Its been soooo long......

[mom23boyz]

since I actually have ANY type pf stockpile what so ever. I mean years really. I have been shopping and just having on hand what we need for the week or month.Nothing more. Well DH has decided I should start stockpiling but heres my issue.......my previous stockpile was because of free and SUPER cheap stuff with doubles etc. I no longer have a store that doubles and things just aren't as cheap either. Today when I went shopping I got some SUPER GREAT deals and Dh was like yes thats what you need to be doing is when you find good deals like that buy alot well thats fine except I am given my grocery budget and don't have flex room with it. Anyone have any ideas to get my stockpile going again? Any tips to get the little bit of extra cash to start the stockpile? I just don't know.....and I used to rock at this couponing thing!!!

[Contrary Housewife]

I say just start slow and see about stretching things just a few dollars. Buy 1 extra can or package of something on sale. Maybe talk with DH about what he is willing to give up for a month so that $10 or $20 can be put into a stockpile.

[mauimagic]

Good question and I agree with Contrary Housewife. It seems as if you put the energy now of including DH on decisions to create a stockpile, it will be easier and more productive in the long run. You may have to prompt him at first.....Honey, if we have breakfast for dinner two days this week, then we will have $XX to put into stockpiling. Something like that. Let us know how it goes for you!!

[Grainlady]

I've always tried to buy ahead when I found a bargain, but when I started to get serious about stockpiling, I used $5 of my $50/week food budget specifically towards stockpiling. I usually purchased loss leaders, managers' specials, or clearance items with that amount, and eventually purchased a wide variety of foods from all the food groups.

For instance, if tuna was a bargain price, I would purchase as many cans as I could for $5 that week - at 59-cents per can, that would be 8 cans. Maybe I'd buy fruit the next week. I did this every week until I had 3-6 months worth of pantry foods. After that, I maintained the pantry foods, replacing them when I found them on sale.

I've learned over the years when to stock-up. I buy Pork 'n Beans, mustard and ketchup during the summer when they are on sale for Memorial Day and 4th of July "grilling" holidays. I purchase most of my nuts after Christmas when they are 1/2-price. If you do a lot of baking, Nov. and Dec. are usually good months to buy flour and baking items when they are typically on sale.

Keep in mind how much you actually use and what the use-by dates are on the foods you buy. There's no sense stockpiling 8 jars of grape jelly with a use-by date of 12-11 if you can't reasonably use 8 jars of jelly by Christmas. Don't stockpile something just because it's cheap.

I know we typically use one 18-oz. jar of peanut butter each month, so when I check my use-by dates, I know just how many months worth I can stock.

Now that I have the stockpile and food storage well established, I usually purchase no more than 2 or 3 of something with the same use-by dates. I try to get use-by dates as far out as possible - I buy very little that has a 2010 use-by date, because I already have 2010 covered.

Next, I would take the unspent money from my food budget (I NEVER spend all my food dollars - I only purchase what is absolutely necessary at the LOWEST price possible) and let the extra accumulate. When I had enough to purchase a year's worth of Morning Moo's Whey-Based Milk Substitute, that's what the extra money went for. If I split a 50# bag with a friend, that was $45. Eventually I would save enough money from the food budget to purchase a few cans of freeze-dried foods, or buy 50# of wheat. This was how I stocked what I call my 3rd layer of food storage - the Long-term Emergency Food Storage.

When the garden is in full swing, this is when I can REALLY save a lot of money to make large purchases of freeze-dried foods, or other things for the long-term storage area, because we eat a lot out of the garden and I don't have to purchase as much from the store.

After 18-24 months of this I have 1-3-years worth of the "Seven Survival Foods" - grains, seeds for sprouting, legumes, salt, sweetener, fat, and powdered milk - in storage. As well as a large assortment of other foods.

I now have enough long-term storage foods that they are being rotated into the pantry foods. So instead of buying regular cans of peas or corn, I now use from one #10 can of freeze-dried peas, which contains 22 1/2-cup servings.

After the first of the year when egg prices went up, I started using a can of powdered whole eggs because they are less expensive per egg than regular eggs. I'll have it used up about the time egg prices go back down around Easter, but I'll also replace the can of powdered eggs in storage.

Now that I have a well-stocked food storage area, I have been able to cut my food budget by 25%. Now I budget $75 every TWO weeks for groceries. I only purchase foods when I find them at rock-bottom prices and put them into the pantry or storage. I shop at home for meal planning and make sure the foods in storage are rotated.

Hope there's something there that will help you out. But it's a slower process when you are on a rigid food budget, BUT, it's also possible to accomplish your food goals on a budget.

[NikoSan999]

Do you have any stores that do the BOGO's? That's pretty much how I did mine. Some stores will take coupons even on the free one because you have to buy it first.

[NewLeaf]

I don't know if this is possible for you but here is what I did to get started on my stockpile this year. We ended up using most of our stockpile during the holidays Oct.-Dec. So when we got our taxes back I earmarked $100 to restock.
I go to Save a lot and stock up on canned and dry goods. I was able to get a really good start this way.
But if you can't do that you should just get a little extra ea. payday. One or two extra cans of something adds up in the long run. Start looking at your coupons too, you may end up w/several bogo's.
I noticed that when I have a small stockpile in place (pantry foods) that I can meal plan from those one week and use that week's grocery money to shop the sales for other stockpile items.
Good luck. Don't give up. Read those wonderful stockpile threads for inspiration!