Today's prompt was to write a 'How to Post'. It took me a while to come up with an idea. I decided to write a post on 'How to Stockpile'. I absolutely love my stockpile and I love watching it grow, so I figured i would share my tips with you! Here we go 8)
The way stockpiling works is you buy several of an item at rock bottom prices. This way you have enough to last you until the next sale, so you can buy more at the rock bottom prices. Doing this ensures that you don't run out of an item, and then have to run to the store and pay full price for it. Why pay $3.50 for toothpaste, if you can get it for free?
You find the best deals by waiting for a sale, and then matching your coupons to the sale. This is called doing Match Ups. A LOT of blogs do all the match ups for you, so they do all the hardwork and you get to reap the rewards!
There are some items I buy week to week, or as needed, such as milk, bread, etc. But for everything else, I buy it only when it's on sale. I no longer make a shopping list each week of what I need. I shop by what is on sale, so I never know what I am buying each week until the weekly ads come out it is a completely different way to shop then I use to do, but it is so much better.
So, here are some examples of things I bought recently for my stockpile.
Sunblock ~ Coppertone Sunblock was on sale at Vons, on Friday only (this was today!) for $5 (part of their $5 Fridays). I had a coupon for $5 off of 2. So, I bought 4 for $20, used 2 $5/2 coupons, and paid a total of $10....that made them $2.50 each! (not sure on the tax on this, since they were bought with the rest of my groceries)
Body Wash ~ On Sunday we got coupons for $1 off Ivory soap (good for bar or body wash). The body wash was on sale at Food 4 Less 10/$10. I had 4 coupons, so I bought 4 of them for FREE! I just paid sales tax ($.31)
Hand Soap ~ This is on sale at Vons for $.99, I had $.35 off coupons, that double to $.70, making each one $.29. I bought 9 of these. I spent $2.61 (plus another $.45 tax)
The Sunblock was normally $10.49 each, the Body Wash $2.99, and the Hand Soap $1.99, if I had bought all this at full price, without doing match ups, it would have cost me $71.83 plus tax. I spent $12.61, I saved $59.22, a savings of 83%!!
If our current opened sunblock runs out, I can just go to my stockpile and grab a sunblock when we need it. I am not going to have to run out to the store and spend around $10 on one. I just finished off my deodorant, I just grabbed another one from my stockpile. I also don't need to worry about my husband waiting until he is out of something before he tells me making me have to run out for something at the last minute. He just goes in and grabs it from the stockpile as needed.
Before I changed the way I shopped and I started to stockpile, I spent anywhere from $500-$700 a month on groceries for a family of 6. I now spend anywhere from $150-$250 a month. As my stockpile grows, I am spending less too. There are certain items that right now I will not buy, unless it is free, for example; toothpaste, deodorant, toothbrushes, floss, body wash, shampoo, and panty liners. Yes, I can, and do get all those items for free.
Stockpiling is easy, it's just a matter of watching the sales, matching up your coupons and buying at rock bottom prices. When you first start out, you might pay a bit more for things, but as you learn the sale cycles and learn the prices you can get things for you will get better and you will start spending less money to grow your stockpile.
Here are some pictures of my stockpile.
Here are some pictures of my stockpile.
This is not everything, but it's a glimpse of what I have. I can't wait until we live someplace where I can keep all of my stockpile together in one spot.
I hope this post helped someone!
Do you stockpile? Do you have any tips to share?
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