Sleeping Beauty's stockpile of Capri Sun -- 7 cents each at FL
Stockpiling allows you to have needed products on-hand and it also helps you to save money. Let's talk shampoo...you need to wash your hair and you are out of shampoo. You have two choices. One, go to your stockpile and get another bottle (that you got for free) and wash your hair until it is squeaky clean. Or, two, go to the store and buy a bottle for FULL PRICE. That, my friend, is the beauty of stockpiling -- having products on-hand when you need them AND that you got for free or just pennies.
How many of us have gone to the grocery store, spent $100 and, once at home, realize that we have bought very little food? If you could get all (or most) of your non-food items free, you would have more money to spend on food at the grocery store.
The moral of the story is stockpiling saves you money. For every product that you get for free (or super cheap), that is money saved from having to purchase that product at full price.
You should stockpile items you use and can get for free. For example, at Food Lion this week there are some great deals on Kraft cheese, Kraft mayonnaise, Capri Sun and Cool Whip, among other things. If you don't need Cool Whip or no one in your family likes Cool Whip, it may be foolish to get it even if it is free. So no matter how great a deal a product is, if it will not be used or eaten, it just takes up space. However, if you do like Cool Whip and will use it, then this is the perfect time to stock up on Cool Whip. This is true for any product.
Several years ago, when I first started seriously using coupons and stockpiling, I got four bottles of Frank's Hot Sauce for free. We have never used hot sauce on anything before, and didn't use it after I got it. I recently went through my stockpile. All four bottles of Franks Hot Sauce expired a year ago. What a waste! I should have left it on the grocery shelf for someone who would use it. Or I should have donated it before it expired. Lesson learned...don't stockpile things you will never use or things you will not donate to a food pantry.
Another mistake I made was stockpiling too much of just one thing. The very first thing I stockpiled was Gold Fish crackers. I bought a bunch of it because it was just pennies a bag. The kids love it, but they soon got sick of it. But my thought process was that Gold Fish was never, ever going to be on sale again, so I had better get all I could. The truth is everything goes on sale again, sometimes for a better deal (and sometimes not).
There are lots of stores within a four mile radius of my house...Food Lion, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Harris Teeter, CVS, Lowes Foods and Target. Between one of these stores, something I use will be free each week. For example, if dish detergent is a good deal at Target this week, chances are dish detergent will be a good deal at another store next week. This is especially true for soft drinks. When CVS has Pepsi products on sale, Walgreens will have Coke products on sale the same week. The next week...CVS and Coke...Walgreens and Pepsi. So if you miss a deal this week, don't worry...it will be on sale somewhere else soon.
I'll leave you with a story. When I was young, my mother would buy a lot of Christmas wrapping paper after Christmas -- usually when it was 75% off or more. She would save this wrapping paper for the next year's gifts. I always wondered why she bought Christmas paper AFTER Christmas, that is until I had to buy it myself and realized how expensive it was. But that is stockpiling. Buying something you will use when it is cheap. That is also good money sense. Why pay full price for anything?
I hear you screaming..."I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." You should be mad...you shouldn't be paying full price anymore. Start cutting those coupons! Start saving money!!
**Pinch**
Pinch's stockpile of freebie unmentionables
No comments:
Post a Comment