Bulk up the savings

Who doesn’t love to shop, compare prices, and find the best deals out there? Ok, shopping is not for everyone, but comparing prices can be a quick and easy way to save money.

While shopping at the local grocery store for laundry detergent, my favorite brand was on sale - $5.99 for a 32 load, liquid size container. Thinking that would be a good price – because it was on sale – I started reaching for the container. There was another tag on the shelf below. Same brand of laundry detergent, but this one could wash 96 loads of laundry for $13.99. Using my mental calculator, the larger size was about $4 less based on 96 loads of laundry. Buying in larger sizes can provide some cost savings. In the one example above, I saved about $4 over the course of several months on laundry detergent.

Most of the time buying in bulk makes sense, but only for items you know you will need or use. You wouldn’t buy ten pounds of bananas when only needing one pound. The other nine pounds would rot and go bad. Also, make sure you have room to store the items. If buying a 3 pack of paper towels is what you have space for, buying a 10 pack of paper towels to save $2 doesn’t make sense.

Take a look at your every day items and look at cost savings if you were to buy in larger quantities. The laundry detergent was one example, but there are many items that can be considered, which could save you money.