How Much do you Budget for your stockpile?

[thickbluebug]

I don't really budget. I probably spend about 1/2 the amount of money on food as I used too...but get three times as much.

For HBA I do spurts. Some months I get nearly nothing...some months I stockpile. Just depends on what it is.

That's me too and I spend about 1/4 of what I use too. Just thought I was doing good going to walmart and saving $20 bucks in coupons and going to DG to get sodas every month.
Now I buy what I can with my coupons, store $ off $ coupons, rebate checks and $300 I have set aside for groceries, coupons, stamps and mirs.

If there is a really really hot sale on bogo skinless chicken or 2 liter pepsi products and I played at wags too much - I hit the savings account.

It's why there is a savings account and I don't have a budget. The whole purpose of this way of couponing for me is to save money. I have made enough mistakes learning what is a good deal and not. So I am not going miss out on something cheap my family needs because I was over my budget.

If I had it to do over - I would BUDGET 20% to stockpiling, after a year or so - it takes care of itself.
Main thing I would do differently is to not make the mistake of thinking something is a good deal and later find out it wasn't.
I did that by stockpiling too quickly and really wished I had 1/2 that money back.

Stockpiles take time. Time to figure out the great deals from the so so deals, time to learn what you should pay for coupons and time to figure out how much of something your family needs or uses.

It's a bad feeling to toss 10 expired crackers boxes. Crackers are something that I have learned is not something I can stock more than a couple of packages of. I didn't learn that until I tossed 10 boxes of 3.49 premium crackes. An expensive lesson learned. If I had went slow I would have been able to stretch that money at least four more times than what I did. I won't even mention my mistakes on cheese,,,, and now I know cheese shreds freeze.

[KmmCo]

I have always had a stockpile of stuff I use frequently, just because I like the security of being able to have choices of what to cook in case I can't make it to the store. I am a really busy person and it is more of a timesaving thing to me, than really being worried about rock bottom prices. If I have stuff I can fix quickly - then I can avoid those trips to the fast food places and eat healthier while saving big $.

Besides, what would you do if you didn't have stuff stockpiled and got snowed in for 3 or 4 days? I have been in that situation a few times and have been grateful for the stuff in my pantry.... I don't know what people with empty cupboards do in those situations. I have seen a couple of storms that were bad enough that even Target closed for a couple of days. Picture snow drifted up the eaves on all the houses and you can see why the whole city would shut down. So I am glad I don't ever have to in those situations.

I agree with some of the others that say you just learn what is a good deal and some weeks you spend more than others. For example, last weekend we found OJ clearance for $1.14 a half- gallon and figuring this was cheap as we were ever gonna find it we grabbed 40 to put in the freezer. Once I found cure 81 hams clearance for $1.10 a pound and we bought almost all the store had - knowing we would never see that price again. We used it for probably 6 or 8 months for sandwiches and meals, just pulling the next one out of the freezer every time we finished up one. Same with hamburger - find it cheap and we will buy 30 or 40 lbs to put in the freezer. Like the person above said, that is a good reason to have a little "emergency fund" just for such occassions. We adapt our eating to what is cheap and what we have on hand, and that is how we save money in the long run. Right now I have a lot of fish so we have been eating that more frequently, but I think I only have a couple of pounds of hamburger so we probably will think twice about whether we really truely want it for a meal until we find another great sale. I know I spend about 50% or 75% less than the average family my size (according to the USDA) and we eat way better quality of food.