Buying office supplies in bulk?

Discussion in Office Supplies started by GemmaRowlands • Sep 3, 2014.

  1. GemmaRowlands

    GemmaRowlandsActive Member

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    I work from home as a writer, and because of this I go through A LOT of office supplies such as Pens, paper, note books and printer ink. Recently, I have discovered that if you're able to buy things in bulk, you have the chance of getting a much better deal than you would if you simply bought things every time you wanted to get a specific item new.

    I have looked on the internet, on sites like eBay and Amazon, and buying in bulk certainly does seem to be the way forward. You do have to make sure that you have somewhere that you can store things, though, or there is obviously the chance that they're just going to get in your way when you don't want them to.

    Have you had any experience buying things in bulk? Would you do it again?

    My latest success story was a pack of 20 biro pens for £1, which I thought was quite good - and they are a good brand so I know they will last me for a good while!
     
  2. Jessi

    Jessi<a href="http://www.quirkycookery.com">QuirkyCooke

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    I'm surprised to hear that you work from home as a writer AND use all those office supplies.

    Most people I know who do such things have switched over to digital formats. :)

    But yes, buying in bulk is great for things like that!
     
  3. Amanda K

    Amanda KActive Member

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    I work from home- and write as well. One of my feet is firmly in the digital age. The other remains planted firmly where I was educated (in the dark ages). So, I write digitally. However, if I have a longer work to edit, my brain works better if I'm looking at it on paper. I use old-fashioned red ink, then put the changes into Word.

    I hit a yard sale where a physician sold a lot of all of the office supplies pharmaceutical companies gave him over some time. I paid just about a dollar and am still using the pens and post-its. Most of the pens have embarrassing drug names on them, so nobody steals them!
     
  4. 003

    003Well-Known Member

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    We really buy office supply in bulk. First because it saves us a lot of time and sometimes money as well. We do this because we are heavy consumers of office supplies that they run out so fast with our use. If don't buy in bulk, I think we would have to buy them each other day which would just be so tedious. But if we are trying something new, we don't buy it bulk. We first buy the amount appropriate to be tried, most of the time, just one of that item, just to see if it would work.
     
  5. DrRipley

    DrRipleyExpert

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    We have always bought some items in bulk especially back when we used a lot more physical products like pens and paper. I also like to draw and tend to use up a lot of paper way back when so we used to get out typewriting paper in bulk so we could just take several sheets at a time without having to worry about running out. It was a huge change from only buying 10 or 20 sheets at a time as we needed it and then always running out whenever we forget to buy new stock.
     
  6. NikkiDesrosiers

    NikkiDesrosiersActive Member

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    I work from home too and have the same issue with office supplies.. I am always trying to find deals on the things I need and you are absolutely right you will almost always save a lot of money buying in larger quantities. Tip to consider -- if you have a local office supply store in your area that is not a chain... you can sometimes negotiate bulk pricing with them for items that you need.
     
  7. juancarlos

    juancarlosMember

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    Great information. But, i always buy a

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    from online. I am always trying to find the best deals on the things.
     
  8. sidney

    sidneyWell-Known Member

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    Well the only thing that I have bought in bulk are pens, and those are the ones in packs of threes. I figure that the ink might dry out and be "frozen" if it's too many. When I was in school I bought different sizes of paper, like whole intermediate pad, one fourth and one half since it was required in school.