fengshui // Dec 9, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Is the stuff at Costco really THAT much cheaper? I looked it up and there is a CostCo about 16 miles from me, so not bad. But is it really worth going there? I mean, how much do you save? I don’t even look at prices most of the time, I just get generic stuff and know that it is a decent deal, and I don’t obsess over saving .10 on this and .08 on that. I mean, if I can save a significant amount, I may consider going there, but it would have to be a lot, just because I have always been loyal to my local co-op because it is community owned and provides good paying jobs with medical benefits to its employees and that is imporatant to me.
9 LAL // Dec 9, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Your house Fengshui cannot be smaller than 500 sq ft. If it is then you have no space. But in 500 sq ft we found tons of space for a couple with a dog. We had no pantry, one closet for 2 people. The bathroom was so small it was a tub and toilet and you couldn’t sit on the toilet AND close the door. It had to be done before or it wouldn’t go. The door cleared the toilet by 1 inch. The sink was outside in the master bedroom.
But my biggest savings from costco has always been on gas, meat, clothes, cleaning supplies, etc. Meat I get a better quality for what are door breakers in a regular store. And meat is choice grade NOT select which is what is sold in most stores.
10 Pearl // Dec 10, 2008 at 3:00 am
Feng shui, Costco is much cheaper on some things, and not so on others. By carefully watching sales, I find basic cuts of meat cheaper at the grocery store on sale, but Costco is at least 15-50% cheaper even than sale prices on wine, coffee beans, cheeses, dried fruit, condiments, olive oil, and things like sugar, flour, beans, etc.
Their prices on housewares, batteries, light bulbs, trash and freezer bags, cleaning supplies are all much lower than grocery store prices. The also have a coupon book they mail out about once a month, with further discounts.
I believe you can go in and look around without becoming a member; you might have to get a pass and you might not be able to buy anything, but go take a look.
The only down side is you do have to plan for the storage since most items are sold only in larger quantities: flour, sugar, beans and rice in 25# bags, milk in packs of two 1-gallon jugs, oatmeal in a 9# box, cheese in 2 lb. blocks or more, etc. They also have limited varieties, although the choices they do have are typically top of the line.
Disclaimer: Sometimes I own Costco stock, although not right now.
11 fengshui // Dec 10, 2008 at 3:01 pm
LAL, my house is bigger than that, it is about 1200 sq ft. It is just an odd set up. It is a cape cod with 4 bedrooms, but the living room is small and no dining room, barely any closet space at all. I have to use the closet in the 2nd bedroom on the first floor for my clothes, coats and shoes, and my hubby uses the one in our bedroom. The upstairs has two bedrooms, with one small closet. The entry way has a tiny closet that is 1.5 feet deep by 4 feet, just deep and wide enough to hang a few thin coats and hang some scarves, etc. I have cleaning supplies shoved in there. There is a small closet next to the bathroom, large enough to fit 2 shelves to keep towels on and for hairdryer and a basket of personal supplies. I can only keep about 2-3 rolls of toilet paper in there. No room in the bathroom itself, no shelves or cupboards, etc. The kitchen is a joke for storage. No pantry or large cabinets to store anything. I keep some things out in the garage like extra paper towels and toilet paper, but nothing that would be reuined if it were frozen (garage is not insulated) I wonder if people back in the 30’s didn’t have anything to store?????
12 LivingAlmostLarge // Dec 10, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Even with the odd setup you literally have double the space for 2 people. You have 4 versus 1 bedroom. You can always pack stuff under the bed, that’s what we did. We had one closet, 3×5 for 2 people. On our patio we had a closet shelving but that was 12 x 36 for 2 shelves. That’s it. We had to store our suitcases, dog crate, books, etc. We had a galley kitchen which was an armspan wide and long.
And we shopped at costco for toilet paper, paper towels, etc.
You can leave stuff in an extra bedroom. You can pack stuff into boxes or put a bookshelf as a pantry in one of 4 rooms. I cannot even imagine having 4 rooms, you have more rooms than I have now.
I know cape cods homes, I saw them. They were huge compared to what we were living in. We looked at buying one. Basically we lived in a kitchen, bed and 1 bath of what you have.
I know you cannot imagine living like that but in CA, oftentimes there is one closet in the bedroom and that’s it. A galley kitchen was considered large.
Most kitchens are only one wall and that’s it. Small, tiny. We also shopped in costco and lived in a bachelor’s studio apartment 300 sq ft without a kitchen or real fridge. 2 people.
You have to start looking at how to use the space you have. Go to home depot and buy a storage rack for $50 and stack thing like cleaning supplies, paper towels, etc in one bedroom. Make one bedroom a storage room. Also put sheets, blankets, etc.
I have under the bed containers because we never had enough space where we lived previously. I’ve also always had one closet and one dresser to store clothes in. The rest was packed in suitcases for when we went to cold weather.
There is no way anyone can argue 1200 sq ft is not enough space, even with a poor layout over 500 sq ft because there is typically one layout for that size.
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