I'm stockpiling, not hoarding...

What started as a quest to learn the coupon game, has enabled me to begin a stockpile of food for very cheap.

This post is not meant to be political at all, so if you feel the need to attack my thoughts, then all I can say is I'm sorry you feel the need.

Watching the news has me worried. Not the kind of worry that keeps me up at night, but the kind of worry that makes me think. I am a mother of 4 and I feel as though I would not be doing my job if I didn't prepare for rough seas ahead....just in case.

By nature, I am very open minded. If I am speaking to a conservative, I like to throw out my liberal way of thinking and vise versa, I just like to make others think. Recently, at the request of my Mother, I Tiv0'd and watched an episode of Glenn B*eck. Not going to lie, he is not my favorite, but my husband took the message from her and just "had to record it to see how crazy it was", his words, not mine.

Since that time, we have watched it twice.

There were 2 very interesting points that helped me shift my thinking into more of a proactive way of thinking. Kind of like my mind frame was with bringing EG home. I planned for the worst, but hoped for the best. Needless to say, all my planning paid off because she was a hot mess.

Things in the world that I have chose to close my eyes to, because I just don't feel like thinking about it and honestly, I just have way to much going on in my life to care. However, the unsettled middle east, Egypt, L*bya, the financial collapse of America, the growing debt of America, the worthless American d0llar and the rising gas prices...The Perfect Storm. America no longer owns America. I decided to not live in fear, but to batten down my family's hatches and know that we are prepared in the event of a storm.

Above is one picture of my family's 'stockpile' of food. I have another pantry going for all cleaning supplies, paper products and other necessities. My kitchen pantry is completely stocked and I have 2 fridges & 3 freezers going. I am not a hoarder. We are a family of 6 and we do go through a lot of food on a normal basis, but in the event of something bigger, I want to be prepared. We can not predict the future, but we can prepare to the best of our abilities.

My point in saying all this is because I have managed to stockpile all this food while cutting my grocery bill completely in half. We eat very well on a normal basis and if you know me, then you know that I still buy a lot of organic and fresh produce. Using coupons is a game and I like a good challenge, so I made a commitment to figure it out this year and I'm so glad that I did. When I began, all my working friends told me they didn't have time. Now that I work full time, have kids in sports and y'all know I love my social schedule, I still manage to coupon every single week. I would never go back to paying full price for anything. I will never pay more than a $1.00 for a box of cereal, not even the Uncle Sam cereal. I bought 6 cartons of organic, lactose free milk this weekend for $2.00 each. Why pay more, when I know I can get it much cheaper buy using coupons?

I encourage you all to try it. It's like getting an extra pay check in the mail every month and that's just to good to just throw away if you ask me. Last month I saved over $700 combining coupons with BOGO's.

Hopefully the storm will not come and America will wake up to the world that is on fire around us, but for now, I hope to be able to continue to batten down the hatches and be able to be a shelter for others if the time ever comes.