My next obstacle to saving money is to begin stock piling. I finally have a big enough house (we just moved) that will allow me to stock pile. Right now I am searching to find the best shelving units to use - if you have any favorites please let me know, I am worried to buy flimsy ones that will just break with the weight of cans, rice etc. In the mean time I am beginning to compile all the information that I need to create an efficient, and cost effective stock pile. I rounded up a few of my recent receipts from grocery shopping trips and made a spreadsheet to document the prices that I have paid for various goods.
Here is my spread sheet (when I print this, I will only print columns A-C)
This is what I did:
1) Gathered a few of my recent receipts
2) 3 headers - Item, Shelf Life, and Average Price
2) Listed all the items, alphabetically
3) Under column C (average price) I used a formula: =+AVERAGE(D3: however many cells you need to include)
4) Add in shelf life of dry goods
Pretty simple. This way I can print my list out and bring it with me on my grocery shopping trips, so that I can see what I usually pay. By doing this I can find the best items to stock pile based on price. I do not want to be stock piling items if they are more expensive than I usually pay, where is the money savings in that?
A few more notes - some items I don't care what type they are, for example, apples. I buy whatever kind is cheaper, so I grouped them all together. Other items, like bell peppers, I try to buy different colored peppers, so I separated them out by color. Another thing to remember, is that the prices in the product aisles are priced out per weight. They use the same measurement, so there is no need to write the measurement next to the item, this would be redundant and crowd the spreadsheet. I did not pay $29.90 for chia seeds, I paid around $4 for the amount I took home, however they are priced $29.90 per kg.
Hope this helps! What are your tips for starting a stock pile? Please share.
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