My Kids Are Hungry Little Pigs!

Every time I walk through the kitchen I find a new wrapper. Fruit stickers, cellophane and cans are the decor found on my counters. Feeding three growing kids has me shopping all the time. They eat three full meals per day, and snack the entire time in between meals. My well nourished children are physically fit, eating healthy and rarely get ill. So I should be the happiest mother on earth. Wrong! My grocery bills have been creeping up since the third piggy was born in 2005. Plus, the time I spent wandering through the grocery store made me resent having to shop.

It was eighteen months ago when I first noticed that I was shopping every week instead of my usual every two week rotation. Milk only lasted a week, and I started adding one more gallon each week. Something had to change. I was constantly driving 12 miles to my grocery store, then thirty minutes to shop, unload and sort. Too much time was spent on feeding my little piggies. I was starting to really dislike the grocery store.

There had to be a better way. That's when I started reading about stockpiling and saving. Stockpiling is a term used by active coupon shoppers for the style they use when buying. These moms don't buy items by ones or twos like most shoppers. Instead, they think differently. They buy the amount their family will consume in a six month interval.

Figuring out what my family consumed each month in milk was easy. But Milk, isn't an item that will stockpile. I had to rethink how many of each thing I was buying per week. Then multiply that amount by 26 weeks. I hadn't realized just how much we were consuming when I was buying one unit at a time. When I pulled my receipts from a three week period I was shocked. We were indeed buying the same favorites over and over.

In order to save time shopping, my plan was to make a list of all the items that we wanted in the next six months. Buying 14 boxes of cereal caught the eye of several other shoppers. But I had a plan, and wanted to end the empty shelf dilemma. Then I started gathering coupons for as many of those items as I could. I took the advice of a coupon expert to match my want list, and purchase only when the store had a sale list that matched. Milk, aside of course since I have to pick that up weekly. By having 14 coupons, I saved over 50% on my cereal for a 3 week time period.

In less than a month, I had plenty of foods in my home. My little pigs did not seem to be constantly asking when I was headed to the store again. It took a full 3 months to get to a point where I felt completely ahead of the food curve. By purchasing a few more items each week when they were on sale, I was able to see my stockpile grow without running out of the regular use items. Now I have a full six month supply of stockpiled foods both frozen and dry goods.

The Best part of this experience was that at the end of each month I noticed that I was actually spending less money per week. Each week I saw small decreases in out of pocket spending due to the use of coupons. Now I use coupons for everything including tooth paste, cereal, even the milk. It took a bit of determination, but now I shop in only 15 minutes per week, and since I buy mostly all the same items each time I shop, organizing is a snap.

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