Monday, November 23, 2009

Update Your Stockpile

One of the things I wanted to do during my vacation was to take an inventory of my stockpile. I knew I needed to do this the other day when I knew I had purchased taco shells and for the life of me couldn't find them in the stockpile. Of course the hubbie found them right off the bat, after he convinced me to fix Nachos because I couldn't find the shells. You have to understand our marriage is like a competition in everything so to know that he walked into the "store" (stockpile room) and found the taco shells was more than I could bare because I knew I would have to hear it from him more than once. Love ya honey.

Anyway, tonight I spent a good 45 minutes in the store taking inventory. Once you start a stockpile I highly recommend setting up a spreadsheet or listing of the items you have. It's much easier to keep track of this way and you don't go out purchashing somthing you already have too much of to begin with. At the same time, it helps you keep track of what you might be starting to run low on.

For me, I realized tonight that it's time for me to start stocking up on shampoo, garbage bags and tissue paper again. I haven't bought any of those items in over a year and I'm down to 2 bottles of shampoo, 2 boxes of trash bags and 6 4-packs of tissue paper.

If you don't have a stockpile, now is a good time to start one. It took me about 8 months to start having what would resemble my own store. Why stockpile??? In order to save the most amount of money, you purchase items that you use, at the lowest possible price, in bulk quantities. When I purchased shampoo over a year ago Kroger's was having a sale on Suave Shampoo and Conditioner at $.80/ea. There was a $1 off 2 coupon out there so I went on E-bay and purchased 10 for $1.42. I purchased 20 bottles (10 shampoo/10 conditioner) for $16.00. I used 10 $1/2 coupons for a net cost of $6.00. So you add the $6 + $1.42 (cost of coupons) for a total out of pocket $7.42 making each bottle $.37. That was a definite stock up item for me.

You don't rush out and purchase tons of this and that at each shopping trip. My first and foremost suggestion to you is to get paper/pen and keep it in the kitchen. Every meal you make, mark down what you used. Whether it is a breakfast of cereal and milk or a lunch of cup-a-soup and some grapes or fried chicken, green beans and mashed poatoes for dinner. Write it down. You're making a list of the products you use. Or, if you are a recipe hoard (you will become one), pull out your recipes for the last 4 months and make a list of what you have purchased.

Now that you have your list of items you purchase on a regular basis, those are the items you watch to go on sale so that you can start building your stockpile. Trust me that the stores run certain sales at certain times of the year. For example, Kraft runs a cheese sale around March/April. You can get cheese at incredible prices during this sale and cheese freezes very well. When it goes on sale for the rock bottom price, you purchase it in bulk. Whenever I buy something for my "store" (stockpile), I purchase an amount that will last 1 to 2 years. For example...it has been over a year since I purchased trash bags. I purchased Glad Trash Bags (clear) almost 2 years ago. They came 10 to a box and I had a coupon for $.75/1. After the holidays Glad holidays bags went on sale for $1 at Wal-Mart. I went on E-bayand purchased 10 coupons in addition to the two I already had. I can't remember the exact amount I paid for the coupons on E-Bay, but I remember that the boxes came out to about $.32 a box. We use one garbage bag a week. As I said earlier, I have one box left in the store and I just opened a box. Time to stock up on them again.

You will find that as I post my coupon matchups each week, I will make a note to you if I feel an item is a stockup item. With sizes of products getting smaller, prices of products getting higher, and coupons being for less value, there is no better time to start a stockpile than now. It's getting worse and worse at the grocery stores and the economy is not improving the way everyone had hoped. When you hear stories that 1 of 7 families doesn't have enough food in their house for their family, it makes you sit up and take notice.

Please consider starting a stock pile. You never know what tomorrow will bring. If you have comments or questions, please post them here. I'd love to hear from you.

1 comment:

  1. Creating a stockpile is definitely a great way to save in the long run, more importantly you save on time from not having to purchase that item for months. Items and money can always be replaced but it's very hard to replace time.

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