Gour-Make It Monday - From the reserve

Today wasn't a Gourmet kind of day.

It was a "I'm going to clean the house"

kind of a day.

A "I've not even considered thawing meat or whipping

up some yummy batter for something" kind of a day.

It is BEAUTIFUL outside, so 

thanks to my screened in porch

my kids are playing with the 

french doors open 

While I clean clean clean. 

What I want to tell you about to day is my reserve. 

It's like a personal family grocery store. A.k.a. a stockpile. 

 With the growing popularity of the new Extreme Couponing show 

that I have not had a chance to see, I've seen a ton 

of posting about it. 

As I understand it some people are addicted to 

couponing. Let me assure you... I'm not. 

I do love to follow the freebie and deal finders on 

FB and Twitter: 

@MomsWhoSave

@ThisFrugal_Life

@couponmom

To name a few. 

In reality though I don't think spending full time 

job hours hunting, clipping, and list making 

is a very efficient use of my time 

since my job is to be a mommy first. 

For me, starting the reserve was easy (due to some unique circumstances), but for others

I know it isn't. Trying to stock pile while already on a tight

budget can be difficult. 

I really recommend Grocery University to 

help with tips on how to start one when 

you don't have a good amount of cash

to start out with. 

I must add however, that recently some major grocery

stores have changed their policies on coupons, so know your 

store and their policies. 

So back to my house. 

It is so small and our storage is limited so finding a place 

to put my goods was the first challenge. 

Brad went to Lowes and bought 2 long boards about 12 inches deep or more

and hung them for me in my laundry room. 

I began shopping for bargains. I got so lucky to find that 

green beans, corn, and peas were all on sale one weekend for

10 for a dollar. So bam.. there they are.

Also Cake mixes go on that same sale often so I got those too.

Most importantly for me though is to stock up on meat when it is on sale and freeze it. 

Also my baking supplies such as sugar, flower, etc. 

I don't have a deep freeze. 

This is 6 months of meat. Each kind is divided. Wrapped in freezer paper, and dated.

I have 1lb a week of chicken, ground beef, and pot roast. 

I also buy the freezer pizzas when they are REALLY on sale. 

I freeze my flour because I don't want it to take bugs, and I freeze bread too. 

For days like today.

The most important thing is to USE your stockpile. 

Sale groceries aren't any good to you if they go bad.

Today I wanted to clean so...

I had previously baked some mini banana nut muffins and froze them.

Thaw those:

And then for lunch we dipped into our reserve of Pizza:

I usually try to keep it where I need to buy some sort of groceries about every 2 weeks, 

but milk and produce are a once a week affair. 

Here is a list of all that I buy on sales and store and how many I'll buy at a time:

Canned goods (only the ones our family likes) and I'll by 10 of each. ONLY on sale!

noodles (macaroni, spaghetti, etc.) and I'll buy 10 of those too. Then I could really have 6 months bought in one trip. 

Spaghetti sauce (I never buy more than 2 at a time because of the dates)

Deodorant - one or two when on sale and no more until the last one is going to run out. 

Toilet paper. I pretty much get some anytime the sale is less than 50% of the normal price. 

Paper towels are the same.

Peanut butter I'll buy about 4 of when on sale. 

Cake mixes. I'll buy 10 for $1 but not all the time. only when getting low on them. I bake A LOT!

Flour Sugar Syrup 

I'm just a beginner at this stuff. I have friends that would blow your mind with how prepared they are. 

Now once the pile is about 6 months full I only use the sales to replace what I've used. So I end up only needing one or two of some items on any given trip. Thus saving myself a ton o cash at the store. 

So while it wasn't Gour-Made... It was yummy and free-ish! 

Happy Monday! 

xoxo

Courtney