Sams Club???

[hollieplus2]

I'm think of getting a Sams Club membership. I currently shop at walmart with coupons and just now started the whole CVS thing. Is it really worth it? I don't usually buy big quantities but will if it saves money. I just hesitate because of the $40 membership fee. That's a lot of coupons to clip to make up the difference. Any help?????

 

[mom2my3kids]

We love our membership. Its not always big bags of stuff, they have a great bakery..Its well worth the 40 membership.

 

[HayGan]

It really depends on what and how much you buy.

The best thing I can suggest is get one of those one day shopping passes from customer service at your local Walmart and go to Sam's Club and check it out for yourself. Compare prices of what you buy now to what they are there.

We like to go to Sam's to get a cheap dinner (the whole family eats for about $6!) and walk around looking at stuff. I find great deals there on cheese and meats. Some prepackaged stuff can be more expensive (but not typically.) I also find great deals on video games for the kids and stuff for around the house. I always get the big box of cupcakes for the kids birthdays for $11.xx (I think there are 24 in the box) The cakes are great as well. One of our most frequent purchases there is the Hormel precooked bacon for $8.xx. My kids hve this every morning for breakfast. It ends up being cheaper than buying regular bacon and then cooking it! And so much easier as well!!!

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

I love having my membership especially when we have parties and and during the holidays and some household needs. They often have specials in the paper for a one or two day trial pass coupon you may want to check your paper on sunday.

 

[jennifer293]

My father and myself own a business so every other year we rotate who buys the membership because with each business membership you can add on and extra person for free..This year it is my turn to pay the $40.00... We go together about 2 Saturdays out of the month (we call it our father/daughter bonding time..lol) and while I am actually shopping dad is roaming around the store eating free food samples.. Then he comes back and tells me what is really good and 9 times out of 10 we will buy it.

I find really good deals there on Snuggles, (mom buys Gain ..I am allergic), Lipton Tea, kid's cereal...cases of Kool Aid Jammers for my DD's, fruit roll ups, I also get candy and snacks to sell in the concession stand at the track meets (DH is the head coach).

Some things are hit and miss, but it is worth the $40.00 to me. You can also pick up cool gifts for Xmas there.

 

[hollieplus2]

THANKS everyone. I knew I could count on you guys for some good advice. I'm all about saving money so I wasn't sure about spending $40. I think I go and get a pass just to look around and see. Can you use coupons there or do they send out coupons like Costco?

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Sam's can be good, if you know what you expect to pay elsewhere for similar products. Some things are not cheaper in bulk. The other problem I have with Sams (and I don't know if it's true everywhere) is they don't accept coupons.

I'm keeping my membership for now (since I split it with my parents), but may end up getting rid of it.

Jen

 

[ZuZugal]

I would definitely do the one-day pass and check it out for yourself to see which items you would buy. I go for the frozen foods, bakery items (b-day cakes are much cheaper than the regular store), vitamins, gatorade (again, much cheaper than grocery store) and lots more. They have one-time-buys on seasonal items that are a real bargain.

Sam's Club does not take coupons (at least mine does not so someone please correct me if I am wrong). I like to use coupons but it really does not bother me that I cannot use them at Sam's.

Just went the other day and got my DD11 a speedo swimming suit for $11, and some Reebok running shoes for me for $25. I also like their photo lab for getting prints year round and also christmas cards.

 

[mad hatter fan]

We shop at Sams and it is worth it to us. Just don't assume everything is cheaper there, you have to do the math. We buy most of our meat there. Ours has fresh meat but not all of them do. We portion it out and freeze it at home. Diapers and Pullups were much cheaper there. Fortunately, we don't need those anymore! Tissues we buy at Sams but tiolet paper we do not. You just have to price things out.

 

[Marshay]

We actually belong to both Sams Club and Costco since they each carry some unique items that we really like. It also provides flexibility, esp since SC is NEVER crowded and Costco can be a 3 hour trip when crowded.

My one caution is that unless you are disciplined, you may find yourself buying more than you normally would. It's not set up real easily to just get milk and bread and leave. Also, don't count on SC/Cost to replace your regular grocery shopping...we still have to do both b/c either the warehouses don't carry the brand/stuff we want, or they are just too much and don't store/freeze easily (i.e., eggs are a perfect example...I don't want 3 dozen eggs at once).

 

[disneyfreakk]

Something else to consider, Sams will only accept AMEX, Discover, Debit cards and cash.... I think they might take checks too but I dont use them anymore so I'm not 100% sure on that.

 

[Schachteles]

I agree with many of the previous posters. You just have to know what you would be paying at a Target or grocery store to know if you are getting a good deal. Yes diapers are cheaper, though if you can get a sale and have a coupon it might be cheaper at like Walmart. We find their meats to be EXCELLENT and a much better bargain. We buy 95% of our meats from there. Their bakery section is nice, good choices. They have great deals on dog food. Things like paper products can be a wash.

Only thing that kinda stinks, is when we walk out of there...mind you for NEVER NEVER less then $100 we have bought many extras which hurt our "bottom line".

 

[NemoMOm]

We have a little one and the diapers alone make it worth it for us. He is now in size 5 but we get 144 Huggies for $30 -coupon.

 

[Schachteles]

The best thing I can suggest is get one of those one day shopping passes from customer service at your local Walmart and go to Sam's Club and check it out for yourself. Compare prices of what you buy now to what they are there.

One thing to keep in mind with this is that they DO charge a fee for using the day pass...I want to say it is like 10% or something...so watch for that. If you have a friend who is a member you can go with them and just pay seperately but you need to pay with CASH to make that work.

Something else to consider, Sams will only accept AMEX, Discover, Debit cards and cash.... I think they might take checks too but I dont use them anymore so I'm not 100% sure on that.

I don't know if they accept AMEX, but just in the last couple of months (or maybe even weeks) they started to accept Mastercard. I hope that eventually they will start to take VISA since that is what is linked to our checking account. They do take checks...they will have to until they accept all other forms of payment.

 

[PatsMom]

When I lived near a Sams Club I used to find them cheaper for cat litter and dog biscuits. But you really have to do the math on paper goods - generally I could do better on paper towels and toilet paper using coupons when they were on sale at CVS or the grocery store. I don't pay for my Sam's membership - my company provides it for free. They can be good for meat if you don't shop the supermarket sales. The other thing that I like to buy at Sams is books - they generally have the latest best sellers pretty heavily discounted so if I want to splurge and buy a book instead of getting it from the library they are a good choice. I don't like that they won't take coupons.

 

[HayGan]

Something else to consider, Sams will only accept AMEX, Discover, Debit cards and cash.... I think they might take checks too but I dont use them anymore so I'm not 100% sure on that.

Sam's nows accepts Mastercard as well.

 

[disneyfreakk]

I don't know if they accept AMEX, but just in the last couple of months (or maybe even weeks) they started to accept Mastercard. I hope that eventually they will start to take VISA since that is what is linked to our checking account. They do take checks...they will have to until they accept all other forms of payment.

Thank you for correcting me! And since I havent been to Sams in a while, I didnt know they now accepted mastercard! YEAH! We have great reward cards, so I always try to use those on stuff I would buy anyway. However, we have been able to use our visa debit card at Sams for years and years.

 

[HayGan]

One thing to keep in mind with this is that they DO charge a fee for using the day pass...I want to say it is like 10% or something...so watch for that. If you have a friend who is a member you can go with them and just pay seperately but you need to pay with CASH to make that work.

That's only if you buy something. With the pass, it costs you absolutely nothing to go in and look around and make a note of what things cost

 

[Schachteles]

That's only if you buy something. With the pass, it costs you absolutely nothing to go in and look around and make a note of what things cost

You are absolutely right on that...I am just saying, don't think that you can fill up the cart and buy it, I have seen more then my far share of SURPRISED and upset people at the check out because they didn't read the fine print.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Here's how we figure it -- the Sam's Club is on our regular path now (after 12 years of driving 13 miles one way to get there), so when we go, we can literally just run in to get two gallons of milk and not feel like we have to look around at everything.

Milk at Publix: $3.49 / gal.
Milk at CVS: $3.09 / gal. (which I just found out about)
Milk at Sam's: $2.89 / gal.

We go through 12 gallons of milk each month. Between the price at Publix and Sam's, that saves us $86.40 a year. Now that I know we can get it at CVS for less than Publix, our annual savings could be considered to be $28.80.

1/2 gal OJ at Publix: $2.50
1/2 gal OJ at Sam's: $2.24

We go through 8 1/2 gals of OJ a month. Savings: $24.96. So you can see, just between OJ and Milk, we have saved more than the price of the membership.

Our Sam's Club also has gasoline which is generally 3 - 5 cents per gallon less than the other gas stations between our house and Sam's. Sometimes it is even as much as 9 - 11 cents if we catch it at just the right time. But even at 3 cents per gallon less, figuring conservatively that we put in 12 gallons at a time twice a month times two cars times 12 months - that saves $17.xx a year.

The biggest thing about Sam's is knowing what things cost elsewhere and using your calculator to get your unit prices. And not buying stuff just because it's there.

Like someone else mentioned, get a day-pass and go see for yourself. Take a paper / pen / calculator and allow yourself plenty of time to go through the aisles to see what they offer and how much things cost for things you normally buy.