Welcome to saving money at the store!  Are you saving yet?  See previous posts:

• Plan a menu
• Make it a smart menu
• Buy to your needs
• Price match

Building Block 5: Build a stockpile

Have you ever heard someone say “Man, I had to throw out a bunch of laundry detergent because it all went bad before I could use it.”?  I haven’t.  Some things just don’t go bad.  At least not quickly.   Cans of green beans can take 2 years to expire!  I’ve never seen a “Best Use By Date” on toilet paper.

So, buy things when they’re at their lowest prices and store them.  I’ve heard it said that things typically go on sale (like majorly on sale, not just a few pennies off) every 3-4 months.  When that happens, stock up! Here’s a handy cheat sheet with stockpile prices!

• If your family uses 3 rolls of paper towels a month, then buy 12 rolls when they’re the cheapest.
• If you eat spaghetti 3 times a month and use 3 cans of sauce each time, then buy a bunch when it’s on sale.
• Got a freezer?  Buy hamburger when it’s deeply discounted.  Put it all in the freezer or freeze it in 1-pound portions.

This is a perfect example of where sales are better than a coupon.  If you have a coupon for $1.00 off 2 boxes of cereal that normally cost $3.99/box, that’s great.  But often they’ll go on sale for $1.99/box.  That’s $2.00 off each box.  Much better than saving $.50 because of the coupon.

Be careful to not go overboard though.

How do you know if you’ve gone overboard?

• If you have so many stockpile items that you need to move from a 2-bedroom apartment to a 3-bedroom just to have a room dedicated to storing things, you have too much.  It isn’t worth the extra $200 in rent that you’ll pay each month – that’s $2400 in a year!
• If you can’t tell the difference between canned peas and canned asparagus because the cans are so covered in dust, you have too much.
• If you have 300 bottles of shampoo and only 2 people in your family have hair, you have too much.
• If you sleep on the couch because your bed is used for storing macaroni and cheese, you have too much.
• If you start giving green beans to your nephew for his 2^nd birthday, you have too much.  Or a nephew that loves green beans too much.
• If you google “Top 50 Recipes Using Creamed Corn” because you have 100 cans about to expire, you have too much.
• If you have enough laundry detergent to last until retirement, but you’re only 25, you have too much.

If you find yourself in that situation, donate it!  There are plenty of places that will take it.  There are plenty of people that could use it.  It’s okay to stockpile things for your family, but there’s a difference between stockpiling and hoarding.

But building a stockpile of food and household goods that are used by your family is a key way to saving major bucks!

What do you like stockpiling?

Jayme is a wife to 1 and, so far, a mother to two little boys. She coupons, but isn’t super extreme about it. She price matches and loves it! While she likes to cook, she’s in the stage of life where simple is usually better! She never knows how many hands she’ll have free at dinner time! You can find her at No Regrets Living.

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