In general, items that are small, but expensive, i.e. Vanilla Extract, are cheaper to buy online and save you money. Items that are heavy, large, or oddly shaped, i.e. computer paper and diapers, are cheaper to buy locally. The reason for this is the cost of shipping mainly.
BUYER BEWARE: When shopping online, many retailers will add in the price of shipping to the product and offer FREE SHIPPING! Wooo, not. . .OR they will have the lowest price you’ve ever seen for the product and the shipping costs will be exorbitant.
When I buy something online, I carefully take into account cost for the product, shipping, and reviews. Google Product Search is a great place to start when looking for something you’ve never bought online before. It will give you the price of the product, shipping, and tax information. With a few fast clicks you can weed out the sites that use the tactics I warned you about above. If there are different manufacturers, I’ll search Google or Amazon
for reviews.
Sometimes it is a tough choice, but I am rarely disappointed when I take such tedious measures.
SPOILER ALERT: Generally Amazon has the lowest price, particularly if you can get in on the Free Super Saver Shipping. Also, some items allow you to “Subscribe & Save“, which is a great deal at 15% off and free shipping. Yes, you can “Subscribe & Save” the 15% and then cancel the subscription a few minutes later. Sometimes other sites will save you more with a sale, but it is usually temporary. As long as there is not a price increase, I generally continue to buy from the same seller for smaller items.
For the rest of this post I am going to go through my list of Amazon purchases and link to the products that I have found useful and have found to save money over purchasing at the local grocery stores.
Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, 15-Ounce Tubs (Pack of 2)
– Eligible for Subscribe and Save. Typically this takes almost a month to ship out for some reason. For the health concious or those that have heard about the benefits of coconut oil, this is a great way to keep a constant supply. I chose this brand because it had a competitive price (with subscribe and save) and outstanding reviews (nearly 5 out of 5 stars).
Philips Sonicare Hx7002/30 E-series Replacement Brush Head, White
– I love my Sonicare toothbrush. If you have a sonicare toothbrush, you can probably find the head on amazon as a subscribe and save item. Be sure to choose the one with the lowest cost per head. For example, the heads for my brush come in 2 or 3 head packages. The 3 head package is more expensive than the 2 head. Also, you don’t have to worry about how long its been since you’ve replaced the head. Amazon will keep track of the time and send you new ones when it is time.
Pure Himalayan Salt
– For the health conscious again. This salt has great reviews and a competitive price. I bought the 1 lb bag originally, but will be considering the cheaper, larger packages when we run out. Without going to far off course, this salt is mined from a dry sea. This means that it hasn’t seen the sun for quite a while and may not be “biologically active”. This also means, however, that it likely contains far fewer contaminants/pollutants than a sea salt that was dried from the ocean as we know it.
Tone’s Vanilla Extract – 16 oz Plastic Bottle
– This was so much cheaper than store bought Vanilla and was the reason I wrote this post!!!! But it looks as though it is no longer available. When we finally run out at home, I will look for another brand and post it here.
Herbox Bouillon Cubes Chicken 25 cubes, 3.33-Ounce (Pack of 6)
– A hard balance between MSG free, bargain, and still tastes good.
Batteries – Button Batteries or other small batteries, particularly the less common ones, or the more common ones in bulk.
Supplements – Not going to go into any depth here, but if you subscribe and save you will never run out.
Hershey’s Cocoa, Natural Unsweetened, 8-Ounce Cans (Pack of 6)
– Another grocery item that is much cheaper to buy online. Our home makes many fresh baked goods, not to mention the health benefits of the right kind of cocoa.
Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen, Regular, SPF 30+, 8.75-Ounce Bottle
– Not really a bargain in the price department, but this is my favorite sunscreen. It is also the favorite of others as well as someone stole my bottle on my honeymoon! Sunblock is important in Florida, particularly for those that are not used to the exposure. This one stays on very well in turbulent waters, does not use the newest, cheapest chemical some company manufacture, and also has an awesome bottle that changes color when exposed to UV rays.
Well, that is all I have in the order of consumables. You can always apply the method I talked about above for any purchase. I spend quite a bit more time reading reviews when an item is several hundred dollars or more.
Have you noticed that a certain item is astoundingly cheaper online? Please post a comment so that others can enjoy the savings!
