[z24racerchic]

I have been stockpiling before but with the economy (and not going to get any better) will probably try to stockpile more and even put out a garden this year to save money and maybe try making my own pasta sauce with the homegrown veggies. Dont know yet. Hubby just got cut back to 4 day work week and one company contract is up next week. things arent looking good but doubt it will get better...I wont get on my political soapbox to offend people . OH stick, rice etc in air tight containers (like plastic totes and such)

[justfluffyme]

You can buy milk, one fat up from what you drink, and take an empty gallon jub, poor half into the other gallon, add water, viola! two containers of milk from one. This tip comes from the everyday cheapskate. I've tried, worked fine.

[momto4greatkids]

I stocked on TP, papertowels, shampoo, bath soap, toothpaste...so far.
those items seem to usually cost alot i think and you can not hardly go with out them.
if dh lost his job well he can interview knowing he smells clean, and his breathe is fresh!

[aebsmommy]

i'm stock pileing baby stuff. I only have one but you never now when the stork might suprize you. plus i was reading and they were saying that when people get depressed most like to have "fun" so...

[z24racerchic]

the economic crisis has caught up with our family. Hubby is cut down to 4 days a week work now and laid off for the next 2 weeks. UGH!

[thenut]

Whatever I can stockpile !!!! It's a way of life for me because "Hay you never know." When we had the "Blzzard of 77"

I was prepaired

[snoopywoman]

Originally Posted by z24racerchic

the economic crisis has caught up with our family. Hubby is cut down to 4 days a week work now and laid off for the next 2 weeks. UGH!

So sorry to hear that. Lots of people are taking forced furloughs. Which is VERY hard on you - but also better than losing your job completely (NOT to diminish what you are going through by ANY means!). I think companies are TRYING to not lay people off - but everyone is going to be hit by this crisis. I know we are - I have gotten a very part-time job working 2 mornings a week and am looking into a temporary job I found out about that involves working about 20-25 hours a week for 6 weeks to help out just in case something like this happens. A friend just opened a daycare down the street and will be able to take my youngest (who is in pre-school) if I get the job. And I know that if need be, I also have day care set up with someone I trust so that I can go work full-time if need be too.

[thecouponqueenster]

Due to the Hurricanes every year in Florida, I tend to stockpile the same things. Water, canned foods, batteries, etc. I also always have a good supply of HBA's free or almost free with coupons. If ready to expire I donate to our church. I am also looking into stockpiling dry goods.

[gjet68]

I am glad someone mentioned this subject! I am fairly new to couponing, Ive been able to get mostly HBA items stocked some, have one shelf full. I just would like some tips, I have my husband and I and two teenage boys (hubby is a retired minister) and we have a married daughter, and her husband and they have a 7 month old daughter and she is expecting again in July. We help them out a lot. Our monthly income total is around $1900.0 per month and I try to make that stretch to feed all of us as SIL only has a parttime job right now and he barely makes enough to cover their Utilities and right now they are not getting any assistance from the state (Food Stamps) so I have to supplement their groceries and diapers and Formula...etc on my income. Its kinda tough stretching what we get for 7 ppl. I really, really am in dire need of Grocery Coupons, BAD and I need some tips as to how to begin a stockpile of food. My local Grocery Stores will double up to.50 cents, unlimitied daily. I am going to make a garden this year and can some meat also. We live in the country and just went through a bad ice storm and we lost all our food we had in our freezer so as you can imagine, being without power for a week, what that was like, so Im having to begin again from scratch. Any tips?

[angelpoet04]

We have always stockpiled when we can. Sometimes we have more things, sometimes we don't.

We always make sure to have staple, long shelf life things such as powdered milk, rice, flour, sugar, salt, and beans. It took me a little while, but I finally got use to using the powered milk for when we are cooking/baking. We use regular milk for cereal/hot chocolate/glass of milk to drink. So it's helped cut back on the cost of regular milk as well!

We stock up on canned goods(this includes canned fruit, vegetables, tuna, corned beef hash, canned chicken meat, beef stew, soups and chicken and dumplings) when we can, and anything new goes at the back of the shelf, and what was already on the shelf, gets pulled forward. That way we are always using what needs to be used, first. Also things like, mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce, any of the condiments that don't have to be refrigerated until opened. Just have to keep an eye on expiration dates.

We mark the rice, flour and sugar containers, with a piece of masking tape, with the date written on top, of when we purchased the latest bag that is open, in the container.

We also stock up on paper goods and cleaning products, when we can. We have very little storage space in our kitchen, so we turned our hallway linen closet, into our "pantry". The extra toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex and things like that, get put up on the very top shelf, out of the way.

At one time, my DH had enough items stockpiled, that we would be ok for about 3-4 months, in case I lost my job or something like that. It is not quite as much at the moment, due to past high gas prices and the current economy. But we are working on trying to get it built back up.

We had cut back on the amount of some items, since our two sons are no longer living with us and it's just the two of us. But with such uncertainty with the economy, we are stocking up more again, taking advantage of really good sales, coupons, refunds, etc.

If something is close to expiring and we aren't going to be using it, we check with my M-I-L, our sons, friends or neighbors, to see if they can use any of it. If not, we donate it to the local food bank or one of the local churches.

There are some good books out there, even though one is from around the 1960's, that have a lot of good advice on stockpiling.

There are also some useful free download printable forms, for shopping lists, pantry inventory, freezer inventory, etc., from organizedhome.com


Hope some of this helps. If anyone has any questions, feel free to pm me or email me.

Rozeann

[lburgess]

I store longterm items but these can't be purchased with coupons or gotten for free. I have about 1200 lbs white wheat, and 600 lbs red wheat, 400 lbs rice, 400 lbs rolled oats, 200 lbs black beans, lentils, pinto beans and kidney beans, 100 lbs salt, 200 lbs sugar, 30 lbs honey, 10 cases of potato flakes and 200 lbs of powdered milk and most came from the LDS Cannery except for the honey, salt, potato flakes and lentils. i am constantly adding to longterm storage because most of these item have a 35 year shelf life.
I stockpile grocery items but I don't consider them survival foods. We even have MREs and Mountain House canned foods.

[catlover7731]

I think this is one of the reason I started stockpiling things. When I started seeing what was happening with the economy and heard about the jobs being lost I figured I would stock up just in case, we also save things to send down to my husband's family in Honduras once a year. I have a supply of most health and beauty items to last for 4-5 months( the only things I can think of right now is feminine products, razor refills and moisturizer for face( only have a 3 month supply of this ) , and maybe some tylenol). When we survived Hurricane Katrina hubby was out of work for almost 8 months, and I remember how hard it was to buy lotions, shaving creams , conditioners, so I think I started worrying about this, and decided let me save things up just in case since his job was doing really good the past months. This past Thursday , my husband's boss asked 1/4 of his workers not to come in because they will be rotating days off( without pay) on Friday's only, so twice monthly my husband will be off from work and not paid. I am hoping it doesn't get worse than this, but at least I am prepared if it does. Cheryl

[dontbreakme]

I've been stockpiling since I got into couponing seriously last June. I have a pretty decent stockpile of all HBA items and first aid/medications. I have about 40 ish 20 lb bags of tidy cat litter for my cats (had more but I have used some) I have a somewhat decent stockpile of food. Pastas, spaghetti sauce, canned beans and veggies. Things like that. My freezer is full with fruits/veggies a few morning star things. I am a vegetarian and the only thing its hard for me to find sales/deals on are the products like morningstar/boca which I enjoy eating but I find it hard to pay $4 a box for them.

I try to keep plenty of cat litter, dry/canned goods on hand and when I buy my cats foods (They are all on RX foods and I purchase at petsmart) I buy the largest bag they have. Each cat is on a different food but those large bags last quite a few months if stored properly!

I do worry about having enough of some stuff and am always stocking up on toilet paper/paper towels/trash bags etc if I find a great deal on those. I have a large supply of cleaning products aswell.

The power was out here several years ago for almost two weeks after a tropical storm and I remember what that was like and try to keep plenty of things that I needed/used on hand as wel ya just never know.

[z24racerchic]

Originally Posted by lburgess

I store longterm items but these can't be purchased with coupons or gotten for free. I have about 1200 lbs white wheat, and 600 lbs red wheat, 400 lbs rice, 400 lbs rolled oats, 200 lbs black beans, lentils, pinto beans and kidney beans, 100 lbs salt, 200 lbs sugar, 30 lbs honey, 10 cases of potato flakes and 200 lbs of powdered milk and most came from the LDS Cannery except for the honey, salt, potato flakes and lentils. i am constantly adding to longterm storage because most of these item have a 35 year shelf life.
I stockpile grocery items but I don't consider them survival foods. We even have MREs and Mountain House canned foods.

where on God's earth do you put it all?

[z'smom]

I am an unorganized stockpiler. If the bargain is there, I buy it. I need to get organized though before I push DH over the edge. The pantry is out of control .

[newbie2008]

Getting started is the hardest part... knowing what to get, how much of it, etc...

[newbie2008]

I started heavily couponing last May.... and as luck would have it, My neighbor lent me some shelving units for our laundry room. They are now filled to capacity of all kinds of stockpile items. I am at the point now where I buy only meat/dairy/bread etc, and whatever is on SALE that I have coupons for. I spend less than $100/wk and we could live off our stash for at least 3 months. Stockpiling has been a saver for us!

[savalotmom]

I agree with you....Stockpile anything that's free or near free..I just started stockpilin recently and am already impressed with how full my pantry and freezers are and impressed with how much $$ we've saved. We never know what could happen as far as my husband's employment, so having a stockpile of HBA, freezer and pantry items may really come in handy.

[z24racerchic]

hubby got terminated from his job because of the economy. they sent a letter in the mail. he now has a job at a walmart in the same town I work in ( I work at a different walmart). It pays the bills for now. will be stockpiling a lot for when gas goes back up.

[lburgess]

LOL. if you saw my hallway, my 7 closets, under my beds, sofa, and in my furnace room you would fear the things that would fall upon you!!!! I even have a shower that we don't ever use full of 5 gallon buckets of wheat, rice and beans. A 5 gallon bucket has 50lbs of rice or wheat in it so it doesn't take too many buckets to store what I have. My utility room is even filled with storage. If you use the rotating shelves it is easy to store the #10 cans that you get at the LDS Cannery. I have 6 ft tall metal shelves that line my hallway and my kitchen that isn't covered in cabinets. I even have shelves in my bedroom which I have covered with curtains. Where there is a will there is a way. But you have to consider I also store KI in case we get Nuked so I guess I'm a little extreme. My water storage is in an outbuilding.

[savalotmom]

Wow..Good job!!..You've certainly come up with some creative ways to store your goodies!! Like you said, where this is a will, there is a way.

[andreaskye]

Well, I am one of those Apt dwellers now that cannot really stockpile too much. I have at least 6 months or more and H and B- I also hit the CVS makeup deals hard because I would rather be hungry then without my makeup. LOL! But seriously...
On the food side, I can keep enough pasta, canned goods (cream soup and canned tomatoes have saved us so many times, I can't keep enough of those) and dry stuff to make it probably a month with buying nothing. (That's counting feedling my unemployed boys Apt as well). Meat is another story, one little freezer. But being a nurse, I don't foresee unemployment as a problem (I am already the only one working, it is tight yes, but we will have what we need and I know I am SO fortunate, believe me, that nursing license is like solid gold to me)
For the people who don't get doubles, General Dollar always has it's cream soup and such at 2/$1 and it tastes as good as the name brands. And then the Kroger bare bones generic canned goods (of course if you have a Kroger, you usually get doubles, duh but anyway) are just as good as well. Actually all the completely bare boned generics at Kroger are good. (I buy the big box of "Bisquick" stuff for less than $2. the Ritz type crackers my daughter goes through like crazy are good when the cracker coupon pickins are slim). We are actually learning spanish with these boxes. I am not kidding. They have the picture and then the name in English and Spanish. I think it is way cool.

[Shiffysmom]

I have learned quite a bit from this thread. Thank you all.

[obx]

This whole topic requires really understanding the differences and/or relationships between stockpiling and hoarding, living in fear and being prepared, clutter and necessity, holding on and letting go, having more and giving more, when is enough, enough, and finally, whoever dies with the most Q-Tips and tooth paste still dies.
I am very much into creating a stockpile for us, but, I must be vigilant with my "pile" lest greed creeps in. After all, more is not always more.

[savalotmom]

Very well said OBX!!