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If you have ever heard about Extreme Couponing, you may have found yourself saying, “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me!?” I know I did. Some of the people on there, to me, are borderline hoarders. Even if you were the Duggars, you still could not go through 150 bottles of soap in a year (ok…well maybe if you were them you could…but just them).

So what exactly is stockpiling you ask? A stockpile is a storage of both food and non-food items (usually health & beauty aids). As any established couponer knows, a stockpile is essential to the couponing process. Instead of buying one item at full price and use a coupon, you buy multiple items when they are on sale, and use a coupon on top of the sale to get an even better price. You buy products before you need them to build up a stockpile.

So should I be stockpiling? I don’t need 5 tubes of toothpaste right now? You’re right. You don’t need 5 tubes of toothpaste right now. And in my home, with just my fiance and I, 5 tubes will last about 3-6 months, which is the average about of time you want to build your stockpile for.

Why 3-6 months? One of the first things you learn as a couponer, is that, on average, stores have sale cycles that come around every 3-6 months and because of that coupons also recycle themselves during the same time frames. So the goal is to build a stockpile that last you this long.

For example: Toothpaste typically costs about $3 a tube. A couponer will almost always get toothpaste for free and not pay any more than $.99 for a tube. So why just get one when it’s free when you can get multiple and then in a few months when you can get it free again, you just stock up again.

What’s your favorite thing to stockpile? One of the most important things I like to stockpile is meat. Why? Because meat is one of the most expensive things I spend money on. Today, I went to one of my favorite grocery stores because I knew they had a sale on chicken drumsticks and thighs ($.67/lb). Typically a pack this size ranges from $10-15 a pack. I spent a little over $15 for all 5 packs. A minimum of 70% savings. Though with all the cookouts we have these 5 packs will probably not last more than 2 months, it’s just what I had room for.

Lastly…One of the greatest things about stockpiling is that once you have a nice one going, you spend less and less each month. What’s even better, is that when unexpected things come up you don’t have to worry as much, because in addition to having some extra money…you can shop from your stockpile.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? DO YOU CURRENTLY HAVE A STOCKPILE OR DREAM OF HAVING ONE? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR TO START?

*Disclosure: Affiliate links contained in this post. You purchase like you would normally, but we receive a small commission.

I went to college at the one and only West Virginia University (Let’s Gooo… Mountaineers). While there I collected an ENORMOUS amount of books (I also paid an equally enormous amount of money for them). If you were like me, you swore that there was no need to trade the books back in at the end of the semester because you would DEFINITELY use them again one day. Boy was I WRONG! I was left with boxes upon boxes of old books and reading material that I am never going to use again.

I recently came across an article on The Krazy Coupon Lady about an amazing website that tells you what is the best site to sell your textbooks back too. And thus I introduce to you, BookScouter. All you have to do is type in the ISBN number that you find on the back of the book….

Hit enter, and it gives you a list of various websites (approximately 20) around the web and the cost that they will pay you to trade-in your books.

I decided to start with books that I could return to Amazon’s Buy Back program. I wanted to start here because I am very familiar with Amazon and know they have great customer satisfaction policies in case anything happens. In addition to paying you for your used books, Amazon also pays for full shipping costs.

Once I figured out all the books that would give me the maximum value at Amazon, I put them all on the trade in list and one by one they added up. Once finished, I hit trade in, confirmed my address, and hit submit.

This was seriously just as easy as adding stuff to you cart and hitting check out.

The site took me to a screen where I could print out both the packing slip and the shipping label.

Amazon lets you choose between USPS and UPS to send (both are free shipping). All you have to do is pack in box, add the packing slip and the shipping label and take to your choice of location. Their site estimates up to 10 days max to process the claim and once completed within 2 days an electronic Amazon Gift Card is added to your Amazon account. While some other sites pay you by check or

PayPal, I use Amazon often enough that a Giftcard is perfect for me.

Lastly, while some of the books were only $4 or $5, I was able to get almost $25 for some. With only 9 books, I got over $100. Well worth it to me!

A few last quick tips:

1. While not all books will have sell back value, I still found enough that I am able a nice profit years after I got the books, and I no longer have to lug all these heavy boxes around!

2. Many of the sites have a minimum limit to send back, while Amazon does not have a minimum. I also had success with Textbooks.com who seems to offer higher value for the books they do accept even though they have a minimum. Shipping is also free there.

3.Make sure to check out donating to the books you cannot sell to your local library. 🙂

So I challenge you to scour around your house and see what you can find and see what money you too can make! Good luck!

Stockpiling…Or Borderline Hoarder?

Make Money Selling Old Books

*Disclosure: Affiliate links contained in this post. You purchase like you would normally, but we receive a small commission.

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