How often do you go to a membership or warehouse store?
Costco, Sam's, BJs. The prices can be so good. We join with the thought of saving money. Do you find that you’re buying so much that you’re really spending more and consuming more than you would if you just shop at your normal stops? Also whats the one thing that send your back to the store every two weeks or so?
I go to Costco at least weekly and frequently two or more times a week. Over 90% of my grocery shopping is at Costco. I go to Sam's Club once or twice a month (it's further away). I also shop both of them online.
A least weekly
Dog food
Bulk paper products
Milk and eggs
Trash bags
Formula
used to be at costco once or twice a week, but when we started couponing pretty hardcore a few years back, we realized that the net prices we were paying was much cheaper than costco. Now it's about twice per month, mainly for meats, cheese, and major purchases where their lifetime return policy makes it an excellent option.
Only when it is with someone who has a membership. I don't live close enough to any for it to valuable for me.
@nortonsark: I had never considered these as online options....hummm.
Costco gas makes the membership worth it, even if we didn't shop in the actual store EVER. Particularly if you get the amex membership... 3% BACK ON YOUR GAS AT COSTCO. Since we fill up 2-3 times per month on our main vehicle that has a 30-gallon tank ($100 for about 27-28 gallons) the annual rewards on the gas alone more than pay for the membership, and the gas at costco is always at least 3c per gallon cheaper than the cheapest gas around here.
We shop at Costco once or twice a week for meat, cheese, bulk paper goods, some bulk-packaged food, and other odds and ends. We especially like their vacuum-packed sliced meats for sandwiches, since we usually pack lunches for work; the roast beef is excellent.
@kamikazeken: Regarding coupons, BJ's has coupons that they mail out to their members and have them on a stand when you walk in. Those by themselves are great; however, you can also use manufacturer's coupons along with them.
For example, let's say they have a 6 pack of pineapple chunks. They offer a $2 off BJ's coupon . If you also have manufacturers coupons, you can use those too -- up to 6 since it's a 6 pack. So, another 25 cents off per can is another $1.50 off so that's a total of $3.50 off.
I discovered Target also does this. You can use their own coupons at the exact same time as a manufacturer's coupon on the same product.
Since we have a BJ's and a Costco within 10 minutes of our house, it's easy to shop there. (as above) We get most of our gas at Costco, hard to beat their price. We even used their auto buying program to save 10% on the price of our last car. That alone will pay for membership for many years to come. Since each warehouse has its best features, it pays to shop at both, especially for the sale items.
We're at Sam's every 2 weeks. We have three 3 year olds, so we're there for fresh fruit, chicken nuggets, milk, cheese, canned vegetables, and other things for them. Then, we're there less frequently for dog food, pop, chips, ketchup, laundry detergent and other things we go through slower and are not perishable. I always check out the clothes section. There are always good deals on dress pants, polo shirts, and other stuff that may not be the height of fashion, but they're good staples for the closet.
We only have Sams and BJs within a 50 mile radius. I probably go to Sams every couple of months and BJs rarely. New Costco is supposed to open by year's end, but they said that last year too. I do hope we get one soon, as I think I will find it worth going to a lot more than I do the Sams & BJs.
We hit BJ's about once a month. I wish we had Costco... man I miss Costco.
Sams - weekly.
Not everything is cheaper there of course, but around here I can even get my milk (2%) at about .40 less per gallon than anywhere else. I'm already there for other things so I pick it up.
We used to shop a Costco all the time, but the $300 bill for the random crap that we tossed into the cart get to be too much to afford.
Coffee, check
Meat, check
TP, check
Dog food, check
Hot Pockets, check
wrench set?
sautee pans?
6 pack of thumb drives?
...
We shop at Sam's weekly. Sam's has the best price on 'fresh' spinach that I can find anywhere, 16 oz for roughly $3.50, where I could spend $6 for 6 oz at a grocery store. I eat it for lunch every day for it's regulatory effects on my 'system'. I would say that 70-80% of my lunch every day comes from Sam's, and that's mostly why we continue to go there.
Advice for those buying gas at Costco-
According to my Honda dealer, Costco doesn't add enough detergent to it's gasoline. I see online that they're adding more, but not in all locations yet. Check [url=http://shop.costco.com/In-The-Warehouse/Gasoline/Clean-Power-Locations.aspx]HERE[/url] to find out if your location has the extra detergent.
I've had a BJ's rewards membership (2% back on most items) with my gf for a long time. The rewards checks (usable only at BJ's to buy other items) have covered most of the membership fee every year and several years I've made $20-$50. So the membership fee has pretty much been a wash, though this is perhaps changing as our kids are heading out to college.
For many items that I normally use, BJ's regular price is better than the regular price at my local grocery stores. As long as I can use the larger quantity before it goes bad, BJ's is worth it and with coupons, even more so.
I've also purchased TV's, furniture and other things, eg. pre-lit Christmas tree at BJ's and gotten reasonable to great prices.
Unfortunately, none of my local BJ's sell gasoline. If they did, gas would be worth it as well.
I shop at Sams at least once a month. Lunchmeat, cheese for lunches (I like the individually packaged cheese sticks), baking supplies, vinegar and a few other things I have found are regularly cheaper at Sams than at other stores. I used to get milk and butter there as well, but then Aldi came in, so I get those there now. And I get gas there about every other week. It's cheaper or at least as cheap as anywhere else and super convenient for me on my way home from work.
Even though I'm single, I do find that the membership is worth it to me. It helps that I share it with my sister. When we signed up, Sams was fine that we don't have the same last name or even live in the same state. We just take turns paying for the membership when it comes due.
@notanaardvark: ...and Thank you Mr Not An Aardvark, for that. Turns out that my local Costco does the right thing. I don't think I even knew that they sold gas until last week, when I left by the back entrance, but it's nice to know that it won't hurt my car.
@shrdlu: :-)
I'm also glad to know I can start using their gas again.
PS - It's Ms.
@cengland0: I know, it's always been that way. Manufacturer's coupons are a form of payment, store coupons are a store discount, so you can use 1 of each on each item. Safeway, cvs, walgreens, riteaid, target, etc.
The only coupons costco accepts are the ones in their monthly books that are actually instant rebates.
By combining store coupons with manufacturer coupons, our family get staples for free, like toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, shampoo & conditioner, deodorant, OTC meds, snack foods, cleaning supplies, razors, bodywash, lotions, makep. This is why I said we barely ever buy these things at costco any more. We get so much of this stuff for free or near-free using coupons at regular stores that when I have a garage sale, I typically sell about $750-1,000 in drugstore items in about 4-5 hours.
@notanaardvark: don't believe anything honda ever tells you. They're so anti-consumer, they even punish dealerships that participate in online auto-buying programs like costco's or overstock.com. They even go so far as to threaten their dealerships with revoking their Honda dealerships if they do! Instead of letting the marketplace determine fair prices for their cars, they try to keep prices artificially higher. I suspect their claims about the quality of discount gasolines is intended to give them a way to deny warranty claims on their vehicles.
I swear by the quality of the fuel at costco, My 1996 gmc pickup has 165,000 miles on it, and still runs like the day it was new, and at least 95% of it's fuel was bought at costco.
@kamikazeken: I'm pretty sure Honda was not concerned about a warranty on my 92 Accord, but I'll happily buy Costco gas now.
Overstock.com sells cars? Good to know. (With $2.95 shipping?)
Thanks for the advice.
@notanaardvark: http://cars.overstock.com/
The only reason I know is because I was searching for a deal for my elderly parents there when they got ripped off at Razzari ford, in Merced CA. Mom took their aging ford van in for a small recall notice while my dad was in the hospital, near death, and a asshat salesman jumped all over her and talked her into a used car for $20,000. She's never made a major purchase like that in her life, only has a 7th grade education, and originally wanted to wait to see if my dad was going to get out of the hospital or not since they had talked about getting a new car before he got sick. Total jerks at that dealership, I even talked to owner of the dealership within 24 hours and he basically told me to go to hell.
sorry, long off-topic rant.
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