Answer to a REALLY GOOD Question

I recently had the following question posted on the blog:

"So, I am curious...Even with the stocking up and deals that you find, don't you have your weekly/biweekly shopping trips to get just the regular stuff you need? So all in all, with the deals you find and regular shopping, how much $ do you end up spending (on average) in a two week period or so? Do you have a set budget you stay in including everything, or do you have a "stocking up" budget and then a regular shopping budget?"

That's an excellent question and probably one that more than one person has wondered about. So I thought I'd dedicate a post to the answer. So here we go.

At the beginning for me, my grocery shopping consisted of a trip to Walmart twice a month to purchase my groceries. I spent, on average, about $350 a month for my family of 4. I was shopping a few of the sales at Albertson's or Smith's or another store here and there to pick up a thing or two for a good deal, but it was really hit and miss and really didn't lower my budget. Although, I was getting a few items here and there - I wouldn't really call this getting "stocked up." I usually only bought 1 or 2 of something and would use it very quickly.

Once I found this method, I started using the sales and the internet coupons (because at that point I wasn't getting any papers) and picking up more and more at stores other than Walmart. I was still shopping twice a month at Walmart, however, and was still picking up a majority of my items there. At this point I wasn't really seeing a drop in my budget, but I was seeing a lot more food on my shelves. To me, it was worth keeping the same budget and using it to stock up on as much as I could.

Eventually I realized that to really stock up on everything I needed, it was necessary to pick up a newspaper (and I jumped right to getting 5) to get the coupons from there. As I kept shopping, I found that I was picking up more and more at stores other than Walmart and less and less at Walmart each time I went. My pantry was really growing and I could see the benefit, even if my budget was still the same amount.

Within the last few months, I have actually stopped the regular trips to Walmart and have been picking up everything I need at other stores. There are still a few things that I buy at Walmart - our family likes their syrup and freezer fries, so I do still make trips to Walmart to stock up on those. But I find that now I only have to go every other month or so and just stock up on those few items for a good two months so that I didn't have to go back until then.

I'm now to the point where I go to other stores, pick up the sales (whatever I need to restock my pantry) and then just a few other things that I need for the week - like my perishables. I'm still just getting a hold of this, but it seems that my monthly grocery spending is now somewhere between $125-$150. So a good $200 less than I was originally spending. Now keep in mind that this will go up during caselot season as I'm stocking up on cased goods, but for the most part my grocery spending is significantly lower. What I've done is save all of that extra money (the difference between the $350 and the $150) and put it aside so that when the caselot sales come around, I've already got money saved. Or when I make a trip to the LDS cannery and want to purchase more long term supply items or when I want to update my 72 hr kits or anything else like that, I've already got the money to do so. You can obviously choose to do what you want with your excess, but that's what we've decided to do with ours.

The good thing about this process is that it should pretty much allow you to stock up on almost everything you use except for perishables like milk, eggs, produce, bread, etc. And most of the other stores do run sales on those perishables. For example, there is usually a sale on milk at one of the stores every week. It's the same with eggs and bread. So if you're watching, you can pick up those other items you need while you're at other stores.

So I have gone from all of my shopping at Walmart, to now only going to Walmart every other month or so - and my list of stuff I pick up there has been going down too as I've been realizing that some of the items I think are cheaper there are really cheaper or the same price at some of the other stores.

So I do pick up my other items as I'm shopping at these other stores. The good thing for me is that because I'm saving so much with sales and coupons, I feel ok grabbing an item or two that may not be on sale, even though it may be slightly cheaper at Walmart, because I've saved so much money that I'm still way ahead and it keeps me from making that extra trip.

Now, please don't feel that I'm against Walmart or Costco or Sam's or anything like that. I really do love those stores, but I've found that for what I buy, I can get things cheaper if I wait for sales and use coupons at some of the other stores. Of course, like I said before, it's taken me a good 6 months to get stocked enough so that I have enough on hand to wait for those sales to roll around. So please don't feel it's an overnight thing - it takes some time to get built up.

You can drop your monthly budget at the beginning and just stock up slowly, but that will take more time to get fully stocked. I chose to keep my budget the same and stock up as quickly as possible, so I'm now starting to see the savings in my monthly grocery spending. If you're looking to stock up even quicker, you can take some money from savings or your tax return and use that as a quick stock up budget for the first few months, that should get you to the "fully stocked" stage a whole lot faster.

In the past, our family has traditionally set aside some of our tax return to build up our long term supply, update our emergency preparedness items (like 72 hr kits), and try to get stocked up on our short term supply. But this is the first year that I have not had to do that. Not only am I stocked for both my short and long term supplies, but I have spare money in savings dedicated just to these things and other emergency preparedness items. I'm guessing that at some point in the future I'll be able to actually drop my grocery budget, but for now, I'd like to keep it the same so that I have plenty for what our family needs. I only really spend less than half, but I keep ahold of the rest in my savings for anything that I may need.

Hope this helps you understand how I've done things. Obviously we're all different and have different amounts of time, energy, resources, etc. So it may take you more or less time to get to the same point.

The whole point of this process is to stock up on your short term supply and save money while doing it. How fast and how much is definitely dependent on your situation.

Thanks for the great question! If anyone else is wondering about something, has a question, or if someone wants to share how they've done it, please let me know with a comment or an email to jjzhawks@hotmail.com. I don't want this to be a blog all about how I do things. The more we share, the more different experiences and methods we have to draw from, and the more we can all improve!