Saving Money By Using Up the Stockpile!

Using coupons with sales doesn't save you any money unless you can use up that stockpile of food you have been purchasing. We all know that foods have expiration dates, even canned items. If you have to throw away any food at all, it is a waste of money. You might as well take a $1.00 bill out of your pocket and burn it. It is the same thing, if you are throwing expired cans, bottles or jars in the trash. The wage earners in our households all worked too hard to have the money they earned just trashed. Don't throw away that produce that you let spoil. Just don't buy as much in the first place. If you have celery, onions, peppers or carrots nearing their prime, chop them up and freeze them to use in casseroles, skillet dishes, soups or stir-frys! If you have bread going stale, stash it in a bag in the freezer to make future breadcrumbs or stuffing. Take those little bits of leftovers - veggies, meats, etc. and put them in a plastic container in the freezer to make a pot of soup. Just keep adding to them until you have enough!



In my quest to always be smarter with my money, I will be using up my stockpile for the next 6 months to a year. I am sure I have at least that much food stockpiled in my freezer and pantry. Does that mean that I won't be shopping? Absolutely not! I will still be purchasing whatever I can get for Free or under $ .25! I will also be purchasing the necessities that we need - milk, juice, produce, our turkey and the trimmings for Thanksgiving, our meal for Christmas, and cat food for our large female cat. BTW, if anyone in the Phoenix area knows where I can get dry cat food cheaply right now, please leave me a comment and let me know. She is down to about 10 cups of food. I will still be posting everything we buy.



We just have so much right now that I want to make sure we use it and that it doesn't go to waste. The same goes for HBA products. I must have about 75 bottles of shampoo, 30 bottles of conditioner, enough Tylenol, Advil and Excedrin to never run out, many cosmetics to use up, etc. I have enough laundry detergent and fabric softener to last me a year. All those little samples we get so many of in the mail will get used up also. I will be refilling my liquid soap bottles with diluted shampoo for a long time. It is all soap!



I also have some giftcards that I will be trying to use when I shop. In the beginning of July, I purchased some giftcards at Fry's when I could get the extra $ 30. free when you bought $300. worth. I have about $ 487. still left on them between 2 cards. So I will try to do most of my shopping at Frys! I also have some Walmart giftcards that I got free for doing surveys and some Target giftcards left from an Ebates promotion. I like to use these cards up because it takes no money out of my pocket. I also have money on my Walgreens Rebate card. These items will get used first. With so many companies going belly up in this economy, you never know when those giftcards could become useless. Although I think I am pretty safe with these particular companies.



Breakfasts in this household consist of cereal, fruit, muffins, waffles, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, eggs and bacon. I have enough boxes of cereal to eat Monday -Friday for the next 6 months. We usually make the other items from our stockpiled ingredients on the weekends; just a force of habit carry over from our working days.



All lunches and dinners are made from stockpile items. For lunches, we like grilled cheese sandwiches, meat sandwiches, BLT's, soup, salads, or any prepared food from our stockpile. Starting today I will be posting our dinner menu for the week. So for the rest of the week we will be having:



Tuesday: Leftover Spaghetti and Meatballs, tossed salad, garlic bread.


Wednesday: Chicken Caesar Salad(made from leftover shake n bake chicken), mandarin oranges.


Thursday: Red Beans and Rice, corn.


Friday: Homemade Cheese Pizza, tossed salad.


Saturday: Tacos, Mexican Rice.


We eat leftovers a lot because I like to cook in larger quantities and it is cheaper to bake 4 chicken breasts energy wise than to do 2 each time we need them. Sometimes I will roast an entire pan of them and freeze the extras for future dishes. I am always thinking about how to cook something with less energy.


Also in my quest to NOT spend as much money as possible, I will be posting every evening what I did to save money or to not spend money that particular day. It will keep me accountable to myself and may give someone else an idea for saving money for their own family.