I Bought Household & Personal Care Items From Amazon Instead of Local Kirana Store & Saved Money. Here’s How

You know, I’ve always had this notion that online shopping tends to be more expensive, especially for everyday items like groceries or those things you’d typically grab from your local kirana store – you know, stuff like soap, detergent, toilet cleaners, and all those essentials. But let me share my personal experience and hopefully change your perspective on this.

I used to believe that buying these items in person was the way to go, thinking it was the cheaper option. However, a while back, I decided to give online shopping, specifically Amazon, a shot for these very items. And boy, was I in for a pleasant surprise! Not only did I find a wide variety of products to choose from, but the prices were often competitive, if not better than what I’d find locally. Plus, the convenience of doorstep delivery was a game-changer, saving me both time and effort. So, here’s the deal – I’ve actually been saving quite a bit of money by ordering these essentials from Amazon. It’s become my go-to place for items like soap, detergent, and toilet cleaners. The myth that online shopping is always pricier, at least in my experience, has been busted, and I’ve happily embraced the online shopping world for these everyday necessities. Give it a try; you might be pleasantly surprised too! Here are some items and the amount that I saved on each one of them:

Toothpaste: I personally buy Colgate’s 300gm toothpaste for monthly usage. At our local kirana store, it is priced between Rs. 180-190. However I decided to look it up online and got 500gm of Colgate on Amazon at just 230 Rs and that price is consistent every 1st to 7th of each month because those are grocery days on Amazon. And the same 500gm pack at our local store is of 270-280 price range, which means that easy saving of Rs. 50.

Toilet Cleaners: Another thing that we usually buy every month. Now, we usually buy Harpic 500ml which is available at Rs. 110-130 and that is very expensive. Harpic has good quality but due to being expensive, I started looking for alternatives. I came across Amazon’s own Toilet Cleaner which is less expensive. We have been using it at our home and it provides nearly the same quality in cleaning as Harpic. And I dare say that it just cost us Rs.179 for 2 liters. The savings that I got is more than Rs. 100 on one liter, which is huge.

Floor Cleaner: There are two options that we usually buy: the black phenyl bottle which is Rs. 70-80 liter, the colorful ones that are like 25-30 Rs liters. Or the other option is to go for Lizol or other branded floor cleaner which is 150-160 Rs. Per liter. Again good quality comes at a higher price. However, I recently bought Amazon’s own Presto floor cleaner and I was able to get a 2 liter pack for Rs. 199. So again a huge saving for around 50 Rs on 1 liter.

Bath Soaps: This is another category where I think the local kirana store guys loot their customers. Two months back my mother ordered six bath soaps of 125 gms each from Fiama so we got them for Rs. 390. A pack of three was for Rs. 195 after discount. But when I looked at its price on Amazon, I was getting the same soap, same weight for just Rs. 267. I saved Rs.120, which is again amazing. And I noticed the same deals on other soap companies as well. Like you can get deals on Wild Stone, Liril, Dettol or Lifebuoy too.

Hand Wash Refills: I think this expense was added to our kirana after the pandemic, before that we used soap for cleaning hands now it is hand wash. I looked at the refill pricing for Godrej Hand Wash that we used to buy from kirana stores. It was Rs. 110 for 750ml. Now I bought the same product from the same brand of 1.5 liter at just Rs. 169. It gives me a savings of Rs. 50.

Air Freshener: Our every month kirana also includes bathroom freshners especially the pocket ones because they work for 30 days. So I recently decided to look for the same on Amazon. I bought a pack of five air fresheners at just Rs. 200, which usually costs 250 Rs. at a local kirana store. So again savings of Rs. 50.

Dry Fruits: So premium cashews and almonds are usually between Rs. 100 – 130 per 100 gms. However, I bought Farmley’s combo of good quality cashews and almonds for just 80 per 100 gms. So good amount of savings again. Even pistachios are usually Rs. 320 – 350 per 250 gms but Farmely’s pistachios cost me just 250 for 250 gms so again a savings of around 70 rupees on a 250 gms pack.

Beauty and Grooming: I won’t mention individual products but whether it is Face Wash, Shampoo or Deodorant, or local kirana store guys usually sell them on MRP which doesn’t give any discounts to us. So I would advise you to buy them online. It is pretty straightforward to save money by buying beauty and Grooming items online.

I think you can also try ordering all these items online because when you combine the savings of all the products that I mentioned above. It easily exceeds Rs. 500-600, which is great on a monthly grocery. And if you want to save more, you can even subscribe to some of these items which will give you more than Rs. 20 savings on each item. I hope the list helps you. Have you tried doing the same? And please tell other items that I can save money on by buying online if any in the comment section. Thanks!