I’d like to focus on how to stock your pantry. Keeping a well-stocked pantry means you have everything you need to cook meals at home to save money. Having items on hand to cook your family’s favorite meals helps you avoid ordering take-out or hitting the drive-thru. Stocking your pantry with staples should be done over time so that you can buy items on sale whenever possible.
Many people do not know that items in grocery stores go on sale in cycles. Sure, we’ve all noticed that Publix and Winn-Dixie often have buy one, get one free sales each week. However, there is some predictability to which items go BOGO. Grocery items follow a sales cycle, which is about every 6-8 weeks. Now not every item follows this pattern but most do. That means you can catch items for your pantry when they’re on sale and stock up.
What do I mean by stocking up? Well in my first Frugal Teacher Life post I encouraged you to find 12 or so favorite family meals and use them on a rotation to make meal planning easy. Once you know which staples you need to keep on hand in your pantry, you can buy them at their lowest price and save even more money. Let’s do an example - say your family loves to have pasta once a week. Boxed pasta and pasta sauces are staples that go on sale regularly. You should buy around 8 jars of pasta sauce when it’s BOGO so that you can have enough for the 6-8 weeks until it goes on sale again. The same holds true for most grocery items - even bread (which freezes just fine by the way).
Thank you to those readers who sent me pictures of their reorganized pantries. I love hearing from you all! Now it’s time to pay attention to what’s on sale at your preferred grocery store and stock up on the items your family eats regularly. Look for an article coming soon that will help you decide if a Sam’s Club membership is worth it or not.
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