Stockpiling

Rules for Stockpiling:
Some may seem obvious but it took me a while to catch follow through with them

1) Only buy what you will use, if you hate blueberry poptarts it doesn't matter that they were .02 a box, you wasted two cents a box on something you won't eat.
2) Only buy what you can use before the expiration date, free/cheap pasta is awesome but most people don't go through 200 boxes of it before it expires.
3) Rotate your items, this is so they don't go bad
4) When/if you discover you have more than you can use but already have the item give to friends/family or donate some place.
5) You don't use it donate it, or give to family or friends. Often times stores will have deals that you can get free items or even make money off of buying certain things (such as CVS) but you have no use for them, do not stockpile these items as fast as they come into your house get them out of your house!!
6) Organization is key, you need to know what you have and be able to find it. This will stop you from having to go to the store and pay full price for spaghetti sauce because you couldn't find a jar in your stockpile.
7) Keep list's, keep a list of items that you regularly use and keep a list of your stockpile

Those are all i can think of for now, if I think of more I'll edit and add them.

My Price Points: this is the most I will pay for items

Shampoo $1/bottle
Toilet Paper .25cents a roll (up to .28 for Charmin)
Paper Towel .50 cents a roll (but I really hate to go over .30)
Cereal $1/box
Fruit Snacks .50/box
Toothpaste $1/tube (can usually find free)
Toothbrush $1/each (can usually get for less or free)
Diapers .17 per diaper
Pasta sauce $1/jar (this is for brand name stuff)
Pasta .25/box
Meat $2/lb (unless we are talking steak)
Popcorn $1/box
Milk $2 gallon
Macaroni and Cheese .50/box (Kraft brand)
Rice $1/bag
Frozen Veggies .25/bag (steamers)
Crescent rolls .50/tube

The three best things that I have learned from couponing/stockpiling
1) Organization is Key!! Without this all is lost
2) Menu Plan-this makes the most of the stockpile, keeps grocery bill low, stops you from feeling lost at dinner time or from wasting money on going out to eat.
3) The value of a Dollar!!

Let us Pray for Haiti

When I was little (and clearly still learning about God) in the car on a drive someplace with my Aunt we passed a car accident- right then without thinking she interrupted our conversation and started praying for the people in the car accident and those involved in helping. I asked what she was doing and why, and she said that she was praying for God to be with all those people and help them. I didn't get it then but I get it now as an adult.

Let us all take time out of our day today, and for the next few days to pray for all these people -those that were in the earthquake and the people that are helping them (rescuer's, dr's, police officers etc.)

Where to find coupons??

There are tons of great places to find coupons first (and my personal favorite) is the Sunday newspaper. Next up is all the great printable sites (I will list several at the bottom) but then there are in store coupons these come in many different shapes some can be peelie's that you find on a product, sometimes Q's can be found inside products, blinkie's are coupons found inside those machines at the store that blink, Q's can also be found in booklets that are by products or being handed out at stores-so always check what just look like annoying advertisement or recipee's often it will have recipie's for the product (which can be great too!) but at the end of the booklet there can be a handful of coupons and/or even rebates for buying those products. Recently I got a booklet that was with all the crackers in the main isle of meijer I beleive it was called "Jingle the hoildays" it had some cute ideas for recipie's in it and coupons and a rebate at the end. The rebate was $10 rebate when you buy (wyb) 10 products, well I got a coupon online for $2/2 ritz crackers so I got five of them bought ten box's @ $2.37 a box only $1.37 a box with coupon and once I get the rebate back I will have only spent $.37 cents a box (full size boxes) for ritz crackers. I was very excited as we go through a lot of these in our house, my kids think they are cookies :D Another great way to get coupons is to email (or post mail) a company to let them know what you think of their product for ex. Heinz ketchup I emailed to let them know that my family loves their ketchup, I've even had to stop my child from putting it on french toast and that we go through a bottle a month and thanked the company for making such a great product. If you have problems with a product you can also call the company if you prefer not to write. Sometimes you will get coupons and sometimes you won't but I would say that it is well worth your time to do this. I almost forgot about another type of coupons they are called Cat's (short for catalina, the name of the machine that spits them out) they come out of the little machine at the register at the time you check out these coupons can be for money off your next order or coupons towards products you bought but of a different brand. For example at meijer when I buy enfamil formula I usually get a coupon for BOGO (buy one get one free) or $8 off any can of similac formula. I obviously won't be swapping my kid's formula left and right due to coupons, but usually I can find another mom on afullcup.com and swap her coupons with mine for the type of formula we use.

Internet Coupons
www.smartsource.com
www.coupons.com
www.couponbug.com
www.redplum.com
Bricks Coupons I love this one lots of little tiny words add up to some big savings
Betty Crocker
Box Tops for Education
Pillsbury
Also there is a site called my points (if you want to sign up please lmk I'll email you my link to get credit) you can print coupons (usually the same ones from coupons.com) however when you print and use 10 a month you get 25 points, and points add up to gift cards to a lot of different places like CVS, Target, and there is also a bunch of restaurants on the list. So I like printing from here too just so I get the points.

www.shortcuts.com This site you register with but are able to add coupons to your Kroger Card

www.meijermealbox.com this site will allow you to print coupons that are meijer store coupons meaning you can use it with a manufacture coupon to get a maximum amount of savings, most of the coupons on this site usually go together with sales. Once you get to the site look to the right at the box that says meal box then click on the specials tab and then below that click on coupons.

Couponing and Savings Tracker

I learned the art of couponing two years ago, I am really just starting to "get" how the whole system works and it has taken a long time. Not to say that I am an expert, because I don't think that I am. My Aunt told me about a website called thecouponproject and on the site there is a savings tracker that you can download (this was made and designed by the owner/operator of thecouponproject) at first this Excel program was very confusing to me, not just because I am not familiar with excel but also because I wasn't sure how to read my receipts and how all the savings was calculated on the receipt. First of all I went back to thecouponproject to see what she has been up to latly and I noticed that she now added a better explanation of how to use it. Sadly this is after I spent a couple hours today figuring it all out by myself lol.

Here are my directions:
Meijer: I use the terms which are found at the top of the receipt under Savings Today.
Shelf cost = promotions+coupons+discounts+total (what you actually paid)
Coupons = Promotions (which are meijer coupons)+Coupons
Discounts = non-coupon savings

Kroger: Your savings will be found at the bottom of the receipt, once again using the wording on the receipt.
Shelf cost = coupons+discounts+total (what you actually paid)
Coupons = MFG CPN savings
Discounts= STR CPN & KRO PLUS savings

If I will be using a receipt for a rebate I enter the amount under rebate, and at the end under comments I enter what rebate was for (i.e. Kraft, Nabisco, etc.) Also if I am going to be mailing away for something (coupons or items) I enter this info in at the end under comments. If you enter all the information correct the total should tally what you actually paid without you having to try to alter it. Also I will be adding Catalina's, Extra Care Bucks, and Register Rewards at the end under comments so that I can also track these "extra" savings, because I will be curious what my saving's from just those are however year long when spent they will be counted as coupons.

So far this year, ALL Twelve Days!! My total savings has been $427.69, 129.94 alone of just coupon savings!! I have only spent $205 total out of pocket (oop) For me this covers food, diapers, paper products, cleaning supplies, essentially anything that you would "normally" buy at the grocery store is what I include with my savings tracker. I may actually open another file under the savings tracker for all the other stuff that we buy out to eat, clothing, other house hold purchase's just to keep track of what we save there but also (possiblly more importantly) to see how much we spend on all these items.