Creating the " Normal" Stockpile can be fun and exciting for your household. Knowing that you have plenty of of items you use on a daily basis on stock can really help those weekly store trips.
I say "Normal Stockpile" because thats what I do. I only stockpile about an average of 4 months worth of something. For example the picture above with this post is of my laundry room shelf above my washer and dryer. What it holds is.
(5) Bottles of Laundery Detergent
(12) Boxes of Gain Dryer Sheets
(2) Bags of Tide Stain Release
(4) Purex Bottles of Purex Crystals
(4) Bottles of Glade Room Sprays
(1) Clear Container - that contains all the single laundry products either I got for free as mail in samples or using coupons to get them free in the travel section of the store. * Half of those dryer sheets will go to my daughters homes, only have so many because I did have that many coupons!
* My Bleach I store on the floor behind the laundry door because my shelf is not big enough plus i do not like to leave bleach just laying around to tip over and have those accidental spills. I have about 4 Bottles of that as well.
This enough truley to last my home about (5) Months worth of laundry Supplies. So I pretty much am not going to gather anymore and if i do happen to get some more products for free, I will give them to my duaghters for thier families. if they are free or really really low cost pennies on the dollar.
Same thing applies to my Dish Soap - I was able to get these free over time with coupons, and not in one trip. but I have enough here for at least (5) Months. As you can see its a bit cramped under that sink and I really do not have room to store 100 bottles and I am not turning every nook and crany in my house to a mini mart. I also have enough sponges for about (4) Months I like to toss it after two weeks and get a fresh one due to germs with sponges.
My point here is not to get so caught up in the BIG Stockpiles, you really do not need to do that , to create a normal size stock pile in your home. I tend to build my stock pile up over the summer months and maintain it for when winter rolls around.. I do not do much shopping in the winter months due to we live so far out in the country. Plus I like to be prepared for bad weather. So that is the time you will see me more stocked from freezers, to pantries and so forth. If I only have to go out for fresh produce, vegies and dairy and bread then I love it !!
Also a good point to bring forward is that you want to build your stock pile slowly, its not going to happen over night exspecially if your building it for FREE - each one item you get for free adds to your stock pile. I spend about $5.00/week just one my stock pile and I can ussually get alot for $5 with coupons. vs paying full price on an item. Using a coupon and matching with a store sale is a great way to do this, its even better if your store doubles coupons and you have a store coupon to use with it all ! Unfortunatly I do not have any stores that double coupons. Nor am I one of those (4) cart filled shoppers !!!
START WITH A LIST !
Make yourself a list of the most used daily items that your faimly/household uses. Then next to each item put down how many bottels/packages of that item your faimly uses on a month then multilpy it by 4. and use those numbers to build your 4 month stock pile. if you want to do it for 6 months do that too. That is totally up to you ! Here is an example Laundry Detergent - lets say you use (2) a Month x (4 )Months = 8 Bottles for a (4) month stock. When you get that stock pile up then you only need to replenish as you use and you will have a few months to wait for the hot sales to come around to use coupons on to get them for free to low cost.
Happy Couponing
Nana!