STOCK-UP SERIES

All-right. Consider this lesson #1 of my "stock-up series" where I will hopefully give some direction on what prices are good, and when they are so great you should really stock up.

First I will give you an insight on how I shop: I try to never pay the price a grocery store puts on an item (other than perishables: milk, eggs, fresh fruit etc). I buy things at a price I like, when it's on sale so later I don't have to pay the store's high price. Does that make sense? There is a reason I entered the medical field instead of teaching!! My pantry is usually FULL of something -- it varies based on recent sales -- right now it is granola bars & cereal. A few months ago was goldfish crackers, nut clusters & fruit snacks. I also have 50 1/2-gallon containers of Mott's apple juice in the laundry room. It keeps things interesting around here :) But I shop based on a "stockpile" method keeping cost down.

When I offer you my opinion of a "good price", I would buy a few only if I need them. A "stock-up price" is when I buy enough to last 3-6 months or longer depending on just how low the price is. For example, the amount of apple juice I have on hand should last us a year, the price was 0.99 each which is almost unheard of for Mott's and is getting hard to find even for generic apple juice these days.

My goal is at the end of this series to compile all the prices onto one price sheet that you can print out and take with you or write down in your own "price book". I used to have a price book, do not have one right now, but hope to start one again this week. I have a feeling the one I used when we first got married telling me to buy cheese at 0.50 would not really help these days!

So for today I am addressing TOILET PAPER. This may be a weed-out course as TP is one of the toughest things to price shop. There are so many different sizes, textures, thicknesses, 1-ply, 2-ply, you get the idea. I am going to talk in terms of a "single roll" so if you buy doubles, multiply by the correct number. I did a lot of research this morning and found a few things:

~~ Some people buy TP based on roll price, others use price per square foot. 0.01/sq. ft. is one price I found, but I like the price per roll idea better, so will go with that.

~~ 0.25/roll is a common price for Angle Soft - it can be purchased $1 for a 4-pk most days at WalMart. But Angel Soft isn't exactly high quality TP so if you find Charmin, Scott, Cottonelle or your favorite brand for that price or less, I would consider it a good price.

GOOD PRICE FOR HIGH QUALITY TP = 0.25/roll
STOCK UP PRICE = 0.15 to 0.20/roll

Recently CVS had a P&G (proctor & gamble) deal on Charmin so I got 48 "big" rolls (96 regular) for $19.75 OOP which breaks down to 20.5 cents per roll. I do consider 96 rolls of TP to be stocking up, so apparently I stocked up a little over the 0.20/roll, but it was close!!! Charmin is my fave so I thought it was worth it.

Well, if you made it to the bottom of this post, YOU PASSED! I promise you the rest of the prices I give you will be WAY, WAY, WAY easier to follow & keep track of. If you have a better method for finding cheap TP, let me know! :)