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.

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?