Welcome back to Couponing Made Easy! This week’s topic is Stockpiling which is an extension of the last topic, which was Sale Cycles. These two topics go together because you need to understand Sale Cycles in order to understand WHY you need a Stockpile. As we learned last week just about every COMMON item in the store will go on sale just about every 6-12 weeks.
What does this mean in terms of stockpiling? Well when Laundry detergent goes on sale on December 1 we need to buy enough to last us 12 weeks. This is where we have to realistically think about how much we are buying. The average bottle of laundry detergent will last about 30 loads. How many loads of laundry do you do a week? In our house we do 5 (and it’s usually less than that). So a 30 load bottle of laundry soap will last me about 6 weeks. So I want to make sure I buy 2 bottles of laundry soap to last till the next sale. This means when laundry detergent goes on sale we don’t need to buy the whole store out. We don’t need to buy enough for the whole year because it WILL go on sale again! But the trick is to know what that “stock up” price is. For examples the stock up price for laundry detergent is $4 after sales and coupons. But say you’re able to find it for $2. If I find it for $2 I might buy 4 bottles since that is a really good price. One thing I like about The Krazy Coupon Lady’s blog is she has 3-month and 6-month stock-up prices. For example $4 might be the 3-month stock-up price and $2 might be the 6-month stock-up price.
Another thing to remember when working with a stockpile is when your in the store make sure you check the expiration date and are buying products with the latest expiration date to give you more of a shelf life. Over the summer I was stocking up on salad dressing and found a bottle of dressing that expired before I even BOUGHT it!
Here are some pictures of my own stockpile:
*Note my stockpile is no longer this full. These pictures are from when I first started and went crazy 🙂
If you have any questions aboutstockpiles please let me know in thecomments and I’ll be sure to answer your questions!