vacuum cleaner on cheese/thrifty thursday.

"Hey guys? I am a vacuum cleaner on cheese."

Corey, January 22, 2010
eating lunch

It's true. Corey loves cheese. He does seem to inhale it sometimes. I buy a lot of cheese! But I never, ever pay full price or even the minor-sale-on-cheese price. I get it when it's a loss leader [a product sold at a low price (at cost or below cost)to stimulate other, profitable sales]. I try to get it for 50-75% off and then I stock up like there will be no more cheese available in his lifetime. What I am doing is "stockpiling" which sounds illegal or at least unethical for some reason, but I call it wise shopping. As often as I can, I buy non-perishable or long-term storable (especially in the freezer) items at these low prices so I can skip having to purchase them at the higher everyday price. These lower prices are always lower than WalMart's everyday prices.

Combining the loss leader prices with coupons give me an opportunity to stock up on free or almost-free staple items. I was so happy to make bags of hygiene necessities for a relief organization that is working in Haiti. We filled twelve 1-gallon bags with a specific list of items and the full-size tubes of Crest and Colgate toothpaste and bars of Zest and Dial soap cost me almost nothing because I had purchased them with coupons combined with big sales.

On the way home from the doctor today, Doug and I stopped at the grocery store. Kroger has their Mega Event going on. If you live near a Kroger, check to see what you can stock up on! I bought thirty cans of Ro-tel tomatoes and tomato sauce because the price is really great. The limit is 30 per transaction, but I will be back because we use a lot of Ro-tel tomatoes and I never see them go on sale. I have an out-of-the-way corner cabinet that is perfect for storing stockpiled canned goods and cereals.

Besides the obvious money-saving benefit of stocking up when prices are low, there's also the time-saving benefit of not running out of staple ingredients or even having to think about them until the inventory list shows that there are only a couple of cans left. I also tend to buy much less at the store because I have my own stores of food and dry goods at home, bought at next to nothing.

The coupons take some commitment, but I find that they are so worth it. It's like a game...how much can I save? The cashiers at the grocery store love to see how much I am going to save when I come in. They cheer me on and I love that!

There are some really great websites that deal exclusively with shopping to save money. Here are some of my favorites:
http://www.mommysavers.com/
http://shortcuts.com/
http://www.couponmom.com/
http://www.hotcouponworld.com/

If you have a favorite thrifty website or blog, I would love to know about it!

[Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. Provers 13:11]