Amoritizing the cost of food bought in bulk

In our house, Costco is a valuable resource.  There are a lot of food items at Costco that aren't cheaper in bulk (most frozen convenience foods), however, there are a lot of items that are cheaper in bulk.  For example: Milk,  hot chocolate mix, salsa, whole wheat pasta, frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, and shredded cheese.

When I budget a trip to Costco, I amoritize the cost of the food. What does that mean?

• Amoritize: To account for over a period of time.  For example, if a company amortizes the expenses associated with the acquisition of another company, it means that instead of recognizing all of those expenses in that particular fiscal year that the company will instead recognize a certain portion of those expenses each year for a certain number of years.

What does that mean in terms of my grocery budget? Simply this: There is no way that we are going to eat 5 lbs of shredded cheese in a 1 month period (my grocery budget is done by the month), so I figure out how long it will take us to eat that much and divide it among the budget periods.  For reference, it takes us 2 months to eat 5 lbs of cheese. That's $6.49/mo. for 2.5 lbs of cheese.  That's cheaper than buying cheese at the supermarket even with coupons and sales.

On a recent trip to Costco, I bought: Whole wheat Pasta.  8 1-lb packages for $6.75.  That pasta will last s about 6-8 months. We eat less than a 1/2 package at a time, and we eat pasta once or twice per month. That's less than $1.00 per month from my grocery budget!

How does this play a part in my normal grocery shopping and budgeting?  I calculate how long each bulk package will last, and divide the food up as needed (the cheese gets put into ziplock bags and stored in the freezer until we need them).  I then subtract the cost per month from my grocery budget.

Monthly Grocery budget: $75.00

Whole Wheat Pasta -$1.00

Shredded Cheese -$6.49

Adjusted Grocery Budget for June: $67.51

I also do the same when we buy meat from Omaha Steak.  We buy about once a quarter when there is a good sale through Mypoints.  I can get a quarter's worth of red meat for about $50.00, and it usually comes with a free gift, such as a dessert or twice baked potatoes. Omaha Steaks has wonderful meat and with a sale offered via Mypoints, it is always less than what I can buy at the grocery store.  And the bonus is that the meat is individually vacuum packaged and frozen, so I don't have to break up the packages myself.

By amoritizing, I am able to stay within budget when buying in bulk.