Grocery budget and stocking up

[smilie]

How do you start stock piling and yet still stay within your grocery budget?

 

[mrsklamc]

By cutting elsewhere- say, you have $20 a week that you plan to pay for meat...when a sale comes along and you are able to buy that week's meat for $15, that's $5 you can spend stocking up on something else.

It gets easier once you have an existing stockpile, to work around what you already have and cut the budget for the current week.

You can also try buying bulk- sugar, flour, etc are much cheaper at say, costco, but then you have a ton of it.

 

[Marionnette]

How do you start stock piling and yet still stay within your grocery budget?

It's difficult, if not downright impossible, if you do not allow extra room in your budget for the first month or so.

The key is to get to the point where you are living off of the items on your shelf and in your freezer while replacing those items whenever they go on sale. The exception would be those fresh items with a short life such as fruits. leafy greens and milk.

For instance, Perdue boneless chicken breasts are on sale for $1.99/lb at a store near me. We eat a lot of chicken but not more than twice a week. So, if I was stocking up, I would buy 3 meals' worth of chicken and freeze it. I would then use 2 "older" chicken packages from my freezer for this week's chicken dishes. By doing this, I would end up increasing my chicken stockpile by one meal.

Eventually, I would end up with a freezer full of chicken if I did this every week. But chicken isn't on sale like this every week and eventually I use almost all of it up and need to buy more than just one extra package. But while I was using up the chicken, I might be re-stocking my supply of pork or beef. Since I'm not spending money on poultry, I can use that budgeted amount on the pork loin that is on sale or the eye of round that is BOGO.

So, what I'm saying is that I don't do "weekly" grocery shopping. I shop the sales and buy extra of the sale items. And then I plan my menus around what I already have AND what I just bought.

 

[dyna]

FOOD BUDGET I have no idea what mine is because I never buy for a week or a month at a time NEVER HAVE prolly never will.

Say ground beef is on sale for just DH an I it's nothing for us to buy 20 to 30lbs to use over the next 2 to 3 months.

It is easier to stock up on canned an boxed stuff than persibles fresh veggies an meats etc.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

The only thing I stock pile is paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates, and soap, shampoo, things that won't go bad, because somehow, something is going toget pushed to the back of the cabinet and will expire. I just don't have the room to go overboard on most things anyway.

Our commissary had great deals and I use coupons on those items, and from April til late fall, they have caseload sales, just hit one this weekend and stocked up on some stuff.

 

[Happyjen27]

You just kind of do.

When my organic ground beef goes on sale, I will buy 20 lbs of it. That will be roughly 60/80 bucks. But, that is a great deal, and will last us 10 weeks or so. When I spend those 60 dollars on that, I will cut back on other things, like pasta or cheese. For this reason I plan a monthly budget for my food, not weekly. If you plan weekly, and it's too strict, you're not going to be able to catch the good deals. If you plan monthly, you're able to go over one week to catch a good deal, and then stay under one week and eat out of your pantry.

I never "stockpile" per se, but I do buy extra of good deals, which saves me in the long run. Instead, I try to buy things as I need them, which lets me use my money on veggies and fruits. In truth, even though it's a great deal, I do not need 10 boxes of pasta. Stockpiling doesn't always save if it takes money out of your bank account.

 

[Sadie22]

I have never spent every last cent I had. I've always kept some money aside so that I could take advantage of an unexpected opportunity. I have big freezers and a large pantry and I keep them filled. DS bought about 30 pounds of chicken breasts yesterday at under $2 a pound. I periodically buy about the same amount of extra lean ground beef. When I made chili a few days ago, I made enough for 14 meals, using beans purchased at case prices a month or so before.

I bought a community-supported agriculture share again this year which provides us with fresh fruit and vegetables. We freeze about half and eat the rest as we receive it.

Having food on hand allows me to spend time making money rather than cooking every day.

 

[HFred]

I find the monthly budget easier than the weekly. Sometimes I go over b/c I have stockpiled a lot of something, but then I don't have to buy it for months afterwards. For example, I bought paper towels and toilet paper on sale with coupons in April. I just bought a new stockpile of paper towels this week. I do the same with cereal, fruit snacks, apple sauce cups, etc. that will go in my kid's lunches. I buy lunch meat on sale and freeze a few packages at a time. I buy a months worth of bread at our local bread outlet and freeze the extra. About every 4 months I spend "a lot" but the months in between are basically perishables. It all evens out over the course of time.

 

[ilovemk76]

The way to do this is to look at your budget over a longer period of time. We budget on a yearly basis. Some months was spend way less than 1/12th of that budget and other months we are way over.

 

[Nennie]

It's always just kind of worked out for me. I try to pair my stockpiling with other deals.

Like a couple months back, there was a deal where you got a $10 catalina for every $50 gift card that you purchased. I purchased 20 gas cards, and then used about half of the $200 to do some major stockpiling on sale items (which at the time was papertowels, granola bars, cereal, and morningstar farms products), and then the rest towards my usual perishables.

I had to put more $$ out front (for the gas cards), but it was $$ I was going to eventually spend anyway, so I was just borrowing from my own budget.

I also use CVS ECBs to stockpile (when I can't roll them) too.

 

[ceecee]

I'm bad about rotating canned and frozen and throw a lot away. I stock pile just a few cans of favorites now. The only stuff used from the freezer is the stuff on top. There must be an easier way.

 

[lynnanddbyz]

Decide on your budget and stick to it! I do a monthly budget and shop weekly dividing the budget by 4. Some weeks are a little over so I under spend the next.

One big tip when stockpiling is to watch the sales. Most things run in cycles of 6 to 8 weeks. Those boneless skinless chicken breast that are a good buy this week will be on sale again in 6 to 8 weeks. The trick is to buy enough to last 8 weeks (for your family). That may put you a little over for this week but next week you will have extra because you do not need to buy chicken. Use that "extra" the next week and stock up on the pasta or canned goods or what ever else is on a "good" sale next week.

Once you have started you will see the trends and know when sales are good. Stock up when you can (when your budget allows) as you continue you will save more and more because you will only buy things when they are at their best price and buy enough to last until the next time they go on sale.

You may notice I said to buy the quantity your family needs to last until the next sale not a garage full of toliet paper because it was on sale. Make room for your stockpile but do not let it rule you. Only buy what you will use before it can and will spoil or donate your extras to charity.

Good luck and PM me if you have any more questions.

 

[hsmamato2]

agree with most pp's here..... my method is knowing our habits,what we will use in any given,and stocking accordingly- I stock enough for 2-3 months of just about anything that I can get for cheap,no more. There is a fine line(maybe not so fine) between stocking,and hoarding....(think spare rooms with 237 cake mixes on the shelf)
for instance- I have recently stocked our toiletries closet, each item has it's own row,so I can easily see if we start to run low,like t.p.,shampoo,soaps.
fully stocked for us is approx 3-5 bottles of shampoo,enough t.p. for at least 2 months.I usually won't restock till it gets low-otherwise I'd end up with a closet full of unused 'bargains'.
food, you keep a list of what you have, and every 2-3 months, I use it all before buying more. Make a realistic budget,and keep some ready for good sales, but make sure they're GOOD if you intend to stock up.
I'll usually buy our meat once a month,since I know approx. what we will use in a month. Freezing is a great way to divide,and use all your food you buy.
Just keep track ,so you don't waste what you have.
I only stockpile certain items, the more expensive things. This way my extra work has a point,I don't put a lot of effort into saving a nickel on pasta,since I know it only costs about .50 any given week anyway.....
also know that most sales repeat every 6-8 weeks.

 

[HFred]

I definitely agree with everyone on here! You will start to learn the trends. In a month or so you'll notice baking goods start to go on sale a lot (prepping for holiday baking). The spring is notorious for cleaning supplies (the spring cleaning bug) and mid-summer you'll start to see juice boxes, granola bars, etc. (typical school lunch staples). Once you follow the weekly flyers and the coupon trends for a few months, it will all fall into place. I "stockpile" items I use a lot of or than can be used for quick week night meals when I'm running kids here there and everywhere (pasta-my grocery store often does 10 for $10 sales and with coupons I'm getting it for less, canned tomatoes to make a quick pasta sauce in my crock pot, canned beans for quick chili with the canned tomatoes or thrown on a tortilla with cheese for a protein packed quesadilla. I buy meat about once every 6-8 weeks and only whatever is on sale. I base meals on what I have and try to vary what I cook as much as possible. I try to stay under $800 a month for a family of 5 but it depends on where you live, the stores around you and what your family prefers. Sometimes it is more, but if I've done a large buy recently, it is quite often only a couple hundred on produce and milk and eggs. I buy a lot of fresh produce so that is always more. My oldest son also has multiple food allergies so it limits brands and items that I can buy due to cross-contamination issues.

 

[girli565]

Buying sales and B1G1 free items. When my publix has b1g1 free items I will stock up on these items (only if we will use them, I do not buy things we won't eat) and maybe cut a few things that weren't a necessity from the grocery list to accommodate the extra B1G1 free stuff.

We also save up any extra we can get from other places (like stretching the gas in our cars, lol) and use that to make a trip to Costco for meat when they have deals on the boneless skinless chicken breasts, ground turkey, and flank steaks. A good costco trip stocks my freezer for months.