More on Stockpiling and Brand Loyalty

First, let's discuss Stockpiling. You may be asking yourself why on earth you would want to stockpile. There are several sides of the issue to consider.

Maybe you don't have too many people to buy for. Maybe you are single. Maybe you have 8 kids, a husband and 3 dogs. Maybe you are an empty-nester and it's just you and your husband. Due to the varying sizes of families, I wrote my first post about newspapers and stockpiling to get you to think about what it consumed in your home. If you are single, you do not need to stockpile 20 or more bottles of detergent. Furthermore if you have 8 kids and do 40 loads of laundry a week, you would want more than 2 bottles stockpiled. Make sense? You stockpile according to your family's needs. I've gotten a deal before where I bought thirty boxes of pasta before because I got it for about 10 cents a box. A coworker explained to me that there's no way she could stockpile like that because she and her husband could never consume that much. Well, that's fine. But why couldn't you buy 2 boxes of pasta for 10 cents a box? It's about purchasing the amount you need for your family.

Now that we've talked about HOW MUCH you should stockpile, let's talk about why. We are in a state of the economy that stinks. I keep hearing on the news that it is going to continue to stink for a while. Even if your employment isn't in trouble now, it might be later. No matter your source of income, it could be reduced for a number of reasons. If you practice stockpiling and become a well versed, seasoned couponer you will have a stockpile on hand that would allow you to cut out grocery shopping for a while. You may even be able to only buy the items you can get for free for some time until you are able to increase your income again. Another side of stockpiling involves financial crisis. Maybe your income wasn't reduced, but any of us could experience some kind of financial woe. Maybe something in your home needs a repair that can't wait and it's going to cost a great deal of money. It could be possible that a large unexpected medical expense comes into your family. Well, if you are stockpiled then you can stick to just the free items for a month or two, have the groceries on hand that you need and shop from your stockpile. Wouldn't it be helpful to have the stockpile on hand?

On a side note, you might be thinking about your storage space at this point. I am going to discuss that in another post.

Let's talk about brand loyalty. Honestly, you will maximize your savings if you are not brand loyal. Generics are not always cheaper when it comes to couponing. So you may have to reprogram your thinking when it comes to brand loyalty. Now you may think, I love Tropicana Orange Juice. I don't care if another brand is free, I am going to buy Tropicana Orange Juice. Okay, fine. But are there other things that you can let go of brand loyalty with? Does it honestly matter what brand of shaving cream, or laundry detergent, or canned vegetables you purchase? You are going to be purchasing name brand items when you coupon anyway. If you are insistent about brand loyalty (my husband wants me to buy only Heinz Ketchup), you are going to have to become even more focused and wait for your brand of item to go on sale. It will, but you may miss out on other deals in the process. So it's time to re-program your thinking a little.

You might be thinking, I hate ____. I am not buying it because it's on sale. What's the point of keeping around food my family won't eat. This is not about just buying things because they are on sale. Your family might not eat junk food. Well, you don't have to buy a box of cookies because they are on sale. You look at the sales for the week and you only buy what your family will eat. This is not some kind of method to just buy things because they are cheap. I have tried some items because they were free. Sometimes my family enjoys them and other times we don't. However, I am not going out and purchasing diet Pepsi when my husband is a diet Coke drinker. I hope that clears up some doubts you may have in your mind about this process.

I wrote this post hoping that everyone would be able to clear their minds of some doubts you may have about the couponing process. Remember, you buy what you need for the size of your household, keep your mind open about brands, and purchase items that would actually be consumed in your household. Most importantly you stockpile to help your household's financial standing.