As we continue to prepare for our new arrival in the summer, our thoughts are obviously turning to how to cope on a reduced income. The obvious things, such as the nursery and everything related to the baby will be bought beforehand (hopefully!) but there are other things to take into account as well. One of these things is our food budget. Now, we’re reasonably good at keeping our food spends low, but preparing for the arrival means building up a stockpile of food.
Starting a stockpile means that we will have our everyday basics stocked up, so no late night rushes to the grocery store will be needed (again, hopefully). Also, a stockpile can be used to save money, providing you don’t get carried away.
The first thing to do when thinking about starting a stockpile is to work out what you use regularly, week in week out. You want your stockpile to be full of products that you use and find useful. There’s no point in buying lots of things on sale if you never use them in the first place. Remember, your stockpile can also include household items and toiletries, if you want it to. Things on my list include:
- tinned tomatoes
- basmati rice/risotto rice/pasta/spaghetti
- cheese
- tinned beans
- tinned soup
- tinned sweetcorn
- tinned tuna
- toilet rolls
- toothpaste
- hand wash
These (along with many others) are the products we use day in, day out. I use tinned tomatoes in many dishes, such as risotto, spag bol, chilli, stews. The pasta and spaghetti we use only costs 29p a bag, so it’s cheap and easy to stock up on. Cheese lasts for ages in the fridge, but it will need rotating. Anything tinned is useful to have in the cupboards; these last for a long time and can be used in a variety of ways. Toilet rolls, toothpaste and hand wash are all necessities, and can also be stockpiled.
The second bit of advice I can give is to not get carried away with buying things for your stockpile. You need to access how much space you’re going to dedicate to your stockpile and then keep to it. THere’s no point in buying 100 tins of tomatoes if you don’t have the space for them! Also, although the expiration date on tins is long, you still don’t want to let them get too out of date because you bought far too many of the product in the first place. That’s not moneysaving at all then.
Remember, starting a stockpile can be a slow process. The best stockpiles are built over time, so that the cost is spread out. Start small with your stockpile; add a couple of tins extra each week to your shopping trolley and build it up that way. As our space is a premium in our kitchen, I don’t think my own stockpile will be excessive – we just don’t have the room. I do intend to do some freezer meals as well, so that we’ll have our own “ready meals” to hand as well. Recently, a brand of toothpaste we use was over half price, so I bought 4 tubes of it for the bathroom cupboard. These should last us ages, but I might buy a couple more before the offer runs out.
You will need to organise your stockpile so that it is useful and practical. When you buy new stock, you need to put that at the back and have the older stock at the front, so that it get used first. Some people like to have lists of things they have in their stockpile, but that depends on how big you want your stockpile to be. Group similar items together, so they are easier to find; all tins are kept in the same cupboard in our kitchen, so I can see them all at a glance and see what we have and what we need to buy.
Related article: How To Organise Your Stockpile
Lastly, over time your stockpile should mean that your overall grocery spends are lower. Because you need to rotate and use things in your stockpile, you should end up buying less each month, once your stockpile is up and running. Another thing that you could add to your stockpile is fruit and veg that you’ve grown yourself and frozen which is something I want to do in the future!
Do you have a stockpile? Do you want to start your own stockpile? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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I have a stockpile and it works really well. I have always had some version of one but with our recent move I actually went the other way to many other people and built it up before we moved. It meant that after the expense of relocating I wouldnt have to worry about a huge grocery shop straight away!
Sounds like a great, stress free plan!
We always stock pile but don’t tend to keep the pile, erm… stocked up. So to speak!
We just buy things like you mentioned in the post in bulk when things are on offer then let it dwindle down. Our cupboard space is fairly limited but tinned beans (NOT Heinz! The good kind!) rice, and pasta tend to last a long time I find as they are quite densely packed food.
We do let ours dwindle down at times, as space is at a premium. What type of beans do you buy?
Whatever’s on offer really!
Like anything, kidney, pinto, butter, etc… It’s all good.
Haven’t tried dried beans yet… I imagine it works out cheaper but takes longer to prepare them?!
I’ll admit to not knowing how to prepare/deal with dried beans – one to look up and ponder I think 🙂
If you have a pressure cooker they take hardly any time at all 🙂
Inlitlegence and simplicity – easy to understand how you think.
I have a stockpile of things, but not as much as I used to have now we are down to the two of us. Toiletries are one thing I do keep a stock of as they never go off.
Stockpiling toiletries is such a good idea as they don’t go off 🙂
another idea is to have dried beans (if you can cope with them)
I would need to look at how to cook these to be honest, as I have no idea! Otherwise, a great stockpile item 🙂
Yes I do. I just stockpiled many kilograms of tomatoes because this is on season. It’s like every dish we have on the table has used tomatoes.
Tomatoes have so many uses though – you can never have too many of them!
Congratulations! I’m just now catching up on your posts! How exciting!
I try to stockpile the things our family goes through often (pasta, beans, etc). Toothpaste is a smart idea!
Thank you 🙂 I always try to buy toothpaste when on offer as it can be quite expensive!
We tend to stockpile certain things. There are different stores we like to go to for different things so, instead of going to every one each week, we may purchase enough to last a month or two. We also have our emergency food stash. We don’t get too crazy because our tastes and diets change.
You would laugh if you saw all the toilet paper we have in the garage;0) Our favorite brand goes on sale twice a year at Costco so we stock up. I wonder what the neighbors think. Lol!
Haha you can never have too many toilet rolls, surely? 😉
The other thing to make a stockpile of when expecting a new baby, is ready made meals. And by that I mean you make some batches of stew, chilli, etc all your favourites and then freeze them. So that when you have your precious new baby, and your sleep deprived and such of nappies, you don’t have to worry about cooking dinner.
We made roughly 2 weeks worth of dinners this way and it was a real God send
Cheers
That’s a good idea, and one that I’m hoping to do nearer the time! Homemade “ready” meals when you are functioning on no sleep sounds good to me 🙂
I’ll second the idea of stock-piliing ready made meals in preparation for baby. Not that I took my own advice 😉 But it would have ben super helpful. These days, as you make anything that would freeze and re-heat well, make a double recipe and stash away the other half. Then just plan ahead enough to put it in the oven or pot to eat later while you cuddle with baby!
Sounds like a great plan to me 🙂
I keep a stockpile of certain things that we use all the time. It mostly consists of toiletries, toilet paper, cereal and peanut butter. I have had 50 jars of peanut butter at one time, but my husband and kids took care of that. I can barely keep it in the house.
50 jars?! Wow, that would be dangerous I think. I love peanut butter!
I have a small stock pile of toiletries. I need to start one for my food.
This is a great post! I feel like stockpiling is second nature to many of us, but we don’t always do so mindfully. Often times, we buy items in bulk because we think we’re getting a good deal rather than stockpiling real staples. This post is a great reminder of how we should be mindfully shopping for the unpredictable future. I tend to do a good job with toiletries and cleaning products since I make most of them myself (e.g., a recipe calls for a cup of vinegar but you buy it by the gallon). I’m not so great with food though. Thanks for the inspiration to be more mindful! 🙂
We are in perpetual stockpile mode. 🙂 That’s just kind of our basic strategy while shopping.
If we see an incredible deal on a particular item, we’ll buy as many as we are likely to use before that item expires (years for canned or “tinned” goods, months for frozen items, and days or weeks for perishables).
We don’t follow a strict monthly grocery budget, so dropping an extra $50 or $100 to stock up on stuff we’ll actually use has been a very savvy move to keep our actual food expenditures under $100/month per person.
We tend to stockpile things that we eat regularly, when they are on sale….provided the item has a good shelf life. Lots of chili/stew ingredients fit this bill. Like canned beans and tomatoes, pasta, cereals, peanut butter. It’s a shame fresh fruits and veggies rarely go on sale, but when they do….we buy and freeze them. Usually blueberries and strawberries 🙂
-Bryan
I want to grow our own strawberries this year as we eat a lot of them, so hopefully we might have some to freeze too!
We stockpile fruit, veggies, huge cans of Hunts tomato sauce, rice and beans. Also on a smaller scale water (just in case) and other things we find on sale that will last.
Take care,
DFG
Why say “tinned” instead of “canned”? Seems odd. Anyway, it’s aluminum, not tin.
Because in the U.K. that’s what we call them! We don’t use the word “canned” 🙂