Wisdom from The Action Wisdom In Action

Buy in Bulk and Save Consistently

From the Chatham Daily News.

"If you are truly serious about accumulating wealth, you must learn to spend less than you make. Are the purchases you are making a need or a want?"

...

"Make sure a sale is a sale. By this I mean do your research before you commit to making a purchase. You have to be sure the sale really is a sale and not a creative marketing strategy of the store to encourage you to spend your money without thinking.

Buying in bulk is good. Think about shopping and buying in bulk. Save money grocery shopping by planning meals in advance and bulk buying. You can also save money by cooking in bulk. This is a real way you can save money with little preparation and almost no extra outlay."

...

"If you are serious about taking control of your finances and building a little or big nest egg, you should contact a reputable financial advisor and he/she will be able to get you started. This is normally a free service but shop around to make sure. It makes cents to me."

Not only is it economical, but it's light on the planet too (for the greenie-weenies among us). Bulk packaging usually means 1 box or 1 large bag, so there's very little trash, and the box can go in the recycling bin.

Speaking of trash, I noticed yesterday (as well as last Friday--our trash pickup day) that our neighbors 0n one side have just as many house-dwellers as we do (2), yet their trash can and recycling can overfloweth with contents. I look at MY cans, and there's hardly anything in them!

The difference: the neighbor is a single mom who works full-time. This means more convenience foods in more packaging with smaller portions. She does not buy in bulk, and she doesn't bother to break things down in her recycling can--it says right on the lid to break down cardboard boxes. This woman's cans overflow EVERY WEEK, whereas I'm begging the city to invent some sort of bi-weekly program for those of us who don't throw much away.

Why am I petitioning the city for a bi-weekly program? It isn't fair that my neighbor and I both pay the same $30/month for trash pickup, when I'm clearly not getting my $30 worth. With the city's conservation PR campaign in full swing, why is there no incentive to conserve when it comes to trash generation?

This makes me wonder if this woman is aware of how much money she throws out the back door just in discarded packaging, and how much more she had to spend PER POUND for the food she bought because it was in smaller convenience portions, and all she had to do was reheat it. She leaves money at the grocery store AND in the trash/recycling cans.

I suppose I should just be glad her kid is 13 and not in diapers! She'd need an additional can for those.

Posted by Cute at 7:37 PM

Labels: financial (non-tax), food purchases