The secret of saving a LOT of money with coupons is the ability to stockpile (or buy ahead) items that you use at rock bottom prices. This is the single way to maximize savings by using coupons and tracking sales. It is great to buy something you need very cheap but it is better if you can buy several to get you until the next time the item is on sale again. There are some things you need to keep in mind when stockpiling things for your family:
1) First, you need to determine your stockpiling needs. This will depend on the size of your family and the stage in life you are in. Do you have a lot of teenagers that eat a lot of food or are you an empty-nester? Only you know what and how much you need to stockpile.
2) Get an idea of what your rock bottom price is. This is why keeping a Price Book is an invaluable tool. Buy prices are different for everyone. You may have a store that doubles coupons or not.
3) Get multiple coupons: Depending on what your stockpiling needs are you will probably need more than one like coupon in order to be able to stockpile items you need appropriately. How do you get more than one coupon insert if you only get one newspaper every sunday? You can ask friends and family for their coupon inserts, or trade coupons with them, you can use a coupon clipping service. You may also want to see if your dollar store sells newspapers, or make friends with the newspaper delivery person. Get creative and think out of the box.
4) No coupons? No problem! If you don’t have multiple of coupons, still buy enough of the item you need at the best sale price to get you to the next sale. What you want is avoid paying full price at all costs!
5) You need storage space. You do not need to dedicate a full garage or its own room to it but you will need to create some room to store your stockpile.
6) You need to keep it organized. A disorganized stockpile leads to wasted money. If you can’t find what you need when you need it and that results in you buying an item at a higher price then you waste money. Also, organization avoids food waste from expired items.
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