About Me

I recently started couponing on January 1, 2011 as a New Year's Resolution. I had never really couponed before because it always seemed time consuming- "how could a 25 cent coupon REALLY save you money?" I thought. Plus, I have never really stuck to a New Year's Resolution. So this year I decided to make a change- I would stick to both! And I have. So far I have cut our weekly grocery budget 70%! We used to spend $150 a week on little things that we could not even make a meal out of AND then we would eat out on top of that! Thousands wasted over a year. Now I spend on average $58 a week on groceries and personal items (toilet paper, body wash) AND I stock up on many of these items so I won't need them again for another 6-12 months! These number keeps going down as we begin to live off our stockpile. If you follow my blog, I will teach you some of the ways this newbie couponer has saved lots of money!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Stockpilin' Security

Yesterday's post demonstrated the financial reasons to stockpile. Whether you stockpile for 2 weeks, 1 months or 1 year, you will cut your budget. But the financial side is just a part of the equation; it always is.

The other reason for stockpiling is security. A month ago, my husband and I were out celebrating my birthday. While sitting at a red light, we were hit by a drunk driver. A few days after that, I had the flu with a 103 temperature. Those 2 weeks after the accident were rough, and we ate out some, but we mainly lived off our stockpile. We had a lot of stress, but meals were not one of the stressors. All the frozen meats, frozen vegetables and canned vegetables I had stockpiled at low prices for the prior 6 weeks turned easily into meals. Knowing we had our stockpile saved us the stress of grocery shopping and the extra money that would have been spent on eating out. We also did not have to spend much money while recovering because we were not grocery shopping often and we were just eating what we had. 

Ironically, we just got our car back and it is back in the shop now- the new muffler burnt the new bumper so we are getting a 2nd brand new bumper. :) Somethings out of whack; life gets out of whack sometimes too. And today, the same day the car that was in the wreck is going back to the shop... my tire on my car blew out as I was headed to my doctor's appointments. And not just pop, hole, patch. Like completely ripped off the wheel and not a bit of rubber was left. My normal reaction would have been to scream, this time I laughed. It's quite funny when you put it all together and look back.

There are not a lot of things in life you can control. You can not control what life throws at you, but you can control how you plan for emergencies so you can respond efficiently and costly, and you can control your attitude. We have not been *lucky* lately by most people's standards lately, but we have been blessed. Blessed God has taken care of us and blessed we had our stockpile. Both God and our stockpile granted us security and peace. I knew I could provide for my husband and I, and when times became troubling and money started to pour out of our pockets left and right, I took comfort in knowing that I had saved money stockpiling and couponing....and everything would be alright.  

Happy couponing. :)

1 comment:

  1. Another reason I am stockpiling (canned foods, non perishable) is because for some reason during the summer time we lose power in our neighborhood very easily so this will help us

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