Shop Smart and Stock Up

You'd think I would take my own advice from time to time, wouldn't you? I've said it several times that when there is a good deal that we should stock up on that item. For some odd reason this summer I didn't take my own advice.

This all changed about a month ago when I read one blog which mentioned really paying attention to the loss leaders each week and especially when Martha from The Path To Frugality mentioned the prices in her area were going up so that she was stocking up even more when she found rock bottom prices.

I did the big oops! lately by only buying what I needed when I needed it instead of watching for the rock bottom prices and stocking up for when I will need it. The past several weeks I have been watching sale prices, especially those loss leaders, and have been stocking up again. One week it was cans of vegetables on sale for 3/$1 so I bought 6...this week they were again on sale for the same price at a different store so I bought 6 again. One week Ultra laundry detergent was on sale for 5/$10 and my mom gave me 5 $1 coupons so I got each jug for just $1 each! I hope to find another rock bottom price and stock up on more before I run out of what I have.

Another thing Martha mentioned was that butter was getting much more expensive and was close to $2.99 at the store. I hadn't bought butter in awhile as I still had quite a bit in the fridge but also realized that when I needed butter I just bought it, without even looking at the price. I honestly had no idea how much butter was, but was shocked to learn that it was indeed around $2.99 a lb. Just this week I saw the average price was $3.39 at Hy-Vee (which is a little overpriced but great for sale items!). When I read about this and realized that my baking season is coming up and I will be using a lot of butter I remembered that our Kwik Star ad had something about butter being on sale. I checked and lo and behold it was on sale for $1.69 a lb. There was a limit of five per customer so one day I bought five and one day hubby bought 4 (all that was left). We now have 9 lbs. of butter in the freezer which will get us through the holiday season and then some...and hopefully I will run into a sale before we run out. :)

This whole episode has taught me to be aware of prices of items that I buy (my bad!) and to slowly stock up on the essentials when they are on sale so that hopefully I will be able to stop paying full price for these things...ever! Almost everything goes on sale at one point or another so the main thing is to be aware of what the non-sale price of an item is and to stock up on whatever amount you will need until you think the next sale will be (whether it is 3 frozen turkeys or 25 boxes of cereal!). Sales typically rotate about every 6 weeks or so, though the loss leaders you may never see again! Get as much as you need and will be able to use before it expires.

Any other tips for someone who has fallen off the wagon of shopping smart and stocking up?

Following Life As Mom