What is the idea behind stockpiling?
The idea is to buy enough groceries when they are at their lowest price to last you until the next time those same items are at their lowest price, usually 3 to 6 months. So you will have 6 months worth of some items in your home. And you’ll “shop your pantry” when you need something.
What can you stockpile? Nearly everything, right?
Everything except fresh produce and eggs. You can even stockpile and freeze milk and cheese, if you want.
How much storage space do you need and how did you find the room?
From book: The easiest way to create extra storage space is to clea out thing sthat are no longer being used. For example, do you have things in your kitchen cupboard that you never use? You can pack away or donate things like small appliances, extra silverware, expired spices and specialty baking dishes, whatever your family doesn’t use.
OK, time to stockpile. You say to stockpile coupons first. Is it necessary to use coupons to stockpile?
You don’t have to use coupons. If you do, it deepens your discounts, but its on necessary.
Next, you say to make a “Focus Item List” for your family. What is that?
It’s a list of priciest things you buy and also the most frequent items you buy. That way you know you are stocking up on things you actually need and use. We have a form on our website, BeCentsable.net, to help people create this. For example, my family uses a lot of shredded cheese, which is expensive, so I want to get that whenever it’s on sale and freeze it to last until the next sale.
This brings up another step: people need to know what regular prices and what good prices are for the things they buy most often, right? Because otherwise, you don’t know when a sale or a coupon is just a “meh” deal or an amazing deal.
It’s important to know what the rock bottom price is for a specific item on your stock up list. So if cereal is normally $2.50 a box, then the rock bottom price is hopefully about half off or $1.25.,
How do you find the groceries you’re going to buy to start your stockpile?
Look through your grocery store’s weekly ad and find things that are on your stockpile list that are on sale, ideally at 50 percent off. Focus on products you already use —or substitutes you’re willing to try.
You can also go higher tech. Tell my listeners about CouponMom.com and what it does for you.
This website matches sales with coupons and calculates the percentage off of the regular price so you know when sometihng is an amazing deal worth stocking up on. You can even sort to only see deals that are at least half off.
Another revelation for people interested in stockpiling is that sales come in cycles. Explain.
Yes, certain products go on sale at predictable intervals, which helps you know how much to buy to get you through to the next sale.
There’s also seasonal savings, certain products that go on sale at a particular time of year. Give us a couple of examples.
January: Bread, cereal, Quaker products.
March: Cleaning supplies, eggs, Kraft products.
And so on.
Is it expensive to build up a stockpile? 6 months worth of groceries sounds like a lot.
You will not be buying any more of these items than you usually do. You will just be purchasing them at a different time: ahead of time.
Are we talking about just food? Or household supplies and personal care items too?
ALL of it. In fact, non-food groceries are even easier to stockpile and there are some great sales.
Master stockpiling: BeCentsable.net
Sort through deals and price check: CouponMom.com
