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Yesterday we covered the basic concept of buying items at their best price. If you were able to only buy an item at it’s lowest price you would save an easy 50% off your groceries with absolutely no coupon cutting. Through in the coupons and of course that only gets better.
How do you manage to only buy something on sale though? You may think you do this already, but I would say most shoppers are no where near it. How many of you go and stand in your pantry and make a list of everything you are out of that you need to get at the store? That list you just made… nothing on it will be on sale. You are need based shopping.
We have to switch from need based shopping to sale based shopping! This means completely changing the way that you shop. The only way to do that is to buy items when they are on sale and buy enough of them to last us until it goes on sale again.
First, it’s important to know that in the south grocery cycles run on a 6 week cycle. That means if peanut butter is on sale right now, it won’t be back on sale for another 6 weeks. If you pair that handy tip with the concept of stockpiling you are going to save a ton!
To explain, if pasta sauce is on sale today for $1.50 and you have a coupon for $1 off you will get it for 50¢. That’s a great price! If you only buy one jar (like most folks who shop based on need) then in a week or so when you use that jar you’ll need more and pay over $3 for the same jar. Instead of buying one, buy enough for 6 weeks when it’s on sale. You can buy 4 jars, use coupons for each, and pay $2 today or… you can buy them one at a time and pay 50¢ now and another $9 for your 3 other jars. I vote for the $2 now!
You want to do this with most of the common items that you use. Always buying enough for 6 weeks. Let me repeat that last part, enough for 6 weeks. That’s it. You don’t need 6 months or 6 years. It will come on sale again. This is where some folks think stockpiling isn’t for them. I’m not telling you to never park in the garage again. If you get to that point then honestly you’re hoarding (I know that upsets some of you, but it’s the truth). All you need to do is buy enough of the products you use regularly to get you through until they are on sale again. For most products this will be 2, maybe 3, tops.
How do you start?
Each week focus on the items on sale and buy enough for 6 weeks for anything you will use. The lists on Southern Savers only list items that are on sale (I don’t type out the entire weekly ad as many items aren’t on sale at all). So use the list, buy 6 weeks of anything you will use that is on the list. For the first few weeks you have things you need. Buy one week worth of what you have to get. Each week your “have to have” section will get smaller and smaller as you stock up on more items. After 6 weeks your pantry will be the grocery store, and you’ll be really seeing just how huge the savings are when you truly only buy what’s on sale!
If you are a visual learner, watch the video below…
