I love chocolate! Chocolate on sale is even better!

Until I moved to Ottawa, I probably never walked into a Bulk Barn before. I still remember the first time walking into the store and seeing all those lovely products nicely organized in transparent bins. When I saw my first bill upward of $60.00 I realized that I needed a plan.

These days, I still go to Bulk Barn regularly, I love Bulk Barn for the following reasons:

1) I can find several fresh products at a reasonable price.

2) I can buy the exact quantity of something that I need.

3) I can sometimes buy specialty items at a discount.

4) I can try new things without being stuck with a large quantity if I don’t like it.

These are the items that I usually buy at Bulk Barn:

• Peanuts
• Raw Cashews
• Pumpkin seeds
• Raisins (may not always be cheaper, but fresher than elsewhere)
• Flax Seeds
• Spices
• and speciality items (coconut milk, organic milk etc.).

I’m one of those fortunate people to have three Bulk Barns in relatively close distance to my home.

Did you know bulk barns carry different specialty items? I found this out last year which makes shopping for the non-traditional items even more fun!

Of course, going to Bulk Barn requires a plan. I know my prices before I go, and I rarely go to the store unless I have a 3.00 off coupon.  It’s obvious how to save money on sale prices items when one uses a coupon. So, you may be saying, how can I save money on speciality items?

Here are two examples of what I did recently to give you an example:

Bulk Barn had Coconut Dream milk on special for 2.49. Now in itself, that’s a decent price. However, this is how I made the deal sweeter: It so happened that the special was held on a week when there was the 3.00 coupon.  So I bought four boxes of milk with one candy (I needed to get to 10.00) and then used my coupon. This brought the bill down to 7.00 thus making each box approximately 1.75 – a steal!

More recently, I bought two specialty chocolates (organic and free trade). These rarely (read nearly ever) go on special. These chocolates retail for around 4.50 in bigger grocery stores and even Bulk Barn, but once again with the coupon, I brought down these chocolates to less than 3.50 each (I bought some cashews on special to munch on because I didn’t want to buy another bar and go too much over).

So, there you have it. Keep those coupons close to you and enjoy sales at a fraction of the price of the big stores! More importantly, always remember, you can go more than once to a store or with a family member to ensure that you get the 3.00 off as many $10.00 purchases as you need.