Why Cindy Did the Zero to Stockpile Challenge
I’ve been a serious couponer for more than 10 years now saving my family, over those 10 years, over $100,000. What?! Yes those numbers are correct. Maybe even a little on the conservative site. But, it’s true. With a savings of around $10,000 a year on my groceries, over 10 years, that’s around $100,000.
When I first started Living Rich With Coupons, I had already built a nice stockpile and was fully into couponing. Meaning I was well past the beginners stage. From there, I taught thousands and thousands of people how to save, just like I was.
Over the years, I came to realize that, those that didn’t catch onto the how to save, didn’t quite understand the importance of a stockpile and how it effects your savings in the long run.
Too many times, I was faced with comments about my shopping trips. Wondering how I could feed my family on the items I was buying each week.
Which brings me to today.
Starting in January, I will be donating my entire stockpile. Purging my coupons and all my store rewards and starting over from zero.
This way, you, as a brand new couponer, can see how it’s done from zero. You can see, why, when you build your stockpile, you don’t need to buy that much each week. You can see how your grocery budget goes down, the more you gain control of what you HAVE to spend on your groceries instead of what you WANT to spend.
I hope you enjoy my challenge and participate along with me. You can follow the full Zero to Stockpile Challenge here.
FAQs:
How many inserts do you get each week?
I get 4 inserts each week. I have a family size of about 4 (3 adults which would equate to an average 2 adults and 2 kids)
How long does it take you to see a difference in your spending?
It will take a good 4 weeks to start seeing your spending go down but you won’t see the full benefit of it until around 12 weeks
Why did you get rid of your coupons too?
I felt that, to truly be like a brand new coupons, I had to start completely fresh just as a new couponer would. Yes you miss out on some of the great deals because you don’t have the past coupons, but that is exactly why it takes about 4 weeks to really get a nice stockpile started and 12 weeks to get a complete stockpile.
Doesn’t couponing take you a lot of time? Is it really worth it?
We here on Living Rich With Coupons, do all the hard work for you already. We match up the sales with the coupons and rebates so you can just sit back and save. But, yes it takes time. It takes me about 3 extra hours per week. So do the math for me over the last 10 years:
Three hours a week for 10 years = 1560 hours
Total savings over 10 years – $100,000
That is an average of $64 an hour. Not too shabby for a “part time gig”
Are you increasing your grocery budget for this challenge?
I have no choice but to increase it. Having a stockpile allows me to keep my grocery budget low since I am in control of how much I want to spend on the items that are important to my family. Without a stockpile, I lose that control and will be forced to pay higher prices since.
When are you starting the challenge?
I’m donating my entire stockpile to Lunch Break in Red Bank, NJ on January 4th. I will start from zero on Sunday January 7th. My goal is to have my stockpile at it’s perfect point and my grocery budget back down only $100 a week after that.
I’m late to the challenge. Can I do it even after it started?
Absolutely! The challenge is yours to do no matter when you start. If you come in after we started or even after it’s complete, you can follow the progress I made and use it as a guide to do your very own challenge to get from Zero to Stockpile
