I got a tip about BulkFoods.com from a previous edition of “Works for me Wednesday” (for more tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer). I thought it might be helpful to share a bit about my visit there in order to help you optimize yours.

BulkFoods.com specializes in bulk candies, but they also offer many baking staples (spices, herbs, grains), seeds, beans, and various types of nutritional supplements.

If you order there, you need to take advantage of the FREE SHIPPING FOR ORDERS OVER $75. Honestly, spending $75 is not a problem, and with shipping charges being what they are I don’t imagine that BulkFoods.com would be that much of a savings if you order less than $75 and then pay shipping additional on top of what you order. Also, it is important to note that the unit cost of all items is lower as you order larger quantities. I tried to order the maximum of every item, but it does make your shopping cart total add up rather quickly.Personally, I think that helped me to seriously consider what I “needed” to be purchasing. 🙂

My first question was, how does BulkFoods.com compare with my usual shopping at Sam’s Club? I usually do Sam’s once a month. I don’t clip coupons. I don’t shop sales. I just get the bare-bones basics at Sam’s and we make do with what we have. It works for us. Sam’s Club prices are good, and the Click-n-Pull service is just the icing on the cake.

I spent about an hour cross-referencing SamsClub.com with BulkFoods.com, comparing various things that I would normally buy (nuts, raisins, yeast, dry milk–which, by the way, they don’t always have at my local Sam’s and which is cheaper at Aldi anyway).

One thing that I have always wished that they carried at Sam’s is dry beans–and that is one thing that I found to be a pretty decent deal at BulkFoods.com. I LOVE their bean soup mix! I don’t think that the beans are comparatively much cheaper than what you can get at your local grocery store, but since I was shopping anyway (and wanted to take advantage of the free shipping), I added the beans to my cart because I didn’t feel that they were “over-priced.”

Most other standard items (like the ones I listed above) were hands-down cheaper at Sam’s. However, the prices may compare more favorably to standard grocery prices (particularly yeast, which I have always found to be outrageously expensive anywhere but Sam’s Club).

The items I ended up purchasing at BulkFoods.com were the “unique” items that I’ve only seen there and that I can’t purchase locally. On those items, their prices compared favorably to other online sources.

For example, I got some citric acid to make cottage cheese. I also found that it is a great JUICE EXTENDER! I mix a bottle of juice with a bottle of water and add a few tablespoons of citric acid. The kids can barely tell the difference! 🙂 (There is even a recipe for cottage cheese on the Web site, BTW.)

I got some of their powdered chicken soup base, which I prefer to the individual bouillion cubes I get at Sam’s. I also like their cream soup base. Granted, if I wanted to make a cream soup or sauce, I could go by my usual recipe and use standard ingredients, BUT the powdered base has been a real time-saver and worth the price. I’ve used it to make a quick cream of tomato soup, an alfredo sauce for pasta, and a cheddar cheese sauce for broccoli. All you do is whisk 8 T. of soup base (about 1/2 c.) with 2 c. of water, simmer for 15 min. or so, and then add a small can of tomato paste (for soup), 1/2 c. or so of parmesan cheese (for an alfredo-type sauce) or 1/2 c. of cheddar cheese. I’ve also whisked a few tablespoons of the base into chicken broth for use in chicken pot pie.

A friend of mine whose son has various food allergies was thrilled to get some rice flour at BulkFoods.com. She also mentioned that they prefer the flavor of sea salt to regular table salt, and BulkFoods also has sea salt at competitive prices.

So that’s my $ .02 on BulkFoods.com, which (in conjunction with Sam’s Club) has become a once-a-month regular place to stock up. It Works for Me!