Couponing 101: Become A Stockpiling Master
To become an extreme couponer like the pros on TV, you definitely need to learn to stockpile. Take the time now to make some extra space in your house or apartment for all the products you will be stockpiling on in your next coupon adventure. Nothing is worse than to get home with a vehicle full of groceries with absolutely no place to put them.
Become A Stockpile Master
The core concept behind stockpiling is to purchase products in bulk while they are on sale and while you also have coupons for them. Have you seen the TLC show “Extreme Couponing”? You’ll definitely see that virtually every single person on the show will have an enormous stockpile with hundreds and sometimes even thousands of products on hand at any given time.
Lot’s of different kind of items can be stockpiled as you will likely have a use for them indefinitely. Products such as cleaning supplies, napkins, paper towels, garbage bags, or cereal can all be stockpiled. Virtually anything that has a long shelf life and doesn’t go bad right away can all fall into this category. It might be a smart idea to build a shelving system or other method of organization in your garage or basement just for your stockpiled items.
The true key to stockpiling is understanding the previous lesson “Understanding Sales Cycles”. It is while these items are on-sale that you will want to buy them in bulk. Occasionally you will see an extreme couponer get items for free or extremely cheap. If you can cash in on these free items during the sales with your coupons it only makes sense to buy as many items of that product as the store has in stock because free is the best price of all.
Understand Rain Checks
If and when your target store is running a sale on a specific item and their stock is drained or maybe not enough inventory for you to get the best deal possible, you can usually grab a rain check for that product. Policies vary from store to store but usually you can stop by the customer service counter at the store and bring the item to them and they will go ahead and give you a rain check which means that in the future you can purchase the item at the currently marked price once they restock their shelves.