The Wal-Mart Plan
I kinda ripped this idea off from the guys over at AR15.com. I just expanded on it a bit. What a lot of those guys do every time they go to Wal-Mart is buy a 550 round brick of .22lr. The idea is that for an extra $10 per shopping trip you'll end up with thousands of rounds of ammo in a pretty short amount of time (even though it is just .22) and you won't even notice how much it cost you. The reason that they shop at Wal-Mart is because the final total tends to be cheaper than at other stores.
The first thing that you need to do before you can really use this method effectively is get to know where to go to get certain items. Every time I go to target I get a few cans of tomatoes and mushrooms. Their 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes are about $.50 cheaper than everywhere else ($.89 per can when I went to pick some up today). King Soopers probably has the cheapest meat department in the area. I've found that they have the biggest "manager's special" markdown section for meat that's about to expire out of all of the local big chains. Get to know who has the cheapest prices on certain items and whenever you shop there make it a point to spend an extra $10 or so on those items to add to your preps.
Another trend that I've noticed is that certain stores put certain things up for sale for less and more often. Now I can go to Wal-Mart and buy a can of their generic vegetables for $.49 a can any time that I want. Every once in a while, though, King Soopers has canned Del Monte vegetables on sale 2/$1. I'd rather have the Del Monte since a) they have pull tab tops and b) they don't have potatoes in them. They also put ground beef and ground turkey on sale for ridiculously low prices on a fairly regular basis. I just bought 20 lbs of ground turkey there for $1 a pound. That sale came just in time because I was almost out of the ground beef that I had paid $1.25 a lb there for just a couple of months before.
Clearance items are another thing that I try to make it a point to check out periodically. These aren't usually advertised so you have to know when to check for them. Target is awesome for ridiculously cheap clearance items. I got an $80 grill there for $10 once. I got a $120 paintball gun/mask combo for $20 another time and on top of that they were selling their 200 round boxes of paintball ammo for $3 a box. Every once in a while they put their ridiculously overpriced, el cheapo furniture on their clearance end caps for about what they're actually worth. I still use the $20 wine cabinet that I bought there a few years ago that was marked down from $100. Of course the $30 coffee table and end table set that was originally around $200 now sits in my shed. Wal-Mart also has some pretty good clearance sales at certain times of the year. So do a lot of the big camping stores like Dick's and Gart Sports. I'm still looking for a good propane heater to go on sale now that the cold season is almost over but it looks like everyone is holding out.
I know I kinda took the Wal-Mart plan and ran with it. The gist of it as I see it goes something like this. Find out who sells what for the lowest prices and stock up every time that you go there. Learn where to go and at what time of year for the best clearance deals. Get to know who puts what on sale for the best prices on a regular basis. Once you get it down it doesn't take long before you start to notice how much extra cash you have for important stuff like massive amounts of ammo and overpriced gas.
PS: I still buy a brick of .22 every time I go to Wal-Mart.
The first thing that you need to do before you can really use this method effectively is get to know where to go to get certain items. Every time I go to target I get a few cans of tomatoes and mushrooms. Their 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes are about $.50 cheaper than everywhere else ($.89 per can when I went to pick some up today). King Soopers probably has the cheapest meat department in the area. I've found that they have the biggest "manager's special" markdown section for meat that's about to expire out of all of the local big chains. Get to know who has the cheapest prices on certain items and whenever you shop there make it a point to spend an extra $10 or so on those items to add to your preps.
Another trend that I've noticed is that certain stores put certain things up for sale for less and more often. Now I can go to Wal-Mart and buy a can of their generic vegetables for $.49 a can any time that I want. Every once in a while, though, King Soopers has canned Del Monte vegetables on sale 2/$1. I'd rather have the Del Monte since a) they have pull tab tops and b) they don't have potatoes in them. They also put ground beef and ground turkey on sale for ridiculously low prices on a fairly regular basis. I just bought 20 lbs of ground turkey there for $1 a pound. That sale came just in time because I was almost out of the ground beef that I had paid $1.25 a lb there for just a couple of months before.
Clearance items are another thing that I try to make it a point to check out periodically. These aren't usually advertised so you have to know when to check for them. Target is awesome for ridiculously cheap clearance items. I got an $80 grill there for $10 once. I got a $120 paintball gun/mask combo for $20 another time and on top of that they were selling their 200 round boxes of paintball ammo for $3 a box. Every once in a while they put their ridiculously overpriced, el cheapo furniture on their clearance end caps for about what they're actually worth. I still use the $20 wine cabinet that I bought there a few years ago that was marked down from $100. Of course the $30 coffee table and end table set that was originally around $200 now sits in my shed. Wal-Mart also has some pretty good clearance sales at certain times of the year. So do a lot of the big camping stores like Dick's and Gart Sports. I'm still looking for a good propane heater to go on sale now that the cold season is almost over but it looks like everyone is holding out.
I know I kinda took the Wal-Mart plan and ran with it. The gist of it as I see it goes something like this. Find out who sells what for the lowest prices and stock up every time that you go there. Learn where to go and at what time of year for the best clearance deals. Get to know who puts what on sale for the best prices on a regular basis. Once you get it down it doesn't take long before you start to notice how much extra cash you have for important stuff like massive amounts of ammo and overpriced gas.
PS: I still buy a brick of .22 every time I go to Wal-Mart.
Comments
I was just reading about an enormous computer database that Wal-Mart owns. Apparently they use it to store all of the data that they get from their stores. This includes video surveillance. I don't think that it really matters whether you use cash or credit. They can find out about what you're buying.
Michael
"Lets see...who buys ammo at Walmart...[sound of keyboard typing] [big list of addresses pops up on screen]... ah, the Urban Survivalist guy is one of them. Lets pay him a visit".
Staying Alive: I still say low-key under the radar is the best way to go. Why let anyone know what your preps are?
If they were recording your buys, them they would be taking your "id" every time you came in.
Jerry