[beckybac]

I have about 20 boxes of cereal right now and thinking i won't get any more until it goes below 15 or 10.SO how do you decide when its enough or do you !!
I know this is alot harder to do with non food items light shampoo and toothpaste ,but its like i'm addicted to stockpiling and can't pass on free toothpaste!!

[justmelome]

When I get overloaded if it free I get it otherwise I pass , If its free and I have more than a 2 year supply I donate either to the school , humane society, or the senior center.

[lurkin1]

I am in real trouble then. There are 60 boxes of a variety of cereal in my storage room.
With 5 kids we go through a bit, but we have a LOT of cereal. The sales have just been good on this item lately. I figure that the sales will focus on something else shortly and then I'll have an excess of that item for a while.

[LittleDsMomma]

I think you have to set a limit for yourself. Once you have enough or more than enough for yourself you've got to decide when to stop. When something starts to overrun your home thats when you know you need to stop. I honestly can't help myself either and just want to buy buy buy!

[savalotmom]

I'm not at a point in my stockpiling where I could say I'm ready to stop buying anything......except, toothpaste!!..We have 40+ tubes right now and I have a hard time seeing how we'll go through it all anytime soon. I plan to go through my stockpile at the end of the year and donate some of it. Everything else, I have decent numbers on, but we're not overboard yet. I really do believe that you are the only one who can determine when enough is enough. Alot of that being based on storage limitations and how fast your family consumes certain items. Good luck with your stockpiling!!

[me4wishful]

It all depends on how much space you have and for things with expirations dates... how fast your family goes through it. Some families go through a box of cereal in one or two days whereas my family takes atleast 2-4 weeks to get through one box because we don't eat it much. So for us, having 60 boxes would not come anywhere near being consumed within even a year after the expiration LOL

Now after you figure out a limit for yourself based on your space/needs you can decide what you will do if there is a tremendous sale. For myself (I'll use the cereal as an example since you brought it up), I don't ever pay more than $1 per box and the only time I pay that is if it's something I really want like once/twice per year I'll get a box of Ralston's chocolate peanut butter cup cereal that is $1 everyday at the commissary. But in general, I usually don't buy over $.75. Right now I am stocked on cereal so what I do is only buy if it is under $.50 (like the Post Trail Mix cereal at CVS this week). Then if it is something we like better than something we already have, I'll switch it out and put it in our donation box. If it is something we don't care for, it goes straight in the box. Once the box is full or some sort of drive comes up, I donate it. I have some Kraft bbq sauce, Pace, etc right now. I do the same with other stuff too like toiletries. Like I don't use any deodorant except Dove (the only product on earth that I am brand loyal LOL) but if I get deodorant free, or less than $.20, I'll get it and put it in the box. The whole box usually costs me less than $5 for a ton of stuff and helps others out greatly. Now again this varies. If you only have the money to use for your family, then only get "other" stuff when it's free (or overage of course).