I'm Confused or May be Just Baffled

I have been reading a few blogs that deal with stockpiling; I'm not quite sure what to think. My confusion may be due to not understanding the concept behind it. From the few blogs that I read, all I can see is the fanatical use of coupons to over(?) purchase numerous products. Now I am assuming that these products are ones that a family/individual uses on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, so my question is: why purchase so much? Do you continuously purchase like this all year round? When is enough enough?

Am I missing something? I can see 2-3 months worth of product, but to my untrained brain it appears that purchases are made, in some cases, almost daily?

Even tho I'm a bit baffled by the concept of stockpiling I found Lisa B's blog Living Easy quite interesting.

Points to ponder:
I will admit I do not use coupons much. Al tho I am trying to learn how to change this. In the past I have never been successful at matching print coupons to product I use. Using coupons printed from the internet wasn't/isn't an option as the stores in my area did/do not accept them. (This may be changing, according to a local message board our "local" Walmart allegedly now takes some coupons.)*

Storage is also a major problem in my house. To be honest, I have no storage what so ever. In fact I only have two cupboards. The only closet is in our bedroom and we have no shelving. Currently we are using two "pantry" shelving units to store our food items. It hard to stock up on anything when you have no place or space to store them.**

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*Note to self: Check Walmart's company policy concerning use of internet printed coupons!!

**Our house is approximately 120 years old. It is actually a converted chicken coop. Poorly insulated, low ceilings, 4 rooms + a bath. About 900 sq ft of nothing. But is is our home for now.

Got Me to Thinking

Over the past few days I spent some time reading DebtFree4ever.net. Overall it is a good blog but in some ways it is a great blog. As odd as this may sound I found DF4E blog to be inspirational. As I sit and ponder my "future" I found the tenacity that DF4E has shown in eliminating his debt to be remarkable. Here is a guy who earns less than I but yet has succeeded in nearly eliminating his debt. Taken directly from his blog DF4E has paid off 68% of his debts. If DF4E can do it, maybe I can too!!

On another note: I'm attempting to figure out how to post my budget without having to make a table. As soon as I do I will post a 1-3 month example of my new budget.

Thought this was unique Works-For-Me Wednesday. Another interesting idea from a fellow blogger.

"WFMW is a "blog carnival" (that concept is explained here). Basically, the idea is that on Wednesday you post a little tip you've learned on any (G-rated) topic--anything that has "worked for you" in making your life easier..." Here is the link to the archive for further exploration.

Rocks in My Dryer is a blog geared toward parenting but I found it interesting.

Some Food for Thought

This past week I was perusing through The Simple Dollar. An excellent blog to say the least; I really like his article archive.

Articles that I found interesting:

• Using SuperCook to Save on Your Grocery Bill--"Basically, SuperCook is a database of recipes that works in a very clever fashion - just start entering ingredients in the upper left and it will start listing recipes on the right. Every time you add another ingredient, it finds recipes using only those ingredients and only a minimum of additional items."
• Some Notes on SmartyPig--intriguing :))
• How to Get Personal and Professional Value from Idle Web Surfing--I can relate to this very well. I love just surfing the web to see what I can find.
• Battling The Convenience and Costs of Fast Food--I really like the suggestions here I'm going to try the breakfast burrito idea tonight, the burritos sometime this week, and the chicken nuggets also (my meat order comes in on Thursday). As much cooking as I do, I never thought of trying this.
• Baking Soda: My Favorite Frugal Substance--not quite sure why I saved this article, but has some good pointers about baking soda
• Living on Half Your Monthly Income: Could You Do It?--an excellent question, one that we all should answer

I'm So Excited!!

This past week I added two items to my blogs that have me excited. Now y'all may think it's a tad silly but hey,,I'll take my fun any way I can find it!

I added the NetworthIQ badge--My net worth is not very good, horrid actually. If you deduct the $49,000+ associated with my student loans then it's not too bad. Altho it would still be in the negative the amount is much more managable.

Another point to note is that not all my debts are listed as of yet so I plan on having the amount further go into the negative.

I am also pleased to say that I have added Blogs By Women Bloggers to my sidebar.