How To Stockpile Food On A Budget – 8 Tips
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Have you been thinking about starting a stockpile? Stockpiles can be really useful in times of financial uncertainty and can give you a small buffer when you most need it. Here’s how to stockpile food on a budget.
Why Start A Stockpile?
There are many reasons you might want to start a stockpile. It could be that money is tight and you want to have some food stashed away in case something comes up that might temporarily limit your finances.
It could be that you’re worried about job loss or maternity leave and what impact that will have on your income. If you’ve had to apply for benefits unexpectedly, money can take several weeks to hit your bank account, so having some food stockpiled could really help.
Stockpiles are also great to dip into in January when money can be tight after Christmas spending.
You might live somewhere that can become inaccessible during the winter months due to bad weather.
A stockpile can also be useful if you’ve forgotten to pick something up with the weekly shop and might prevent the need for a trip to the expensive corner shop.
Whatever your reasons, knowing you have enough food stashed away to feed your family for a few days should you have a change in circumstances can really give you peace of mind.
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What Items Should I Add To My Stockpile?
Here are some of the best foods to add to your stockpile:
Pasta, Lentils, and Rice – These staples are cheap and can be made into a wide range of meals.
Tinned Meat – Think tuna, tinned ham, even tinned pies. These all last much longer than fresh and will mean you have a source of protein if you need it.
Tinned Fruit and Vegetables – Ensure you still get plenty of vitamins and minerals by adding fruit and veggies. Again these will last for several years.
UHT Milk – Although this only lasts around 6-9 months, I still think it’s very handy to have in your stockpile.
Toiletries – Essentials such as toilet rolls, deodorant, shampoo, and soap or shower gel.
Pet Food – If you have pets, it’s worth adding a few tins of their food too.
Other Items – Sugar, Tea, Coffee, Squash, Instant Noodles, Instant Mash, Sauces (eg. curry sauce) Condiments (eg. ketchup).
While it might be tempting to add things like crisps and cakes to your stockpile, these tend to be quite short-dated, so you might find you need to rotate them quite often,
How To Start A Stockpile On A Budget
Money is tight for a lot of people right now, so while starting a stockpile is a great idea to help you get through a sticky situation, there may not be cash readily available to just go out and buy a load of extra food.
If you need to start a stockpile on a budget, then the best thing you can do is start by adding one or two stockpile items to your shop each week. If you have a week where you can afford a little bit extra then pick up one or two more things than usual.
You might also want to consider how much of a stockpile is right for your family. One week’s worth of food? Two weeks? Don’t forget you’ll need the space to store everything!
1. Start With The Cheapest Foods
Pasta is probably one of the cheapest but most useful things you can add to your stockpile. Most value supermarket dried pasta costs around 30p per 500grams and so is a great place to start if you’re creating a stockpile on a budget.
Baked beans, chopped tomatoes, spaghetti hoops, and rice pudding can all be purchased for under 40p and will last for years before they need to be used up.
2. How To Stockpile Food On A Budget: Use Coupons
I love using coupons to save money and this could be a great way to add to your stockpile on a budget. Look out for coupons for free and discounted products in free supermarket magazines, newspapers, and online.
3. Take Advantage of Cashback Apps
Cashback apps are a great way to get free food and save money on the weekly shop although you do need to have the cash upfront and then wait for it to be refunded, even on free items, so it might not be suitable for everyone.
You simply buy a product, upload a photograph of your receipt, and then get refunded part or all of the item’s price.
I’ve reviewed my favorite of these apps below:
Shopmium Review: Why I Love The Shopmium App
GreenJinn Review: Using the GreenJinn App
Checkoutsmart Review-How To Use The Checkoutsmart App
4. Look Out For Yellow Stickers on Non-Perishable Items
I love buying yellow sticker food to save money, but, of course, fresh food isn’t really any good for a stockpile.
However, you may be able to find some yellow sticker non-perishable items. While occasionally this is because the items are short-dated, it can also be because the supermarket is no longer planning on stocking those items or because the packaging has changed. This means these items can still have a long best-before end date on them even though they are discounted.
5. Stock Up Using Loyalty Points
If you don’t have much cash to spare, then one way to stockpile food on a budget could be to use your loyalty points from Nectar, Asda, or Boots instead.
While you could use Tesco vouchers, these are typically better spent on other things as they can be doubled or tripled in value.
6. Don’t Forget About Toiletries / Pet Food
While this post is mostly about stockpiling food, it’s worth also thinking about stocking up on other household items such as toiletries and pet food.
7. Follow Some Bargain Facebook Pages
I always look out for bargains in the supermarket, but sometimes it can help to others do the hard work for you.
I follow lots of deals and bargains pages on Facebook which alert me to bargains in the supermarkets and other stores such as Boots and Superdrug.
I’ve listed a few of my favorites below.
Extreme Couponing and Bargains
Savvy Savings and Daily Discounts
8. Take Advantage of Supermarket Offers
Buy-one-get-one-free offers used to be pretty prolific in supermarkets a few years ago. In fact, I remember the days when in the run-up to Christmas Morrisons would often have buy-one-get-two- free deals!
While these are a thing of the past, there are still some reasonable offers to be had. For example, an item at £2.20 might be on offer where you can buy two for £3. One for your kitchen cupboard and one for your stockpile.
You could also take advantage by doubling up on half-price offers – if you were going to buy it at full price anyway, you can now have an extra one for your food stockpile at no extra cost.
How To Stockpile Food On A Budget: Tips For Managing Your Stockpile
While managing your stockpile shouldn’t take up a huge amount of your time, there are a few things you may want to check from time to time.
Keep Food Well Sealed
Before adding any new food to your stockpile, ensure the packaging is intact and there are holes or dents.
If you’re keeping your stockpile in a shed or garage you may want to consider keeping some items in sealed containers for extra protection against mice and other pests.
Rodents are notorious for chewing through packaging, contaminating food, and even damaging storage areas.
Investing in sealed plastic or metal containers can prevent costly losses. Additionally, consider using rodent repellents and proofing materials like wire mesh or steel wool to seal off entry points and keep your storage area pest-free.
Tins and toiletries such as shower gel and deodorant should be found stored as they are.
Check The Dates
You may want to check the dates of food as you add it to your stockpile, some people might even like to keep a record or spreadsheet although it’s not something I personally would bother with.
If you do notice some foods becoming short-dated, you could switch them next time you shop, eg, move a bag of pasta from your stockpile to your kitchen cupboard and pop a new bag of pasta at the back of your stockpile.
That said, most dried and tinned goods will last well past their best-before date so it’s not something you need to worry about too much.
Add Variety
When starting to stockpile food on a budget, it can be tempting to stock up on lots of cheap things like pasta and rice first. While this is a great place to start, don’t forget to start adding variety early on as you never know when you’ll need it.
Don’t Go Overboard
Once you get the hang of stockpiling food on a budget, it can be tempting to grow and grow your stockpile. While this is great, it might be worth running it down or donating some of it from time to time so it doesn’t become overwhelming.
Everyone Is Different
Everyone that stockpiles food is different and this post has mostly looked at how I personally would go about stockpiling food on a budget and the reasons I might have for doing that.
Other people might stockpile food so they can have a grocery-shopping-free week every once in a while. However, you choose to create and use your stockpile is fine.
I’m currently in the process of building up a stockpile of Christmas food!
I hope this post helps you to stockpile food on a budget.
