Saving money is something that is always on all of our minds. This week I found that some simple changes in shopping habits surrounding cleaning chemicals can yield some insane discounts of up to 40%.

To keep this relatively generic for both my Australian and worldwide readers, I thought that firstly I would present the concepts, at t he bottom I have included my original calculations for my Australian readers.

The concepts – buying in bulk

Buying in bulk is certainly not a new concept to anyone. It is easy to see that a 600ml bottle of Coke is far more expensive per litre than buying from the supermarket in 1.25 litre or 2 litre bottles. Something that I haven’t found out until recently however, is that these same discounts can be applied to other products you may not have thought about before.

The products that I had not considered previously were products that most supermarkets do not actually sell in bulk including:

• Laundry washing detergent – Dynamo or Cold Power Ultra
• Fabric softener – Fluffy
• Window cleaner – Windex
• General purpose cleaner – Spray and Wipe
• Dishwashing liquid – Morning Fresh
• Floor cleaner – Ajax Floor Cleaner
• and many more

Most of the time, at your local supermarket you might only be able to get the above items in 2 litre portions at a maximum. However what I have recently found is that by expanding your search horizons you can find all the above items in 5 or 6 litre portions at up to 40% savings off what it would cost you to buy the smaller portions from the supermarket.

Where you might be able to find the bulk items may vary, for you Aussies you can check out Masters.com.au as they have some great deals or Big W stores. Hopefully someone from the US might be able to recommend where you can look for such items locally for you for my US readers.

All in all, I would definitely recommend that you don’t restrict yourself to just the supermarket. If you are wanting to really get some solid savings on bulk purchases extend your search a bit further and buy bulk in advance to save some cash.

For you out of towners, what are your suggestions of what you buy in bulk to save money?

For the Aussies

I thought I would include my recent calculations (which are correct as at 12th July 2012 when I did the calculations).

• Fluffy fabric softener per 5L:
  • Coles.com.au – $25 (on special @ $5/L)
  • Masters.com.au – $8.47
  • Saving of $16.53
• Windex original per 5/L
  • Coles.com.au – $37.90
  • Masters.com.au – $14.41
  • Saving of $23.49
• Ajax Spray and Wipe per 5L
  • Coles.com.au – $28.70
  • Masters.com.au – $16.44
  • Saving of $12.26
• Dynamo Top Loader per 6L
  • Coles.com.au – $41.88
  • Masters.com.au – $26.94
  • Saving of $14.93
• Morning Fresh Detergent per 5L
  • Coles.com.au – $36.07
  • Masters.com.au – $24.95
  • Saving – $11.12

If you were to purchase each of these the total savings are ~ $78. If you take into account that you will need delivery from Masters.com.au which (at least to the Sydney CBD) is only $10, the total savings come in at ~40% of what you would pay if you were to purchase the same in smaller portions from Coles. I have also assumed here that what you would purchase from Coles you would purchase from your local store, hence no delivery cost was included.

So have a think, it is definitely worth a thought considering these are not items that are going to go “out of date” and that you might be purchasing over a longer period otherwise.

So what do you like to buy in bulk to save and where do you source it from?

Stuart