StockPiling: Tips And Tricks! (Part 2)

If you caught the first part of the article on stockpiling, here we go with part 2!

How To StockPile – Watch For the Sales!

Yesterday we talked about gathering up as many high value coupons as you could get your hands on. If you use these on a regular basis, you'll probably get pretty good deals. But here's the tricky part - you have to wait, wait and wait! If you use the free coupons when the specific product is on special offer at the store, you can get an absolutely excellent bargain!

Watch out for all the grocery store flyers. You can keep track of some of these online. For example, the London Drugs flyer or the Sobeys Flyer.

Some more examples of useful flyers:

• Atlantic Superstore flyer
• Uniprix flyer
• Extra Foods flyer
• Dominion flyer
• Shoppers Drug Mart flyer
• Giant Tiger flyer
• No Frills flyer
  

Work out which supermarkets are closest to your home, and set a bookmark on their flyer pages and check back on them from time to time. If you see a great price on an item that you use, plan a trip to that retailer. What you want to do is combine a great printable coupon or Save.ca. discount coupon with that bargain price to make a super bargain!

Many store sales come in 2 or 3 month cycles. For example, Tide detergent may go on offer at Superstore every 3 months. You can factor this into your stockpile, making sure you have enough detergent in your store to keep you going over this time period.

You can sometimes grab decent bargains from the clearance section of your local grocery store. You might be surprised as to what you can find in the marked down areas. Again, if you use coupons too, you can get a better bargain!

Tips:

At the Checkout!

Some sales assistants may be wary about redeeming your coupons for you. Always be calm and collected and never be rude, this doesn't help at all. If the issue cannot be resolved, just ask to have a word with the manager of the store, who will try and help you out. Nearly all coupons have terms and conditions printed on the front, which you should be able to refer to. There's no reason why they should refuse to let you use a coupon, as they are from proper sources.

Paying Taxes

Sometimes you will have to pay the total amount of tax on the product, sometimes you won't. It will be described in the terms and conditions on the coupon, so feel free to point this out to the cashier. If the coupon does include the tax charges, you can sometimes get excellent bargains!

For example - last year, I got 4 Gillette fusion razors for free, using free Save.ca coupons.

Rainchecks

Perhaps you have seen a cheap deal on Tropicana OJ in your Safeway flyer, but they have sold out by the time you make it to the store. You could try asking for a raincheck on the offer. Some stores do offer rainchecks, some do not. You will need to check with the individual supermarket or drug store to find out. Keep a note of which stores have the raincheck policy, so you will know for the next time!

Stacking The Coupons

If you happen to live near LondonDrugs Canada, this is an opportunity for mega-deals! London Drugs may take multiple coupons on the one item, so long as each discount coupon differs. E.g. if you've one from Save.ca and one from the brand name, you can apply them both to one product, and you could end up paying only the taxes, getting the item for free!

Price Matching

Many supermarkets and stores have pricematch policies. E.g. maybe Walmart, or London Drugs. However, not all stores have this policy, so it is worth checking out for yourself. How to make use of this policy - maybe you have seen an offer on a particular item, but the store flyer says that you can only have 2 per customer. You can take the flyer to another store who might price match, and maybe even let you purchase as much as you want. Each policy might differ by store.

Check Expiry Dates

If you are buying perishable foodstuffs, think about organizing your store. Make sure you put items with later expiry dates towards the back of your shelves, and keep items to the front which need used up first. Stock rotation is the key!

You could even write the dates on the top of the items in permanent marker, making it easy to see when you have to use them up.

Different Items

Don't store the cleaning items above the foodstuffs. You don't want to lose a lot of food due to a nasty leak. Think about what you are storing, and the best place to put it.

Time, Time, Time

It will take a lot of time to build up a stockpile. As you’ll also be using the items on a regular basis, it can take months or even years, to gather up all the items you need. Initially, the amounts you are spending when buying in bulk will be quite a lot, but you should notice your grocery expenditure dropping each week.

Thanks for the images mikeO_nj, andrea francesco, noshowerfamily and njdx.