6 Goods That Are a Waste of Money To Buy in Bulk

If you’re a regular shopper at places like Sam’s Club and Costco, you probably enjoy the savings from buying in bulk. After all, who wants to spend more than they have to on toilet paper or paper towels? You can also score good deals on foods you eat regularly.

Even with the savings, there are some items you might want to think twice about before buying in bulk. Here’s a look at six goods that are a waste of money to buy in bulk.

You may notice a theme in our list: Many of the items are things that have expiration dates and are unlikely to be used up before they expire. That can mean wasted money and those upfront savings go right down the drain.

That holds true for our first item: Over-the-counter medications. Instead of buying aspirin or sinus medicine in bulk, you may want to try your neighborhood chain drug store. You could use your loyalty card and coupons to save money without needing to buy a huge amount you may not use.

Along with those medications, you may want to avoid fresh fruits and vegetables when buying in bulk. You can snag smaller amounts at other grocery outlets and not have to worry about a lot of it going bad before you can eat it.

Not to spoil your party when buying in bulk, but it may be a waste of money also to buy frozen produce. Why? Well, each time you open that big bag and expose the food to air, you can cause freezer burn.

Buying salty snacks in bulk might be a bad choice for a couple of reasons. First, they can go stale before you finish them. But there’s another reason you may not want to buy those snacks in bulk — you’re going to have them sitting around and perhaps tempting you to eat more snacks than you might with smaller bags.

One other way to help save money when buying in bulk is to stick to a grocery list. You can make a separate list or divide your main list for items to buy in bulk.

Speaking of foods to avoid buying in bulk, you may want to add cereal to the list.

First, of course, that big package is not going to stay fresh and good forever. In addition, you’ll be stuck with the same cereal over and over again until that bulk package is gone.

As with some other items on this list, you may be able to save even more money at your other grocery outlets by using coupons, waiting for deals and trying store brands.

When it comes to items that aren’t worth the bargain to buy in bulk, CNBC put spices on the list. Ground spices have a limited shelf life and can lose their potency.

That means it’s probably a better idea to buy them at other grocery outlets, unless you know from experience that you’ll use a lot of a certain spice before it loses its potency.