Stockpiling is a beautiful thing....once you get a system down.
My first year of extreme couponing was full of experimentation.
Figuring out WHAT to stockpile and HOW MUCH to stockpile was the most important and the most difficult mission.
I stockpiled primarily real food....still do.
You know....the stuff you use to make meals.
But I did also start stockpiling snack type foods and drinks but on a smaller scale.
Once I started getting a handle on the "how much to buy" aspect of stockpiling the savings started piling up.
Then my kids torpedoed my plan.
Oh, they loved that mom was now going to have tons of "bad-for-you" snacks at their disposal.
You know, the stuff that your kids always want you to buy.....Pop-Tarts, Crackers, Chips, Soda, Juice bags(that are mostly sugar), Cookies, Cake Mix and Frosting, Fruit Roll-Ups, etc. The stuff that goes on sale and there always seem to be coupons available so you can buy it really really cheaply?
This was the kind of stuff I hardly ever use to keep in the house.
I'd buy it now and again, but only 1 or 2 boxes or bags at a time.
And it would get devoured before I would even finish putting away all the groceries from the shopping trip!lol
Well once I began stockpiling snack/junk foods for them, I noticed most of the items piling up.
Piling up not in a "good stockpiling and rotating your stock" way.
Piling up meaning, that no one was eating the stuff anymore and it was sitting and inching closer to the dark side of the expiration/use by dates!
They complained and begged for years for me to buy snack/junk food for them and whatever food I start bringing it into the house in large quantities, they STOP eating it!
W.
T.
F?
#2 son loves Fruit Roll-Ups. So I hit a killer sale w/Qs and load up on dozens of boxes for almost free.
Suddenly he stops eating them and I am now considering using them to wallpaper the downstairs powder room.
Daughter pleads for a certain brand of sugared cereal. I head the plea and gather many many boxes to quench her hunger for it. Like clockwork, the very day I bring in a dozen boxes, she announces that she no longer will eat this cereal.
I begin to contemplate using this cereal as packing material for shipping my eBay goods.
The only exception to this trend was the 180 cans of Amp.
I was able to 'buy' that many over the course of 4 months due to some great Qs I found and KMart having those awesome Double Coupon Sales last spring/summer. 2 of the 3 teens begged for this stuff! It's full of caffeine and sugar....how could they NOT want it!?
I sat them both down after I had acquired about half of the stash and told them, "Look, this is NOT something I am going to continue to buy for you once the sales/coupons run out. Whatever I get will be IT! So you had better not plow through them all. If I were you, I'd make it last a good long while."
I guess they just didn't believe or hear me.....
I bought the last can in late August of '09.
The Amp stock was gone by that October.
3 months.
2 teens drank 180 cans.
I guess they each figured they had to drink them as fast as possible so that the other teen wouldn't get as many.
Have I mentioned these two don't like each other very much and do this sort of competitive/passive aggressive thing on a regular basis now that they are teenagers?
Wanna bet if only one of them wanted these Amps, most of those cans would still be sitting in my garage?!
I guess the lesson here is to KNOW the audience you are buying all your stockpiled goods for and tailor your spending to those needs.
And don't believe ANYTHING your kids tell you.
Sluggy
