Zero to Stockpile Challenge – Week In Review, My Plans for Next Week & My Challenges

February 3, 2018 at 10:10 am by | Printable Coupon Round Up, Zero to Stockpile

3 Comments

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosure.

Even More Ways to Save

Grocery Price Comparison
Beginners Guide
Printable Coupons

Zero to Stockpile

At the beginning of this Zero to Stockpile Challenge, I predicted that by, about week number four, I would start to see some savings. Well, here we are, at week four, and the savings have truly started.

This week I have only spent $135 out of my $200 budget.  But why and how is this happening you might be asking yourself. Well, it’s pretty easy to break down so let me show you.

As I started this challenge with zero stockpile, zero items in my freezer, zero coupons and zero store promotions, I was at a very vunerable state. I had no protection from the store prices. Meaning, I had no control over what I had to pay for the items I truly need to buy for my family to eat and survive.

Carrying a budget of $200, which is an average amount that families of four spend on the weekly groceries, I strategically bought items by finding as many sales and coupons (not necessarily combined on the same items) and started the process of building back my stockpile.

It wasn’t an easy process the first couple of weeks. I hustled….A LOT! As a matter of fact, I had some people complaining that they couldn’t shop like that every week, they just didn’t have the time.

I get how it looked that first week, it was a lot, but I tried to reassure them that it’s just temporary and needed to get that stockpile built so you can see your savings.

And here we are, at week number four, my grocery spending is down, my shopping time is cut way in half and my stockpile is big enough to do it’s job, saving me money.

Let’s take this new job analogy I love to use…if you started a new job today, would you feel a little overwhelmed that first week? I’m betting the answer would be yes. Would you quit after a week? I’m betting the answer would be no. You see you need to give it time. Time to learn the ropes, time to feel more comfortable at your new job. After a couple of weeks, your job becomes easier and more manageable. That is the exact same thing that happens while building your stockpile.

So, if you started this challenge and stopped, because it seemed like too much work, look at where I am now, just four short weeks in.  It won’t happen in a day but, it can happen in a few of weeks.  If you give it some time, I promise, it will work for you too.

And, don’t even get me started with next week. It’s going to be a breeze. I am already starting to plan the items I need to buy and, I think, the way it’s looking, that I’ll be hard pressed to get over $100. My plans include stocking up on more meat and paper products. Two things that you usually can’t get for free.

Added Small Trip

After my last shopping trip, I did do a very small trip(s) where I paid $7.16 out of pocket. One of trips was to Rite Aid where I did the following deal:

This List Has Expired
Select All / Clear Selection

Rite Aid

Homegoods

Final Results

Show More

The other was while I was at Homegoods shopping for a sign. You can see the one I bought (which I actually found at Hobby Lobby on my Instagram post (that purchase actually saved me a lot of money). Any who, while I was at Homegoods, I found Mananathra Almond Butter for just $4.99 for a 16 oz. That is the same price per lb I can get the Kirkland brand (Costco) for. But, I’m trying to stay out of Costco until the next coupon book comes out which is suppose to be in about a week. So, for that price, I scooped up a jar of the almond butter.

Between the Rite Aid deal and the almond butter, my total out of pocket was $7.16.

What I Gave Up

Well, us humans, in this house, didn’t really give up anything. We have everything we need right now due to our growing stockpile. However, some non-humans in our family, namely Cooper, has given up tuna in his food. I know he’s spoiled, but I like to put a little canned tuna or canned salmon mixed into his dry food. And, since I couldn’t find a deal on it, at least not one I liked enough to stock up on, he hasn’t had any.

I have to admit though, he doesn’t seem to mind not having the tuna. So, maybe I’ll just omit it going forward. However, I will still look or tuna deals as my husband does like to make himself tuna sandwiches on the weekends.

How I Shopped

This was a super easy week to shop. Sunday’s I consider to be my bigger shopping day, however this week, due to family obligations, I didn’t have much time to shop on Sunday. So, I did a very light, quick shopping on Sunday morning. Seriously, it took about thirty minutes from my door, to the stores and back home.

On Monday, I did the bulk of my shopping hitting up ShopRite, Aldi, CVS, Walmart and my local store, Best Market.

Thursday was just a quick run into Rite Aid which, by the way,  I didn’t really need get those items, I just wanted them. Plus I was really very interested to see how my Wellness+BonusCash Rewards would come off since this was the first time I had different value of rewards in my account as opposed to one large reward that I had earlier in the week. As you can see from my shopping transaction above, they come off in increments as I was left with one of the $2 rewards still sitting in my account.

Just a side note on that, if you get the same value rewards (i.e (2)$2 rewards from the same deal), you only see the one $2 reward in your Load2Card coupons, the other reward is there but it’s sort of hidden behind the first one. However, interestingly enough, if you use one of the $2 rewards, the other one doesn’t show up in your account. I called Rite Aid to talk to them about it and, it’s there, it just doesn’t show in your account. So, as I mentioned last week, they have some kinks to work out still with this new rewards system. The good thing, for me, is, after my second call this week, they sent me a 30% off coupon. Yay! Now to figure out how to use it this coming week 😉

My Plan for Next Week

My plan for next week is quite simple so far. Foodtown has a great deal on Italian sausage and london broil which are two items I’m missing in my stockpile. They also have coffee for $1.99 (fyi, better price than shoprite’s sale next week). So, I’ll be getting that there.

I have a $15 credit from ShopRite for the gift card deal. I plan on using that on the Marcal paper products. I also will be doing another gift card deal this week but I’m still discussing with my husband which card we should buy. I’m thinking it will be another Home Depot card as we have have household money saved for some projects we are doing in the very near future.

After those 2 stores, it will probably be Aldi and/or Best Market for my produce and hitting up CVS and/or Rite Aid for some freebie deals. It will be an easy and fun week for sure.

How I Challenged Myself This Week

If you aren’t following me on social media, you probably don’t know that my word for 2018 is Challenge. This year is my year to challenge myself on things I’ve been afraid to try, haven’t put the time in to try or even things I never thought I could or would do. This week, my challenges fell into the category of “haven’t put the time in to try”.

  1. Made my own Ground Turkey – With my new, meat grinder gadget in hand, I tried my hand at grinding turkey meat. I had gotten turkey breast for $0.99/lb at Acme so I thought, why not give it a try. I cut the breasts off the bone which was much easier than I thought it would be. I cooked the one breast like a turkey london broil and ground up the other side and cooked that the next night. The full turkey breast was 7 lb. So, half of the turkey would be 3.5 lbs (with bones of course) so without bones and ground up I got 1.9 lbs of meat (that was half the turkey). I didn’t calculate it down to the penny but I think that is somewhere around $1.82/lb which is a great price per lb. I was quite happy with the result and plan on doing that every time I defrost a turkey.

Now It’s Your Turn

So, now it’s your turn. How did your week go? Did you have goals you wanted to reach? Did you reach them? Did you stock up on some important items your family needs? Did you challenge yourself with any new challenges or any of the ones I posted during the past two weeks?

What You Might Have Missed

In case you missed my shopping trips, you can see each one of them below.  I also show my budget as well as the items currently sitting in my stockpile and freezer.

I Challenge You

And, I challenged you with five things to make this an even more successful journey for you:

Zero to Stockpile Giveaway Winners

This week’s Zero to Stockpile Giveaway Winner is Stephanie Holland. She won a $50 Amazon Gift Card. Remember, head to our Zero to Stockpile giveaway page to find out how to enter.

Tips to Follow My Journey

  1. Follow me on my Instagram account where I post, via my IG Stories, all my day to day!
  2. Join our Zero to Stockpile Facebook Group.
  3. Sign up for the Zero to Stockpile Newsletter

 

 

More Hot Deals You Don’t Want to Miss: