Extreme Couponing ~ Effective & Successful Stockpiling

(Thomasville "Super Cabinet")

I have heard many people talking about the "want" and the "need" to begin a stockpile of their very own.  Many of these conversations lead to the phrase, "I just don't know where or what to start with."  This is where I have been (ahem) known for putting my two cents worth in.  So where, how and when do you start one of your very own?  Well, I can't really tell you the where's the what's and the whens, but I can give you the logistics and the basics.  All you have to do is run with it. 

Building a successful stockpile takes a little prep work.  If you're just buying items because they are on sale, and you have coupons, although is all well and good, just doesn't work in the long run.  Just like with building a house, you must have a good foundation in order for it not to fall down once it has all been built.  So let's get to the first of the basics.

1.  Grab yourself a pen, a small notebook, and a calculator.  You'll want to start putting together your lists when you have at least an hour of free and quiet time. 

2.  Look at your home life, your family.  Kids?  No Kids?  Plans for Kids?  Pets?  No Pets?  Extended family living with you?  Volunteer your time in your school or church?  Take ALL aspects of your home life into consideration when working on creating as well as maintaining your stockpile.  A successful stockpile evolves over time as you and your family grows, and moves.  Stagnant stockpiles fail miserably, and must always be maintained.  This sentence will sometimes scare people away from starting one of their own, trust me though, it's really not that difficult to start and maintain it over the years. 

3.  Create a designated area or areas within your home for your stockpile, and stick to it.  Just because you pick out an area a closet or several shelves within your home, doesn't mean you cannot change it later.  You may find that after a few months, the area you choose to house your stockpile just isn't working as well as you would like it to.  I have moved my own stockpile around multiple times, until I found out what worked best.  As your stockpile grows, you may find it helpful to choose multiple areas within your home.  As nice is it would be to have 4000 rolls of toilet paper in your stockpile ( that you were able to purchase for pennies on the dollar) it's just not feasible to house those 4000 rolls in your child's room, or in the corner of the dining room.  Stockpiles should always be organized and neat, not overwhelming.  If your constantly looking at a mound of toilet paper in the corner of your own bedroom, remember that to your sub-conscience, it's clutter. 

Stockpiles are meant to help you, not fill your head with more clutter.  An unorganized stockpile, can lead to purchasing more items than one can use in a lifetime, you find yourself purchasing items that you think you didn't have, all because you couldn't find them within your own stockpile. 

4.  Brand Loyalty.  You will learn quickly that if you are brand loyal, sales for your particular brand come less often than if you were not brand loyal.  Try new brands, you may just find that you like something else better, or just as well as the brand you have been using for years.  In my family there are a handful of items that we are brand loyal to.  For the longest time my husband only liked Gillette Gel Deodorant.  I was able to get a fantastic deal on Right Guard Gel Deodorant and well after he tried it, he now knows that he likes the gel, and doesn't care what brand, just so long as it's gel.  What does that mean for my stockpile?  Well it means I know have more sales, and more coupons available to me, and to my stockpile.  Total cost for these 17 deodorants = $1.97, purchased over a 3 week period.

5.  Start small by making some lists of what your family uses on a daily basis.  Health & Beauty products can be found on sale each week, and is a great place to start when beginning the stockpiling.  Don't stockpile items with a short shelf life.  This will defeat your stockpiling efforts.  If you have to start throwing items away because they have expired, you do not have a successful stockpile.  Period.

Here is a copy of what I currently stockpile:

The secret to making my own stockpile work day in and day out, is that I did a little math after I came up with this list.  I took a few weeks and figured out just how many rolls of toilet paper my family used in 1 week's time.  Turns out it was 4 rolls a week.  So on a worst case scenario, it would be 5 rolls ( Added 25% to that 4 roll amount)  In a years time, my family would use roughly 260 rolls of toilet paper.  This would figure out to approximately 22 twelve packs of toilet paper.  Now, I may have a big house, with lots of storage space, but housing 22 - 12 packs just would drive me crazy.  However housing 11 - 12 packs is much more manageable, and I can rest assure that within a six month period, toilet paper will again be on sale, and at a great price. 

Next, watch the sale ads.  Now your rock bottom prices.  Rock bottom "Buy" prices are not the same for everyone.  There are several factors that are included.  For instance you may live in an areas where toilet paper doesn't go less than 60¢ per roll.  Or you may be fine with paying 55¢ per roll because you only have the room to store 4 - 12 packs at any given time.  For me, I have to pay less then 49¢ per roll, so any 12 pack that's less than $5.88 (with tax) is a good buy for my stockpile.  More times than not, I actually buy toilet paper when I can get it for less than $3.00 for each 12 pack. 

When making your stockpile list, be sure to save enough room for a couple of columns, the first of course is the product, the second column, should be what amount of time do you want the item to last.  The third is the highest price you want to pay for the item. Here's a sample of what mine looks like:

So as you can see from the above chart, the dollar amounts are the top dollar that I will pay for a particular product.  Some of those products are listed at $0.00, and that's because I will not pay for these items, with sales and coupons these items can be found for free just about every week or so, and stacking sales with coupons, there is just no reason to pay for them.

Here in Rhode Island we do not have coupon inserts in our Saturday papers, only the Sunday Edition, so purchasing multiple paper just isn't cost effective.  In the case of a really hot coupon, I will use a coupon cutting service, purchase 10 - 20 of that particular coupon, and build my stockpile.  For these services, you generally pay 10% of the face value of the coupon.  So a $3.00 off coupon, may cost you 25¢ - 30¢ for each one.  It's a great way to build your own stockpile, one item at a time, especially if you don't have any other access to lots of the same coupons. 

So where do you put your stockpile once you start?  This is another one of those questions, where the answers are different for everyone.  My stockpile started in our unfinished laundry room downstairs, and quickly over took the entire room.  That's when I learned that  with the rebuilding of our home after the house fire, I would utilize every inch of my entire house.   90% of all stockpiled foods in my home are housed in the kitchen.  90% off all health & beauty products would be housed in the bathroom closets.  (There is an overflow section still housed in the laundry room however.)  Cleaning supplies, paper towels, dog food, cat food and the like are still housed in the laundry room. 

I did realize that we had more room than we were aware we had.  We took down a few shelves and added a peg board, bought some hooks at a flea market and for less than $40 we have this:

If you have an unfinished room like I do, this is a really great option that just about anyone can do.  If that still isn't enough room, consider buying one of those cloth hanging sweater bins like this:

I bought 2 of these for only $7.00 each, and they are attached to the pipes in that unfinished room downstairs.  If you're planning on doing something like this, consider hanging a wooden pole up in the rafters or if you're hanging them on a pipe, I would strongly suggest you use these for VERY lightweight items like the ones I have in mine. 

You may want to consider a heavy duty rack for heavier items like this:

This type of racking will hold up to 2000 lbs of items.

Try keeping your supplies where you use them.  Most of our supplies for bath needs are located right there in the over the sink cabinet.  While I still have an over flow downstairs, the majority is within reach at a moment's notice. 

Canned goods, foods, and the like should be within reach.  If your thinking about or are in the process of remodeling your kitchen, consider the Thomasville "Super Cabinets"  I had 2 installed in our kitchen, and these are my favorite feature in our kitchen.  I can't tell you just how much these cabinets hold, and with each draw pulling out, there's no more fighting to reach into the back of the cabinet, no more not knowing what you have on hand, it's all visible, all accessible. 

Once you have a stockpile, you must remember to rotate your stockpile, don't just pile new products on top of the ones you already have, you'll save more money in the long run, when you realize that you don't have to throw anything away because the item expired.  Remember stockpiles grow quickly, and you will need to know when enough is enough.  When your shopping, and walking out of a store looking at your $2.41 receipt for $60.00 worth of product, it becomes a "high" and you can find yourself getting carried away. 

Know your limits.  If you're struggling with putting food on the table, and you've purchased items to donate that you don't use, but "the deal was too good to pass up".  You're still defeating the purpose. 

Stockpiling is meant to save you the most money you can possibly save.  It's meant to be there so you NEVER have to pay full price for items you use on a regular basis.  It's not meant to cause you angst.  If you have a healthy stockpile, then you should be able to go into your stockpile pick out a bag or two of items, and help someone else who needs the help, without missing or sacrificing a thing. 

I was so thankful that when we had a house fire, hundreds of people that I had never met reached into their own stockpiles to help us.  So now we regular donate to those less fortunate, and our stockpile allows us to do just that. 

Now before I get dozens of emails all telling me that I shouldn't be saying things like "Charity starts at home."  Let me explain.  I know first hand about job loss, major life changing events, and scrimping to pay the bills.  My view, yes, Charity does start at home, however, that's the key word....START.  Through profits from this site, my couponing skills, and bargain shopping, our charity has grown to include family in need, and local volunteer groups and organizations.  The feeling that I get from doing my part is gratifyingly delightful.  My point is, is I am currently in the position to do this, not eveyone is, and you shouldn't feel bad if you're not in the position to help. 

I hope this post helps you to start your own stockpile.  Got a stockpile question?  feel free to leave a comment, and I will get it out in a future "Extreme" post!