Basic supplies

[Trade]

I tend to not use products for which manufacturer's coupons are offered. When seeing news features on extreme couponers I invariably think to myself, "Really? You feed your family all that packaged processed food? Yuk!"

The only time I will use a coupon is if it's for something that I was going to buy anyway. And then only if the coupon takes no effort to use. If I have to print it out off the internet, forget it. If I have to go to the front of the store and hunt it down and tear it out of some flyer forget it.

 

[C'est Moi]

My sister and BIL got drawn into the disaster "survivalist" thing a couple of years ago and bought a bunch of powdered food or whatever it is. They have an entire closet in their house full of that stuff and I suppose it gives them some sense of security.

After the last pantry clean out when I found canned goods expired a couple of years ago , I don't "stock up" on things like I used to. Sad to say that when I put a big cardboard box of expired food out for the trash pickup, one of the guys from our lawn service picked it all up and took it. That put things in perspective for me that day.

I have cases of toilet paper and paper towels, mainly because they are on auto-delivery from Amazon. Sometimes I have to pause the delivery schedule when my storage closet starts looking like a warehouse. I also keep a minimum of food in our upright freezer since losing a ton of stuff during the last hurricane power outage.

I keep a stash of batteries, toothpaste, candles, tape and light bulbs. I like having every day stuff in reserve.

 

[Marie5656]

The only time I will use a coupon is if it's for something that I was going to buy anyway. And then only if the coupon takes no effort to use. If I have to print it out off the internet, forget it. If I have to go to the front of the store and hunt it down and tear it out of some flyer forget it.

I agree. These days the only coupons I tend to use are the ones I get in the mail every month from BJ's. Plus I can add digital coupons to my BJ's membership card and to my supermarket loyalty card.

 

[StarSong]

After the last pantry clean out when I found canned goods expired a couple of years ago , I don't "stock up" on things like I used to. Sad to say that when I put a big cardboard box of expired food out for the trash pickup, one of the guys from our lawn service picked it all up and took it. That put things in perspective for me that day.

We periodically intentionally eat our way through a lot of the pantry and freezer foods so that they don't go to waste. In fact, we're in that mode right now. During those times we buy only fresh foods and work our way through much of the canned and packaged stuff.

Expiration dates stamped on most non-perishable foods is ridiculously short. If it's within a year or so of that date I have no qualms about eating it. Obviously, I would toss any dented or leaking cans.

 

[Giantsfan1954]

A bit off topic:
I think that extreme couponing show caused a lot of stores to change their rules for it,I notice many now won't allow doubling and such.

 

[Marie5656]

A bit off topic:
I think that extreme couponing show caused a lot of stores to change their rules for it,I notice many now won't allow doubling and such.

I agree. I know my grocery will only allow 4 of the same coupon per trip. For example, if you have Campbell's soup coupons, you can only use 4 in one trip.