How to Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half in Hawai’i (Step Three)

Finally, I’m rolling out step three.  Its fairly simple.  Once you buy products only on sale and combine the sale price with a coupon, make sure you buy as many as possible so that you never pay full price for the item again.  For instance, this week Kraft Bagelfuls are on sale at Foodland 2/$4.00.  I had 10 coupons for $1/1 box.  So my rock bottom price for a box of four Bagelfuls is $1.00 plus tax.  Approx. .25 per serving.  My kids love these things for a quick breakfast on school mornings so its worth it for me to stock up.

Step 3:

BUY ENOUGH PRODUCT TO LAST YOU UNTIL THE NEXT SALE.

Steps #1 & 2 can only offer occasional success at lowering your grocery bill. Step #3 (commonly known as stockpiling) is powerful. Following step #3 means you never have to pay full price for an item again.

One coupon expert estimates that sales cycles are 12 weeks long—sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. What this means is that it is likely that a product will go on sale once every 12 weeks. It makes sense to buy enough of the product while it’s on sale to last you until the next sale so that you are always paying the lowest price (hopefully combined with a coupon) for it.

Your stockpiling is only limited by the space you have. It would make sense that you only buy two roasts at the sale price when you only have room for two in your freezer. (You may want to think about buying an extra freezer to stockpile meat and frozen veggies in.) Non-perishable items should be easier to store—you can do that on the tops of shelves and cabinets, under beds, in your storage shed, etc.

You can keep your pantry and freezer stockpiles organized by posting the items purchased with the dates listed so that you can keep track of purchases and everything can be used up in a timely manner.  As you build your stockpile, you can plan meal menus around the items you have on hand.  This saves us a lot of $$.

Just a Hawai’i note about stockpiling: bugs often make their way into packaged products here.  While I’ve never seen bugs in stockpiled cake mixes, I have seen them in packaged prepared foods such as Rice-a-roni and pasta mixes.  As a result, I no longer buy these items although if I did I would only stockpile a few at a time to prevent waste.

In my last post about how to cut your grocery bill in half, I’ll discuss following the steps on a tight (recessionista) budget as well as offer some tips on judicious use of coupons.