Are you big into buying up shelf stable foods to stockpile? I'm a huge couponer so when I see a shelf stable food item on sale and I got coupons to make it free or under a quarter each, I will grab as many as I got a coupon for. I share amongst three families so its not like the food gets wasted. I also like the fact that I don't have to run to the store to get basic Staples. They are just a closet away from my kitchen!
When I get a good deal I will get enough for the whole family to share. Some people are concerned about the expiration dates on some food items and do not like to stock up on items that might expire before they use them. During the winter I will stock up more food items just in case we have a severe storm and can not get out for a few days.
I suppose I should get into couponing more, to find deals like these - if I saw stuff that cheap that I used regularly, of course I would stockpile it. Some of the pantry items I buy (and use) the most are canned tomatoes, pasta, tuna fish, and various canned beans, as well as instant rice. Lately I've also been buying a lot of family size tea bags to brew my own iced tea. Canned tomatoes will last quite a while, and it's very unlikely I would ever get anywhere near their expiration date before using them. One thing I used to stockpile quite often were frozen TV dinners, especially if they had some crazy sale on them. I would buy them directly at a local Stouffer's outlet for roughly $1 each, sometimes slightly less - depending on if they were trying to get rid of some stuff quickly. Otherwise, our local grocery stores will often have sales, bringing them down to about $1.50-$2.00 each for Lean Cuisine lunches and dinners. On weeks where I am feeling a bit lazy, it's nice to have these around since they are healthy, low calorie and fat, and have a variety of mixed veggies in them already - saving me the trouble and expense of having to buy all those vegetables individually.
I don't, because unfortunately, we don't get coupons that much for supermarkets here, so I don't ever get to capitalize on promos enough to able to build a stockpile. I may run across one or two coupons here and there and maybe save on a few items, but that's about it. That said, I do really want to have a stockpile, as I always envy the people I see in Extreme Couponers because I think the pile looks so nice and like you said, it's very convenient to have everything you need in a pile in your house. Not to mention it must feel great to know the items you are using cost little to nothing.
I don't stockpile food items because among other things, I live some distance away from town. Flitting back and forth would cost a bit on gas and since I live along [and my neighbors live further off] even if I was to take advantage of an offer, most of the stuff would go bad anyway. Because of that I only buy what I'm sure can be consumed in entirety, within a certain time which usually is 1 week.
As far as I'm concerned, the stockpile is the key to really saving money on food and household items. I clip coupons too, but honestly, just buying enough stuff to last for 10-12 weeks when it goes on sale is enough to save 50-60 percent on groceries. The rice and pasta in my stockpile was nearly free. It was on sale, plus I had coupons, so I bought as much as I could. It will last us quite a long time. The Hamburger Helper isn't something I usually buy, but I got a $12 rebate on ground beef when I bought those, and then I had coupons on top of that, so they were dirt cheap. Cereal is a staple is our house. I can usually get it for $1.65 or so by combining sales and coupons. A good place for me to buy cereal is Dollar General. Sometimes they put boxes of cereal out for half off on the weekends. If you happen to have a coupon, you can end up getting a lot of cereal for dirt cheap! I got most of my barbecue sauce stash for free. Some of the fancier stuff I paid up to 50 cents for. And you can't see this because it's off around the corner, but I've got a ton of free toothpaste and mouthwash stocked up. I was able to get most of it at Walgreens and some at Walmart. I love my stockpile! <3
I always had my initial stockpile, but after visiting my in-laws, I realized their stash put mine to shame. Ever since then, I've really been grabbing whatever I can when they have seemingly blow out prices. My most common buy is usually jarred spaghetti sauce which from time to time goes on sale for a dollar each. Besides the obvious use, you can also convert it into chili, pizza sauce, and a number of other things. Outside of that, as of late, we're really loading up on oatmeal and canned peaches (guilty pleasure).
I don't get coupon often from a supermarkets here. They only give away coupon at certain occasion which I do take an advantage on that. There are only 3 of us living in my house so we do our food shopping weekly. We also prefer to do so because it is one of our way of spending time together every weekend.
This sort of things can be save in stocks because finally because shopping is not always easy i mean you can not go far ahead for this purpose so this is the way how it is you have highlighted a good subject.
I got the idea of couponing and stockpiling from my grandmother. She shared with others and saved money at the same time because it would save a trip or two to the store. There was a time when I liked the Extreme Coupon show but last time I saw it, the participants were just greedy. One lady bragged about having a free case of feminine pads just sitting because she had a hysterectomy. Boo!
The only thing that I stockpile is water. I have enough bottled water to last for a month. I don't stockpile food items because I don't eat a lot of pre-packaged foods. I have watched a couple of those couponing shows. Yes, they were able to get large quantities of food and household and personal care items for a few cents. That's not my thing. Just a thought...I could use extreme couponing to start a food bank.
