Building your stockpile on a budget: cheap items to stockpile this week

One of the reasons that I am able to spend so little on my weekly grocery budget is because I have a good stockpile of the “basics” that we use frequently. My stockpile has been accumulated over time and I plan my weekly meals around what is on sale in the stores that week and what is in my stockpile.

If money is tight one week, I can always cut back on grocery expenses and we can prepare meals using what we have on hand. My stockpile also comes in handy in times of emergency (when a hurricane hits around here or there is a threat of a hurricane, stores clear out quickly and when Ike hit, some stores were closed for a few days, and it was nice to have everything we needed on hand) and has come in handy when money has been tight.

If you’re looking to start your stockpile on a budget, here’s a hot deal:

*Ragu Pasta sauce – Target has a .75/2 printable coupon. There were $1/2 coupons that came out in last week’s inserts. My Target stores have these on price cut for $1.52, so they are $.64/each after coupons! There are also tear pad coupons for free pasta when you buy two Ragu, so if you have these, you can get two jars of Ragu and a package of pasta for $1.29. You can get TWENTY jars and 10 packages of pasta for $12.90.

When there are “hot” deals like this, I usually stock up on multiple coupons. I don’t typically buy multiple copies of the newspaper. I just buy multiples of what I need either through a coupon clipping service like The Coupon Clippers or through eBay.

There are still coupons available for both of the coupons I mentioned on ebay. You can check out what’s available here. When buying coupons on eBay, make sure you check the seller’s feedback and also that you check the shipping rates!

A few other coupons that may be worth “investing” in for your stockpile:

*.50/1 Barilla Piccolino or whole wheat pasta – if your stores double coupons and these go 10/$10 (which they have in the past when these coupons come out), they will be free. Otherwise, you get them for $.40-.50/each which is still a good deal

*.35/1 or .50/1 Steamfresh vegetables – these also traditionally go 10/$10, so if your stores double or triple coupons, they will be FREE!

I’ll keep you posted on other stockpile deals!