Stockpiling - Where do I Begin?
In a few weeks, I should finally have room for a tiny stockpile, but where do I begin and what should my goals be? I'm hashing out some thoughts in this post but would love your help as well in the comments.
Beginning with what will have the biggest impact
I know most people would probably begin with buying extra food and for good reasons. I, however, am tempted to start with some non-food items, like toothpaste, toilet paper and shampoo. Why? Because if something, God forbid, was to happen to me, my husband has a tendency not to notice when we need to buy new supplies, and if, God forbid, something was to happen to him, I would hate spending our money on those items. I know it doesn't make sense, but I'm not preparing for a natural disaster or political unrest, both of those things are very unlikely to happen here at the moment. The purpose of our stockpile will be to make our lives easier every day and to have a good supply of things if my husband lost his job or I became ill. So I want to begin with the items that would have the biggest impact on our lives then.
How much money do we have for this?
We spend an average of 60,000 DKK on food, toiletries and cleaning supplies every year since having our son, who is in diapers and eats a lot for his age (It terrifies me to think about how much he'll consume as a teenager). I'm not sure I'll be able to begin our stockpile this year, but I should be able to work on it steadily next year. We've been focussing on lowering our electricity bill this fall, and that project is now at a point where it can go into maintenance mode and doesn't require as much energy on my behalf anymore. Our groceries, meal planning and stockpiling is next in line.
I'm hoping to overall lower our expenses on food, toiletries and cleaning supplies. At 60k they are already low for a family our size, but I believe we can do even better.
Creating a gameplan
I've always thought of our grocery budget (and when I say grocery budget that always includes toiletries and cleaning supplies) in terms of a monthly amount. Next year, I want to do an experiment where I think of it in terms of a yearly amount. That should make it easier for me to pay money up front to stockpile some items because it wouldn't mean I would be over budget that month. There's a surprising amount of psychology involved in diving into the area of stockpiling.
I'll attempt to keep track all year long of our expenses in a spreadsheet and every month, I'll do an update on how much of our yearly budget we've spent and where we are in regards to supplies.
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How much should we stockpile?
I would love a six months stockpile of all the non-perishable things we eat and use, but I wouldn't be able to fit it in our home comfortably. I want my home to be a place I enjoy, after all, I spend the majority of my time here every day. So visible stockpiles are out of the question and I only have so many places I can put things. With that in mind, we've decided to aim for three months as our first goal.
Even with the above-mentioned plan of viewing our grocery budget as a yearly amount, we won't be able to just go out and buy all the things for a 3-month stockpile, we may not even be able to buy 3 months worth of one thing in a month. My husband gets paid once a month and we're not willing to dip into our saving for this project, we want to cash-flow it.
Looking for sales
We don't get any adds in the mail from grocery chains. You get so many here and we found we were tempted to buy things we wouldn't otherwise, so we didn't actually save any money that way. There is, however, a way to search the adds online and I plan to search for the items we want to stockpile and try to purchase them when they are on sale. Some things never go on sale, but a lot of things do and if I can get them for a lower price and get a couple of months worth then the stockpile begins to make financial sense.
What's the next step?
My concrete next step is to make a list of things we want to stockpile. I've already begun and have about 20 items on that list already and it's far from complete. The logistics are freaking me out a bit, but hopefully, it'll be resolved as I get my kitchen reorganised on December 9th, Lord willing.
I'll also begin to search the adds to get an idea of when things are at a great price. I've tried doing a price book in the past, but I could never get it to work. I might give it a try again in the new year.
Oh where to begin with ths topic!
I have been a stockpiler (NOT a hoarder) for as long as I can remember. My husband is amazed that I always have certain foods on hand in the pantry.
I have never specifically given myself an "allowance" when stocking up; with the exception of meat for the freezer. But I like to rely on my husband getting a deer, or two, every season. Last year no luck, so I had to resort to buying meat bundles from a local butcher and meat market.
Now your post reminds me I have to organize my pantry too... sigh
Hahaha great that I can put things on your to-do list ;)
We buy all our meat on clearance. I miss having a hunter around. I've threatened to become one myself, but that's for a less busy time.
I'll have to look into meat bundles, I know you can get half a lamb at the halal places, so maybe a quarter cow too? Although I don't know how much freezer space that would require.
I think it is definitely about shopping 'smart'. Buying up when certain items are on special (and sometimes that is only seasonally); and taking a really hard look at what you'd actually use during the year (based off previous years this should be easy to figure), and then looking at what are the more expensive items, and then factoring in shelf-life, etc may just hone your list.
Also take into account any other projects that might affect your food supply - e.g are you growing berries? Will you be making jam? (aka will you need bulk supplies of sugar, jars etc).
All food for thought - lol, see what I did there? ;)
I'm trying to build a large pantry where I can store more bulk foods and preserves. One day it might even be completed, lol.
I see what you did there ;)
It's really great advice. We always forage for blackberries and make jam from them. I have some money set aside for jars, but haven't been able to get to the store where they are the cheapest yet. But I had completely forgotten about sugar. It goes on special every now and then and stores forever...
I hope you finish it. I dream of a pantry too one day. For now a small cabinet or two in the kitchen will have to do.
I know sugar (especially preserving sugar) comes on special around preserving time, as perhaps jars & kits may do too - at least in this country - so you might be able to plan around that (which is what I meant by seasonal specials). You may also be able to scour the net for wholesalers selling glassware to the public, if you're buying bulk it may be worth their while.
These wholesales may also sell large food storage buckets, so you can store foodstuffs such as flour & rice in them (and your beloved porridge!); I tend to pop a measuring cup into each container with the stuff, and you can pick those up cheap enough.
mmmmmm foraging for blackberries used to be quite a tradition here back in the day, but most roadsides have been cleaned up to the point you just don't see any wild bushes any more (let along the toxicity factors of sprays & car fumes).
We preserve with regular sugar. I don't want anyone tinkering with my sugar and the berries have plenty of pectin in them. We get ours from the common, so no cars have been close to them, thankfully.
I literally have nowhere to put such a bucket. One bucket = one cabinet roughly, I looked into it.
Wholesale requires too many units, I've looked into that too. But I've found a store that caters to wholesale but accepts individuals as well. They offer single units at the best price I've found. I wish I could get 100 jars, but again, where on earth would I put them in our tiny home? :)
I think the porridge rice is an example of a seasonal offering. I hope there are more during December.
Ooooh, my heart cries for your lack of storage!
My house is small, and badly designed, so I can understand your problem.
Could you put a storage shed outside and use that?
It sucks, right?!
We are in a 100 unit apartment complex, that wouldn't go over well. I can hardly park the pram outside while running up with groceries...
Ah, yes I see your problem now. lol
Create a space under baby's cot! Food storage problem solved.
/jk o'course :D
No kidding! That's actually where my husband stores our beer :D He has his priorities in order ;)
Stockpiling toiletries is a good idea. Most people do not think about do that. There are some items in this category that you can make yourself in an emergency. There are plants the might grow in your area that can be used to make soap or shampoo. Having a large supply of baking soda can allow you to use it for toothpaste and many other things around the house. You can use it to wash clothes, treat heartburn and much more. Think about investing in a good book to learn how to make many of these items yourself. It could save you a ton of money. I make my own laundry detergent. For about the cost a one large bottle of detergent, I can make an amount that requires a 5 gallon bucket to store it and lasts about a year.
Can you recommend a book?
Do you use borax in your detergent? I find it difficult to find a recipe without and borax is banned here.
I have not tried this recipe, but I will next time I need to make some. It uses just 2 ingredients. Washing Soda (no borax) and Castile Soap. You want about 6 cups of washing soda and about 13 to 15 oz of castile soap bars. You want to run the soap through a food processor or blender to make a powder (as close as possible, but don't process too much or the friction of the blades will cause it to melt into a solid chunk) Mix them together and there you have it. You only need about 1 tablespoon of the powder to wash a load of clothes. Prices around here run about $7 to make a batch and it should last about 1/2 a year.
These happen to be two of the three ingredients I use in my detergent. I buy my supplies at walmart. Arm & Hammer is the only brand of washing soda I have ever seen. I use Kirks Coco Castile soap, 3 bars is about 3 dollars and should be enough to make a batch of this.
Both these products have an extremely long shelf life. I tend to always buy in bulk and have had my stock over 5 years. It is still perfectly fine.
Oh, that sounds promising. I'm not sure exactly what washing soda is called here. It's sodium carbonate, right?!
A quick google search makes castile soap look expensive, but I'll look for it in my regular grocery shop.
yes, sodium carbonate
I do use borax, but not as strongly as the recipe calls for. Let me do some searching through notes and see if I can find one without borax.
If you are stockpiling for finacial disaster as opposed to zombie wars I would suggest you start with stockpiling a 6 month salary (the experts advise this amount) savings account. With a slush-fund you can be flexible against unexpected things that will pop up that no amount of cheerios will help solve. 😉 If you aren't satisfied with just doing that then try splitting the difference and put 1/2 your stock pile allowance in savings and 1/2 in buying a physical stash.
When we prepare for winter one of the big things we keep handy is pet food. You have to rotate it (take one bag out and put a new one in) to keep it fresh. You won't want to feed your pets food that you can eat but you will feel resentful of having to buy them their own.
You might also consider the rotation for the foods and products you stock for yourself. If you don't want to eat it or use it now you won't want to use it then and you will have a difficult time resisting spending limited cash on food that you will eat.
Prepare to be able to continue to do the things you like to do. You will resent not being able to do them if you can't afford to anymore. Buy supplies for the hobbies you have.
That's all I've got.
We have a big emergency fund in place already (6,25 months of expenses actually, as that was a nice round number) and an even bigger savings fund for a house downpayment, which is in the same account so just earmarked in our minds. I completely agree that it is the number one priority when preparing for a financial disaster.
The pet food tip is great. We don't have pets, but I'm sure other people who read this do.
We plan to make the stockpile a working one and only buy items we use already. You're absolutely right about that.
I would be afraid to show you my unread books and yarn collection, but hey, now I can call them a stockpile for the future!
You've added such great advice, thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me and anyone else reading.
I always used just to concentrate on stockpiling food.
But more recently I realised items like toothpaste, soap, toilet rolls etc are just as important to maintain a decent quality of life if any bad times come.
I keep an eye out for Two for One offers in the supermarket. I also bulk buy, for example toothbrushes, on eBay which saves a lot.
I have also managed to get a trade discount card to use at a wholesaler where can I buy for example boxes of 12 tubes of toothpaste. These are usually about 50% off the shop price - sometimes even more.
Oh, that's a deal!
I really dislike spending money on them, but don't mind spending on food nearly as much. That's why we want to focus our efforts there. I'll be looking at sales for toothpaste as well. Sometimes you can get it for 10DKK a tube, which is really cheap.
This is an area that I tend to get a bit lost on. Hubby will see offers or good deals on timed foods and get me to buy a load for stockpiling, but it's stuff we don't usually eat. So then they go out of date and need using, we end up with a gap on the shelf, but I don't want to refill with what we don't use again, so do we just stock extra on the things we do use? Then we will at least rotate the stock while it's still good. I should probably start canning more of our own produce too.
We will stock exclusively what we already use. I see so many people talking about having canned meat and canned fruits or veggies on hand and while that may be appropriate for the situations they are stocking up for, it won't be for us, so we'll stick to the canned tomatoes and a few cans of tuna and mackerel for now.
No point in buying things that you don't enjoy eating and that go bad.
Lets hope you acomplish your goals!
Thank you.