Shopping in bulk

My husband turned me on to the idea of shopping in bulk shortly after we were married and living in our first home. We would go to Sam’s club and stock up on paper towels, toilet paper, water and other essentials. Over the last 7 years, I have become very accustomed to our Saturday morning Sam’s club shopping ritual and always knowing I had enough of the things we used on a regular basis to sustain us. We moved here with nothing but what was in our suitcases, so on the first day here, we needed to buy things for the house. We didn’t buy in bulk, we just bought what we needed and I have been struggling with not having back-up products. Always thinking I am two paper towel sheets or one kleenex away from having to run to the local supermarket (and when you are still a little nervous about driving, this is a whole process I would rather not have sprung on me by putting the last diaper on Gerbie's bottom). It turns out buying in bulk took a lot of pressure off of having to always run to the store. Need a new ketchup bottle –yep, I am sure I have that in the pantry. Dishwasher soap –yep, a new one is under the sink. Here, not so much. Not only have we not had a place to go for these things, but we also don’t have a pantry, or even that many cupboards. So today, imagine my delight, when we made it to a somewhat nearby Costco. They don’t have the same products as the Costco in the US, but they have products in bulk. We loaded up on paper towels, water, hand soap and other essential items. I happily shoved the products in every nook and cranny in our kitchen cupboards, even in the garage (which by the way are not used for cars over here –they have tile or wood floors, usually house the washer and dryer and are used for storage, go figure). In any case, I finally have some pressure off needing to constantly be on top of how much we have of these items and being one minute away from having to run to the store. Yes, it is the little things in life that make people feel better, right? The above picture is the girls taking in the lovely sights of row after row of things piled to the ceiling at Costco. They seem just as thrilled as me, right?