What is your biggest bulk purchase?

I shop at Costco, so I buy bulk amounts of most things. I’ve adjusted my diet to accommodate. The largest thing I buy is the toilet paper. I’m grateful I have a closet in the hall where it all fits.

A house.

I used to coordinate a food buying club for about 15 people, so when I’d take delivery I needed to take the kids seats out of the station wagon. Usual was 100# flour, 100# rice, 100# beans, and 10–50# oats, tofu, rice, sugar, peanut butter, raisins, sunflower seeds, cheese, miso, seaweed, rye/wheat berries, or whatever else was interesting. Picking up 500# of food at a time was fairly common.

Bulk, as in quantity?

For that, it’d be paper towels and toilet paper. Jumbo packs at Costco.

Next would be cleaning supplies.

I have trouble buying food items in bulk as we rarely want to that much of anything. It can be cheaper in the long run, but not if I end up throwing out half of it.

I ordered wheat berries online from an organic farm. I ordered 50# but they sent an extra 25# sack. Not sure what I will do with all this, but I packaged it for long term storage so I will use it eventually.

A house, and boy was it bulky! :D

I purchased 40 Live Lobsters right off the Lobster boat for a large gathering on the beach at my place in Maine.

I buy from Costco all the time. The regular purchases are toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags, cat food, tissues, milk by the gallon, berries, bananas (3 lbs for 1.50), When people tell me they aren’t a member of Costco or Sam’s because they don’t eat that much, I tell them “you will eventually use 100 garbage bags.” I use Costco for other things, too, like clothes, appliances, garden stuff, holiday stuff, but I digress.

When the pandemic first started, I had just purchased a pack of toilet paper at Costco, and throughout the pandemic, I bought a few more so I never worried about running out, the way a lot of people did when there were toilet paper shortages. I also bought a 25 lb bag of Basmati rice and I had to buy a big plastic dog food container to hold the rice, and I bought a box of 25 plastic containers. I was concerned about food shortages and my ability to get out and get food, so I figured we could do rice and beans if we were desperate. I also buught a bulk purchase of powdered creamer, because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get to a store to get milk. It turned out I could get out to stores on a regular basis, but I still have the rice in the container and I think I would do a bulk rice purchase again in the future.

This is where Rick and I disagree. I tell him to purchase size large in non food items, like dish soap, but he resists because the smaller ones are less expensive. Sigh.

@Dutchess_III The smaller ones are only cheaper for that purchase but are more costly per ounce.

^^^^ Right. I’ve tried to explain that to him, but he’s stuck on the overall cost.

I buy dented cans in bulk from a grocery store. Usually $7 per 100lbs box, two boxes at a time.

@Dutchess_III That’s another thing I buy in large quantity. A large thing at Costco will be like a gallon or close to a galloon for about 7 dollars. In a store, maybe 8 or 10 ounces will be a dollar on sale or maybe 1.50 or 2 dollars, but by the ounce, the big one is definitely a better deal. That’s why dollar stores are not always cheaper, even though things are cheap in there.

Couple hundred pounds of beef, in a hind quarter. Filled a freezer !

Living alone, I buy very little in bulk!!! Most food items expire before I get around to using them up. However, I do buy things like dish detergent, liquid body soap, & laundry detergent in bulk & make the most recent empty container the refill. I’m NOT saving a huge amount, but I am still saving something & cutting back on my plastic footprint going into our landfill!!!

Years ago I really liked a certain foot scrub that I found at Walmart and that was a good price. But then they stopped selling it at some point so I went online to see if I could find it. Amazon had it but it was ridiculously expensive…unless you bought a case of 18 tubes.That was probably about 8 years ago and I am still using up the last couple of tubes. But I was determined not to have to pay a whole lot more than I had in the past.

@jca2 you’re right about eventually using 100 garbage bags, but I would never buy dry cat food in bulk. I only have two cats, and even if it’s an unopened bag, after a while it doesn’t keep as well.

@LifeQuestioner I have four cats and I feed one (or an opossm) outside evey night, so the large bag of cat food lasts no more than a month. I open it and pour it into a plastic bin that has a lid and scoop it ouf of there.

@jca2 thank you for all that you do in taking care of your inside and outside pets! And yeah, it would definitely be a good buy if one is in that situation.

Half a pig each year, from my farmer friend. That and a handful of chickens I raise is nearly all of the meat my family needs for the year.

The biggest was half of a cow. If you fold down the seats, you can easily fit half of a frozen cow in the back seat of a Ford Focus hatchback.

Coming in at a distant second is extra virgin olive oil. There’s a specific brand my husband likes, so I buy four bottles at a time when it goes on sale buy one, get one free. Yes, I check the dates.

LOL @tedibear! Good to know that about the cow. :)