Stockpiling

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, you've probably noticed that my weekly grocery shopping trips might seem a little different than what you would normally buy on any given week. 20 boxes of cereal one week, 10 bags of rice another week, 15 bottles of shampoo, etc.

Before I started getting serious about couponing I shopped in a completely different way. I'd sit down and make out a meal plan for the week, then I'd go through my recipes and make my shopping list based on what meals I would make and what I would need for that week. I'd then go through my coupons to see if I had any coupons that would work with the shopping list that I'd already made. I'd buy just enough to get my family through the week, and then the next week I'd go through the exact same process. Of course while I would be at the grocery store I'd buy more items than were on my list...gotta love those impulse buys. My boys already eat like grown men, and our grocery bill was going through the roof.

When I decided to get serious about coupon shopping and really trying to make coupons work FOR me, I realized that I had been going about my shopping trips COMPLETELY backwards. Now I go through the weekly ads, find the deals that are on sale AND that match up with my coupons, and make my grocery list from that. Instead of only buying one or two items, I will buy as many items as I have coupons for. (Note, as a coupon shopper I NEVER want to clear the shelves so other people can't get in on the deals as well, so sometimes I'll cut back what I was originally intending to buy if the store doesn't have a lot of the product in stock...this usually isn't a problem at grocery stores, but you will run into this at Walgreens and CVS sometimes.) If rice is on sale and I have a good coupon for it, I will buy 5 to 10 bags. No we won't use that much rice in a one to two week period, but my goal is to buy enough so that I won't have to buy it again at full price. I want to have enough in my pantry to last until the next sale comes along. If I can buy a bag of rice that is normally priced at $1.50 and get it for $0.30, I want to snag as many as I can! I've noticed that most stores run similar sale cycles every 6 to 12 weeks, so my goal is to try to have at least a 6 week stockpile of pantry staples so I'll have enough to last my family until the next sale comes along.

Okay, this sounds good right...buy things at rock bottom prices so you don't have to pay full price for anything. When I first started out I thought, "Yeah that sounds great, but we are barely able to buy what our family absolutely NEEDS each week. Where am I going to get extra money to start stockpiling?" Some of you might not be at that place, but I am being honest...at the end of the month we were STRUGGLING trying to stretch our food. I thought there was NO WAY that I could even start stockpiling groceries. I decided to pull out $10.00 of our grocery budget every week to put towards stockpiling foods. I would scrimp on our normal grocery purchases, and then I'd take the $10 that was left and ONLY use it to buy items that were WAY on sale and that I had coupons for. One week I used it to buy only cereal, the next week only deodorant, etc. I will say that it was slow going for me...I was trying to figure out couponing and matching sales with coupons all on my own. At first I couldn't see it making a HUGE difference, but I decided to give myself 8 weeks to see if it would really make a difference. As the weeks went on I noticed that my grocery list of NEEDS was actually getting smaller. I was started to accumulate a stockpile of grocery staples, so I could "shop" from my pantry before I made my grocery list for the week. After about 8 weeks my husband and I sat down to reevaluate our grocery budget. We had so much extra food bought up that we really only NEEDED to buy produce, dairy, breads, etc. every week. We decided to try cutting our grocery budget significantly. Now I only (okay, I say only but of course there are a few exceptions) buy pantry items when they are at rock bottom prices, and the majority of our grocery budget now goes to perishable food items.

I have heard from several people that say no matter how many coupons they use they can't seem to get their grocery budget down...they are buying MORE with coupons, but are still having to spend the same amount. Just wanted to give you a personal story of how I was able to reduce our grocery budget. I will be honest, if you are on a strict budget, you won't be able to cut your grocery budget all at once. Give it a couple of months...take out a few dollars every week to put towards stockpiling items. Over the course of several weeks you should notice that your pantry stockpile is growing and your grocery list of NEEDS is getting shorter. Soon you should be at a point where you are only buying items at rock bottom prices, with the exclusion of perishable food items.

Hope this helps some of you!! I would love to hear how you guys are doing with your coupon shopping!! Have any of you noticed a big difference in your grocery budget since you started? If you have any other advice or ideas on how you were able to shrink your grocery budget let me know!! I would love some different ideas!