Do You Stockpile?

[freeazabird]

I've been thinking more about the benefits of stockpiling goods that are on sale. I was wondering do you stockpile? If so, what types of items? And what rules  do you follow (i.e. how do you know when you have enough in the stockpile? what amount of discount makes it worth it?)

[Gin1984]

Yes, I do. Possible a little too much.  I stockpile anything that does not go bad.  Soda, pasta, cereal bars etc.  and I have base pick up price and a stockpile price.  Normally stores have a twelve week cycle so I base my huge stockpiles on that.

[zolotiyeruki]

Yes, we stockpile.  My wife will stock up on boxed stuffing, Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom around Thanksgiving.  We freeze and jam strawberries in June, and when a local store puts bell peppers on sale, we'll buy a few dozen pounds and freeze them.  The trick is knowing the "normal" and "screamin' deal" prices for your everyday goods, so you can recognize when it's a good time to stock up.

[Dicey]

Hell yes, I stockpile! I know my prices and I don't hesitate to buy when things are on sale at a great price. I have a fridge and a walk-in pantry. We also have a refrigerator and a separate freezer in the garage. My family teases me, but I say I have what the Mormons would call "a good start".

[Zikoris]

It's a balancing act given that we live in a 400 sqf studio suite. We buy pretty large amounts of rice, flour, kitty litter, toilet paper, tampons, and tissues. Otherwise it's normal amounts - we just have nowhere to put huge stockpiles.

[windypig]

Yes, we stockpile.  My wife will stock up on boxed stuffing, Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom around Thanksgiving.  We freeze and jam strawberries in June, and when a local store puts bell peppers on sale, we'll buy a few dozen pounds and freeze them.  The trick is knowing the "normal" and "screamin' deal" prices for your everyday goods, so you can recognize when it's a good time to stock up.

What do you consider a screamin' deal? For me if I see meat at $1/lb or under I consider it screamin

[freeazabird]

So do you basically stockpile until you have no more storage space? For instance, if you have 500 rolls of toilet paper do you buy more just because they are on sale?

[Helios]

I love this topic.  So much going on here.  How much household inventory should someone maintain above their base stock level?

I remember one MMM inventory-related post where he suggested that in a blowout sale-type situation, the appropriate amount of cheese to purchase was the number of weeks' worth of the family consumption of cheese equal to the shelf life of that cheese.  In another inventory-related post, he discussed at length the inefficiency of maintaining a too-large inventory of automobile useful life.

The key point is the opportunity cost of maintaining excess household inventory.  If you are thinking of investing $1000 of capital to "stockpile" excess inventory rather than deploying that capital to earn 8% a year, then this "stockpile" is costing you $80 per year (or about $1.54 per week) as long as you maintain it at the $1000 level.  If your wont is to stockpile $1000 of inventory, then consume it down to $0, then replenish your $1000 stockpile, then on average you have decided to invest $500 per year in excess inventory forever, so your hurdle rate for this to make sense is that you are "saving" more than $40 per year (your annual foregone earnings on your $500 average stockpile) by buying excess inventory "on sale."  This is a pretty low hurdle rate to overcome, so "stockpiling" generally makes sense, as long as you don't go overboard.

[LouisPritchard]

Yes, if it's freezable or non perishable. I buy bulk packs of meat when it goes on sale here and break it down and freeze it. I'll also buy anything like toilet paper, paper towels, infant formula etc... if I have a coupon or it's a good sale. I view it as I'm going to use it eventually. I can pay in one lump now and get it for less or pay a little every trip/week/month and actually pay more over time.

[Calvawt]

I have 10 cases of diapers and 2 cases of baby wipes in the garage right now.  Whenever Costco puts them on sale, we stock up big time as it saves us about $6 a box (they are way cheaper than anywhere else already for the kind we use).

[horsepoor]

Not in the "Extreme Couponing" sense of the word, but simply by buying stuff at CostCo, we end up with a bit of a stock pile, like 6 months worth of TP and a couple years' worth of PineSol.

The other day I happened to see premium bacon on sale for $2.29 down from $5.49, so I bought 6 packages and stashed it in the freezer.  Same thing when our favorite salsa was inexplicably 47 cents down from like $3.50.  I won't buy so much that storage is a challenge though.  I also won't buy crappy food we wouldn't otherwise eat just because it's ultra-cheap.  Half the battle is knowing you'll actually use what you buy.

Another advantage to stocking up is time saved later shopping or being on the lookout for a bargain on that product.  Take advantage of the good deal and be done with it for a while.

[Emilyngh]

Yes.   I stockpile two different types of items.

(1) One type are sale items that are well discounted, hold well, and we eat regularly.   I only stockpile enough that I'm confident that we'll eat it all before it'll go bad.   Things that this often includes: tomato sauce (when a dollar a jar), the brand of croutons we like ($1 a bag), Annie's mac n cheese ($1.25 a box), frozen fake meat products (usually around $3 a container), icecream ($2 a container for Breyers), frozen veggies and berries (grocery brand on sale, diff price depending on size bag), whole wheat pasta ($1 a box), refried beans ($1 a can), salsa ($2 a jar), salad dressing ($1.50 a bottle), cheerios ($1 for small box and equiv pricing up for larger boxes), peanut butter ($2 a jar), and coffee ($6.99 a container).

(2) I also stockpile the few bathroom/cleaning products we buy and things we use for making bath/cleaning products.   I will stockpile some of these when they go on sale (like toilet paper).   But, others, like Dr Bronner's soap, natural dish soap vinegar, baking soda, washing soda, etc, don't seem to really go on sale.   However, usually once a year (right now before back-to school), I go through and stock up on enough to make all of our cleaning/bath for the year, even if it's not on sale because (a) I like to just have it all on hand to just make what we use when we need it, and (b) I can at least usually buy things in bulk, which saves some.

There are other things we buy in bulk (eg, raw almonds), but I'm not sure if bulk buying is stockpiling or not.

However, we do have lots of cabinet space and a pretty empty basement (since we also have a barn), so storing things really is no problem.   When we downsize we might have to re-examine what we stockpile.

[MayDay]

I don't like having a huge pantry. It stresses my minimalist self out. Also, the thought of stocking up on something liketoilet paper, storing it in my basement, then losing it all to a flood or something, is a turn off.

That said, I do buy larger quantities of some things. Mostly it is for a bulk discount, not because I am chasing a coupon deal. And usually only with sometimes we eat a lot of, so we can use it up fairly fast.

When those food security articles talk about the average family only having x amount of food in the house, I feel ickedout about vthe amount the articl rd imply one should have. Yes, my family will probably die in Armageddon, since we don't have a one year supply of canned spinach in the basement.  I am ok with that.

(With the caveat that I do home can garden produce so in case of said crisis we will be able to subsist on pickles, applesauce, and salsa).

[Rezdent]

I do keep a stocked pantry both as a way to save money and as part of my "emergency fund".  If one of us gets laid off, sick or injured we will at least not have to worry about TP for a few weeks.  And we are encouraged to keep 2 week's supplies in our area anyway as part of disaster preparedness. This really helped when hurricanes Ike and Katrina pushed relatives our way.

I aim for a 6-12 month supply of toilet paper and other non perishables.
But that is what works for my household - YMMV.

I recommend the book "Independence Days" by Sharon Astyk for a really good, sensible book on the why and how to build a pantry that is tailored to your needs and household.

[MoneyCat]

Ever since I got a house, I've been stockpiling like crazy with the stuff I regularly use.  Whenever I have coupons and can take advantage of sales, I stock up.  I've saved a ton of money that way.

[The Fake Cheap]

I stalk up on certain items.  I don't try to buy every grocery/household item on sale, that would take way too much time.  I focus on items that I have found I can get good savings on, and use frequently.  Cat litter, for example, we go through about 3 boxes a month, and if you don't pay attention to the price, you could pay up to $9.89 per box, or you can stock up when it is on same for about $4.49.  That is savings of over $15/month.  To me that is quite significant.  If you can do that for 4 or 5 items, that is almost $100/month!

[happy]

Yes absolutely. I stockpile anything that I know we will reliably need, and that won't go off. I don't have access to any stores with cheap bulk buys, so stalk my supermarket for loss leaders. I check use by dates to make sure I will use it up in time.

I couple this with a "use up weird items sitting around" policy. By stockpiling I am more disciplined about not buying weird stuff we will only use once, but inevitably it happens. I am more vigilant in using up these things now, mainly because I am managing the pantry more actively.

I've been stockpiling for over 12 months now and am starting to see a big difference in the grocery bills. When I am down to 1 or 2 of an item I start looking for a heavily discounted replacement, and I buy a lot of them. Frequently now, there's just one or two items on my list to replace.

I don't have a big freezer so am limited on perishables but freeze/jam items when in  very cheap and in season.

[Thegoblinchief]

My normal grocer is cheap everyday and doesn't use sale gimmicks, so any dry goods I get from there, I don't bother. With produce, it depends, but I do preserve what I can in season. Not everything cans well, and I don't have a second freezer. Next year I will have an Excalibur dehydrator though.

FWIW, a century ago it wasn't called stockpiling, it was called keeping a pantry...

[Thegoblinchief]

I recommend the book "Independence Days" by Sharon Astyk for a really good, sensible book on the why and how to build a pantry that is tailored to your needs and household.

+1 to that book. The Resilient Gardener is also a good read along similar veins.

Erica has a really nice post about pantry keeping:

http://www.nwedible.com/2014/02/food-storage-for-people-who-dont-hate-food.html

[nordlead]

Yes, and I only stockpile what fits in my fridge, garage freezer, pantry, and one standing shelf in the basement.

My last "big" score (where I bought a 6-month supply) was my favorite hot sausage that I use for pizza at 25% off. They discontinued it shortly after the sale which was sad.

[soccerluvof4]

Yes I stockpile. I have two shelves I built over staircase in garage to basement probably about 10x5 to the point doesnt interfere with head room and probably 3 foot high each  in the that I stock Pile Items like toilet paper, paper towel, vinegar, laundry soap , dishwasher soap etc... when things are on sale.

I then stock pile meat but only when its red-tagged so minimum 25% off but usually larger than that. End of day i never run out really of anything and if I am getting low on something its on a piece of paper on fridge well before I would ever need it.   Like others too we stockpile on canned goods that we go through a lot.

[norabird]

I'm going to read those other pantry threads and book recs...thanks for starting the topic! I'm hoping to do some small stockpiling on top of my cabinets (not a big apartment), but I can't recognize real barn-buster discounts yet.

[87tweetybirds]

I do stockpile, but mostly a the staples that won't expire ie toilet paper, bar soap, shampoo & cleaning products as well as I take advantage of "case good sales" and get cream of soups and b I take advantage of the stuff I get for free or almost free. Example: my bachelor uncle's hobby is gardening, and he has a garden that takes up more space than his house, but how many green beans does a bachelor need? So in exchange for harvesting, and sharing a bit of processed produce he shares his garden bounty with family. So from him I've gotten fresh raspberries, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, zucchini, onions and carrots and when the time comes to harvest them winter squash and tomatillos. I then clean, process and cook said produce, and share some with him. He's especially appreciative of a homemade meal made with his produce. It's a good deal.

[MelodysMustache]

I have a couple of different kinds of stockpile.  First I stockpile a decent supply of everyday items both when they are on sale, and also because I got tired of running out of stuff and needing an emergency trip to the store.  This saves money and adds convenience to my life.

I also have a long term food stockpile as part of my emergency preparation.  If something truly terrible happened we could eat comfortably for about six months.  My 2014 new years resolution was to have a level of preparation so that I could handle most common emergencies.  The potential problems I am most concerned about are earthquake, snowstorm w/o power, unsafe water supply, and unemployment.  I try not to go into tin-hat land, but I do want to be reasonably prepared for whatever life throws at me.

[ariapluscat]

It's a balancing act given that we live in a 400 sqf studio suite. We buy pretty large amounts of rice, flour, kitty litter, toilet paper, tampons, and tissues. Otherwise it's normal amounts - we just have nowhere to put huge stockpiles.

Basically the same. I also stockpile shampoo, conditioner, and beauty products.
Aside from money and space, I also factor in ease of transport. When I have car access, I grab lots of cat litter and rice since it's heavy to carry on foot.

[2ndTimer]

I do stockpile to the point that when I was ill (Looooong, life changing event, not for this thread) and the Hub eventually ran out of shaving cream and deodorant he had no idea what to do since he had been taking it out my stockpile for our entire married life. 

I do most of my stockpiling at Grocery Outlet or other salvage stores and when we pass one on the way to somewhere else I usually insist we stop.  I have at least 30 lb. of cheese in the fridge right now.  We both adore cheese and it doesn't seem any different six months past the sell-by date.  How much I buy is a three-body problem involving price, kind of cheese and how much we have in the fridge at the moment I spot the sale.

Other recent buys include: 
15 lb Cracker Barrel cracked black pepper cheddar @ 99 cents/pkg=1.98/lb
8 Adams all natural peanut butter @99 cents/ 16oz jar
4 Maranatha roasted sesame tahini @99cent 16 oz jar  (it was all they had)
24 Ocean Spray cranberry sauce @6/dollar (Makes great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches)
12 Early California marinated olives @ 3/dollar.  (Have poptops which makes them good camping and lunch snacks for the Hub)

Since the Hub is often with me anything we don't know about gets the husband test which involve me finding him where he is reading at the front of the store, handing him one of the item, and telling him to buy it and taste it and tell me how much of it he can eat.  I run this info through the marital filter which converted his recent advice to buy "60 or 80" packages of 59 cent/lb fig newtons to a manageable two cases.

Overflow from the pantry lives in the "nasty room"  which is what we call the dark little room that was decked out as an office when we bought the place.

[Gone Fishing]

Some might, but I really don't call it "stockpiling" we just try to keep an extra "unit" of non-perishable items, when that unit is opened/used, it is time to put it on the list and replace the stock.  This prevents any emergency trips to the grocery store. 

We do have several freezers that we load up with homegrown produce and meat, but I try the best I can to clean those out towards the end of every winter. 

My mother is a huge stockpiler, but so much so that things get old and go bad before they are used.

[ariapluscat]

Some might, but I really don't call it "stockpiling" we just try to keep an extra "unit" of non-perishable items, when that unit is opened/used, it is time to put it on the list and replace the stock.  This prevents any emergency trips to the grocery store. 

Oh, this is also a thing I do with kitchen/food things. I didn't realize not everyone did this until dorm/room mate living put me in contact with the last minute store run for a milk carton or toilet paper.

[JetBlast]

I don't have a huge stockpile, but I'll usually buy extra non-perishable items if they're at a good price. For example, went to Target yesterday only planning to buy one stick of deodorant.  Get to the shelf and they're regular price, but offering a $5 gift card if you buy four.  That's a no brainer. If it weren't several miles away I'd go back today and get four more.  Not like they will go bad any time soon.

[MandalayVA]

My husband stockpiles TP and paper towels.  Since I'm in charge of the food supply at the Palazzo di Mandalay, I keep an eye out for deals.  Our local supermarket opens at 6 a.m., and meat just about to expire gets prices slashed.  We have a chest freezer and I've cleaned them out of ground beef at $1/pound, a pack of lamb chops for $2.50, that sort of thing.  I don't use coupons because we eat eggs, meat, dairy, vegetables and fruit.  Our only food "splurge" is a granola we get at the farmers market which Mr. Mandalay loves. 

[Eric]

I stalk up on certain items.

I also like to buy corn on sale!  :)

[OSUBearCub]

I stockpile and I coupon.  I've not purchased deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss, razors, shaving cream, and all purpose cleaner for two years now.  I've not had to buy pasta, pasta sauce, stuffing mix, toilet paper, paper towels, or canned vegetables for a year. Oh! And laundry detergent - I have 16 bottles of concentrated All under my bed. At my current rate of usage, this should last me about 3 years.  Full disclosure - I just threw out four large boxes of well-expired instant mashed-potatoes.  I don't know what I was thinking purchasing them in the first place as I'm not a mashed potato fan.

This stockpile was moved 1000 miles in my relocation and down-sized to fit into a studio apartment.  However, when you get a little creative with the under-bed storage, my deceptively large and well-organized pantry cupboard, and those really awkward shelves up at the very top of the closet (my TP stash lives there), no one would ever know that I have at *least* a year's supply of staples in my apartment.

For me the benefits are pretty specific.  First, I love gaming the system and the challenge of pouncing on an item at its rock-bottom price.  Secondly, it's an insurance policy in the event I ever get laid-off.  I know that I have the means to feed and wash myself for a year and could focus my newly-limited resources entirely on other necessities.

I built up the stockpile over the span of about 18 months with a price book to track prices at the most coupon-friendly grocery in my neighborhood.  Because I was swimming in debt, I only invested 10-15 per week on whatever was at a rock-bottom price.  I just added it to my grocery budget for the week.  Now, with a stockpile, my weekly trip to the grocery store is rarely over $25 and usually consists of fresh meat, eggs, and produce.

[4alpacas]

Nope!  We rent a one bedroom apartment without a lot of storage space.  Our grocery bills are constant month to month because we don't stockpile.  Therefore I can get our spending under control if we pop above $250. 

Even if we did have room, I don't know if I would stockpile.  Before our optimized budget/shopping, we used to waste a lot of food.  We've almost eliminated food waste.  I don't know if I would be able to keep up on all of my stockpiled food...

[Thegoblinchief]

Nope!  We rent a one bedroom apartment without a lot of storage space.  Our grocery bills are constant month to month because we don't stockpile.  Therefore I can get our spending under control if we pop above $250. 

Even if we did have room, I don't know if I would stockpile.  Before our optimized budget/shopping, we used to waste a lot of food.  We've almost eliminated food waste.  I don't know if I would be able to keep up on all of my stockpiled food...

I definitely empathize. Over the last few months I've been logging every grocery purchase by item, and we tend to cook a lot of the same things, so there are certain things (usually canned goods and dry staples) that I know roughly how much equals a 3,6,9, or 12 month supply.

We use very little in the way of mass produced household items outside of TP, and the brand we use is dirt cheap all the time, so non-food stockpiling is kind of silly.

[4alpacas]

Nope!  We rent a one bedroom apartment without a lot of storage space.  Our grocery bills are constant month to month because we don't stockpile.  Therefore I can get our spending under control if we pop above $250. 

Even if we did have room, I don't know if I would stockpile.  Before our optimized budget/shopping, we used to waste a lot of food.  We've almost eliminated food waste.  I don't know if I would be able to keep up on all of my stockpiled food...

I definitely empathize. Over the last few months I've been logging every grocery purchase by item, and we tend to cook a lot of the same things, so there are certain things (usually canned goods and dry staples) that I know roughly how much equals a 3,6,9, or 12 month supply.

I could probably handle canned stockpiling, but the meat/freezer stockpiling is my issue.  Right now, I'm struggling to use items that we purchased and forgot about in our freezer.

We once bought toilet paper in a huge size because it was "so cheap."  We ended up having toilet paper stacked from our counter to our ceiling for 6 months.  I will happily pay an extra 5-10 cents per roll, so my bathroom isn't wall papered with tp.

[Tyler]

I don't stockpile.

If something I use all the time is on a great sale, I'll buy a few more than normal.  But the idea of stockpiling months of supplies just doesn't appeal to me.  I personally value the extra space and flexibility to try new things more than the thrill of getting the absolute best deal.

[Helvegen]

I do for some HBA and for some meats for the freezer. I got a really good deal on cat food at Target recently and have about two months worth of canned food.

I don't have a whole bunker of stuff. I don't buy more than I can use in about a year of anything. 

[MustachianAccountant]

I love this topic.  So much going on here.  How much household inventory should someone maintain above their base stock level?

I remember one MMM inventory-related post where he suggested that in a blowout sale-type situation, the appropriate amount of cheese to purchase was the number of weeks' worth of the family consumption of cheese equal to the shelf life of that cheese.  In another inventory-related post, he discussed at length the inefficiency of maintaining a too-large inventory of automobile useful life.

The key point is the opportunity cost of maintaining excess household inventory.  If you are thinking of investing $1000 of capital to "stockpile" excess inventory rather than deploying that capital to earn 8% a year, then this "stockpile" is costing you $80 per year (or about $1.54 per week) as long as you maintain it at the $1000 level.  If your wont is to stockpile $1000 of inventory, then consume it down to $0, then replenish your $1000 stockpile, then on average you have decided to invest $500 per year in excess inventory forever, so your hurdle rate for this to make sense is that you are "saving" more than $40 per year (your annual foregone earnings on your $500 average stockpile) by buying excess inventory "on sale."  This is a pretty low hurdle rate to overcome, so "stockpiling" generally makes sense, as long as you don't go overboard.

Ahh, but you're not taking into account the cost of the space you need to store it. Space costs money, and if you have "extra" space to store stuff in your house, then you don't need all the space you're living in. In other words, you could live in a smaller, cheaper house if you didn't have that 10'x10' pile of toilet paper in the spare bedroom.

[Write Thyme]

We do, but we're trying to be smarter about it.

I stock up on shampoo/conditioner/etc. stuff when it's on sale and will last us a few months. Food wise we get extras of stuff on sale so we don't have to do many large shopping trips, and we also live in the middle of nowhere so if there was a power outage we would be fine for awhile. (For this reason we also have dehyrated food buckets)

[minimustache1985]

I'll pick up an item we don't need yet if it's on sale and the date is far enough out I'm sure we'll use it.  I don't do giant stockpiles on TP, but will buy 2 instead of 1 when Target is offering a $5 GC for buying 2, etc.  I'll buy a years worth of stuff at Costco when the coupons match up for it- so getting all our ziplock bags when it's in the coupon book, but that's still usually just one package since costco sizes are so huge.  Cheese and butter don't take up much space so I'll stockpile a few months worth of those, but meat I won't do more than a few weeks worth because of freezer space and freezer burn- I'm not so great at organizing my freezer to rotate effectively.

I also check the digital coupons at our Kroger-brand store and match up what I can.  This week Tresemme had a $2 digital coupon and there was conditioner clearanced to $2.20, so I only paid 20 cents for it without actually clipping a coupon.  I couponed more intensely fresh out of college but have found this to be a good balance between time and money that works for me now.

[Dicey]

Ha! I bought an almost full package of Costco TP at an estate sale recently. Now my family is having fun saying I'm making them use secondhand/reused/recycled toilet paper...

[OSUBearCub]

Ahh, but you're not taking into account the cost of the space you need to store it. Space costs money, and if you have "extra" space to store stuff in your house, then you don't need all the space you're living in. In other words, you could live in a smaller, cheaper house if you didn't have that 10'x10' pile of toilet paper in the spare bedroom.

I live in a 400(ish) square foot studio apartment (the smallest option in my neighborhood) and I presently have about 300 double rolls of TP.  Yes, I think entire spare rooms devoted to a stockpile are excessive, but creative organization can accommodate a stockpile in any sized home.  This argument comes up a LOT against couponers and it's really only about 50% valid.

[OSUBearCub]

I'd like to reframe the term "stockpile" into less sensationalized definitions (Extreme Couponing on TLC is not what it looks like in real life).  Anyone who uses the MMM once a month mega trip to Costco shopping method is, by default, stockpiling.  That 50 pound bag of flour in a bin?  Stockpile.  Those 25 pounds of rice? Stockpile. Large jar of yeast instead of little packets?  Stockpile.

The idea behind stockpiling is to make prices more "sticky" (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price_stickiness.asp). When you buy at a rock-bottom price in August of 2014 and you have enough of the product to safely last a year, the economy can do whatever it wants in the following 12 months and you've locked in the rock-bottom price for an entire year.  Some of the easy stuff - toothpaste and shampoo for example - end up costing under 25 cents a unit.  Tell me it's not worthwhile to keep a shoe box of free toothpaste in a closet.

1. You really need to track prices in a price book - just carry it with you for a few months until you get a feel for the sale cycles and lowest observed prices in your normal grocery shopping method.

2. Consider your space limitations, as has been suggested above - sacrificing well-used space is a no-no.  If you already own your home and you've got a guest room that's only used 2-3 weekends a year, that spare closet and under-bed space is prime real estate for a stockpile.

3. Start with non-perishables - health and beauty items, paper products, and canned/boxed goods - if you fall into a routine that keeps your pantry stock well-rotated and not wasted, move on to advanced methods like a chest freezer in the basement/garage

I'll post some pictures of my storage methods tomorrow.  I defend these methods because they work.

[2ndTimer]

I'd like to reframe the term "stockpile" into less sensationalized definitions (Extreme Couponing on TLC is not what it looks like in real life).  Anyone who uses the MMM once a month mega trip to Costco shopping method is, by default, stockpiling.  That 50 pound bag of flour in a bin?  Stockpile.  Those 25 pounds of rice? Stockpile. Large jar of yeast instead of little packets?  Stockpile.

Wow, I hadn't thought of it like that.  Using this definition I stockpile everything!

[Dee18]

No.  Part of my decluttering has been to have less of everything...even canned goods.   I find the prices at Aldi's just as good at Cosco, in smaller quantities so I don't have to stockpile to get bargain prices.  With less food, I find myself using up what I have, which results in savings on the budget overall.  Thanks to tips on MMM I have quit buying cleaning products since I now make my own; I am buying almost no processed foods (no commercial granola bars for example); and I simply find myself wanting less stuff around. 

[Dicey]

I'd like to reframe the term "stockpile" into less sensationalized definitions (Extreme Couponing on TLC is not what it looks like in real life).  Anyone who uses the MMM once a month mega trip to Costco shopping method is, by default, stockpiling.  That 50 pound bag of flour in a bin?  Stockpile.  Those 25 pounds of rice? Stockpile. Large jar of yeast instead of little packets?  Stockpile.

The idea behind stockpiling is to make prices more "sticky" (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price_stickiness.asp). When you buy at a rock-bottom price in August of 2014 and you have enough of the product to safely last a year, the economy can do whatever it wants in the following 12 months and you've locked in the rock-bottom price for an entire year.  Some of the easy stuff - toothpaste and shampoo for example - end up costing under 25 cents a unit.  Tell me it's not worthwhile to keep a shoe box of free toothpaste in a closet.

1. You really need to track prices in a price book - just carry it with you for a few months until you get a feel for the sale cycles and lowest observed prices in your normal grocery shopping method.

2. Consider your space limitations, as has been suggested above - sacrificing well-used space is a no-no.  If you already own your home and you've got a guest room that's only used 2-3 weekends a year, that spare closet and under-bed space is prime real estate for a stockpile.

3. Start with non-perishables - health and beauty items, paper products, and canned/boxed goods - if you fall into a routine that keeps your pantry stock well-rotated and not wasted, move on to advanced methods like a chest freezer in the basement/garage

I'll post some pictures of my storage methods tomorrow.  I defend these methods because they work.

I think we could be very good friends.

[Elderwood17]

We stockpile "seasonally".  Two weekends ago I bought a bushel of green peppers for $5 (over 100 medium sized peppers) so they have been cleaned, sliced and frozen awaiting dishes throughout the year.  Last weekend we stockpiled over fifty jars of grape jelly as the Concord grapes were ready.  We stockpile venison in the fall, fish in the summer.  Turkeys go on sale around the holidays, so we add a few to the freezer then.

We used to keep a lot more paper goods and staples stockpiled, but since we are now empty nesters who likely will be moving in the next couple of years we are not quite as diligent about it.

[OSUBearCub]

I think we could be very good friends.

Awe shucks! :-)

[Erica/NWEdible]

FWIW, a century ago it wasn't called stockpiling, it was called keeping a pantry...

This! Exactly!

[OSUBearCub]

Turkeys go on sale around the holidays, so we add a few to the freezer then.

I envy you for having freezer space.  Around here the best turkey deals at Thanksgiving are usually about 60-80 cents per pound.  I'd love to buy a couple more to throw in the freezer but I don't have room for a deep freeze.  Imagine casually whipping up a turkey off season for sandwiches, soup, pot-pies, stock - you could REALLY make that already awesome deal stretch!