Stockpiling: Making a Plan

Now that we’ve talked about The Basics of Stockpiling and gone over How to Create a Stockpile I thought it would be good if I gave you a few tips and tools to actually get started :)

I’ve created a simple (and I want to stress the Simple part) worksheet for starting to create your stockpile. Keep in mind this isn’t for those of you who already have closets overflowing, but for those who are looking for somewhere to start and need a plan.

1. Download and Print the Stockpiling Worksheet and use it as you follow along this post.

2. Write Down 10 Items you buy every time you go to the store. Do this for each category listed. You will want to include items which you could stockpile, so you probably don’t want to list Milk, Bread, or items that will perish.

For the Health & Beauty items you want to list your most frequently used items. So for my family we would use items such as Toothpaste, Contact Solution, Shaving Cream, Razor Blades, Lotion, and so on.

Pharmacy is for items that you prefer. My mom prefers to use Aleve over anything else so even though I can’t get that for Free very often I do want to purchase it at Rock Bottom Prices. Another item we use is Children’s Tylenol so that’s going to go in this category as well so that I make sure I’m watching for the best deal.

3. Fill in the Retail Price of the Item. This is the price you would pay if you just walked in to the store and picked the item up off the shelf. If you normally buy the generic than you could also use that price.

4. Aim to Buy Items at 50% Of the Retail Price. The Buy price of an item is around 50%  This would be when the item is either on sale, or you have a coupon for the item. This is the highest price that you typically want to pay for an item.

5. Watch for a Stock Up Price. One of the reasons you want to know the Buy Price of the item is so that you can determine when it’s time to stockpile. My typical rule of thumb is that you want to pay 75% or less for an item that you are stockpiling.

6. Set aside $10 each week for stockpiling (You may need to reduce the items you buy by $10 to avoid busting your budget)

7. Print Coupons & Watch for Sales. As coupons for the items on your list come along you will want to print those or cut them out and put them in your coupon box or binder. This is so that when you find a sale you already have the coupon available.

8. Try to Stockpile 1 item a week, or as much as you can with the $10. You will find that most of the Health & Beauty items go on sale frequently for Free and that would be a great time to stockpile without using much of your $10.

9. Check off your list! I love to check off my list so I included a checkbox so you could see your progress. The goal is that as you stockpile the items you use on a frequent basis you will start to see freedom in your budget to expand your list of items that you stockpile.

Stockpiling is just one of the ways that I have reduced my budget overtime. I love that now I buy only necessities and several stockpile items each week. Hopefully this has been helpful, I would love to know what questions you still have? Leave a comment and let me know and I will do my best to answer them in the upcoming weeks!

Photo Credit: babaghan