Do you have a separate budget for stockpiling?

[sjohnson3278]

Okay, this may be a silly question or one that has been answered before but I am trying to get back on board with couponing and starting my stockpile. I use to do this before I was following the DR plan so my question is this...do you have a separate budget for stockpiling or do you just use your money from your food budget to stockpile. I keep trying to stock up but I have a strict budget for groceries every week and with that budget I have planned every meal, snack, etc. so there is usually no money left to spend on extras, even to stockpile. How do you all do it???

[ladykemma2]

i have a sinking fund for my pantry, which i reflll every june. i don't do the coupon thing.

[frugalwarrior2]

coupon,coupon,clearance w/ coupon. Entirely possible to get free stuff or almost free w/ coupon.
I have a bit of leeway now that we are debt free so I purposely over budget groceries,just as i will underbudget when the pantry is stocked for a year. (very close now).
Try and buy a 2nd bag of beans when they are on sale. Or a no meat day per week and use the extra to buy a sale item or 2 to stock.

[piney]

I just use the money for grocery and hba but this month have went over a lot already and lots of it is stock pile.But if i need something out of stock pile i use it.

[MsMarieH]

My husband has been out of work for almost a year. My job is dependent on the federal budget, so I was getting pretty darn nervous about having a stockpile on hand in case I have to go through furloughs this summer (or even layoffs).

I set aside a couple hundred dollars out of our tax refund and used it to start a significant stockpile. I wrote up a list of everything I wanted to buy and prioritized it into level 1-2-3.

I got most of my level 1s taken care of. Since then, I've been studying the loss leaders and just buying those each week specifically to add to my stockpile.

Even $10 a week designated for this purpose can allow you to get a lot of stuff added during the year - after all that's $520 over 52 weeks!

[dcompton]

It seems to me it would be better to loosen up the food budget to give you a little leeway for stockpiling. That way when you track expenses, the food expense is all in one place. After all, stockpile eventually becomes dinner. But if you like really tightly budgeted categories, a separate one might work best for you.

For myself, I don't budget by category, because I obsess over it. I just know the amount I can spend, on whatever it needs to go to during the month, and keep an eye on the expenses total. So stockpiling is just one thing among all the others that $xx can be used for.

[krbshappy71]

Greebo suggested that I take just $5 or $10 out of my monthly grocery budget and consider that stockpile. It has worked GREAT! Its a feeling of giving myself permission to buy 5 cans instead of just 1 when its a super sale. It also helps me to resist the sales that I would want to buy just for the sake of a "great deal". A great deal isn't a great deal if I buy 10 of an item and then don't have variety in my meals.

I'm on a monthly budget of $150 per month for food and this has really helped to stay on track.

[Dancing Lotus]

My weekly budget is 100 dollars period. I build my menu off of loss leaders. I know I will need to spend about 50 on things like fresh produce, OJ and soy milk no matter if it's on sale or not. The other 50 is spent entirely on loss leaders. My stock pile may not fill a room but it's enough to get us buy without having to buy many items for three months. Rarely I may have to bu one or two of something at full price if I run out before a stock up price comes round again but I don't think once in a blue moon with break me.

[ladytoysdream]

I been stockpiling for so long now, it's just part of the budget. If I see a bargain of something we use, I usually buy. Keeping in mind expiration dates, etc. And what I already have at home.

Recently I bought milk for .99 a quart minus a coupon of 75 cents each because it was real close to sell by date. I bought 6 quarts. Worked out to .96 a gallon. I figure what the hubby doesn't use, can be made into scalloped pototoes and ham this week. And maybe some extra baking. Normal is to use dry milk for baking.

If I was just starting to stockpile, I would try to find some extra money to get it jump started. Maybe from a tax refund.
Try to get one item ahead at a time if need be. For example, when I have the last jar /can/ box in use and only one in the storage area, I am looking for another bargain ASAP.
If I can't find a sale / bargain and then have to use my back up jar, I only get one of something I need to tide me by till another bargain comes around. No sense running to the store for one item you need because you ran out.

If you have a fixed grocery budget every week, and are able to come in under it for a week, take the dollars left over and set it aside. When you spot a deal you can use, then you have dollars to get it and you don't mangle your regular budget. Rinse, lather and repeat

[Mom2-3]

I just try and stockpile using my regular grocery budget. Try and purchase an extra can of this or package of that.

I also try to buy in season fruits and veggies to freeze/store. Some months go by and I have only purchased an extra can or two, but others go buy and I fill a freezer. It really depends on the sales and what your needs are for the week.

[thefrug]

I set aside $10 every grocery day for some type of stockpile food/hba. Then, when we take metal in to the recycler, I take at least $100 of that money and buy larger amounts of the food that'll keep.( rice, wheat,etc).Right now I have saved up $300 to go to an Amish discount grocery store up in Pa this saturday. I can get cereals for .99 and large #10 cans of coffee for as low as $1.99 if it's on sale. It's not top of the line coffee, but it's coffee and we're not snobs about our caffene hits.
I say, if you have stuff you don't want or need, have a yard sale and then use that "found" money to get your stockpile either started or topped off. The prices are only going to get worse.

[auntie2many]

I try to stock up some each week. The money comes out of my usual grocery fund. I cannot afford a separate stockpile fund or else it comes out of what Dave Ramsey calls the blow fund. Some people use this fund as fun money, but we do not have that luxury. That fund goes to things like postage stamps, dh's haircuts (which I am going to attempt to do myself), my hair color and parts to fix our computer if it breaks. It is hard to stock up at times, but a few cans of tuna here and a can of coffee there can add up.

A2M

[IndigoMom]

I set aside $5 each week just for my stock pile. Then when I pick up something for my pantry that's B1-G1 (better yet, G2!) free, I put the "free" into the stock pile.
If I have a phenomenal week with my coupons - I will add a % of that "savings" to my normal $5 stockpile fund as well.

[treeluva]

My grocery stockpile just comes out of the grocery budget. I look at the loss leaders in the grocers ad, and if there are things that my family actually uses, I use that time to stock up! For instance, this week, my grocery store had Pasta on sale for .49 a pound. I got 12 pounds of pasta. We eat spaghetti in this house at least 4-6 times a month, so instead of paying 1.29-1.99 a package twice a month, I don't have to worry about paying for pasta for quite a bit. That may only free up a couple of dollars a month, but those couple of dollars can be used for other loss leader items (like the 4 bottles of Gillette shaving cream I ended up getting for .49 a bottle - on sale for 1.49 - had a .50 coupon that doubles to a $1) Now I don't have to buy shaving cream at 1.99-3.99 for a couple of months which adds up to a few more dollars that I can spend on other loss leaders.... and around and around she goes!

Tight budgets are tight, but even if you can spare a couple dollars here and there for items on a really good sale that you WILL USE (if you have a coupon to make it even more savings GREAT! If not, its still good savings!) starts to add up into more dollars that you can add to your budget.

It also allows me to spend more on fresh items, since I am not paying all this money out for normal things that my family will consume.

Our goal is no more than a 4-6 month supply of ANY item in our stockpile. This is for a majority of reasons (space - military family so we know we will have to move at some point) but its what works for us.

[greekislandgirl]

This past year I've just used regular grocery budget to add to ours.

I break down my budget into what I call "Weekly Household Budget" and it covers absolutely every penny that goes out. I found it a little frustrating since it was so unstable: on weeks when I made it to the "stockpile store" type places, I was spending hundreds, but on weeks where we stayed home on the island, it was in the tens. It meant I was constantly playing catch-up on the budget and borrowing money from other categories to pay off the stockpile purchases, which ultimately meant I didn't have money in the categories that I wanted to have it in. It worked okay in the short term (a year) but I have since come to realize that it's not a good solution for me long-term.

Since there is no such thing as a "coupon" in Greece, we don't ever get things "for free or almost for free" - but sometimes things will go on sale (BOGO or 20-30% off) but usually not more. Here, the real "stockpile opportunities" are just the cheap store brands that are sold in some supermarkets. So whenever we had the opportunity to go to those supermarkets (involves overnight trips - not easy) I would spend a lot.

However... once we move to our new house in September, I will be using a Stockpile Fund exclusively, and I will see how that goes, and adjust as needed.

My stockpile fund for the fiscal year 2012 (which for us is September 1, 2011 until August 31, 2012 due to the nature of DH's work) is €1500 (which is about $2145) and the money is already saved and set aside as Stockpile Fund and is ready to go.

I have a huge list with what I want, how much of it I want, how much it should cost, so I can start buying once we move to our new place.

The wish list is all broken down by categories but the budget itself isn't yet. Once we move and I can see what stores are in our new area I can get an idea of what I will be able to get things for price-wise. For now, I'm just hoping that I can build up an 8 month stockpile with €1500. I think 8 months is reasonable to keep on hand given the likelihood that we will have to move again in another year. (My husband's job as a teacher is very unstable as to location.)

I don't plan to spend all €1500 within a week of moving, but I also don't plan to try to stretch it out for the whole year. My current plan is to spend about €1000 within the first 6 weeks, and save the rest for sales that may occur after that. That initial €1000 will go to the cheap store brands. The reason for this is obviously the high inflation in Greece, where the sooner you buy something, the cheaper it is. (Especially since DH is getting his salary cut, not increased, to go along with inflation!)

I actually am so excited about starting my new stockpile in the fall, because we've been horribly overpaying all year living where we live now. Every time there is a supermarket commercial on TV, I write down the items that are on sale and what the sale price is and where, so I can get an idea of what things do actually go on sale and whether they are cheaper than the discount store brands. Since we don't have a supermarket on the island, no internet at home and there is no such thing as a "supermarket flier" the TV commercials are pretty much my only access to that info.