I was going through the forums over at A Full Cup and I came across this post (you’ll need to log in or sign up to read the post) by a woman who went out for her first couponing shopping trip and she ended up spending $50 more than usual. She was worried that couponing was not working… and I don’t blame her! Chances are she was buying items purely to build her stockpile and using coupons just because she had them. She will learn the ropes, I hope!
That also reminds me of someone who posted on facebook last year about how they bought 10 jugs of laundry detergent and got a terrible deal but it was okay because they were building their stockpile… ugh!
Please remember that the whole reason you build a stockpile is to save money, not spend more money!
The only items that you should be stocking up on are items that are very cheap or free. Then when you run out of that item, you simply head to your stockpile and grab your cheap or free item instead of heading to the store and paying full price! Get it?
In the beginning, you will for sure stock up on stuff and pay actual money (but it should still be cheap). Those stockpile purchases will get you through until you can start getting the same items even cheaper or free.
The first item I stocked up on big time was pasta. That was last May. I paid 42¢ per box and I thought that was awesome. I bought 52 boxes and told my mother we were cutting back to cooking one box of pasta a week so we’d have enough pasta for a year. My mother could eat a box a day, so that was going to be a challenge.
Luckily for my mother, I quickly discovered that pasta is something we often get for free so there is no longer a one box a week limit. Am I sad that I paid for pasta in the beginning? Nope! Having that cheap stock allowed me to always wait for free pasta. I have never paid for pasta since, and we go through about 5 boxes a week.
And the funny thing is, every time I open a box of pasta I still worry that one day I will run out. It does not matter if I have 100 boxes on hand. I worry.
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