Singles or folks with small families, what do you buy in bulk or value size?
I'm single and live alone. But I was raised by frugal parents, and have always been and will always be a frugal shopper. I remember mentally calculating unit size prices when I was making grocery runs for my family at 12 or 13.
That said, there are obviously food things I can't/won't buy in larger sizes since I'll never use them in time, like produce or dairy or RTE things that don't freeze well. But I've also often had shelf stable or frozen items "turn" before I get to them. For the record, this may gross some people out, but I'm definitely a look/touch/smell/taste person when it comes to "best by" dates -- but my personal quality tolerance limit is like ~1-3 months post best by for "shelf stable" things even if something seems totally fine (longer for frozen).
For example, I recently went to use some peanut butter and realized the jar in my cupboard was almost 13 months expired. I did not use it. Then the (very) hypothetical math hit me -- of course when I was shopping I bought the 24oz jar for $5 rather then the 12oz jar for $3.50 because it was a better deal. BUT, I just threw away half of that "better deal" jar, so it would have been cheaper to buy the smaller jar regardless!
Anyway, TL;DR questions: - What items are worth buying in larger sizes / bulk as a single person? - How does unit size price impact your purchasing, when comparing against shelf life? - Any tips/tricks for rotating your pantry to make sure you're not letting food go to waste? #finance source