My Grocery Stockpile

I was interviewed by a reporter recently who asked a very common question: Doesn't it take an awful lot of time to live frugally? I told her that it certainly can take a lot of time, but that there are also ways that you can spend less and ALSO save time.

My grocery stockpile is one of those techniques. See all that cereal, those canned goods? Because I buy a LOT of an item when I find it at or below my preferred price, there are many things I am never out of. This means very few emergency, last-minute trips to the store -- trips that seem to always take place during the after-work rush when lines are long.

It's true that some of these items were bought during extra trips I made ot the store just to take advantage of a great deal. But it is certainly possible to build a good stockpile without extra trips. If you just take a few minutes to browse the sale flyers before visiting the store -- or check in here when I post the best weekly deals -- you'll know what to stock up on during your regular shopping

Another key to stockpiling is keeping track -- in your head, in a notepad, on your iPhone, wherever -- of the cheapest prices ever available for things you use regularly. That's how you know WHEN to stock up.

Keeping a price book, either physical or mental, also saves you time at the store. How? Before I started tracking prices, I had to compare every single product in a category to figure out which was the best deal. I'd be squatting down and stretching high, calculating the cost per ounce of every brand of cereal to figure out which one was the best price. Nowadays, I know that anytime I can get cereal for under $1 a box, if it's a cereal we like and don't have too much of already, I just buy, buy, buy. Easy.