Monday, January 12, 2009

Buying in bulk from Amazon

Joanna wanted me to write about how I buy food in bulk from Amazon. Just a few disclaimers before I do.

1. I know some people have philosophical issues with Amazon, I respect that. I don’t have the same issues, so if you hate Amazon, ignore this post.
2. I try to buy local, all my produce and animal products are local, soon to be even more local. What I buy from Amazon is stuff I couldn’t get locally anyway.
3. I don’t buy in bulk as in 50 pound bags of rice or wheat (at least not from Amazon), but I do buy in bulk as in 12 cans of something we use at a cheaper price.
4. I’m one of these weird food storage people. We have 3 months of food stored now and are working up to 6 months. It really helps me to be able to get our stored food so much cheaper.

I discovered Amazon was a good source for food about a year ago, I’ve always been happy with what we have gotten. When you get food from them, they give you the option of signing up for automatic delivery at a reduced price. This is worth doing. You generally save an additional 15% off their already low price. You can sign up for 1 month, 2 month, 3 month or 6 month intervals. They will email you before they ship anything and you can delay the shipment as long as you want or even cancel it all together. I generally sign up for every 3 months, figuring if we aren’t out by then, I can just delay it another month or 2 until we need it. The other upside of the automatic delivery is that shipping is free whether you are above $25 or not.

OK, not convinced? Let me give you a few examples.

Coconut milk, we use on average a can of coconut milk a week. We eat a lot of Thai food. The cheapest I can find coconut milk in the store is $1.89 a can. It is generally over $2 a can. One Amazon, I can order 24 cans and after I get the automatic delivery discount, I’m at $0.89 a can! A savings of $1 a can is huge!

Whole wheat penne pasta – This is generally over $2 a bag at the grocery store. Sometimes $1.50 if you can find a sale. On Amazon, I pay $1.35 a bag. We eat a lot of pasta, at least 3 days a week.

Organic vegetable bow tie pasta - This is over $3 a bag in the store if you can even find it. On Amazon, $1.89 a bag. We eat this particular pasta an average of once a week.

One last example, my husband eats these every morning for breakfast (different flavors so he doesn’t get bored) and Logan eats them as snacks. At the store over $4 a box, from Amazon, $2.87 a box.

These are just a few examples of stuff I buy from Amazon. There are many more. I got a great price on cans of organic black beans!

17 comments:

Joanna@BooneDocksWilcox said...

Thank you Christy, I'm curious what other folks do for stocking up on staples, and being frugal. The frugal part is a necessity but it's also game for me to play.

I'm gonna keep checking Amazon for some of the things we like.

[girl, you gotta start making your own pasta, one of those things that once you taste your own fresh pasta, made from your fresh eggs, you'll never turn back. real easy too]

I was thinking, in additon to selling eggs at the Farmers Market, I should also sell fresh pasta.

Christy said...

I've made pasta a few times. It was one of those things that wasn't worth the effort on a daily basis. I still make pasta for special occasions. Maybe if I did it more often it would get faster to do. We also eat mostly whole wheat pasta which I've not tried to make yet.

Gail said...

Always on the look out for a bargain. I had no idea Amazon had food!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you get some good deals at Amazon.
I'll have to look at it too.
Thanks.
Have a good day.
Pam

The Scavenger said...

I am into Food Storage too, you're not weird. I have never thought of Amazon for food, thanks. We have an Amazon Prime Account and get free shipping too. Thanks for the info, gonna give it a try.

Chris

Welcome To Wilmoth Farms said...

Wow, never knew Amazon had food!!! Totally cool and I cant wait to check it out!
By the way...how DO you make pasta??!! Thats something I've been wanting to try myself!
LOVE your little "poser"/cook! She is just too cute!!!!!!!

Zachary and Jennifer said...

Great money saving tip.

Jennifer

Welcome To Wilmoth Farms said...

*note to self...do not have 2 comment windows open at the same time, you may think you are typing in one and you hit a key unexpectedly and the next thing you know your comment to one blogger appears on the other bloggers comments...Bug DUH for the day!**
Sorry about the poser/cook comment! LOL

Christy said...

Kyfarmlife - Oh good! I couldn't figure out what you were talking about. I thought I was crazy.

Melody said...

I didn't know Amazon.com had food either. Those are great bargains.

BTW, do you use a pasta machine to make your pasta?

Carla said...

Cool Christy. I never even thought about doing that.
Glad it's working out for you.

Anonymous said...

Huh, I've never thought about getting food from amazon either. Interesting! There are those thins I just cannot get local and I have to shop at the only place in town to get them (walmart) s this wouldn't be that different. How are the shipping costs?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this info. I knew Amazon had foods, just haven't ever taken the time to really look at what they have to offer.

Christy said...

Everything I've ever gotten was free shipping. If you sign up for the automatic delivery, shipping is free. If you don't do automatic delivery, most things have free shipping if you order more than $25. I highly recommend doing the automatic shipping if the item you want has it. You save an extra 15% and can cancel it right after your order is shipped, so you don't have to worry about shipments you don't want.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Wow! I had no idea Amazon even had groceries.
We have a serious problem of always running out of food for our family of 5. I can never keep the pantry shelves stocked. The more food we buy the faster it seems to go, too.

This buying in bulk from Amazon seems like a stellar idea, espcially for me, one who hates to go shopping. I get so tired walking, standing and pushing a cart in those big bulk warehouse stores. And Walmart is even worse.

Hubby is doing the shopping now since I am laid up. I bet he'd be interested in this.
Does Amazon give referral credit? they should, because you are good advertisement for them ;)

~Lisa
aka~Rapunzle

Christy said...

Lisa - I wish they had referral credit! We spend quite a bit on food with them.

Gone2theDawgs said...

I started shopping Amazon for books, and it has progressed to appliances, etc. Now it appears that I really need to check out their grocery section! Thanks for the tip!