The student house. What a great idea to join with some university friends and rent a house together. This is far better than university halls as you can have parties 24/7 without security telling you to keep the noise down.  Ok, if you are still all singing badly to Bohemian Rhapsody using kitchen utensils as microphones at 4am your new house neighbours are likely to call the police sooner or later.

You share the monthly rent equally 4 ways even if the girl gets the attic flat with her own bathroom and the boys have to share a bathroom that will eventually give Domestos a run for its money. There will be a rota for doing the housework and making sure the black bin bags of lager cans and polystyrene-framed rotting take-away remnants are put outside every Wednesday.

But the refrigerator and the freezer are a totally different kettle of fish. Food ownership and the associated storage space are fiercely guarded and god forbid if anyone eats that cling-film wrapped tuna and mashed potato belonging to the girl. All hell breaks loose as accusation and counter accusation fly across the crumb covered and ketchup stained kitchen table. Traps are set to try and find the culprit. Cheese is weighed to ensure the bloke with the limp doesn’t slice off a piece to eat with his milk-free muesli at 2am after the pub.

So does sharing really save any money? Well, seeing as the students all eat the same sort of meals they could indeed save a few pennies for extra cider if they overcame their food protectionism and bought in bulk. Cheaper, simpler and a far fewer kitchen table fall outs. (However, I am not sure how good students are at forecasting!)

Sounds so simple but even in big grown up companies we still see money wasted through failing to agglomerate demand and take advantage of economies of scale. Individual departments all have their own stationery stores. The sales force has a deal for buying diesel and petrol from one chain that is not shared with the Logistics team or 3PLPs – and why not the distributors? Why does every separate office in the company need to have their own and different brands of coffee making machine and coffee – I see this often!

Every time you buy in small quantities you pay a higher price – fact. You waste time with so many people involved in buying activities and suppliers take you for an expensive ride and don’t think they do not. Call it what you will but bulk buying or corporate procurement makes sense and money and particularly so in these gloomy economic times yet many businesses large and small ignore the opportunity. Or perhaps you do not need to save relatively low hanging finance?

Who eats tuna with mashed spuds anyway………..?

Image credit: iprole