When to stockpile and when to wait.....Keeping track

I wrote earlier about having a good stock pile so I am being extra observant of sales and what is a good deal, do I need it or should I wait. Here are some things to keep in mind when looking at the ads in the following weeks.

Make a list of long term and short term stock piles. On my list I would put toilet paper and Kleenex on my short list. I need to restock sooner than later. I will buy a few soon but wait for a good long term (down the road) sale to get a good stock up. If you have gone through your cupboards and you are getting low but not in desperate need put it on the long term and wait the sale out.

Keep in mind that all the sale ads cycle in 12 week cycles. So if you are mostly good on an item you can wait it out. If you are kind of iffy then you may want to purchase a few on sale to make sure you don't run into the no sale, no coupon dilemma.

An example of this is Kleenex. There are plenty of ads running with Kleenex for $1.49. This isn't a really good deal but better then the $1.89 normal price and with a coupon for .25 off you can probably limp by with a few purchased boxes. You don't want to have to make a run for boxes of Kleenex with a cold, no sale, no coupon and you could care less what the cost is at that point.

So when checking out the ads look, think, decide and then take action. One thing I used to do is kind of panic that I have a coupon, but the truth is that most sale ads run along side the coupons in the cycling period so its just important to keep a close eye out for the must have household items. If you miss a makeup sale it isn't as important as a Kleenex sale in my house. I have allergies and I have Kleenex in every room, in my car, and by every seat.

Just a side note that the new year is a good time to develop a stockpile list system and also a way to keep track of your spending habits but we can talk more about that later this week.