10 Thrifty Tips for Stockpiling

Have you ever watched that Extreme Couponing show on TV?

So crazy. And I’m definitely NOT one of those people. Though I do think it would be cool to get a negative balance on my receipt someday.

Just for fun.

Something that I’ve really been wanting to do more of lately is build our food storage and stock pile. However, I don’t want to be put in the poor house doing so. So if you are in the same boat, here are 9 thrifty stockpiling tips!

Thank you to SheSpeaks/Walmart for collaborating with me on this post. 

1. Buy What You Have Room For

   If you live in a small apartment, you really shouldn’t buy so much that you are sleeping on top of cereal boxes. Unless, you know, you like sleeping on them. Don’t worry about building a huge stockpile that runs you out of your house. Dedicate an area in your home for storage of things you are stockpiling and if you run out of space, either use what you have, or wait until you have more room! If you are looking for more space, consider putting your bed up on cinderblocks or bed risers – it’s an easy way to expand your storage space! I used these a lot in college when I had very little space for anything!

2. Only Buy What You NeedI think it’s very easy to get into the mindset of seeing something free or inexpensive and feeling like you need to get it. Seriously, avoid this! Only buy and stockpile products that your family actually likes and will use. There’s no use in having 100 boxes of Top Ramen if no one will use it.
3. Know stock up pricesI recommend only stockpiling products when they are at their lowest price. When is something at it’s lowest price? Well, I use this awesome tool from Passion For Savings that has everything you need to know about tons of different products and when you should stock up.A lot of stores will have different stock up sales throughout the year. When we lived in Utah, grocery stores would often have “case lot sales” where you could get different products in large quantities for great prices. Individual stores have different sales throughout the year, so pay attention to weekly mailers.

   For instance, through April, Walmart is having a Stock up and Save sale. They  have tons of every day products on sale for great prizes. For instance, we bought a big box of Pamper’s Swaddlers, Dawn Soap, some Febreze, and Crest Pro-Health Mouth Wash. They have laundry detergent and shampoos as well. I bought these products from their website, so I also got 5% cashback using Ebates. It’s really helpful to take advantage of savings like this (and combine them with other ways to save) when trying to build a stockpile!

   

4. Shop after holidaysI sometimes joke that I want to start celebrating holidays a few days after they actually happen. We didn’t end up getting to celebrate Valentine’s Day very much this year (we were driving all day), so I went to the store the next day to buy things and everything was SO cheap – at least 50% off.After holidays, go to the store and stock up on baking supplies, holiday themed paper towels, etc. You can even get some great storage boxes after Christmas  (where you can store your stock pile!)
5. Invest in a dehydrator

   When most people think about stockpiling, they probably think about non-perishable goods, paper products, shampoo, etc. However, you can stock pile on things like meats, fruits and vegetables, etc. We always stock up on meats from Zaycon Fresh and freeze them, and it saves us a lot of money. When you see fruits and vegetables on sale, it can be a little trickier. Obviously, those products go bad faster. So, buy a dehydrator so you can dehydrate fruits and vegetables to last much, much longer.On the same note, if you buy chicken on a good sale, you can use a pressure canner to can the chicken. This is something I want to do next time we get Zaycon.

6. Prioritize

   Make a list of your most-used products. These should be the things you try and stock up on most.

7. Set limits

   My biggest tip – don’t go into debt to stockpile. Set aside a certain amount of your monthly budget to stockpiling, and then don’t go over it! You should set limits on how much of a certain product you need in your pantry, how much extra you want to spend each month, etc. You could even buy a reloadable grocery store gift card with the money you want to spend for building your stockpiile on it, so you can’t go over your budget even if you want.

8. Rotate – know the sell by/use by dates

   Use your stockpile – it doesn’t do you any good if you are buying a ton of stuff in bulk but you never use it. Put food products that you buy that will expire soonest at the front of your “queue.” When you are at the store, check to see when a product is going to expire. If there are 20 boxes of something on sale for dirt cheap, but they expire in 10 days, you probably don’t want to buy all 20 boxes…so that would be wasted money! This can rotator would be perfect for canned goods!

9. Use Ibotta

   I LOVE Ibotta. It’s one of the best ways to make money from purchases at the store. While you can’t get more than one rebate per product, you can set up an account for a different family member on a different mobile device. When you get something on sale that’s on Ibotta, you can get the rebates with the other person’s account. I’ve made a lot of money with Ibotta, and with the Walmart April Stock up to Save program, some of those products have rebates! When you redeem our first rebate, you’ll get $10!

BONUS TIP:

Check the end caps at the store – they often have products that the store is phasing out, that aren’t selling well, damaged, or that were seasonal. And they are typically very inexpensive. A few years ago, we got these HUGE containers of white vinegar for like 20 cents – the only thing wrong with them was that they had been branded for Easter (and Easter was over.) I’ve seen a lot of great deals in these sections – they are usually toward the back of the store, at the end of aisles, or even in random grocery carts!

Here are some other great posts about stockpiling and saving money (click on image to go to post):