I love to stock pile many items, but I never do it on things that we wont use up in a timely manner. Meats-we eat meat for every dinner meal, so I stock up on that when I can. Buy a lot, seperate it out and freeze it. Canned goods-I also try and do a veggie with every dinner meal. Just yesterday I bought a few cases of canned veggies at work-they were on sale and plus my discount. Now I know I do not need to get veggies for probably 4 months. Same with canned fruit. Boxed items-same thing. Canned soup-I have found out that we go thru way more tomato soup than we do chicken noodle. Fine, no big deal. I know next time to get four cans of chicken noodle soup and probably triple that in tomato soup. I have never stocked up on an item and it go to waste. I will continue to stock pile food and other supplies when I can. As for power outages, only good thing about the weather being about 15 degrees out, I could wheel my deep freezer right outside the back door.

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I have only been stockpiling for a few years now and have definitely noticed a difference in my grocery bills.
But, I agree you can go overboard who really needs 10 bottles of shampoo. Yes they were only $.30. But even that $.30 could have been used somewhere else.
I now have figured out a pattern to the how often my staple items go on sale and I buy enough when they are at their lowest price to get me through till the sale comes around again.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

you know why I stock pile??? I have come to the conclusion that it goes back to the SALE thing! I have moved my desire for clearance shopping to grocery shopping. I don't have the retail outlets available like I used too, to wander and check out ~ so now I do it in the grocery store. I rationalize it because eventually we will eat it. It's FUN shopping the sales

I don't OVER stockpile, but I can see (for me) that if I am not careful it could take this direction very easily.

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I don't want to mess with it again. It's a pain in the neck to me to pay attention to sale prices, etc. So if I have 10 coupons for $1 off shampoo, and it goes on sale & the expiration date is coming, I say, I will buy 10, that will last me a year, I won't even have to think about the price of shampoo for that year, thank you!

So for bath products, things like that, that are small & don't take up too much room, I just buy a year's supply if I can. I would rather--then I forget about that product for a long time.

For other things, I just buy as much as can reasonably fit in my (small, top-of-fridge) freezer. Like hamburger is cheap this week, I will probably buy 10 lbs. That's about how much room there is. It will take us maybe 3 months to go through it, and during that 3 months I won't have to think about hamburger prices at all. Yay! Or frozen foods were free the other day (coupons), so I bought as many bags as I had coupons, because I use a lot of that and it's just great to have frozen vegetables on hand for when you don't have fresh. See above about hating to go to the store.

It works very well for us. We eat very well. We don't waste any of it. We don't spend too much on groceries. It seems to be a good system, although I agree you have to have balance==& keep your head!

I stockpile for all the reasons already mentioned. I have done it for 10 years. I use coupons, buy lost leaders, etc. So far I have used everything and I have saved THOUSANDS of DOllars. If I have a coupon and it will give me the item free I will buy it. If I have 20 coupons I WILL buy 20. If I know I will only use 5 by the expiration I will keep 5 and donate the rest to the food bank or to people that I know personally who would use it.

For example....I am a leader of a weight loss support group. Last Feb (Heart Month) they had a sale on Quaker Oatmeal with my 20 coupons I got them 20 FREE. The following week I did a program on the benefits of Oatmeal and the Heart. And I gave each member one to take home. Which left me 3 of my own. So if you have the coupons and they are going to expire AND you personally don't need it yourself. Buy it anyway and donate it...it does your heart good!

I found that stockpiling has help me out alot, but for my reality I don't need 10 bottles of shampoo. Seriously, my goal is to use up everything that I have in the house. The downside I found for stockpiling food, that it's not necessarily the GOOD food I want the kids to eat. It's alot of Spegetti O's chef boy r d stuff. So for me it may be cheap or free but I'm REALLY REALLY trying to be aware of what I'm buying now.

However, my stockpiling has helped with the kids birthday parties they've been invited too, I've got away with using up 4 gifts out of that group.

So for me this year I'm really cutting back on stockpiling and really using up what I have!!!

I don't really stockpile. I just have a large family and buy alot in bulk and for at least a months worth at a time. Like others have said, we have literally been with NO food in the house and not a dollar left over. I have made my babies wear wet diapers as long as possible because we could not afford to buy more. I NEVER want to be in that position again. I want to have a few extra casseroles in the freezer and lbs of hamburger in case we have a lean period. Running out of food is a huge fear for me. Still, I do not go over board and usually use most all the food we have within a month to month and a half.

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~Happiness is a large family~

Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. James 1:19

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24

I make sure that I have stuff to eat when I don't feel like cooking for one (my little one eats very little table food).
I also make sure that I always have them stuff to make a few quick meals, like tacos, spaghetti... stuff like that, in the pantry.
We keep a few canned goods, only stuff that I know I'll use pretty quick.

I like a little extra on the shelves incase I run out of something, my hubby doesn't always feel like going to the store and i havn't learned to drive yet.

I also keep a couple extra bottles of shampoo, conditioner, bars or soap, toilet paper, and so in in the cabinet so I'm never with out but not enough that I have more than I'll need in 3-6 months.

Our Kroger stores put a lot of items on sale 10 for $10...but I realized one day that you don't HAVE to buy 10...if you buy one item, you pay $1, two...$2...there isn't a minimum... I rarely buy 10 of anything anymore! Does your store "force" you to buy 10 of the item ti get the salet? Find out if you don't know! (I took an item up the register that I really didn't HAVE to have...if it would have rang up at regular price, I would have told the cashier I didn't want it anymore...)

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Candy

I really think they purposely don't advertise that you don't have to buy 10 to get the $1 price per item. I bet they want people to think they have to buy 10 so then spend more money. It sure pays to ask! I did. I was happy to know I could still get the $1 price.

It's all in the marketing, those sneaks!!