Holy Moly! I know I was supposed to do this post a few days ago, but I have the flu or food poisoning or something and literally have not left the bed in days. I'm feeling only slightly better today, so I'm here. Sorry I'm late. So apology accepted? Good. Onto our next topic. Stockpiles.
Getting tuna for free or toilet paper for $.15 a roll is all fine and dandy but what good does it really do you if you get 1 package of tuna or 1 roll of toilet paper? What did you save by doing that? A dollar, two? Big deal. No really, that's why we are talking stockpiles-so you can get BIG DEALS! The purpose of couponing is to buy what you will EVENTUALLY need at a rock bottom price so that when you need it, you don't have to shell out full price. That's why (in a previous post) I talked about getting multiples of the same coupon. So that (for example) if I had a $1 off a package for chewing gum and WalMart had said chewing gum for $.99 a pack I can go to WalMart and get my free chewing gum. But if I get 1 pack, and I need more next week and have to go pay $.99 for it, I haven't done myself alot of good. But now lets say I have 20 of those coupons. I can go buy 20 packs of gum for free and have enough chewing gum to last me the next 6 months. By stockpiling things that I can get 60% or more off I have things I need when I need them, and I'm not freaking out over paying $5.99 for a bottle of shampoo. Plus, if there ever happens to be a zombie apocolypse, I'll be able to board up all my windows and doors and have enough food, deodorant, paper products, and chewing gum put away to last until all the zombies starve to death. In a more practical sense, it's so nice to be able to just throw the tube of toothpaste away and grab another out of my pantry instead of wrestling the tube for the next week because I forgot to pick some more up. I know we have all been the ones in the shower filling the shampoo bottle up with water and shaking it up to get that last litte bit, praying it's enough to wash our hair clean because there isn't another bottle in the house. I'm the only one? Didn't think so.
Now lets talk "how" to stockpile. Obviously you will want to have your tons of coupons we talked about earlier. You will also need a space to keep all of the items you are stockpiling. Clean out an under-used closet and put some shelves in it, buy a shelving unit for your garage, kick one of your kids out into a tent in the backyard...I mean, however you want to get the space is up to you. But you will need it if you're couponing right so go ahead and get it ready. Food service tip: Keep non food items on shelves under the food items. You wouldn't want that cheap/free shampoo leaking out all over your Wheat Thin stash. After you have your space ready, you will want to scour all of the online couponing sites (some of my favorites are listed below) and your local ads. Of course I will list deals here weekly too. My general rule of thumb is that if I can get an item 60% or more off, I stock up. Some people only stockpile free things, some say 30% off is enough for them to stock up. You will have to decide that for yourself. But my thinking is that if I can get something for 60% off, I can buy 3 and only pay 20% more than the original price of 1. If I can get it for more than 60% off, it's on like Donkey Kong.
So really that's the basics of stockpiling. Clip your coupons, find your deals, buy your deals up while you can get them, and the next time you are shaking the last little bit of laundry powder out of the box you can go the your own personal stockpile and get a new box instead of taking from the store's stockpile at full retail price (+ gas + hassle).
Some of my favorite sites to check for deals are:
http://www.thecoupongirlz.com/
http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/
http://www.coupondivas.com/
Up next: A sneak peek at Sunday's coupons and my planned shopping list!
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