Gehardt busts inflation: How much can you save by buying in bulk?

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s likely that most of us if not all, are trying to find ways to make our household budgets go further.

An often-repeated piece of advice for that: buy in bulk. But how real are bulk savings?

The biggest factor when it comes to inflation is freight. Gas prices have been high ever since the war in Ukraine broke out and it means that every single thing we buy costs more to get here. It has created an emphasis for businesses to save on shipping. One way to do that is by sending stuff in bulk. It costs a lot less to box up 30 somethings to send to one place than sending those 30 somethings to 30 different places.

The savings get passed on to consumers looking to save money, but new data shared with the KSL Investigators shows just how much bulk buying can help you bust inflation.

According to this report from LendingTree, shoppers can save 27% on average by buying in bulk across 30 common products. “You really can get some pretty significant savings, if you shop in bulk,” LendingTree’s Matt Schulz said. He added bulk buying also has its pitfalls.

Buying one of something costs less than buying a lot of something, even if they are discounted in bulk.

“It’s funny, in some ways, bulk shopping really is a ‘it takes money to save money kind of thing,’” he said.

LendingTree found the savings on things like paper towels, water, and batteries, could be as high as 50%. That could certainly make it worth considering for your budget.

Gephardt Busts Inflation: Finding the best deals on school supplies

“If you’re talking about savings of 25 to 50%, that’s stuff that makes it worth the effort,” Schulz said. Bulk is also not always a saver, as we discovered firsthand back in July when we were investigating back-to-school prices. We found that for most of the stuff on our list, we did better by buying smaller quantities at local retailers.