Some Clarifications

A few people have asked me to clarify some items. I'm sure you have seen the show on TLC extreme Couponers. That is not what I'm talking about here. I don't not have a spare room filled with food and products, I have not traded a space to park my car to put toilet paper, or kicked the dogs outside to store potato chips!

What I am talking about here is smart shopping, I have a small corner in my kitchen I stack extra boxes of pasta and cereal, and I have six or so bottles of laundry detergent stacked besides the washer. Beyond that I do not buy mass amounts of food. If there is a REALLY good deal I may stock up to a point, such as the laundry detergent. It was recently on sale at Marc's for $1.99 per 55 wash bottles. I had a coupon for $1 off two so I bought 4. When I get down to one bottle I will start looking for more sales.

And that goes for the cereal as well, I try not to get more than can be consumed in 6 months, just so that I'm not buying something that will waste. This week at Giant Eagle they have Big G cereals on sale 4 for $6. I had a $.50 on one box that doubled, and another for $1 off two boxes, So I got 4 boxes for $4. a dollar a box is not bad. If I would have had 4 of the $.50 off coupons they would have been free. But I could not find any to print. See how this works?

If you want to start yourself a stock pile, by all means, But this blog is about budgeting, so unless you are getting all the items for free I see a lot of excess as wasted money.

Another thing to clarify, I do not buy items just because they are on sale or free. If I don't need it I'm not going to spend extra time that I really don't have on it, just because it is free. Now that being said. If I learn to get everything or just about everything for free, or the item I don't need causes my other items to be free then yes, I would pick it up and pass it along to friends, family or a donation place. It would be lovely to give back to the community but I have not gotten that far into my couponing.

Now, there is another thing to keep in mind. Some items are seasonal, and if you have the space, such as a deep freeze then stock up on food that lasts a long time. Pasta and pasta sauces go on super sales about twice a year. Butter, and sugar and broths are generally only on sale during the holidays, as are turkeys. But meat is not good overly long, after 3-4 months its tends to freezer burn, but that would get you turkey all winter long! Milk freezes for a while as well, those sales for 2 or 3 for $5
Stock up on a few gallons and be set for those long wintery nights were so not looking forward too coming up soon!