Buying pantry items in bulk

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Vork
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Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by Vork »

What are good value foods to buy in bulk on Amazon or elsewhere online?
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by jebmke »

Coffee and chocolate
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Sandtrap
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by Sandtrap »

In bulk and always stocked up.

Personal care and household items.
Shop and industrial supplies

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bloom2708
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by bloom2708 »

Canned beans (black, pinto, cannelli, garbanzo) and brown rice.

Beans and rice. A complete meal.
sport
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by sport »

Costco or costco.com is a good place to buy items in bulk. Quality tends to be very good and the prices are lower than most.
Whipsnap
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by Whipsnap »

Costco is definitely my go to for bulk items, food or otherwise. Non perishables make sense, but so do things like blades for your razor, batteries, etc.
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lthenderson
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by lthenderson »

Vork wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:25 am What are good value foods to buy in bulk on Amazon or elsewhere online?
We buy big bags of dried beans and then can them ourselves to eliminate additional ingredients of store bought canned beans. Rice can also be bought in bulk and kept easily accessible in a rice dispenser. Most other things, we just buy extra when on sale.
momvesting
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by momvesting »

I find Amazon pantry items to be much more expensive than I pay at a regular grocery store. First, analyze what pantry items your family will actually use. Definitely don't bulk buy anything you don't currently use. I have the best luck at our Kroger affiliate and their case lot sale. We buy canned organic beans, organic tomatoes, evaporated milk, and cream based soups (for recipes). They also often allow the case lot pricing on individual items outside the case, so when they do that, I will buy a few items that I like to keep on hand, but a case is too much. Some examples of this are canned soup for eating, flour, sugar, and peanut butter.
bloom2708
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by bloom2708 »

momvesting wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:43 pm I find Amazon pantry items to be much more expensive than I pay at a regular grocery store. First, analyze what pantry items your family will actually use. Definitely don't bulk buy anything you don't currently use. I have the best luck at our Kroger affiliate and their case lot sale. We buy canned organic beans, organic tomatoes, evaporated milk, and cream based soups (for recipes). They also often allow the case lot pricing on individual items outside the case, so when they do that, I will buy a few items that I like to keep on hand, but a case is too much. Some examples of this are canned soup for eating, flour, sugar, and peanut butter.
+1 Amazon is easy, but almost always high priced.

Depending on what, Aldi, Costco, Walmart Grocery, local grocery, Asian market, Natural Grocers.

Aldi is quirky, but there are some good deals. The large sized cans of pinto beans for 99 cents when the regular can might be 80 to 1.20 at the other grocery stores. We know where to buy each item. It means sometimes going to a few places.
ScaledWheel
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by ScaledWheel »

Depending on how "bulk" you consider bulk to be, online restaurant suppliers are good candidates. Webstaurant store has pantry items, but the volumes are what would be supplied to a restaurant, so it's really a question about how much you eat and how much storage space you have.

I buy their 50lb bags of flour as I'm into "fancy" baking and do a fair bit of trial/error.
UpperNwGuy
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by UpperNwGuy »

Don't buy a product in bulk unless you have tried it previously. A year ago, when the pandemic was just beginning, and the shelves were bare, I was at Target and grabbed a 24-pack of a new (to me) brand of toilet paper. I didn't like it, and it took me most to the rest of 2020 to use it all up.
livesoft
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by livesoft »

Looking in our pantry, we never have more than about 4 weeks worth of pantry items at the most. That means we don't buy in bulk. We don't have a separate freezer either. A year ago I bought about 6 cans of heat'n'serve soups in case someone got sick in the household. We still have more than half of them in the pantry. I haven't eaten any of them myself.

Our food costs are already quite low, so I just don't see us saving much money at all by bulk buying. We do eat beans, sweet potatoes, squash, veggies regularly, but not much pasta, rice, potatoes, and bread.

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UpperNwGuy
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by UpperNwGuy »

Many of the items listed so far have a shelf life, so don't go overboard buying more than you can use. For example, roasted coffee beans have a relatively short shelf life, and shorter if ground. Dry pinto beans and black beans will last for a year or two, but not forever. Even canned goods have expiration dates.
Random Poster
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by Random Poster »

UpperNwGuy wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 2:28 pm Don't buy a product in bulk unless you have tried it previously. A year ago, when the pandemic was just beginning, and the shelves were bare, I was at Target and grabbed a 24-pack of a new (to me) brand of toilet paper. I didn't like it, and it took me most to the rest of 2020 to use it all up.
Good advice.

I bet that when you discovered that you didn’t like the product, it really chapped your rear.
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GerryL
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by GerryL »

I was in the habit of buying my brown rice from the grocery store bulk bins -- moderate quantities since I am a solo and brown rice can go rancid. (I store it in fridge.) With the start of the pandemic, bulk bins were taken out, and shelves were bare of all rice. I found a 5lb bag of Nishiki brown rice on Amazon. That's a lot of rice. I am now halfway through my second 5lb bag. Always stored in fridge.

Also bought a 5lb bag of popping corn on Amazon. So-so. When I finished that, I picked up an 8lb container at Costco. Not a good idea to stock up on those microwave popcorn products as they have a limited shelf life. In fact, don't stock up too much on anything that has any shortening in it. It will likely be good somewhat past its use-by date, but eventually the contents could go rancid. I'm looking at YOU corn muffin mix. Nuts can also go rancid. Keep those in the fridge as well.
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willthrill81
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by willthrill81 »

I don't recommend buying virtually food on Amazon if price matters to you at all.
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livesoft
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by livesoft »

GerryL wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 2:52 pm Nuts can also go rancid. Keep those in the fridge as well.
I keep my nuts in the freezer.
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Brewman
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by Brewman »

livesoft wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:04 pm
GerryL wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 2:52 pm Nuts can also go rancid. Keep those in the fridge as well.
I keep my nuts in the freezer.
I could believe that :P :beer
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JoMoney
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by JoMoney »

The kinds of foods I keep in my pantry are oatmeal, peanut butter, nuts, raisins, cans of soup, chili, tuna.
I have not found it to be a good value to buy grocery items through Amazon. Walmart.com has had better deals, and I can choose to pickup most stuff same-day locally. Target.com has also had better prices but on some things it's a penny or two more than Walmart. ... just did a price check and it looks like sometimes Target coming in better -

e.g.
Amazon Brand - 18oz Old Fashioned Oats : $2.41
Walmart Brand - 18oz Old Fashioned Oats: $1.84
Target Brand - 18oz Old Fashioned Oats: $1.79

Amazon 5oz Chicken of the Sea Tuna : ( $31.47/24pack = $1.31 each)
Walmart 5oz Chicken of the Sea Tuna : $0.93
Target 5oz Chicken of the Sea Tuna : $1.19
Last edited by JoMoney on Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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stoptothink
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by stoptothink »

JoMoney wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 4:05 pm The kinds of foods I keep in my pantry are oatmeal, peanut butter, nuts, raisins, cans of soup, chili, tuna.
I have not found it to be a good value to buy grocery items through Amazon. Walmart.com has had better deals, and I can choose to pickup most stuff same-day locally. Target.com has also had better prices but on some things it's a penny or two more than Walmart. ... just did a price check and it looks like sometimes Target coming in better -

e.g.
Amazon Brand - 18oz Old Fashioned Oats : $2.41
Walmart Brand - 18oz Old Fashioned Oats: $1.84
Target Brand - 18oz Old Fashioned Oats: $1.79
I generally buy it in 25lbs. bags (we eat it every day), but we can get oats/groats/steel cut/or a mix for generally <$.70/lbs. in the bulk bin at our local winco. Crazy how the cost of food varies by area.
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by squirm »

Sam's club has free shipping with their exec membership. But I just buy most of that stuff in the store.
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lthenderson
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by lthenderson »

GerryL wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 2:52 pm I found a 5lb bag of Nishiki brown rice on Amazon. That's a lot of rice. I am now halfway through my second 5lb bag.
We go through about 125 to 150 pounds of rice a year! But we eat Asian type foods quite often.
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Sandtrap
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Re: Buying pantry items in bulk

Post by Sandtrap »

bloom2708 wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 2:17 pm
momvesting wrote: Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:43 pm I find Amazon pantry items to be much more expensive than I pay at a regular grocery store. First, analyze what pantry items your family will actually use. Definitely don't bulk buy anything you don't currently use. I have the best luck at our Kroger affiliate and their case lot sale. We buy canned organic beans, organic tomatoes, evaporated milk, and cream based soups (for recipes). They also often allow the case lot pricing on individual items outside the case, so when they do that, I will buy a few items that I like to keep on hand, but a case is too much. Some examples of this are canned soup for eating, flour, sugar, and peanut butter.
+1 Amazon is easy, but almost always high priced.

Depending on what, Aldi, Costco, Walmart Grocery, local grocery, Asian market, Natural Grocers.

Aldi is quirky, but there are some good deals. The large sized cans of pinto beans for 99 cents when the regular can might be 80 to 1.20 at the other grocery stores. We know where to buy each item. It means sometimes going to a few places.
+1
We stock up at a variety of sources from Costco to Amazon, etc, depending on price and quality and value.

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