I never shopped at a big club warehouse before I went to Utah for school and I shopped at a Costco for the first time. I thought it was both awesome – “Oooh! It’s a better price per unit! And look at this jumbo package of toilet paper! We’ll never run out!” – and crazy – “You have to spend money before you can spend money here?” I mean, what? You need to pay for a yearly membership in order to reap the discounted prices? Totally didn’t seem like a win.
At least not to my single college student self.
Sometimes warehouse club memberships are not worth it for a variety of reasons. (But, there are many reasons they are totally worth it too!) One of those reasons could be because everything comes in bulk, which presents a variety of challenges.
The Disadvantages of Buying in Bulk
One of the main disadvantages of these club memberships is that everything you buy comes jumbo sized.
If you live in an apartment, like us, having jumbo packages of everything isn’t very feasible. While we’ve found 23 different place to stockpile in an apartment, our fridge and freezer are small.
Bulk Items are Hard to Store
Having jumbo containers of every condiment (pickles, salad dressing, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, jelly, butter, salsa) and refrigerated regulars (eggs, milk, lunch meats, produce, bacon, cheese, hummus) is a logistical nightmare! Add in the large boxes of these warehouse stores’ frozen selection, and a small fridge is completely packed, but not easy to navigate or store anything else in there (like leftovers and regular other groceries).
Many people say that it’s okay to buy in bulk because you can freeze almost anything. While that’s true, if you only have a small freezer, it’s not so feasible. We did buy a chest freezer, but quickly discovered that we are not very good about using our frozen foods quickly or regularly. Frozen meat and other products really don’t taste as good as when they are fresh, especially if they’ve been frozen for a year….
Bulk purchases last a long time.
While this is great as it means running out of basic necessities happens less often, it means having to store these items in your house for a long time too. Some foods and products already last you forever in a regular sized package, let alone a giant sized version!
If it’s not actually something you use up regularly, for whatever reason, this means you could be moving 20 rolls of paper towels with you when you move to a new apartment, or jostling that 48oz container of minced garlic around your fridge forever.
Basically, if you just want a small container of peanut butter, too bad! You have to buy the two pack of 48oz jars.
Bulk items can cost you more money.
If you buy bread or produce at Sam’s Club or Costco, it comes in bulk too. If you don’t eat the bread fast enough or that large bundle of tomatoes, you’re wasting your money as they start to mold or get extra ripe and have to be thrown out. Perishable bulk items can really eat up the savings if they aren’t actually consumed before they spoil.
Bulk Items Don’t Always Keep
This is why places like Sam’s Club are not a great replacement for traditional grocery stores. There are some things you don’t want to buy in bulk because you don’t have the room for it, only want a little bit of something, won’t eat it before it spoils, or don’t like the taste of something that’s been frozen and thawed (at least once).
Even items that you think seem like a great bulk purchase like vitamins, may not be the best bet at one of these store.
We frequently buy Vitafusion Gummy Vitamins at Sam’s Club (or we did). They are much cheaper to buy per gummy than regular grocery stores, but because they last so long in the bottle, they get stuck together, dried out and gritty, and not so great tasting. Even the ones I buy for my kids end up getting stuck together, so I’m left using an eating utensils to dig them out of the bottle and separate them from the other gummies.
Actually, my husband once cut the whole bottle open and put the glob of stucked together gummies into a ziplock bag for easier access.
Obviously, less than ideal for getting our daily dose of vitamins! The gummies are supposed to be delicious and easy to eat. But that isn’t true when they’re bought in bulk.
Thankfully, there is a solution to the gross, stuck-together gummy vitamins issue – Vitafive.
Vitafive Review
I recently received some Vitafive products to review to see if they were a better solution to my daily gummy vitamin needs for myself and my children. I have to say Vitafive is the easiest and most delicious way way to take your vitamins.
You choose from eight different gummy vitamins – Vitamin C, Multivitamin, Biotin, Melatonin, Vitamin D3, Omega 3, CoQ10, Calcium & D3 – or choose from their pre-made packs:
- Immune Pack
- Beauty Pack
- Sleep Pack
- Heart Pack
- Essential Pack
- Active Pack
- Brain Pack
- Kid’s Immune Pack
- Kid’s Healthy Bone Pack
- Kid’s Essential Pack
Vitafive places them in daily packs with your name on the back and send it directly to your door every four weeks.
No more big, nasty pills. No more going to the store. Welcome to Health without the Hassle. The individual packs are great for grabbing them as you running out the door or going on vacation. They also help the gummies stay fresh and yummy for longer.
Vitafive costs $24.99-$39.99 every four weeks, or less than $1.50 a day for your daily vitamins. But because I’m an affiliate you can use code “wuf30” to receive 30% off your first month! Shipping is always free!
I tried out the Brain Pack and my kids had the Kid’s Essential Pack. My husband thought the Omega 3’s tasted all too fishy for him, but I didn’t think they were gross at all. I didn’t realize that the Brain Pack didn’t have a multivitamin in it though.
Vitafive are also:
- Gluten Free
- Kosher & Halal Approved
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
With kids, I like having individual packs with their names on them. They are easy for my kids to grab, open, and consume (as opposed to the big jar of stucked together vitamins with the babyproof lid). For me, I like that they taste good!
Vitafive GIVEAWAY {ENDED}
If you want the chance to try out VitaFive for yourself, for free, enter my giveaway in the rafflecopter box below! One winner will receive a two week supply of their Beauty Pack which includes: 2 Biotin, 3 Omega-3, and 2 Vitamin C! Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Those vitamins sound awesome! And we are kind of feeling the same way about buying in bulk right now. I love Costco, but we just don’t have space to store stuff!!
It’s often cheaper to buy the store brand whatever in a lot of normal-sized boxes at the regular grocery store than it is to buy the name-brand counterpart in bulk at a warehouse club store.
Yup! Very true!
We have a big house ( 5 bedrooms, two baths, two living areas) but even with all this space we struggle to find room for bulk purchases. Costco’s out of the question – the nearest store is a couple of hours away – but even things like, weekly specials at my favourite grocery wholesaler’s. The other week they had 2 boxes of 12 packs of Oreos (lunchbox size – so 3 cookies per pack) for $1.50. I would’ve loved to have bought enough for the rest of the school year. But where would they live? (At the same time I have to think, First world problems. Oh, woe is me for having so much food in the pantry I can’t buy cheap cookies!)
First world problem indeed! You make such a good point.