Sam's or Costco - do they really save you $$

[Princesca]

I have not had good luck saving at those types of stores. I would try mealtimemakeover.com if you want help saving money on food. I can't vouch for their "non-regular" meal plans (i.e. gluten free, vegetarian, low-carb) but their regular ones are delicious and take advantage of items that are in season, to save you money, and if you choose a store-specific plan, they take sales into account too.

 

[cbg1027]

Wholesale clubs can be a deal depending on what you buy and how much you need. There are a lot of factors that determine whether it's a good idea for your family.

Are you brand loyal or do you shop for the best deal? Wholesale clubs have a smaller selection. For instance, my Costco only carries a few brands of toilet paper: Kirkland (the house generic brand), 1 type of Charmin, Scott, and Cottonelle. Once in a while, one of those name brands might change.

The everyday items everyone uses are the things where you save money. But not everything in the store is priced cheaper than somewhere else. So you need to be aware of what prices are like for the items you shop for.
For instance, my Costco always has a small selection of books. While they sell for less than MSRP, the prices are generally more expensive than Amazon.

So remember that just because it's in a wholesale club, doesn't mean that's it's priced super cheap.

Also know how much of something you'll use. The produce in Costco is usually really nice, but I can't buy any of it because as a one person, I would end up throwing a lot of it out since I can't eat it all before it goes bad. So when you buy perishable items, be sure that you will use it up before it goes bad. Otherwise you're not saving any money on that item.

As a person living alone, believe it or not I save money with my Costco membership. But I did some math before I got the membership to be sure it was worth it.

Just buying some select major everyday items saves me money over the grocery store or Wal-Mart/Target:
Paper Towels - go through these really quickly with a lot of animals
Toilet Paper
Cat Litter - I have 5 cats, so I go through a lot of this.
Canned Drinks
Laundry Detergent - again, I go through a ton very quickly because of pets


I would suggest going to whichever store and browsing one day. You can look without a membership. See if they have things you need and look at prices. Only way to really figure out it's a money saver is to do some good old fashioned number crunching.

 

[tasha99]

I think you save on produce and bulk items at Costco, but not the packs of branded convenience food ( cans of spagettios or chili etc). The meat isn't really cheaper than grocery store meat, but it's much higher quality. I like to buy the cryopacks and cut them into steaks, then freeze them.

 

[puffkin]

No, I don't think it is worth it in most cases unless you are extremely disciplined. I make out much better buying smaller boxes of stuff and using multiple coupons at the grocery store and stocking up when they run sales.

The few things I did find consistently cheaper were trash bags and Press 'N Seal (I am not a brand name snob with pretty much anything else, but I will only use press 'n seal). My inlaws have a membership to BJ's so we just go with them once a year and stock up on those.

I also found that when I buy anything in bulk "snack" wise we tend to eat a lot more of it so it doesn't really save me any money. It is worth it to just stick to a box or two at a time from the grocery store.

 

[TinkTock]

We pay for our Costco membership just with the cheaper gasoline. It happens to be in a very convenient place for us to fill our cars. Not all Costco's sell gasoline, so that might not be relevant for you.

 

[disneygal58]

We love Costco - it is our neighborhood "grocery" store. We live in a resort area and save at least 20 cents per gallon on gas, find affordable bottles of decent wine (under $12)plus the savings on both dog and "people" food etc... For us it is well worth the cost of membership.

 

[SPBendersky]

Costco is a saver for all those items you are buying in bulk vs small package portions. Pacgageing is the majority of the cost when you are buying in super market. Be careful though you need to know your prices to get the deals. If you own a businees I suggest a resturant depot card. We save a boat load on meat and other items.

 

[RachaelA]

Oooh we also save a ton of money on razors refills and DH's acid reflux medicine.

 

[brivers222]

while certain things are worse of a price at Costco, some other things are quite the bargin. But what I especially LOVE is their 100% return policy with no length as long as you have your receipt. I buy all my electronics from them and keep the receipts. I had an Xbox for 6 years and it died... walked in with my xbox and receipt and they gave me a new one no questions asked. Also bought a Toilet and a year later brought it back because it just wasnt working right... (water saver is not the smartest to help stop clogs lol) they took it back and gave me a FULL refund.

 

[madge]

if we did nothing else but buy the Costco brand Zyrtec & my DS' contacts, we'd still come out ahead after paying the membership fee. $17.99 for a year's supply of Zyrtec is a steal, and I've priced contacts online and off, and they're cheaper than anyplace I can find, and that's before rebates & a coupon!

my favorite (not necessarily best ) Costco deal was earlier this summer. They had some kind of frozen fruit bar in the coupon book -- I ended up getting 4 grocery store packages for less than $7. I priced them at Kroger several times over the summer and they never went lower than $3.50/box. I wish I'd bought more at the time.

 

[Mikey'swife]

It can if pay attention to unit cost as well as only buy items you plan to eat.

Ground meat, bananas, oj, milk, cheese, hot dog/hamburger buns, eggs are all good deals.

Water, caprisons, are also good buys. I avoid the tp, paper towels since I can get coupon and sale deals better.

I try to have a budget and a plan.

You can also save by having lunch if yours has a deli because you can get a drink and pizza or hotdog for 2-3 dollars which is pretty cheap.

At 40 dollars for the year you need to save about 3 a month to break even so I am pretty sure you could do that. Buying large ziploc bags and freezing can really help. I buy butter, cheese and hamburger 1 time per month. I divide it when I get home and stick 1 weeks in the fridge and 3 weeks in the freezer. That way I always have plenty.

 

[aclov]

LOVE Costco and even their Kirkland brand is good! Including the beer and vodka I went to Sam's for an open house they had one day free membership and didn't care for it, I just got a coupon yesterday for $10 off to join.

Especially for parties and holidays it's great. I brought a birthday cake over the weekend, very reasonable and everyone loved it, best chocolate cake I ever tasted!

 

[aclov]

while certain things are worse of a price at Costco, some other things are quite the bargin. But what I especially LOVE is their 100% return policy with no length as long as you have your receipt. I buy all my electronics from them and keep the receipts. I had an Xbox for 6 years and it died... walked in with my xbox and receipt and they gave me a new one no questions asked. Also bought a Toilet and a year later brought it back because it just wasnt working right... (water saver is not the smartest to help stop clogs lol) they took it back and gave me a FULL refund.

My coworker returned a box of snack bars because her family didn't like it. She had only eaten one or two but they gave her a full refund.

 

[girli565]

At Costco we buy:

Meats (chicken breast & thighs, ground turkey, flank steaks, flap meat which is a smilar cut to a skirt steak, pork chops, and the chicken/apple sausage)

Dairy (milk, butter, eggs). The butter seems to be an amazing deal even when butter is on sale at the grocery store it's still at least $1-2 more than buying it at costco.

snacks like the 100 cal packs and sometimes the Special K fruit bars when they have them.

Medicines: my mom has to take prilosec once a day and they have the kirkland brand for a 45 day supply at $18, can't beat that. We also but kirkland brand aleve, tylenol, and zantac. Pepto Bismol is ridiculously cheap at costco, $7.99 for two huge bottles. I've seen it at target and walmart at $7.99 for one regular size bottle.

oh and wanted to add... we buy the 6-pack of chicken stock (I use this instead of water in a lot of my cooking) and it's amazingly good. it's the kirkland brand. i buy the regular not organic, I wasn't crazy about it, it seemed to lack flavor.

 

[girli565]

LOVE Costco and even their Kirkland brand is good! Including the beer and vodka I went to Sam's for an open house they had one day free membership and didn't care for it, I just got a coupon yesterday for $10 off to join.

Especially for parties and holidays it's great. I brought a birthday cake over the weekend, very reasonable and everyone loved it, best chocolate cake I ever tasted!

The beer I've seen in the main store and have been wanting to try it, but I haven't seen the vodka, is the vodka in the liquor store part?

 

[lukenick1]

I think Costco's rotisserie chickens are a great deal at $4.99. Also they have great cheap bagels, one dozen for $4.99. I recently found honey to be a great bargain. 1lb jar of honey at the local grocery store (store brand) cost me $6. Got a 5lb jug of honey at Costco for $10. I love Costco but tend to over buy when there. My favorite is their shrimp cocktail....soooo yummy!

 

[DisneyDizzy]

We save money by shopping there just because it keeps me out of the grocery store. I can stock up every few months and then limit my trips to the grocery to running in and grabbing fresh fruit, veggies and milk. We have a Sam's membership but have been considering Costco. When we went to look around Costco we really liked it but we felt like it had more already prepped stuff.

Anyway, we love to go to Sam's club especially around the Holidays. It's nice to try some of their party appetizers and convenience foods for when we're really busy. We've always found the meat to be cheaper, in general.

 

[Leshaface]

LOVE Costco and even their Kirkland brand is good! Including the beer and vodka I went to Sam's for an open house they had one day free membership and didn't care for it, I just got a coupon yesterday for $10 off to join.

Especially for parties and holidays it's great. I brought a birthday cake over the weekend, very reasonable and everyone loved it, best chocolate cake I ever tasted!

How does the beer taste? What can you compare it to? I've tried the vodka and it's pretty decent!

At Costco we buy:

Meats (chicken breast & thighs, ground turkey, flank steaks, flap meat which is a smilar cut to a skirt steak, pork chops, and the chicken/apple sausage)

Dairy (milk, butter, eggs). The butter seems to be an amazing deal even when butter is on sale at the grocery store it's still at least $1-2 more than buying it at costco.

snacks like the 100 cal packs and sometimes the Special K fruit bars when they have them.

Medicines: my mom has to take prilosec once a day and they have the kirkland brand for a 45 day supply at $18, can't beat that. We also but kirkland brand aleve, tylenol, and zantac. Pepto Bismol is ridiculously cheap at costco, $7.99 for two huge bottles. I've seen it at target and walmart at $7.99 for one regular size bottle.

oh and wanted to add... we buy the 6-pack of chicken stock (I use this instead of water in a lot of my cooking) and it's amazingly good. it's the kirkland brand. i buy the regular not organic, I wasn't crazy about it, it seemed to lack flavor.

You're so RIGHT about the butter! Great buy! Especially around the cooler months when i'm baking more!

 

[budafam]

It saves us money but we limit our trips to maybe once every 2 months or less than that even. Our nearest Sam's Club is a 40 min. drive so it's waaaay out of our way. We buy for family & friends when we go as well. Our membership ran out in July so we did one last trip and loaded up. I won't renew our membership till we run out of everything (we should be good for another 3 months at least). I mainly use it for dog food, snacks & frozen goods. We also use the click & pull option so everything is waiting for us when we go to pick it up. No walking through the store and doing any impulse shopping. I think that really helps.

 

[Leshaface]

It saves us money but we limit our trips to maybe once every 2 months or less than that even. Our nearest Sam's Club is a 40 min. drive so it's waaaay out of our way. We buy for family & friends when we go as well. Our membership ran out in July so we did one last trip and loaded up. I won't renew our membership till we run out of everything (we should be good for another 3 months at least). I mainly use it for dog food, snacks & frozen goods. We also use the click & pull option so everything is waiting for us when we go to pick it up. No walking through the store and doing any impulse shopping. I think that really helps.

WHAT?! Who does this? I think that's a GREAT idea!