Hi everyone
2026 was off to a rough start for me. First, I was sick with the flu for a week. Then DS had the same flu the next week. Then the bad weather hit and more snow is expected tomorrow. I feel like this year has kicked my butt thus far. Despite all of this, I still managed to stockpile quite a bit.
One of my favorite stockpiling items was Dave's killer bread at Kroger. They've been running some good sales lately. The Dave's bread & buns are all BOGOF (ends 1/27), but last weekend Ibotta also had deals that made them $2 each after all discounts. I bought 4 loaves of bread and 4 packs (8ct) buns. I ended up paying $16 for $55.92 worth of bread. I call that a great deal! 😊I love their bread, but there's no way I would pay $7 per loaf.
I also stocked up my face moisturiser at Wags. This normally costs me $17-20 each (depending on retailer), but I scored 8 jars for $17.60 OOP. That's another $118 savings
I also did our annual coffee stock up at Sams. I paid $62.34 for 3 Dunkin Donuts containers. I still have some of the old (larger containers), so I only purchased some decaf. We now have more than a year's worth of coffee. There's been a few other things, but I can't remember it all (I did too much shopping 😂). After stocking up on coffee at Sams last summer, I noticed that the Dunkin Donuts containers have shrunk by 5 oz! I've never ever noticed shrinkflation at the warehouse clubs before. I, thankfully, managed to get the old, bigger containers before shrinkflation hit the shelves. The crazy part is that the price has increased. I've always purchased the coffee when the clubs have discounts on it though. The other thing I like about these containers is that they stay fresh long after the expiration date. I'm a food snob and I can tell you that the coffee still smells & tastes fresh long after it has expired. I didn't even realise I was drinking coffee that expired 3 months ago 😂 I'm guessing it's that stay fresh seal on the container that helps the coffee retain it's freshness.
However, I'm not letting rising food prices and shrinkflation get me down. I told BF that our monthly grocery budget is $700 this year. That amount includes groceries, HBA and cleaning materials. We eat very little processed food and we use all name brand HBA. In fact, we eat very well, because I buy organic meat and some organic produce. We just get creative with shopping and spending. I also have a huge HBA stockpile (we have enough for over 2 years), so we're in great shape.
Our clothing budget for this year is $0!
Same goes for Christmas - $0!
That's doesn't mean that we won't purchase anything. Again, we are going to get creative about how to pay for Christmas. We really don't have any clothing needs, but many of you know that I get lots of free money, so I'll utilise that for when we have needs.
We have really BIG financial goals that we'd like to achieve, so we are going ALL IN when it comes to saving on our needs. I know that we can do this, so I'm excited about it.
Hope everyone stays safe & warm. Have a wonderful weekend peeps!
