Stocking Up

Another method of living frugally is to stock up. I know, it sounds silly at first. Why should I spend more money all at once? How the heck is that frugal?
Truth is, if you go to the grocery store and chicken breasts, for example, are not on sale (meaning that round here, they are about $7-$8 per 3 lb bag) this is not a time to stock up. Now when the local grocery runs them for $4-$5 per bag, that is when you stock up. Typically, on the occasion that the sales like this occur, I find it a waste of space to buy more than about 2 bags of chicken.
I used the example of bagged chicken breasts. I know this is not the most frugal way of eating chicken! There are very few things that my family and I get picky about. I am honestly the picky eater in the house. I can rarely eat chicken, or really any poultry, with bones in it anymore. When I was younger, my grandmother used to break the bones and suck the marrow out. This plays into it…it’s also a texture issue for me. When I try to eat something with texture similar to what chicken is like near the bone, I gag. Once I start to gag on my food, I cannot eat anymore, even if it’s something different.
My family stocks up. When there is a sale on a food we love, we buy more of it than if we were to buy it off-sale. We had to find a balance though. It became depressing almost, if I stocked up and than a month later we still had tons and there was an equal or greater sale on the product. If I have plenty of something, I cannot justify purchasing more.
We used to use a chest freezer. These are awesome for larger families, or families in different circumstances in which they cannot deal watch as often, or cannot get about so much. For us, it cost us more in space and electricity. It also cost us frustration as we could not keep it organized. For three people, in our case, it was not worth it. We have a lovely sized fridge and freezer combination. The top portion of my freezer holds our meet and our ice, as we have an icemaker. If this is full-I’m not allowed to buy more. The bottom half of our freezer holds what I call convenience foods. This is typically almost all for our daughter…chicken nuggets for lunches, waffles, and more. We tried making her waffles, she won’t eat them other than Eggo, or store brand waffles.
My point is, stocking up is a wonderful way to make your meals cost less in the long run. However, there is a limit. If you’re paying the difference between the sale and regular price by paying for an extra freezer to run…you’ve obliterated your deal.