Have you checked your cupboards lately?

It is important to take stock of what you have and what you use often so that you don’t have to spend exorbitant amounts of things that you use often and could buy in bulk. Especially things like toilet paper, toothpaste, and soap.

I went to get a bar of soap out of my stash today and I found that I only had three bars. When I took one out to use in the shower that mean I only had one left. So now is the time for me to go shopping for bar soap.

I have about two weeks until I will run out of soap and even then I have a full sized bar in my travel case.

What do you use often? The last thing I had to stock up on was dish washing detergent. If I don’t have a lot of dishes I do not like to wait to have a full load for the dishwasher. So I will wash those dishes by hand. When I saw Palmolive on sale for 99¢ at Walgreens I jumped on the offer and bought three. They will not go to waste and will last months.

I stocked up on toilet paper with the mega rolls from Target the other day and I have a couple of tubes of toothpaste lying around.

The only item I don’t stock up on is paper towels. A roll of paper towels lasts me quite a while in the kitchen so I only keep one or two spare rolls and I’m not brand loyal for paper towels.

When you take inventory of what you have and set a replacement threshold when you need to replenish your supply then you will have a better grasp of your finances. Also, just because you get a great deal, this does not mean that you have to buy out the store but figure out what is a reasonable amount for you to have in your cache. If you only like to buy soap or toothpaste three times a year then shop around. If you are comfortable waiting until you have the last quare of toilet paper on the roll you will always pay more than you would if you decided to stock up at least a little. If you are comfortable cutting it close, then maybe when you get down to two rolls of toilet paper left: start shopping around for the best deal.

Take inventory of your non-perishables and by planning ahead you can save big.