TeethWhitener said:
This is an interesting idea, but I’m skeptical how much money the inflation hedge will ultimately make you in the real world (unless you’re running a business). For instance, you only make 120% on the can of corn you hold for 40 years. You make 4% on the cans you eat at year 2. And most consumables aren’t particularly value-dense. So you need the capital investment and floor space to hold multiple years worth of toilet paper/canned corn/etc. Factor in breakage (which also compounds with time) and it eats further into gains.
This could probably work for value-dense regular purchases. Wine isn’t the best example—most wines sour after a year or two and the ones that don’t are riskier investments than an inflation hedge should be. Maybe perfume? I’ve got a basement full of consumables that I’ve bought in bulk and I’m trying to think of the most value-dense stuff down there. Razors? But I can’t imagine these supplies will last me more than a few years. I dunno. Maybe I’ll run the numbers when I get some time.
I don't think you need buy years of X or X,Y,Z ... Nor do you have to buy one product only (I'm not saying you meant that, TW, but just being more precise in my wording, since it's gotten me in trouble previously). Rather than buying $3,000 (made up number for convenience here) worth of toilet paper, you can stockpile $3,000 of multiple replenishable goods (maybe a combination of toilet paper/paper towels/napkins, diapers, soap, laundry detergent, bottled water, dental floss, etc.) at a highly discounted rate using multiple "stacking" (a couponing technical term) methods.
I should say that people who aren't great at couponing will have a brief learning curve to climb, as you have to figure out which stores have what policies and where to find different sources of coupons for stacking (e.g., Catalina coupons, Sunday newspaper inserts, store-specific prints, and online and mobile manufacturer coupons). I like this method:
1.) Use a rebate or cash back program (TopCashBack.com is one of the most popular).
2.) Buy discounted retail store gift cards for places like WalMart, Target, etc. from discount gift card sites (where people sell them for money, b/c they got them for gifts and don't want them) THROUGH a rebate/cash back site. That way, you get the discounted gift card AT a discount.
3.) Look for various coupons for items you use regularly and are replenishable. You want multiple coupons from different sources (like mentioned above), so you can "stack" them.
4.) Wait for certain sale days of that store and go in with your discounted discount gift card and buy stuff on sale using multiple coupons (that you stack) to get savings on top of savings on top of savings on top of savings and buy things in bulk...
Some people don't have the patience to wait or don't want to bother with finding coupons (you have to be careful of expiration dates too), so it may not be worthwhile for them.
We coupon in my house and have stockpiles of stuff from water to detergent, all the way to foods.
Some extreme couponers may sell their stockpile items too. I've watched the show Extreme Couponing, where one guy had like a giant stockpile of toiletries he got for a few cents per item and sold them to neighbors or what not. It's become harder to get the giant savings you see on that show after it's airing, because retailers caught on to what people were doing and implemented rules to diminish the returns you can get (I'm sure they didn't want lots of shopper all doing the same thing, b/c before that show only a few people were doing it), but some places (it's store-specific) may still have relaxed rules.
In the hey day of the show, people could get $2,000 worth of groceries and toiletries for like $10.00 or even -$X.XX, where the store pays YOU (due to your coupons saving more than the cost of the items and getting the difference back in cash). Here are some examples of people's stockpiles, btw:
You don't need a warehouse - just an empty room or closet space oftentimes. True, you could make money renting that room out (if your wife/family allows it), but if you've got some spare space in your house, then it's not too bad to fill it with a goods stockpile.