You know what I love about being back in our home after so long living on the bus?
Not, as you might reasonably expect, rooms to secretly play hide & seek in with my children without telling them. Not being able to lock myself away in my own bathroom with absolutely no thought given to whether or not someone is in the next cubicle. Not, and this is one I didn’t expect at all given I’ve historically had no love of gardening, having my own fresh herbs for cooking with. Not even family and friends: although I am very, very pleased to be able to see them regularly again.
Nup, the reason I love being back in our home is, in fact, cupboards.
Trust me, you don’t know how wonderful and useful they are until you’ve had to go without, and much like the usefulness of baby wipes being a revelation upon access to my first dirty nappy, cupboards, I discovered quickly as we travelled around with all our worldly belongings packed into sports bags, had been grossly underrated by me.
They’re so useful, you see.
You can hide all manner of clothes, blankets, toys and things you bought which you don’t want your wife to know about in them.
Not to mention the stuff she’s okay with.
Before we went on our tour of Australia I had the ‘job’ of stockpiling provisions for the end of the world. The zombie apocalypse was not gonna sneak up on this little black duck. We could have seen out the rapture with the amount of toilet paper, tea and coffee I had packed away – because I figured without these things life wouldn’t have been worth fighting on for.
To keep Tracey happy I also built up a decent stash of dishwashing liquid, washing powder and everything which comes in a tin, but I figured I could trade favours for those things.
So to go from that to, for the last eighteen months on the bus, barely having enough room for a week’s groceries, was a huge adjustment.
Although I figured the trade off was being able to drive my whole house away from ground zero.
But now we’re back in the house for a bit I’m once again preparing for Armageddon.
Last week I filled half the freezer with Dr. Oetker Ristorante Pizza (at $3.75 each) and this week it’s primarily Stayfree sanitary pads ( at $2.50 each). In both cases Woolworths had them walking off the shelves for half price.
I bought a heap of other half price specials too, but just the two of each (except Tim Tams. I bought eight packets of Tim Tams @ $2 each. Because I have a wife).
Traditionally I used to put aside $50 a week for picking up stuff on special for half price – a saving for the family budget of over $1000 a year.
Enough for a holiday. Enough for Christmas. Enough for nearly a whole quarter’s electricity.
Non-perishables are my favourite to stockpile, and tins of tomatoes or spaghetti.
Now all I have to do is claim back the cupboard space in the kids’ rooms to store all my goodies.
I have a friend with an entire room committed to zombie viruses, natural disasters, job redundancies, second comings and/or the sudden appearance of big bills (you know who you are)(Kathy). I’m ever so jealous.
Seriously though, I’m no budget or financial expert. Never claimed to be. But this is something anyone can do and unlike the smashed avocados controversy it does save you actual money.
If you’ve never thought about filling a high cupboard or back of the pantry shelf with the end aisle super specials at the shops, take a moment to check out Woolies’ latest catalogue and their half price items for this fortnight and consider what even $20 or $25 a week spent stockpiling a couple of items will do for your actual day-to-day lifestyle, or maybe just your stress levels on a week where the electricity bill comes strong-arming its way through your mailbox to mess with that week’s grocery budget.
My tip is to try it just one time, one shop. Buy something you use all the time, like a half price dishwashing liquid, and then, when you run out, think about how handy it was as you grab that second – essentially free – bottle from the cupboard.
I reckon at that point you might feel the birth of your inner prepper.
Raising a family on little more than laughs
This is a sponsored post in partnership with Woolworths
I have never thought of myself as a prepper Bruce, but thanks to you I look at what I’ve always considered “special hoarding” in a totally different light ?
Pick your favourite disaster movie and prepper away 😀
Ehe I am a sucker for cleaning chemicals and bath products. Especially shampoo and conditioner. I once bought one of every version when a brand I liked was cheap, for the purposes of deciding which was my favorite. That was more than two years ago. Now, I know what my favorite scents are, they have both been discontinued on both major supermarkets, and I’m still working my way through the others ???
HAHAHA that’s hilarious. Also, are we related? I think we’re related. I’ve done similar when Arnotts biscuits were on special. Turned out I liked them all. Who knew?
I’m a toilet paper prepper. There is something about having less than 18 rolls in the cupboard that makes me break out in a cold sweat – I usually have anywhere between 50 and 150 rolls in the garage ready to go and another 18 in the house.
Seven of us. Eighteen rolls is the time to panic. That’s just math 😉
Funny post! We do that around here (U.S.) too. Our family has two more tactics: 1) When something in the store is at an unbeatable price, that usually means they’ve jacked up the price sky-high on some other thing (the shampoo is at an “almost free” price, but the fresh veg that is usually $1 is now $1.95 just for that week, etc.). So we look out for that price gouge and skip that item for this time around. 2) We avoid the end-caps of the store – the short displays at the end of the aisle often have signs that imply some sort of sale or savings, but it’s a fake-out. If they have a cereal “on sale” for $3.99 on the end-cap, all by itself – the reason is there is so you can’t easily compare its size or price to other similar products. If you take it over to the rest of the cereal, you’ll find others for $3.50, or see that the “sale” $4 box is lots smaller than the regularly-priced box selling for $4.50. Thanks for writing, Bruce – I look forward to more of your brand of humor in the inbox!
Great tips!!
I totally do this too! I even have a list of items I’m attempting to stock up on in case of a catestrophic type “event” too lol.
I shop online with Woolworths and their section for half price specials gets a work out weekly! They even have a section you can click through to that has everything you’ve ever bought that’s on special – annoyingly it also has the price drop items etc as well, but its a great way to buy things you usually buy but get them on special (because obvs if you’re buying stuff you usually don’t buy because it’s cheap you likely won’t use it and it’s therefore not a good deal!)
Love your post!