How to Eat Healthy From a Couponing Stockpile

One of my grocery saving strategies is to shop with coupons hopefully paired with a sale for extra savings.  Another piece of my money saving puzzle is to buy the items we use on sale (preferably with a coupon for additional savings) before we need them. They call this stockpiling.  

Unlike what TV shows want you to believe, stockpiling is NOT cramming your basement with as much cheap food as you can get your hands on. Stockpiling is not about hoarding food. It's about planning and buying food when it is on sale (hopefully pared with coupon for extra savings) to use when you run out and the item is not on sale/coupon.

However, no matter how expensively you bought it or expensive an amount, a stockpile of food does not save you any money until you actually use it.

Husband and I are challenging ourselves to do an Eat From the Stockpile Month.  We fell into this challenge by accident.  I was busy creating for and building Blitzkrieg’s Pet Promise Rescue Run booth to raise money for his chemotherapy treatments.  Add to that Husband’s weekly choir rehearsal, Blitzkrieg’s chemo day, and now my weekly marching band rehearsal for two parades this summer and it is difficult to squeeze time in for a grocery shopping trip except for a quick milk run. Husband goes through almost a gallon a week.

This is our booth! I made soy bacon candles. Yes. Candles that smell like bacon.

This is why we have a stockpile of food. For the most part, it’s about trying to save money on an item like the high fructose corn syrup free ketchup by buying a few extra for the year (more than 2, we're a small not putting ketchup on everything family of adults) because it only goes one sale once a year during summer grilling season.

Truthfully our grill is more of a hot dog maker than a cheezburger macheen but I made the grill cover to reflect one of our favorite LOLcat LOLs.

The food stockpile also comes in handy for emergencies like the multiday power outages Mother Nature likes to send us to keep us on our toes.

However, in this case since we are being hit with extra medical expenses due to Blitzkrieg’s cancer treatments, eating from our stockpile of ingredient type food means I will save at least a couple hundred dollars because I won't have to grocery shop for a month (or maybe more.) I save money twice. I’m using what I have on hand (zero dollars now) and I bought it sale (at less than full price dollars when I bought it.)   

This little experiment will also encourage Husband and I to make dinner with the unusual spices and ingredients we get as Christmas gifts.  We tend to save these items for a special occasion that never comes. Well, any day can be a good reason to treat our taste buds to an amazing dinner. A kick in that direction isn’t such a bad thing either.

An example of my freezer. There are a lot of fresh frozen veggies we need to eat to make room for this summer's garden veggies.

What Kind of Junk are You Going to Eat?

Other than the less than five ingredients, I know we have on hand that fall into the Oops! I didn't check the ingredient label, nothing. We'll give ourselves an excuse eat it and try be more diligent when shopping in the future. Cream of Mushroom soup (Christmas green bean casserole craving) I'm talking to you.

I'm not going to beat myself up about it because our healthy and green living  80/20 Rule extends to food too. It keeps my head from exploding because I can't control Every. Single. Aspect. Of. My. Life. I tried it and made myself miserable. My personal rule is if I start avoiding events or experiences with friends or relatives because there is a chance I might have to eat a less than healthy, less than organic, less than whole food option it may nourish my body but it won’t nourish my soul. Sometimes the company I keep or the experience I have trump the less than perfect healthy food we have a few times a year.

Most nights Husband and I Iron Chef dinner. Here’s a few items I have planned for the month.

• Whole wheat pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce
• Avenger's Shwarma
• Homemade pizza - I make my whole wheat pizza dough recipe in advance and freeze it.
• Fruit Popsicles - I have berries and puree from last summer.
• Shwarma Black Bean Burgers We have a ton of dried beans we usually eat in winter soups. I sometimes make vegetarian Shwarma burgers and freeze them in advance for lunches and quick meals.
• Stir fry - most of our meals are of the lots of veggies, pasta or rice, and meat as a condiment.
• Pumpkin curry  - from our Halloween pumpkin. Another reason we need to eat from the stockpile. I thought we finished the last of the frozen pumpkin puree – oops!
• Several pesto sauce based dinner because some lactose intolerant person still buys interesting pesto sauces (ahem.)
• Popcorn as snacks. This isn't anything new. I inhale stove popped popcorn - always have and always will. I could bake something but I don't want that temptation around my hips. Pop small amount on demand is kinder to my waistline.

We’ll see what the month brings. Do you have any tips for me?

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