海角大神

I love orange juice. I just love the stuff. When there鈥檚 orange juice in the fridge, I am constantly tempted to pull out the container and pour me a glass of it.

This is particularly true when the container is mostly full, but when the container starts to get low, I slow down. I know that the juice will run out soon, so I savor it a bit.

A couple things to think about:

First of all, if I have a lot of orange juice, I drink it faster. If I go to the store and buy one of the really large containers of orange juice, our family will go through the whole thing in three or four days. On the other hand, if I go to the store and buy a small container of orange juice, our family will go through the whole thing in鈥� three or four days.

Why is that? Well, when we have an abundance of something, there鈥檚 a tendency to overconsume. I鈥檒l drink it with breakfast, in the morning, in the afternoon鈥� if I feel there鈥檚 a lot of orange juice left, I鈥檒l drink it.

Second, although the cost per ounce of the big container of juice is lower than the smaller container, the big container does cost more. The sticker price on the 96 ounce container is substantially higher than the one on the 32 ounce container.

Now, you could easily argue that these points are moot because I鈥檓 talking about something non-essential to begin with. We don鈥檛 need orange juice, so the entire purchase is non-essential.

However, the same phenomenon exists with more essential purchases, too. Take hygiene products, for example.

Let鈥檚 say I buy a very large jug of shampoo at the store. I鈥檓 standing in the shower with it and I give it a little squeeze. Immediately, an overabundance of shampoo hits my hand. I don鈥檛 need that much shampoo. The thing is, even if I鈥檓 really careful, the nature of that large bottle often puts too much shampoo on my hand. It just goes to waste.

(On the other hand, when there鈥檚 just a little shampoo left, I tend to be very frugal and careful with it. I鈥檒l use as little as possible so I can make the bottle last longer.)

Another example: spices. It might be less expensive per ounce to buy a large amount of dried thyme at a spice store, but if you can鈥檛 use it quickly and it sits in your pantry for a couple of years, it becomes useless, losing its flavor.

This leads us, again, back to bulk buying. Bulk buying doesn鈥檛 save you anything if you waste the excess. On top of that, having a large quantity of something often encourages wasteful use, like drinking too much orange juice or using too much shampoo or leaving too much thyme in your pantry.

Because of this, I鈥檝e started to hold off on bulk buying unless it鈥檚 something that I鈥檓 not going to overconsume and I鈥檓 not going to waste. I buy small amounts of spices and I buy the small container of orange juice. With shampoo, I keep a small container in the shower and fill it occasionally from a big container I keep in the closet, which still causes me to have that 鈥淚 only have a bit left 鈥� better make it last鈥� attitude when in the shower.

What do I actually buy in bulk and use normally, though? Garbage bags. Household cleaning supplies. Liquid soap, particularly if I have a dispenser for it that allows me to dispense a squirt at a time. Individually packaged goods. Rechargeable batteries. In other words, non-perishables that I can鈥檛 easily overuse.

Bulk buying is a great idea, but if it leads to overconsumption or to waste, you鈥檙e not really gaining anything. Bulk buying only really shines when you鈥檙e buying something that you鈥檒l use completely but not use excessively.