Flashbacks! Whatever happened to...

Earlier on today I unpacked the last of our moving boxes and started the painful process of rearranging my stockpile. It was interesting to see how some of my more extreme deals from previous months were still paying off and how they really have allowed us as a family to make some significant savings on our weekly budget.

Remember these?

Back in September, I grabbed around 100 boxes of Poptarts from Target. One of the posts can be found HERE . At the time we were laughing about how many items we had stashed but seven months later they have been very popular as grab and go breakfasts for the kids, part of food parcels for the homeless and we STILL have around twenty boxes left!

Also back in September, we were almost literally drowning in Vitamin Water and Powerade with hundreds of bottles in the stockpile. Well we drank a lot as they were great for packed lunches and a healthier alternative to soda but they were also a huge success at the yard sale we held just before we moved. One lady bought nearly 250 bottles but had to make two trips to collect them as her car was riding so low on the suspension!.

We probably still have maybe a hundred assorted bottles in the stockpile.

Other popular items in the 'pre move' yard sale were the Sunsilk shampoos and Lysol sprays . Selling selective items from the stockpile felt wrong but was an unfortunate necessity - they were just too heavy to move house with! On a more positive side, the yard sale raised over $500 in just several hours!

Remember the Toilet Paper mountain?

At the time this was a running joke in our family - we had hundreds of packs that we paid just a few pennies for. Seven months later we still have around two thirds of the stockpile intact and we have not had to buy a back of TP since!

Finally, a couple of deals that were done just prior to the creation of this blog - in a lot of ways, the success of these deals were actually the inspiration for recording my purchases. After taking advantage of a super Walgreens deal that paid me Register rewards to buy diapers in August last year, despite having three children in diapers, I have not had to buy a single pack since and still have around 20 packs in the stockpile.

On a final note, Jack is one year old in a couple of weeks and is now making the transition from Soy formula to 'Moo Cow milk!' In he past twelve months, I have not had to buy a single can of formula with 'real money' - all his milk has been purchased using deals or traded formula checks!

So in conclusion and in answer to all the people who look at me like I am crazy when I walk out of Target with two hundred bags of goldfish or a half ton of granola bars....stockpiling is not about greed or gluttony, it is about grabbing the deals while you can and using the money that you will save over the following months to buy the things that you wouldn't otherwise be able to afford!