Everyone has different reasons for wanting to create their own stockpile. Some people are worried about a zombie apocalypse. I’m not. Some people believe they should have a years worth of food stored in their home. I don’t and I will tell you why: I don’t have the storage to house all of that stuff, I would most likely waste some of what I have stored because I didn’t get it used in time, and that wastes money.
However, I’m not judging anyone for any of the reasons that they want to build a stockpile. In fact, I think no matter what your reason is, you are smart to be prepared for emergencies! Establishing a stockpile is a wonderful way to help you through hard times. Stockpiles are a tool to help you prepare for the unexpected job loss, root canal, storm, or emergency.
When you decide to build a stockpile, there are two important questions that you must be able to answer before beginning. These questions are:
- Why are you wanting to build a stockpile?
- How are you going to do it?
In other words you need to know your purpose and your goals for creating a stockpile.
Have you thought about why you want to build a stockpile? No family has the exact same needs when it comes to building a stockpile. Is your purpose to build a stockpile for winter months, summer storm emergencies, or are you wanting to build up your supply of food and supplies as cheaply as possible so you can live a more frugal lifestyle and only buy when items are at the lowest price? Are you living on a fixed income and wanting to try to add additional food in your cupboards? Do you live in a small apartment and want to squeeze a little extra security into your small area? Are you wanting to build a stockpile of food and supplies for 6 months or larger? Go ahead and think about it! I’ll wait right here…
Now that you have your reasons of why you should build your own stockpile, how are you going to do it?
In order to start your stockpile, you first need to decide how much money you can spend each week on items to go in your stockpile. Don’t worry! You can build a stockpile with as little as $5 each week!
Go through your budget and if it seems like there’s nothing left, look again at your expenses that can change such as what you spend on gas, gifts, clothing, and entertainment. Is there anything you can make a small cut from? Could you not buy a Starbucks coffee once a week and use that money towards adding to your stockpile? If you budget $5 a week, that would be around $25 a month.
If you are serious about building your stockpile quickly, you can add more money to your stockpiling fund. Remember, the goal is not to put you in debt! Don’t go out buying everything on your list and put yourself in a financial mess. That defeats the purpose of establishing a stockpile!
Each one of us will be building our own stockpile to fit our family’s needs.
There are many ways to build your stockpile. For those of you who want to build your stockpile using a budget of $25 a month and buy whatever is on your list, that’s great! Others will stretch their budget by shopping sales, using a price book, coupons, and apps to get the cheapest prices possible and stretch their money.
I will show you how to do all of these in this series. Whatever you choose to do is great! Doing anything is better than doing nothing, when it comes to being prepared for an emergency! If you don’t have time to coupon or price match, don’t do it! If you are on a really tight budget, I hope I will teach you a new way to save as you are building your stockpile.
Your challenge: Go through your budget and decide how much money each week you can use to build your stockpile. Start thinking about what groceries and other items you are going to want in your stockpile. On Thursday and I will have a list of items that you might include in your own list as you build your stockpile!
Have you enjoyed what you read here today? Do you have friends or other women you know that could benefit from this resource? If so, please do me a favor! I have included the links below to share with other intentional women! They’ll be glad you did!
My husband and I have been discussing stocking up on meats and frozen veggies when we can find them on sale. The price of food has gone up considerably in my area (and probably all areas) that we can easily spend $150 per week on groceries. We are finishing up a new utility room and already have a chest freezer. I know we should probably stock up on some non-perishables as well for power outages, but I am still trying to find a place to store them 🙂
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I like to stock up on things that my family uses a lot of when they go on sale. I try to buy a 6 week supply of non-perishable grocery items but I don’t always calculate correctly. Having a stockpile helped us a lot when we were snowed in for a few days last year because we couldn’t leave the house and go to the store. We also ate what we had in the stockpile and skipped buy groceries for a couple of weeks when it cost $3000 to fix my husband’s car. I can’t wait to read your up-coming series! 🙂
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I like to save money by buying as much as I can in bulk. Then when we have a leaner month, I can shop the stores less and the freezer more. To me, it is all about saving money by buying in bulk or when items are on sale. That being said, we had no power for most of the day yesterday and that presents challenges. I like to cook most things from scratch, but that is much more challenging when there is no power. So, if you are storing up food for winter storms, keep in mind that easy to prep foods are the way to go. Thanks so much for the post. It is important to know the why before we can think about the how.
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