I truly hope this is ok for me to post this here, I couldn't find anywhere else to post. I am very new to couponing, I've only been a member here for about a week or so and I've been doing lots of research and gathering tons of coupons and now I think I'm ready to start, it's actually become an obsession!! I know the obvious stuff, like I know I don't want to stock up on perishable food, at least not more than we can eat before it goes bad, I know I want to donate to families, charities, etc., What I don't know is where to start, period. Do I start with one thing at a time, or do I buy one of this and one of that at a time and keep it in stock...... AHHHHHH, this is a little overwhelming, maybe I'm just making it harder than it really is, I hope. I also don't understand you all get such great deals at CVS and Walgreens, I don't get the whole ECB, RR, all of that stuff. When you go and get an ECB, does that go on the current transaction, or does that save up for the next transaction, also, can you only use ECB's on something that has an ECB reward or can it be used on anything? Ok, sorry for rambling and I hope I don't sound too stupid and I hope I posted this in the right place. Thanks to all of you!

You use the ECB on the next transaction, and you can use it on just about anything you want.......I love stockpiling! If I can get one thing free or really cheap, I get one thing. But if I can get 5 or 10 that is even better. I have a household of 7, plus lots of family that benefit from my couponing! I even stock up on things like pancake, muffin and cornbread mixes, cake mixes, and pasta. I put them all in the freezer, they will last a very long time there! I have been couponing for years and enjoy all the stuff I have gotten, it has helped us out of some bad times. But, I just recently started shopping at CVS and I love it. This week I got free toothbrushes, free shampoo, free children's Advil, and a couple of other little things (and some energy shot things, I will let someone else have those). With 4 kids, it all helps and we tend to go through things so fast! Well, I know this didn't' help much, but I hope it helped a little!
Mandie

Sorry, we also stock pile sugar and flour, along with wheat. I save all my pop bottles and store my sugar, flour, candy (tootsie rolls, smarties) and rice in the bottles. I keep my wheat in 5 gallon buckets with lids, they are air tight. I don't go over board, but I want to make sure I have enough if something does happen.
Mandie

Thank you!! Yes it does help! I had no clue at all about the ECB's, I don't even have a extra care card, but I will be going probably tomorrow to get one. Great ideas with keeping the pancake mixes and stuff in the freezer, I guess I need to buy a chest freezer or maybe find one on freecycle, I would have never thought about that one. I'm so excited to get the rest of coupons together and get on the ball with my stockpile! My husband and I are young, 24, I am a stay at home mom and we have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and I also have a niece(6) and nephew(7) that stay with me, so funds are so tight and I try my best to help everyone I can with whatever I can, this is going to be a great help!! Do you all think I should probably try to get a good stockpile going on before I start handing out, this way I know I have enough for my family before giving it all away, or do I start giving it out as I get it? I already went the other day and used the $1/2 bic coupons and got two packs of pens and two packs of pencils for about $1, I was so excited, I got the mechanical for my niece and nephew for school, come to find out they aren't allowed to use them, but now I have extras for when ever anyone needs them. Anyway, here I go rambling again. Thank you!!

I do not have an extra freezer. I actually have 2 fridges (we rent and one came with the house and we already owned one). I would not go buy a chest freezer until you get going since your electric bill will go up also. If you cna find one free that would be great but think out that investment. Is it a necessity for you?


Depends on what you feel comfortable doing. While it is nice to help others be sure your taken care of also. If you get a deal on shampoo and have enough to last you a while then yes, I would help other people out. However, if I only had 2 shampoos and did not know of a deal coming up I might not be as willing to donate it to a shelter. I donate my stuff to friends and to the Presbyterian Urban Mission (when I went thru a tough patch before they were there for me).

I live in a house with very little storage so my diaper stockpile is under the crib, my wipes are on a shelf my hubby built for the baby and the baby wash is in a cabinet Melissa (ConsumerQueen) gave me last year for my boys clothes that has now found a new use. Extra deodarant and toothbrushes and medicines are under the bed (he built a wood frame to place our kingsize bed on). I had anough room in the bathroom to store the shampoo and hairspray. Peanuts are stacked on the table my kids eat on against the wall and kool-aid is in a Ziploc Big Bag and my hubby hung it from the wall (weird kitchen art I guess). Hot dogs are in the freezer along with free lunch meat. My point in this is work with the storage you have and limit you stockpiling to what you have space and money for. Getting cheap stuff is great if it does not take $$ from something else. Spending $1 each for some stuff is great but if you buy 20 and then have no gas that is bad. I hope i make sense.

_________________
~Karen
Moderator

Hi Stacie,
Welcome!!!! Warning....stockpiling is an addiction! LOL

First CVS - ECBs print out on your receipt and are good as cash on your next transaction (with a few exclusions of course...read the fine print). Limits of 1-5 are put on all deals and are tracked by your extra care card. You can roll your ECBs into other ECBs to actually end up getting free stuff, free stuff and more free stuff. Also, even if you use coupons to bring your out of pocket cost down, you still get the full ECB advertised. For example, the Oral B Advantage Toothbrushes on sale this week. You pay $2.49 and get $1.50 ECBs. We also have $1 manufacturer's coupons. So it looks like this: 2.49 -1.00 = 1.49 but then you get 1.50 ECBs so it ends up being free. You can do this deal up to five times. If you start looking for these types of deals (keep an eye on the CVS forum, they're usually lined out pretty well for you) and concentrate on the FREE or CHEAP ones, you'll see your stockpile start to grow. The trick is figuring your deals BEFORE you go shopping so you have your list and coupons all together and don't get overwhelmed. If they are out of stock on something, you might have to regroup so it's always good to have a back up plan or know which items you can substitute and still get a good deal.

Now Walgreens - Walgreens RRs are kinda the same thing only they do not have a membership card that regulates limits and there are "limits" of 1 on each RR deal. So you can't do multiple deals at the same time, you'll have to make multiple shopping trips. You can use coupons to bring your out of pocket cost down but you cannot use RRs on other RR deals from the same manufacturer and still get the RRs. In other words, if you do the kelloggs cereal deal this week and then go back and use your $5 RR on the kelloggs cereal or poptarts deal, your RRs will NOT print. BUT you can use the Kelloggs RR on the Colgate-Palmolive deals and still get the RRs for those. Does that make sense??

Walgreens also has the Easy Saver Book with coupons and rebates that you can often end up getting for free. Again, you can use Walgreens/manufacturer's coupons to bring your OOP down and still get the full rebate. Your rebate totals are BEFORE coupons.

I hope this helps. Just keep an eye on the Walgreens and CVS forums. Many of the ladies are really good about posting actual deals they do so that much of the "figuring " is done for you.

It might be a good idea to talk to any friends or relatives you know get the Sunday paper and stockpile as many "like" coupons as you can.

_________________
Amanda
-----------------------------------------------
Proverbs 31:27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!! I love the ideas, you all are wonderful teachers, so patient and explanitory!! I'm so happy that I found this site for support with my new couponing and stockpiling adventure and hopefully new way of life!! I appreciate all of the help from everyone!!

Really the trick to stockpiling is to take advantage of sales and/or combine them with multiple coupons. Anyone can make a stockpile by going out spending 200-300 dollars and then brag about a full pantry..i prefer to brag about my stockpile knowing i spent less than the normal shopper would in one shopping trip...keep an eye on the boards...don't buy stuff you don't need unless its free or very cheap and you are giving it to family friends , donate whatever. Trust me once you start on couponing your stockpile will be there before you know it. Don't try to do everything at once...start with one store such as cvs, walgreens whatever is best for you..learn your way around how to work the system, learn from the board, ask questions, and yes you will mess up, we all have and still do...learn from it, don't get frustrated, try to plan ahead what you want to get, it helps a lot specially when you first start out. Once you are comfortable with that one store, venture to the second one.
I started with walgreens because my daughter works there and no employees give me a hard time about the coupons i use...i learned there, then i saw all the deals people talked about from cvs, so i ventured to that store. Now i shop walgreens,cvs, homeland and walmart and williams..i pick out the best deals from each store but it took me a while to figure out each stores rules. At first you will feel like you spend a lot more..$2 here $5 there, but if you end up with 10 shampoos for 2-3 dollars...well that's about $30-$40 you won't be spending over the next few weeks. make sense? and if you have questions ask away..we are all very helpful here, some people might wonder about something and are embarassed to ask "dumb questions" , there is no such thing..every question answered helps a few people and not just one.
and welcome to the coupon crazyness...it's addictive, trust me!

_________________
Britta
German and taking over CVS and Walgreens one coupon at a time!
http://aprayerforasher.blogspot.com

Build the stockpile slowly...in other words, don't feel like you need to spend money to get it going. Once you do this for a bit, you'll start to see it grow. It's so easy to get addicted and to want every deal, but don't let it blow your budget.

I set rules out early on about my stockpiling. I get overwhelmed if I have "too much" stuff. So I will only stockpile what I have room for without buying extra storage. If it starts to overflow, I donate it. If it's free and I won't use it, I donate it. I only have my regular fridge, so I have to limit what perishables I buy. Amazingly, it's still enough to last a while. I do wish I had another freezer...and that is on my wish list. My inlaws live about 10 minutes away and let me use a shelf in their freezer.

Find what works for you. If you have space and want to store your stockpile, go for it!!! If not, you can get a LOT for free and bless others! Either way, have fun with it.

_________________
Melinda

I stockpile toiletries until we can't breathe! lol

We also give alot away like when someone does us a favor and won't take payment I make up "grab bags" for them to take home. Like baby sitters or my dad who HAS to do things around my house! lol
I always send him home with tons of men's toiletries. Since he's single he really doesn't think about going shopping. Uughhhhh! Men!

Anyways, we have 4 kids so as you can imagine, food doesn't really "stockpile" around our house! Like Karen, I also freeze our hotdogs, sausage, etc... Dairy is always gone within days. Kids love yougurt and cheese and any snacks are sent with them to school since I pack lunch for 3 kids EVERYDAY. So food doesn't really "stockpile" around our house!

_________________
I have included a link to the AVON webpage in the hopes that you will consider me the next time you need to make your next AVON purchase.

http://www.youravon.com/bgamboa

!Thanks!
Belinda Gamboa
206-3202
or email me at
BelindaGamboa_AVON@yahoo.com

lol, you can also freeze cheese and use it for cooking
mandie

The more cheese I buy the more hubby requests food with cheese....enchiladas, fajitas, tacos, homemade mac and cheese, wants cheese on his salads or baked potatoes.

_________________
~Karen
Moderator

Thank you all again!! Freezing cheese?!? Great idea, I never could have thought of that on my own! Everyone loves something cheesy around here!! We can never have enough dairy products here, but we go through 1 1/2 gallons of milk a day and then we go through I don't know how much yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. I know that I can't get too much of that stuff though, I know that as soon as I go the store and buy up a great stock of yogurt to last us a couple of weeks or three, the boys are going to decide they don't like it anymore or they are tired of it, that's just my luck!! Anyway, I've still not started my stockpile yet, I'm going to wait on the new sales papers and then I'm going to plan my trip, get a babysitter for shopping day and dive into the savings!!

lol sounds like a great plan!

_________________
I have included a link to the AVON webpage in the hopes that you will consider me the next time you need to make your next AVON purchase.

http://www.youravon.com/bgamboa

!Thanks!
Belinda Gamboa
206-3202
or email me at
BelindaGamboa_AVON@yahoo.com

I freeze butter/margarine also.

_________________
-------------------------------------
Candace