In our efforts to make online household shopping for you easier, we have roped in one of our customers, Sheila Bajaj who has been generous enough to share her tricks and tips. Here, she sheds light on how buys in bulk once a month and lands up saving on both time and money. You can take a leaf out of her page and follow suit.
Honing the art of household shopping can take some time but once you do, life becomes so much easier! It took a huge argument with my regular ‘sabji-banaiya-wale bhaiyya’ to discover how I could catch my favourite show on TV and still buy what I had to for home. I knew about buying in volumes from online stores, but what I had not realised is how truly wonderful it is.
If online shopping came as a divine intervention, the idea of bulk shopping was a gift of the abundance. Most of all, it was a pocket friendly measure.
But first of all, let me share what I think of bulk shopping.
- It is systematic and therefore a time-saver
- Less stress
- Excellent quality
- Bulk buying=cost-effective = fantastic cutback
Concerned about preservation? Here is what I did.
Veggies and Fruits:
If the vegetables are damp I pat my veggies dry. Then I put them in a bag. I take care to see that I let some room for air to circulate. I don’t want the veggies to rot fast. Then I proceed to drop them in the vegetable compartment of the fridge. Again each vegetable is to be stored separately. Also, the key is to know what you can buy and how to store it, say a potato will last longer than bhindi. And when it comes to leafy greens, it is best to store them in an airtight container in a fridge to keep it fresh.
Money saves: Veggies and fruits cost less in an online store. Buying a bigger quantity will be cheaper in the long run. It is basic economics!!
Time saves: You can thus be sorted for a long period of time. You don’t have to rush to the next store in an emergency.
Onion, potatoes, tomatoes, lasoon
I always keep onion, potatoes, tomatoes lasoon outside and not in the fridge, storing them separately and not together like a bunched up salad!.
Money saves: Buying onion and potato in larger volumes gets your basic prices down. So if, for example, onions are Rs30/- per kilo, larger amount at a time will bring down the prices by at least Rs3/-. This will impact your total bill positively.
Times Saves: Boil potatoes and keep them in the fridge. If guests come home to surprise you, you can quickly dish out a chatpata aloo sabji.
Pulses and other pantry food:
I normally store my staples like rice, dals sugar, wheat (I sometimes get whole grains and get it milled) in a dry, not humid place, and away from the sunlight. With rice, I leave some kaali mirchi corns to keep the rice pest free. You can also add some pungent red chilli. It will work as just as well.
My mother used to keep neem ka patta as a way to preserve. Some add boric powder to their pulses to keep them free from pest. While I store my atta in the freezer, I avoid doing the same to sugar as it goes hard and lumpy in the freezer. But the watch word in all the cases here is air-tight dry containers.
Money saver: It works on the principle ‘Buy more, pay less’
Time saves: Rice staples like ‘broken rice’, ‘single boiled rice’ cooks faster than other variants. So in a situation, you can quickly dish up steaming rice dish.
Click here to know about how you can increase the shelf life of groceries.
Baby Products
We all know that baby products are expensive. So isn’t it wise to buy in volumes and stock them up? Storing diapers, body powders and soaps is fine, but for milk powder and baby food, keep them all in the refrigerator.
Diapers and other baby hygiene products:
Store baby products separately from other household products lest they get contaminated by mistake. You can stack up diapers in you cupboard and use them when you want.
Money saves: Huge
Time saves: Huge. You are always ready with diapers, milk bottles and the complete baby pack.
The best part is that it is convenient too. Keep the baby bag ready and you are ready ‘mom-on-the-go’.
Click here to know the 10 things you can stack up for your babies.
Hygiene, home cleanser and detergents:
Home cleansers and detergents are easy to store. Stack them away in the bathroom shelf and they will last long. Just keep toilet rolls and tissues away from anything that may get them wet. Once wet these tissue crumple and are of no use.
Money saves: Big money saver.
Time saves: It saves you the time, effort and stress of rushing every ten days to the shop to buy toilet tissues.
This is a brief dope on how I preserve my stuff; you may have you own ways to do so. Share it with me. Right now I am making my next haraa bharaa list for home. Yes it is haraa bharaa as everything is abundance in bulk shopping!
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