why i love the "buy ahead principle"

recently, my friend's husband decided to throw her an impromptu 29th birthday party.
i asked if i could bring anything and he said, "dip".
now i know from previous get togethers that he loves (we all do actually) jalapeno popper spread from allrecipes.
and, i had seen this amazing recipe for mexican layer dip on the pioneer woman's website (that's her photo, she was nice enought to let me use it!) i wanted to try that as well. it was INCREDIBLE.

anyway, the point of all this is that even though it was last minute, i had EVERYTHING i needed except for some cilantro and a hot pepper! and i had a $1 guiding stars coupon from food lion, so i spent 64¢ to make these two wonderful dishes. all the other ingredients i had gotten free or at a very low price with sales and coupons.
these are the things i had stockpiled:
cream cheese
mayonnaise
parmesan cheese
refried beans
shredded cheese
olives
guacamole (sorry ree, i did use wholly guacamole...it's good!)
sour cream
hot sauce
cumin
green chiles
grape tomatoes (i always have these on hand)
crackers and tortilla chips

looking at that picture i want to go make some right now!
don't you?