Stockpiling 101
I can still remember the summer my sister Michele introduced me to couponing. I was a skeptic at first but after reading lots of blog posts and seeing what my sister was getting for pennies with coupons I decided to give it a try. It started off slow but as I became more knowledgeable things looked up. I couldn’t believe the amazing deals I was getting. When things were free or close to it with coupons I would pick up a few of each item. After a few months my linen closet was filled with free shampoo, conditioner, razors, toothpaste, tooth brushes and body wash. It was a great feeling, knowing that I got all of these things for free. It was also an amazing feeling knowing that I had a stock pile of these items and I wouldn’t ever need to rush out and buy one of these items for full price ever again. After I had an excellent stock pile of personal care items I decided that I could do this with non perishable food items…
My husband and I cut down our monthly grocery bill significantly by using coupons and stockpiling items that we eat when they are on sale for pennies or free after coupons. Here are a few tips if you plan on stockpiling.
Check the Expiration Date:
Yes, it is awesome to find a product on sale/clearance that you have a coupon for! I often get a little giddy over it. The first thing you need to do is check the expiration date. That might be the reason it is on clearance. If it expires before you can eat it, it’s not a good deal. If it is free or inexpensive after coupons and has a month before it expires I will pick it up and donate it to the food pantry.
Where to Store Everything:
I talked about this in an earlier post, YOU DON’T NEED A PANTRY! If you live in an apartment or a house without a pantry you can get creative with your storage. When David and I lived in an apartment, I to would use under the bed storage tubs that were clearly marked to store food or beauty items. I would just not recommend storing them in the same container. I used one for beauty products and a separate one for food. Another neat place to store items is in unused dresser drawers. Now that I have a HUGE pantry I store things in there on neat little shelves.
Rotate Stock:
This goes hand in hand with check the expiration date! Whenever I stock up on free pasta or other items I put the newest ones in the back and move the older ones to the front. This sounds like a no brainier, but it doesn’t usually happen when I ask my darling husband to put something away. In my opinion nothing is worse than tossing perfectly good food because it went bad.
Eat from Your Stock Pile:
Once every few months I challenge myself to not grocery shop and eat up the items in our pantry. I get very creative with recipes and save a lot of money. I love when we “empty” the pantry; I still get a thrill out of restocking it!
I can still remember the summer my sister Michele introduced me to couponing. I was a skeptic at first but after reading lots of blog posts and seeing what my sister was getting for pennies with coupons I decided to give it a try. It started off slow but as I became more knowledgeable things looked up. I couldn’t believe the amazing deals I was getting. When things were free or close to it with coupons I would pick up a few of each item. After a few months my linen closet was filled with free shampoo, conditioner, razors, toothpaste, tooth brushes and body wash. It was a great feeling, knowing that I got all of these things for free. It was also an amazing feeling knowing that I had a stock pile of these items and I wouldn’t ever need to rush out and buy one of these items for full price ever again. After I had an excellent stock pile of personal care items I decided that I could do this with non perishable food items…
My husband and I cut down our monthly grocery bill significantly by using coupons and stockpiling items that we eat when they are on sale for pennies or free after coupons. Here are a few tips if you plan on stockpiling.
Check the Expiration Date:
Yes, it is awesome to find a product on sale/clearance that you have a coupon for! I often get a little giddy over it. The first thing you need to do is check the expiration date. That might be the reason it is on clearance. If it expires before you can eat it, it’s not a good deal. If it is free or inexpensive after coupons and has a month before it expires I will pick it up and donate it to the food pantry.
Where to Store Everything:
I talked about this in an earlier post, YOU DON’T NEED A PANTRY! If you live in an apartment or a house without a pantry you can get creative with your storage. When David and I lived in an apartment, I to would use under the bed storage tubs that were clearly marked to store food or beauty items. I would just not recommend storing them in the same container. I used one for beauty products and a separate one for food. Another neat place to store items is in unused dresser drawers. Now that I have a HUGE pantry I store things in there on neat little shelves.
Rotate Stock:
This goes hand in hand with check the expiration date! Whenever I stock up on free pasta or other items I put the newest ones in the back and move the older ones to the front. This sounds like a no brainier, but it doesn’t usually happen when I ask my darling husband to put something away. In my opinion nothing is worse than tossing perfectly good food because it went bad.
Eat from Your Stock Pile:
Once every few months I challenge myself to not grocery shop and eat up the items in our pantry. I get very creative with recipes and save a lot of money. I love when we “empty” the pantry; I still get a thrill out of restocking it!
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