[MommySusan1]

My problem with stockpiling is that is give you a false sense of security. I am not a serious stockpiler, so I don't buy fifty toothpastes because they are free. I buy three or four. There have been a few deals that I have gone a little crazy on, because they were so cheap, had a long expiration time and that I had storage space. For example, I have about 20 two packs of Lysol wipes ($1 each), 10 packs of Chinet plates (free), 15 Cleanteam wipes (left from a free deal well over a year ago). So the problem with buying only a few is that you are so used to having something, you kind of assume it will always be there.

Example- Farm Fresh has double coupons and with the $.50 Daisy sour cream Q, it was free. Sour cream has a definite expiration period (I am fanatic about expiration dates), so I only got five. We have been using about a container a week. Last weekend my parents were here for the weekend and I was making chicken tacos for dinner. I was in the middle of cooking, so I pulled out all the trimmings from the refrigerator and realized we had used up all the sour cream! Luckily I talked my Mom into running to the store and getting a new container. You can't have tacos without sour cream (I think there is a law about that somewhere).

For my DD birthday, I decided to make brownies for her to bring to school. So I get the kids in bed, clean up the kitchen and go into the pantry to pull out the brownie mix I had stocked up on when we had a FLIP at Food Lion. Gone! Luckily my Food Lion is open to 10. I ran over there and grabbed a couple of packs of pre-made cupcakes.

You may wonder what the point of my post is. Am I going to stop stockpiling? Heck no! Am I going to start stockpiling more things? No. I think each person needs to decide what their limits are and I still don't want fifty tubes of tootpaste. I just need to pay a little more attention to when we are using things up.