A Grocery Stockpiling Guide: How and When to Save

Creating a grocery stockpile in your home is a great way to help you save the most on your grocery purchases. Making your own at home stockpile will ensure you’re always paying the rock bottom price and that you have plenty of food on hand in case of an emergency or unexpected event that keeps you from the store. Here is a grocery stockpiling guide to help teach you how and when to save. 

A Grocery Stockpiling Guide: How and When to Save

What does your family use?

You want to make sure that you are only stockpiling the items that your family uses regularly. This will ensure that your stockpile never goes bad, and you’ll be able to quickly rotate through items in your stockpile. First, make a list of your recipes and grocery lists and make a note of any items that your family eats regularly. These are the items that you should be focusing on in your stockpile! 

Once you get that stockpile full, here are some tips for saving money with a pantry challenge!

Understanding sales cycles

Knowing your store’s sales cycles can help you identify how much and when you should start stockpiling a specific item from the store. Most things go on sale every three to six weeks. But, some items go on sale during a specific season, such as pumpkin in the fall months or hot dogs during the summer months. Knowing and understanding your sales cycles combined with how much your family can use in between sales is how you will determine how much of an item to get. 

Don't get impulsive! Take a look at the REAL cost of the impulse buy. 

Grocery stockpiling for emergencies

Outside of regular grocery stockpiling, there is also stockpiling for emergencies. With the uneasiness of everything going on right now, having an emergency grocery stockpile can come in handy and limit your trips to the store. However, buying too much food could end up costing you money in uneaten food. Focus on the basics, what would you need to reasonably stock for three months. Start there and gradually work your way up to six months. 

Use the one, for now, two for later rule

If you are on a limited budget, this rule can help you better stockpile for the future while sticking to your grocery budget now. Whenever you find a great deal on something that you know your family will use, get one for now and two for later. This works great with ketchup, beans, pasta, and other items with a long shelf life. 

Ever tried a no-spend challenge month? Check this out!

Don’t overdo it

During these uncertain times, it can be tempting to get as much toilet paper and other items as you can while you still can! However, I urge you to reconsider. Overdoing it will leave your home packed full of items you’ll never find and won't use. You won’t be able to eat 100 cans of tuna before it goes bad or 30 cans of chickpeas, so relax! If you find yourself considering three-digit numbers of anything, ask yourself if you could eat all that.

Grocery stockpiling isn’t always necessary for some items. However, using these tips can ensure that you never run out of the most items! Keep this guide handy when creating your own grocery stockpile so you can start lowering your food costs and increasing your savings! 

Need more money-saving tips at the grocery store? Check out these posts!

Making the Most of Grocery Store Trips

Everything you Need to Know About Shopping at a Food Co-op

8 Items I Shop for First at Grocery Outlet

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