What a Difference a 10 Days Make

Increasing prices of everyday items is something we have all been noticing for the last past year. For a lot of things it has been a smooth increase and for others a sudden jump in price.
Ten days ago I went to Wal*mart to pick up a few things. I am always looking at the price of things I buy regularly. Yesterday I went again to pick up more stuff and noticed the following things have gone up in that period: A jumbo pack of diapers was $1 higher, paper towels were up $0.4 per roll, my son’s favorite granola bars were 25% higher. Then I went to Target and noticed that diapers were also up 10% from a week ago.
This made me wonder about people’s shopping habits. I really wouldn’t dare walk into a store and just start filling up my cart without noticing how much things costs. I almost wouldn’t dare buy something without it being on sale or having shopped around for it.
Yesterday I came across a question about how much is enough, or how much you like to have on hand before buying more. This question really made me think because I don’t really have a lower limit on things. Like say, I am down to my last 4 rolls of toilet paper, I need more. When I notice that probably in the next month or two I will run out of something I start checking the stores sales fliers to see if the items come up on sale. This may mean that at times I may have more of an item than I need but it also ensures that I won’t be running out and paying full price for the item because I ran out of it.
I know a lot of people don’t have the storage space or perhaps the extra money to stockpile everyday items. But it does pay to do this. The money you save by buying when you find the item dirt cheap makes up for what you have invested on that stockpile. With the current price increases it makes even more sense to stockpile on things when you find them really cheap. Otherwise you could find yourself in the same position I found myself yesterday: paying 25% more for something you found cheaper just days earlier.