Bulk Shopping 101

When you live in the city, you dream of going to those huge wholesale places like Sam's Club so that you can buy diapers and cereals at a fraction of city prices. I use to envy those neighbors who pulled up with their cars at the end of the weekend filled with cheap groceries.

Ironies of ironies when I first moved out here I resisted joining a wholesale club. Truth be told it was more than my bruised and homesick ego could take. But after hearing from a number of "normal" people that it was the thing to do with a big family, I joined and I hid my membership card deep into my wallet.

That was six months ago. Today I learned that I'm still figuring out the basic rules of wholesale shopping. I learnt these rules the hard way, i.e. by not following them and paying dearly for it.

#1 Never ever take a child with you, they'll be a source of distraction and that's the last thing you need in a place like Costco's, you need to focus.

#2 Bring a list of what you need and do not, for any reason deviate from that list.

#3 Don't look at what's on sale

#4 Don't go down the junk food isle

#5 For that matter don't go down any isle that's not on your list

#6 When you're about to buy the case of 40 apples, take a moment and visualize each family member eating 3 apples a day for the next week.

#7 Obviously don't go in if you're need of retail therapy.

And why should you follow these rules? Well if you don't you might end up like me today.

I bought a bottle of olive oil large enough to run a small restaurant for a year, enough printer ink to run my business until 2012, toothbrushes for the 30 odd guests that might show up at my doorstep and a bottle of body lotion big enough for 3 families. You get the point.

Once you're inside those doors, surrounded by towering shelves you start acting like the end of the world is coming and somehow you find yourself able to justify all of these crazy purchases.

So instead of having to make one dreaded trip to Costco today, I made two. One to make the crazy purchases, and one to return half of those purchases so that my hubbie wouldn't think I'd gone crazy! It was embarrassing to say the least, but I feel relieved that I came to my senses!