for those who stockpile----

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Redcrow @ July 23 2006,23:48)]I stockpile everthing. I'd take pics, but I don't have the digital camera handy. I started my insane way of shopping 4 years ago when we moved into this big house. We moved right after getting income tax back & I told dh that I wanted to try paying for things a year at a time. The first year we bought just meat & a few small things. After 4 years of doing it I buy some stuff once a year & some twice. I save our income tax in a special account to use. When something is on sale I buy it. I rotate things that I may have some leftover from the last time & I check to make sure that whatever is on sale has an experation date that is far enough in the future so I don't waste. Thats pretty much all there is to my system. I store stuff in my pantry & basement. I just "shop" there. Most weeks a trip to the store for me is fruit/veggies, milk, eggs & bread(ok & ice cream). Then I do a walmart trip about once every 3 months to buy cereal & juice...things we go through pretty quickly that take up too much room if I buy for more than a couple of months. I also do alot of canning myself.
My way may seem extreme to most, but I love that I never run out of anything. I spend so much less, because I'm not always needing to go to the stores (so I just don't). My kids get to go clothes shopping twice a year (spring & fall) everything else we need comes from thrift shops or garage sales. I also pay as many bills as I can (like my internet, my trash pick up & dish service) by the year.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Redcrow @ July 24 2006,09:06)]I pay my internet service & telephone (they're together & we have an unlimited long distance plan), my dish network, my trash service, the shop rent for dh's race shop, I also pay for school lunches by the year. Pretty much anything that I sign up for that has a set payment amount each month. I should have mentioned that my dh gets a yearly bonus at work (every March) so we use that $ plus income tax. I usually have around $10,000 extra in March. I save 1/2 every year for emergencies & use the rest to restock the house & pay the bills. The ultimate for me would be to be able to pay my mortgage a year in advance also. Most financial experts say that you should have enough in savings to live off of for 6 months. We never seem to be able to save that much, but paying ahead puts us closer to that goal. I used to pay extra on my gas & eletric bills, but now that's not an option. I don't know why, but they won't let you. Basically the only bills I pay monthly are the mortgage, gas, eletric, water & cc (if there is a balance).