Stockpiling 101 – Clear Out & Make Room: Where do I Put My Stockpile? – Part Five (Final)

Here we are on our final Stockpile series! I hope that all of the information I have thrown given to you has been helpful, and that you have learned a bit about stockpiling and it’s importance to keeping more money in your pocket.

CLEAR OUT & MAKE ROOM

Now that we have established all the ins and outs of Stockpiling. Now it’s time to make some room for all that wonderful cheap and free items you will soon have taking over your pantry and the rest of your home. At first your pantry will probably suffice, but after awhile your stockpile will take over if you don’t start finding a more permanent home for your purchases.

Here in Florida it’s a bit too hot during the summer months to keep much in the garage so I have established what I refer to as our “Stockpile Closet” in our hallway. We are fortunate enough to have two linen, closets, of good sizes, in our hallway. We weren’t making a ton of use of the one, we had some random items but I eventually decided could easily be moved to my six year old daughter’s walk in closet. She has a pretty good size closet and doesn’t really use most of the space. I then cleared out the one hall closet and rearranged my daughter’s walk in. I put extra towels and linens in a portion of her closet, and made the hall closet into our Stockpile closet.

In the hall I keep cleaning supplies, bathroom supplies, dog treats, and extra (stocked up) OTC medications. And it is full to the brim.

I keep all of our paper products in the garage on some shelves, these can survive the HOT Florida heat and humidity. My husband has also put up some temporary cabinets in the garage where I plan to move some of the cleaning supplies too soon. As we are beginning to run out of room to store our edible items that have longer shelf lives (such as cereals, snacks, canned goods, ect…).

As for meats and other freezable items. We have our inside freezer (part of the fridge), where I tend to keep items we plan to use soon. Then we have a deep freeze in the garage where I store other items we may not get to right away, or larger items that just won’t fit in the inside freezer.

I highly recommend investing in a deep freeze! Ours isn’t a very large one at all, but it does the trick. You can look at scratch n’ dent places for a reasonably priced new freezers. Or places such as Sam’s Club, tend to also have lower priced freezers. Or go through Craigslist.com, my favorite, and look for a good used freezer

You should start planning even now where you can store your items, and make sure it works for everyone in your family. You may need to look into extra shelving, or a closet or other unused space for your stockpile. Preparing ahead of time is the best so your family won’t feel overwhelmed when you start bring in the large quantities of items, while all at the same time, spending less and less money out of your own pocket.

 FINAL THOUGHTS

As a final thought I want to share with you a quick story that happened to me just last night, I think it is completely appropriate with everything we have been talking about regarding Stockpiling.

Yesterday evening, I ran into a fellow Couponer (I had never met her before this encounter) at CVS while I was picking up a couple of gallons. I could tell just buy all the items she had in her basket that she must use coupons to save, and sure enough she pulled out a stack of Extra Care Bucks, and a stack of coupons.

So, I asked her what coupons sites she follows, which of course lead into a whole conversation about how much coupons has saved our families budgets. We spoke for while the cashier rang her whole order up including coupons. She mentioned that she has a huge stockpile and that there have been weeks where she didn’t have two nickels to rub together, but because she had a good stockpile she never had to worry about food or other grocery items.

When I got back in the car I was telling my husband about our conversation and I said to my hubby, “I NEVER thought that my grocery bill or affording groceries could ever NOT be a concern of mine. Before coupons, making rent and buying food and the necessities were my highest priorities, especially when times were tough. But now, if we had to go for a couple months without being able to buy groceries, other than a few basic staples that have very short shelf lives, we would be fine!”

Because of stockpiling my grocery bill is now the least of my financial concerns these days, it’s something I am no longer remotely worried over, whether or not I can put food on the table for family. And let me tell you we have been in that position once or twice.

By using coupons and sales efficiently and effectively, and stockpiling, I have been able to dramatically change my households budget, into something that is very sustainable for us. We are certainly not for want.

Again I hope this series has been beneficial to all (or at least some) of you! And that each of you has learned something and been able to take something away from this series on Stockpiling. Should any of you have questions along the way, always feel free to contact me and I am more than happy to assist you, in any way I can.