Rich Little Poor Girl Friday #2

Lesson #2: STOCKPILING

Gathering in times of plenty to make it through lean times is nothing new; the concept of stockpiling has been around since before Mason jars.

Convenience, though, has made us lazy. It is easy to get whatever we need whenever we want…as long as we are willing to pay the price. Which most people are.

Not me.

I have always resisted paying retail and with a little planning I rarely have to. I’m not a coupon clipper but I do track prices of products I use regularly and try to buy only when they reach a certain price-per-unit. Consider toilet paper, for example. Let’s say you go through 2 rolls per week – that’s 104 rolls per year. Buying when it’s on sale at $.18 per roll ($18.72 annually) instead of $.30 per roll ($31.20 annually) saves you $12.48 per year.

So…after you pick yourself up off the floor and stop laughing, consider this: if you apply this principle to every product you regularly use you will save several hundred dollars per year.

Here’s a few more examples to sway your skeptical mind:

I use 1 litre of cream every two weeks. The convenient mall down the street retails cream for $2.89 per litre ($75.14 per year). I won’t pay more than $1.59 per litre ($41.34 per year). This saves me $33.80 annually.

In my skin-care regime (yeah, I’m going all girly-girl on you) I use one product that normally retails for $12.99 and one that retails for $15.99. When these products go on sale for $9.99 and $10.99, I buy two of each. I use four of each product per year, so I’m saving $32.00 by not paying retail. Shop for toothpaste, shampoo, hair product, etc. this way.

Many of my favourite recipes use canned tomatoes. I go through about 40 cans per year. If I buy several cans each time they go on sale for $.99 per can ($39.60 annually) instead of having to pay retail at the convenient mall up the street – $1.89 per can ($75.60 annually) – I’ll save $36.00 per year. Do the same for canned beans and tuna and on those three items alone you’ve already saved yourself $108.00 on your yearly food bill. Imagine how much you’ll save if you stockpile all your basic non-perishable foodstuffs this way. An added bonus to stockpiling food is that you will be less tempted to go out and drop $$$ on eating a meal out.

That whole toilet paper scenario is not so funny anymore, is it?

Sure, it takes a bit of forethought and flexibility – I’m not a stickler for brand loyalty and there are certain things I only eat when they are on sale.

Alrighty. Now that you’ve got the skinny on stockpiling, rush out and fill your pantry with all your favourite staples – that you’ve bought on sale, of course – so you’ll be prepped for next week’s lesson: BROWN BAGGIN’ IT.

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