The basic principle of the frugal stockpile is "Buy it when it's cheap." If you know you'll use something sooner, or later, and you see a really, really, good price, you go ahead and buy it...even if the later is more likely than the sooner.
In order to truly get the most out of a stockpile, you have to balance your space, time, and money. It can be tricky and take some time, but if you come up with a strategy that works for you, it can really open up room in your budget for other things...like canned food and bottled water so you can prepare for those pesky zombies.
Anyway, here's a few things I've stockpiled that have really made a difference in our family's monthly budget. Sometimes I spend a little more up front, but not having to buy the item for months makes up the difference. I'm also blessed to have a big basement so I have space for stashes, but I also managed some stockpiles (baby clothes was my goldmine) back when we lived in a 2 bedroom house with 3 children, so a little creativity with your space can pay off.
1. Food (duh).
I have some non-perishable food stashed, but I don't consider it my main money saver. Sure, it helps, but I only stockpile food if it's a rock-bottom price on something we use all the time. I also grab super-cheap things like paper plates, batteries, and candy I can put in gifts. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what the "rock-bottom"stock-up price will be, but that just takes practice. For example, I've figured out that my stock-up price for soda (we don't drink that much, but it's good for parties and my husband as a Pepsi addiction that comes and goes) is about $2.88 for a 12-pack. My husband is on on this with me, too. When we were on vacation he went to a small-town grocery store for a case of Pepsi (addiction was ON at the time) and came home saying, "You're rubbing off on me. I just paid almost $7 for a case. It killed me." It also killed me that he paid over double our usual price for Pepsi, but hey, we were on vacation. Gotta splurge a little, right?
2. Health & Beauty stuff.
The beautiful thing about a Health & Beauty item stash is that the shelf you see here is a 6 month to 1 year supply of most of our basic needs (think about how long a tube of toothpaste, box of band-aids, or bottle of shampoo lasts, so we really don't need more than 4 in there at a time), and saved a least a $1, and sometimes much more, each time I bought the items. I don't think I paid more than .99 cents for each bottle of shampoo or conditioner, and some of the items, such as some body wash for David, tweezers, and nail clippers, were free or pretty darn close. So you can start to see how the savings added up, because now I don't have to go out and pay whatever the store wants when we run out of something like shaving cream or toothbrushes. There's also a several bottles of medicine, such as Children's Advil and NyQuil, which is one of the best things I've stockpiled. If you wake up in the middle of the night with a nasty cold or sick kid, it's so nice just to have medicine handy, especially if you only paid a fraction of the normal price for it, instead of having to run to a drug store that happened to be open and pay 3 to 4 times as much as the sale/coupon price. And for the record, I got the boxes on an amazing sale and the post-it labels where free.
3. Kid's clothes and shoes.
This is the area where I can claim the most savings for our family. It takes up a bit of room, but even if we didn't have the basement, I'd figure out how to make the room for the clothes stash. We have three children 6 and under that grow like crazy, but I hardly ever buy them clothes. This is a simple as having a bin for each size and gender, and a box for each size of shoes. When I get some hand-me-downs, gifts that are too big, find an amazing deal on clearance or used clothes, or acquire clothes some other way, I simply throw it in the designated bin until the kid is ready to wear it. So what is the fruit of this? When Amy started school this year, I just had to buy her jeans (on sale, of course). She had EVERYTHING else she needed. But while I was it, since decent school jeans are a tough find, I went ahead and hit an Old Navy $10 jeans sale (plus I had a coupon code and cash back!) and bought her a few pairs in next size up to throw in her size 7 bin so we'd be prepared for the inevitable mid-year growth spurt.
4. Random stuff we actually use.
The contents of the "Random" bins would probably vary from family to family, but I stash kid's presents (my own kids and friends), school supplies, yarn (being a compulsive knitter, I never turn away free yarn, which translates to making people free gifts and saves me from buying yarn when I get a knitting bug, so it's definitely worth the space and NOT HOARDING, as I try to explain to my husband. ;) and I currently have a stash 2 cases of printer paper, which was an amazing deal, and allows me to be very generous with printer paper if anyone ever needs it. So these bins allow me to go "shopping" down in my basement instead of at the store, and that eventually adds up to money in the bank.
Other things I've stashed are diapers, winter clothing (especially in South Dakota where it's practically child abuse NOT to have a solid stash of snow pants and mittens), party supplies (Ben's birthday is coming up and I bought his stuff last spring on clearance), bike helmets (even if my kid already has one and I find a high quality used one at a good price, I grab it. They're just so expensive to replace new if they get lost or broken), laundry soap, stain removers, sunglasses (am I the only person who loses them like crazy?), and greeting cards. My general rule is that if I know we'll use it, and we have space for it, and there's room in the budget, and we don't already have more than enough, I get it while it's hot.
The one thing I have that probably looks a little compulsive is about 20 boxes of Magic Erasers stashed under a bathroom sink. But if you think that's getting crazy, you don't know my family. Cleaning supplies are an investment.
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