Wednesday, September 3, 2008

made from the stockpile

I have a label entitled "made from the stockpile" and lately I've actually been able to use some of the things from the stockpile specifically for meals, I know in the future like birthdays and Christmas especially I will be pulling from my stockpiles around my house to make little baskets/boxes for various family members. Each time I see something on clearance/sale or some deal I can get I try to figure out whom may need this item and if I could give it them as a gift.

I started couponing/hounding on June 29th 2008 that was my first CVS receipt. Before then I had tried and miserably failed when I would come home and realize that I had totally messed up the deal by buying items I really didn't need or used a coupon that the next week would have made much better use in a deal. Those were my rookie mistakes. 2 solid months in I still make them but they are becoming less and less. Just today I made one by buying Robitussin at WAGS, the deal that was described doesn't start until next week! I never read the dates (reading is key here) but I did wind up making an okay deal out of it considering I used a $9 RR from last week.

So today I decided to take some pictures of the various places I stockpile around my house. I moved from a 3,000 square foot 4 floor home with a 4 car garage to a small 1500 no closet space townhouse a little over 5 years ago. I'm still figuring out ways to store different things and this stockpiling is only making things worse for me. this is where I started.. in my garage. My husband just got these shelves from his work last winter and they were full of other things and to this day I have no clue what.. as you can see I've taken over quite effectively. The 3rd shelf with all the car stuff on it I think I'm going to ask my husband to build an extra shelf specifically for... yeah right.. maybe I'll ask my dad.
the top shelf will be emptied and refilled within the next couple trips I'm thinking..
thank god for this little sliding door at the bottom.. this is actually the place my husband keeps our huge supply of extensions cords we need for the holidays, but I discovered my cat Sidney was begging to go in the garage because she had figured out I had food out there.. and she is a ninja at getting into any food even if it's not hers. Steaks, chicken, cat food, dog food, you name it.. if it smells like food she can get into it.. boxed, bagged, plastic, no difference to her.. she's 15 and has brains. So I threw them down there and really I should at least tape up the one bag she mangled... ughh yes I'll get to that..
and here is the bag that started my Christmas gatherings.. I had brought some gifts home when said persons were sitting in the living room playing xbox so I just shoved them on top of the cat food.. which is where everything has been going if it isn't something someone can see.. all I can say is a ton of stuff has made it's way into this bag and it's not only for persons living inside my home.. it has now grown to my nieces/nephews as well. here is the first box I started adding smaller items to. the box got grossly over filled and I bought the box below which is more for travel size small items.
most of my mail goes directly into this box now.. it's shoe box sized plastic tote..
this is my chips/bagged cereal box. I also have stuffing in there.
this is actually 3 cases of pop, you can barely see the pepsi sticking out from behind the Sierra Mist. I got this at WAGS last week and have no place to put it. I gave my son 2 cases to bring home with him.
I try my best but my cabinets always are full of pasta sauce. There is one deal to the next and each week I make pasta at least once trying to use them up but it seems that they sneak up on me too fast and again I'm out there buying another 4-5 jars.
This is actually a coat closet in a small little hallway leading to my garage. It's always been a small storage closet for us instead and now it's a stockpile closet. I have about 15 more $1 coupons for Tidy Cat but for some reason the only type I can find is that dumb red one.. we don't like the red one so I'd like to find any other type and buy them out.. unfortunately the only store I know for FACT that sells all of them sells them for $2.05 each and Target/Wal-Mart have them for $1.77 each.. that quarter is killing me! The TP I bought when I first started hounding which is actually what drove me to hound. I couldn't buy expensive TP without feeling guilty because I'm the one home all day using it up really fast. I was buying some really bad stuff from either Aldi or Wal-Mart.
Okay this is the part that gets me about hounding.. this cabinet was FULL until this weekend. My son and my husband don't look at my stockpiling as we can eat forever, they see it as "let's eat as much as we can as fast as we can" I go through milk now like you wouldn't believe... ughh.

this is in my bedroom closet on the floor. I just started this box so things I needed upstairs would be close.. however it's overflowing.
this is another box of things for Christmas gifts. I just got this box today from BzzAgent with my gaming system.

okay.. this is not a stockpile HOWEVER it shows just how sick I am. I keep buying these scrubbers because I like them and because I don't want to have to buy another "starter kit" if I ruin the handle somehow.. so instead I keep them all.. I know.. there is something wrong with me...

and so you've seen it.. I think that is all of it. where do you keep all your stuff? I need ideas! lol!

5 comments:

Tiffanie said...

i wish i had room to store more so that i could stockpile more! we live in a 740 sq ft apartment and i have no room for anything! i have a hallway closet full of bathroom type stuff and toiletries, and my kitchen has stuff on top of the china cabinet and IN the cabinet and on top of the fridge. it's so cluttered looking lol

Samantha said...

I had a contest at my blog a few months ago for this exact problem. You can check out other people's suggestions at http://savingforourfamilysdreams.blogspot.com/2008/07/help-with-my-pantry-coupon-giveaway.html

Anjie Kay said...

I think you should either
#1 have a yardsale
or
#2 donate items to shelters and the like
or
#3 START COOKING!

I have done all three! I am busy donating at the moment for yardsale to benefit wildlife, freecycling and giving to neighbors, that have shared their garden goodies with me!

I am now on the START COOKING PHASE and determined to deplete my FREEZER so that I can RESTOCK!

GOOD LUCK!

Melissa said...

ha ha I wasn't asking for ideas! lol! I bought a majority of these items to use. Other items I've been stockpiling like I mentioned are for Christmas gifts. Years ago my Christmas gifts were bought, wrapped, and numbered by Halloween. I've slacked the last 5years or so so it's nice to be ahead again and spending wayyy less.

What I could donate would be shampoo and feminine products for sure.

Little April said...

I love taking a sneak peak in other peoples stockpile, thanks for sharing.