Buying in bulk does not need to be restricted to food items. We recently bought a ute-load of mushroom compost which was delivered right by the gate near the vegetable garden. There are several local mushroom farms not far from where we live so we usually take the ute and pick up several ‘trays’ of compost. The trays are rectangular plastic bags in which the mushrooms are grown.
Buying in bulk worked for us this time as we needed a large quantity while we are establishing several raised garden beds at once. There were no plastic bags to dispose of in the rubbish. Even accounting for the delivery, I think it worked out more expensive than our normal source. However, the convenience needed to be considered this time.
On balance, I do not think we will want or need to buy this amount again. We will go back to buying 6 – 10 trays whenever we want to replenish the beds.
What do you buy in bulk? Have you reviewed whether it is the best option?
We bought a big role of fencing a couple of years ago when we only needed a small amount, but it has come in really handy living on a farm. This year we used it for gardening projects, and previously we used it for concrete reinforcement. Now I’m ready to buy another role.
We did a similar thing recently with fencing wire because although it was much more than we needed initially , we knew that we had more fencing to do. That will be one of our projects in the comings months. I am sure there will be some posts about it.
Just today I published a post comparing costs at the co-op vs the local IGA store. On a financial view, the co-op isn’t great but I’m happy if it’s cutting down on my waste/trash. Not entirely typical though as I don’t buy bulk relatively speaking…
I will definitely pop over and take a read. I suspect your view is the same as mine. I am prepared to pay a bit extra to be able to purchase products that are unpackaged or have minimal recyclable packaging.