When in doubt for what to add, you can add things that are good for an emergency stockpile as this will cover most of your basic needs. So, while we are calling this a coupon stockpile, if you garden you can also stockpile food for super cheap.
Growing your own food is most times much cheaper than buying it in the store. We like to freeze most things to preserve them and have worked on freezing peppers , freezing spaghetti squash , freezing sweet potatoes and much more! Once you have your list of what you want and need to stockpile, you should then focus on getting one or two items at a time.
This allows you to not bust your budget and also stay organized and not get overwhelmed with looking for too many deals all at once. In order to know how much of each item you should buy, you need to know how quickly you use that item. This way you can compare the items expiration date to how long it will take you to go through it and then figure out how many you should purchase for your stockpile.
For example, if you go through one tube of toothpaste every 3 months then you only want to buy enough toothpaste to last until the expiration date on the tubes. If you buy more than you will use before the item expires, you ultimately end up wasting money — this is NOT what we want to do! We have a few systems in place to help us manage our coupon stockpile.
And if you are making a stockpile you should think about using these or making your own. First, we have a master spreadsheet that shows everything in our stockpile. It includes how many of each item, how long it takes us to use them and then auto-calculates how long we have stocked up for. This way we know when we are starting to get low on an item, we can start shopping for sales on that item to get stocked back up.
Our second system for managing our coupon stockpile is to store everything in an organized manner. The goal of couponing is to find deals whenever possible and get creative to stretch the value of every dollar you spend. When your coupons exceed the sale price of a product, it produces an overage.
However, certain retailers apply overages toward other products in your shopping cart. Walmart and Kroger are two major retailers that apply overages to your cart. Kroger issues overages on a merchandise return card essentially, a Kroger gift card. You can maximize your savings by handing the cashier your coupons in a specific order. But to be safe, give the cashier the price-minimum coupon before you use any other coupons. If you stay in the store too long, you become susceptible to their marketing ploys , and you may end up spending more money.
Get in, get the deals, and then get out. If you shop during less busy grocery shopping hours, like during the week or at night, your trips will also be faster than battling weekend shopping crowds. It ensures you benefit from the deal as much as possible and lets you use more coupons before they expire. Stacking coupons and store sales lets you score the lowest price possible when stocking up. Some stores limit the number of sale products you can purchase at once.
If a store puts a limit on something and you need more of it, visit other store locations to create your stockpile. Stocking up also lets you be pickier about when you use coupons. For example, if you run out of toilet paper, shop your emergency pantry first. Canned and dried foods last a long time, but even they eventually go bad. This method ensures your emergency supplies are always safe to eat.
But before you come home with 30 cans of creamed corn, make sure you have a place to store it. You can convert a small area of your home, like a guest room closet or second bathroom linen closet, into your emergency pantry. Instead of turning down an incredible deal, look into ways to donate excess couponing successes to people in need.
You can also reach out to local churches and community outreach programs to see if they need certain supplies. You may even be able to take a charitable contribution tax deduction. As long as you follow couponing best practices and avoid some common couponing mistakes, your savings can benefit without transforming your living room into a coupon-clipping factory. Additionally, shopping without a menu makes you more likely to buy convenience food: frozen pizzas, hot dogs, and other fast meals.
When building your shopping list, plan dishes that line up with products you have coupons for. You can plan to make lasagna for dinner one night that week and macaroni and cheese as a side for another meal. You can plan to make several recipes that use that ingredient, then stack the sale and coupon for even more savings. But if you wait until SlimFast is on sale, you can save even more money. If you need to restock on an ingredient or product that day, you have to use coupons even if you miss a sale or worse, pay full price without a coupon.
But if you can afford to wait, you can save money in the long run by shopping during sale periods and with coupons more often. If you use coupons without thinking, you inevitably buy things that are a waste of money or products that expire before you have a chance to use them.
Jumping on every great deal out there significantly lightens your wallet and defeats the whole purpose of couponing. Prego or Ragu spaghetti sauce? Skippy peanut butter or Jif? Which brand should you buy? The answer: whichever one you can get the cheapest using your coupons. Many people start couponing because of a major life event, like job loss , pregnancy , or too much debt.
And sometimes, the cheapest bet is to go with the store brand , even if it means passing up on a coupon or sale for another brand. For example, at Walmart, the Great Value line is extensive, covering a range of affordable grocery products and everyday essentials. This is so important because you have to know when a price is worthy of your stockpiling shelves. And about every 6 weeks, the sales circulate.
When I would see it below that I would be sure to grab an extra one or two. It means you need to start looking at prices on the shelf for everything you buy. I no longer keep a price book so if the task seems daunting know it is only until you have your weekly basics memorized in price. I go through phases where I will get the newspaper and then other times I do not. For a list of where to print them click here. I first started grabbing the Tops Markets ad and going through everything I thought I needed and writing that down.
Then I realized the only things I need are the ones that are on sale paired with a coupon! When you follow a coupon blog the work is done for you. You will be able to see the price for the item and then set your budget that way. There are many sites that do coupon matchups.
Matchup simply means taking the item on sale and pairing it with a coupon. Now buying your coupons is becoming quite popular. I may be looking into this down the road. We can learn together. So you never want to just buy 1 item. When you have a stockpile you can head there instead of head to the store and pay full price.
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