Shopping At Warehouse Clubs And Overspending

In My Humble Opinion
21

We use some canned fruits, and prefer the DelMonte peaches in a jar to peaches in a can; Costco offers the best prices on them. My middle daughter is hooked on Campbell’s (has to be Campbells’, she doesn’t “do” generic) chicken noodle soup. It’s consistently cheaper than the grocery store.

We find better prices, though, on slightly higher ticket items; high-count thread sheets; 100% Egyptian cotton bath towels; my SimpleHuman dish drainer; DVD’s,

Also, stuff we use a lot of that doesn’t go bad/can be frozen (efficiently, space-wise): Splenda (which I use in my coffee every morning), good-quality coffee beans.

When we lived in a household of 7-8 adults and one child, bulk packaged meat made sense at Costco. It doesn’t any more, now that it’s typically me and my 9YO at home, and hubby about eight days a month.

What we never thought was worth it: pet food, soft drinks. No saving there.

I’d have to say that our savings on electronics and hubby’s contacts are worth the yearly fee. Plus, if we go to the Costco in WV or VA, I can buy some really nice wine or high-quality beer for excellent prices!

Biggest saving? Definitely electronics! Our printer came from Costco, as did our flat-screen TV for our bedroom. Not only are electronics very competitively priced, but their warranty can’t be beat!

22

Total Costco junkie. There almost every week. But OTOH only go to any “regular” grocery store ( or any other store) once every month or so now. Their samples have introduced us to some products we now stock as staples. Other products we try out for awhile just to have something different. We probably do over-buy.

Their bakery items are quite good, but we rarely buy them because we can’t eat that much of them before they end up going bad.

Fruits and veggies are consistently good quality, but we need to be careful there too, since,like bakery, it is hard to eat it all before it goes bad.

I could throw out 1/2 of a bag of chips from Costco and still save money over what Krogers wants to charge me per bag. In fact, same applies to the previously mentioned bakery and fruits and veg. We could throw out 1/2 and still save over what Krogers charges.

The price of their gasoline is always pretty good too.

I fairly much exclusively drink Maker’s Mark bourbon, and find the price at Costco saves me so much over retail that over the course of a year that alone nearly pays for the membership.

23

Costco shopper all the way. Many of these others have also mentioned:
-Toilet paper - they have the biggest, cheapest, rolls anywhere, and good quality, two-ply.
-Laundry detergent - 14 for a 200-load bucket. -Whipping cream - don't remember the price, but it's incredibly high-fat cream you can find - I think 40%. I rarely need it, though, and not a half-gallon of it! (Well, maybe I do...) Though you can freeze portions if you think you'll be cooking with it. Somebody else mentioned the 1/2 & 1/2, too. -Fresh Pesto sauce - a 22-oz jar for what my grocery store charges for 8 oz. Keep it frozen, use as needed. -Cat litter - great price for scoopable. -Batteries - .07 ea for AA’s.
-Canned food, name brands - if you need the name brand, it’s a better price than the grocery store. Mr. needscoffee will eat only Hormel chili, for example.
-Ling Ling Potstickers
-Frozen Kirkland lasagna
-Pre-formed hamburger patties & ground beef - Costco is the only place I know that will stock ground beef only from single sources to lower the chance of E Coli. The chubs of the leanest ground beef is as cheap as you can find anywhere. The bulk ground beef in higher fat percentages is comparable to other stores around here, but, again, single-source meat.
-1/2 sheet cake for parties if you need a big, cheap cake.
-Frozen taquitos, burritos, etc.
-Real maple syrup - best price anywhere.
-BBQ sauce - bigger size, cheaper bottle
-Rice - cheaper than Chinatown
-Bread - every size, shape, and variety, CHEAP. Plus, the Kirkland brand bread is $2 or $3 bucks for two 2lb loaves. The buns are also really cheap. The pita bread prices are cheaper than anywhere else, also.
-Broccoli florets
-Actually, all of the fresh produce. I’ve never seen better prices at grocery stores. Even for potatoes and onions.
-Coffee beans - $9 for 2.5 lbs of fresh-roasted beans, right out of the roaster. And at my local Costco, Starbucks roasts and packages their other label pre-packaged shelf coffee beans for them.
-Fresh garlic cloves - a jar of peeled cloves costs the same as a cluster of unpeeled heads, and it is HUGE! I have to share it with my neighbors.
I’m tired of typing and I’ve only just begun.

24

We are a family of four, and we still go shopping at Costco and give half our produce (when we buy it) to friends or family. Its the “we went shopping at Costco and you guys are getting red peppers, avocados, romaine, and mushrooms!” phone call. Sometimes they pay us, usually we refuse to take payment even when offered.

Meat I’ll repackage, and my basement is large enough to house extra paper towels and toilet paper. But the produce…that needs to find another home.

25

I do not belong to a warehouse club. I’m single and it is more wasteful for me to “stock up” on certain things, nor do I have that kind of storage space.

BUT I do go to Costco when I need a prescription as they are more reasonable than the local pharmacies. Pharmacies are regulated by the state; therefore, a warehouse club cannot restrict using the pharmacy to only members–the pharmacy must be open to the general public. When I go in I just tell whoever is at the door that I am going to the pharmacy. They ask for your card # at the pharmacy but it is not required. I just say I am not a member.

26

It’s great for us. Our Costco account is for business; I buy stuff like snacks and soft drinks for resale there. I also order meds through their pharmacy and get huge savings.

27

I love CostCo, but when I first joined I fell into the trap of buying 1) too much stuff, and 2) stuff that I wouldn’t use (but was a good deal). It took a year or so, but I finally hit upon the best way to control my spending: DON’T GET A CART.
That is, only buy what you can carry. This will seriously limit you to only buying what you really need. There will be the once-a-year trip when you need to get the toilet paper/paper towels/or kleenex pack that will be too cumbersome to carry, so I’ll get a cart then. But all my other trips I limit myself to what I can carry. Works wonders.

28

Is that correct? I’m not good with math, but it seems to me that you’re going about it wrong to figure if it is worth it. You could easily spend $500 or more if you chose to, but if you were spending that just for the sake of “breaking even” and buying things you would not normally buy or that you don’t need or use, then it still is not “worth” the membership is it? It is just costing you more in the long run (hence the findings of overspending).

To me it is “worth it” if I save more than the cost of membership buying things I would buy anyway. And that usually happens easily each month, but especially around Christmas. I live very close to a Sam’s Club though, so it is not out of my way and I do not do the once a month (or once a quarter or year) stocking up that many people do. Instead I will stop in and pick up one or two items at a time when I need them. One week it will be laundry products, one week trash bags, etc. On things that I need and would purchase elsewhere if I had to, I manage to save significantly and the membership really does “pay for itself” to my mind. If I had to drive out of my way or if it was inconvenient or if I did not have the time to devote to it, then I might think otherwise. But I have not found myself spending more because of it- just the opposite. It does take a little discipline and knowing prices elsewhere (to know if you are really getting a deal- on many things you are not!) to make it work.

29

You have the key, but the Consumer Reports article brings to light most of the warehouse shoppers don’t do this, or they compromise it

For instance if you shop for the things that you need and save $100 and then take that $100 and buy a new DVD player from the warehouse, when you didn’t really need a DVD player at all you’re not actually saving anything.

One could argue since you saved the $100 it’s like getting a DVD player free, but it’s not really savings, since the money isn’t saved but spent

I think this is the practice that gets people. Even if they are actually making savings, instead of “saving” the extra they spend it, thus the net result is the same or even worse as they get tempted.

30

They’ve just opened a CostCo down in Melbourne and the news was running a similar story- people dropping in for a stickybeak and maybe to get some bread and milk, and then buying supplies in quantities usually associated with polar expeditions and the like.

31

People are funny that way. My Dad turned into a Costco junky. He’d come out of there with a car full of stuff every week. He could afford it so there was no great harm, but it sure wasn’t making much sense.

After he died and we were clearing out the house, we found 6 one-gallon jars of French’s mustard in the pantry. For a household with two people in their 60s. Dad liked a dab of mustard on his sandwiches, but jeez. That would have been a lifetime supply had he lived to 150.

The expiration dates on the jugs were different enough that we concluded they weren’t all bought on the same day. But they were all bought within a year or so; these weren’t leftovers from when I was a kid.

There was lots of other over buying; the mustard just makes the best story.

32

I love Costco. I’m single and live alone and it’s still a great deal for me.

The biggest thing is fruits and vegetables. Around here, most of the grocery stores have either bad quality or insanely expensive produce, unless you always just want the standard cheap stuff (bananas, onions, baby carrots, etc.). I eat a lot of fruits and veggies every day, and it just gets expensive. I am happy to buy the things that I like in large quantities. They also have a lot of exotic things that I can’t get at a local store (at least not in at all similar quality, or price) during the various seasons of the year. I go in, see what looks good, and buy 2 or 3 big bags. Most fruit or vegetable stores for a surprisingly long time in the fridge.

I also use the dairy foods a lot. The Greek yogurt they carry is outstanding and a staple at my house. There’s a huge price advantage in things like good quality cheese, too (or the little single serving cheeses I use a lot when losing weight). I also like the bakery for things like the sandwich slims. Whole wheat bread is often cheaper on sale at the local grocery, though.

Frozen foods is another good area. I eat a lot of fish (I’m a former vegetarian who now eats seafood), which also gets expensive – check my location, it’s not like I can buy local – and the local groceries tend to only put the flavored / battered / cheap stuff on sale. I like to get things like salmon burgers, tuna steaks, bags of shrimp, and so on. I have a deep freeze which came with my house, so big bags of frozen fish don’t adversely affect me. Big bags of frozen vegetables are often also a good deal, though there’s less selection than in fresh. Also, if you’re throwing a party, the frozen appetizers are awesome!

I don’t shop as much through the dry goods. Once in awhile I will pick up something (giant jar of capers $5, at my local store a tiny jar is $3.99) but it needs to be something I really like or will store well. Things like cans of black beans, cans of soup, etc.

The thing about Costco is that they rotate out stock so by the time you’re done with that big case of soup, chances are they have a different kind now. This can be frustrating if you find something you really like – I still check for that mocha-flavored protein drink every time, and it’s been gone for a long time – but it does mean that there is a lot of new stuff to try. I’m not a terribly picky person so I’ve never gotten something so bad I wouldn’t eat it. Also, they rotate the samplers through a lot of stuff so you can try a lot of things ahead of time if you visit often.

The things I tend not to buy there are protein bars and shakes, which for some reason have a far inferior selection to Sam’s Club, and things like cleaning supplies or paper goods, which you can often find cheaper elsewhere and in less ridiculous quantities. I do like their no-scent detergent though.

Do I overspend? I can’t remember ever getting something I didn’t use, other than occasionally spoiled produce if I forget I have something or get really busy. I don’t get things in quantities I know that I’ll never use, like condiments. I mean, why? If it takes me a year or two to get through a normal size container, I don’t need six containers. I guess I do have some salad dressing hanging around that I need to get through, but to be fair, my mom twisted my arm on that one since she said it was so awesome. I guess you just have to think, “will I get through ten pounds of flour in the near future”? If the answer is no, don’t get it. But not all things are in such quantities – milk is in gallons, for example. But to me, the point isn’t so much buying in bulk, but that Costco just has better stuff and/or better prices on the stuff I eat a lot of.

33

I belong to Sam’s since there is no Costco near enough for me.

I use DaVincis flavored syrups (sugar free) and cream in my coffee everyday. I am addicted to the caramel flavor, especially. My biggest savings are in those two items, the syrup in particular.

Sam’s charges $4.37 per bottle, coffee shops charge $8 per bottle, and I can get them online at $7 per bottle but then I have to pay shipping. I go through a bottle per week, so it adds up.

Cream by the quart at Sam’s is nearly cheaper than what the local grocery charges for a pint. Cream keeps a long time. Also, since I use cream & syrup in my coffee I buy cheaper beans - again at Sam’s. $9 buys a 2 lb. bag of the Velvet Hammer beans.

I also buy Sam’s ball tip sirloins. I hate fat on my steaks, so sirloin is perfect for me. It is usually $2.97 lb. My SO prefers ribeye, and those are $7 per lb. Meat freezes well so there is no problem buying the larger packages.

Colored bell peppers are $6 for 6 of them (2 ea. orange/red/yellow) when they are around $2 ea. at the grocery. They keep long enough for me to eat them, too.

I pretty much have a set list I use at Sam’s, and I do about 80% of all my grocery shopping there.

The best one-time deal I got there is the laptop I am using to type this post on. It is an HP tablet PC. I saw it online at $560, and when I got over to Sam’s it turns out the only one they had in stock was a return. It looks like someone was looking for a tablet PC and just bought this one to compare it to others - all the wrapping was intact and I found computer printouts in the box comparing different brands of tablets. The price was knocked down to $420 while most other places (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.) were asking around $899 for it.

34

We go for the following at Costco:

Toilet paper
Paper towels
Coffee
Diapers
Infant formula
Proscuitto
Top Sirloin
Tri-Tip Steak
flank Steak.

The diapers and infant formula made it worthwhile since they tend to be a bargain compared to what they cost elsewhere.

35

I wonder about this though. I think people who walk into Costco or Sam’s Club and walk out with a DVD player they don’t need are just as likely to get the DVD player they don’t need at Target picking up dryer sheets or at Best Buy grabbing a DVD or at Wal Mart stopping by for kitchen towels (or at the grocery store! I saw them there last year at Christmas time.). I’m not sure if Costco is more likely to have you picking up a DVD player or not.

36

My parents haven’t had kids in the house for ten years, and at no point has there been decent space in their refrigerator. My mom cannot pass up a sale on food, so instead of operating on the edge of going hungry, they operate on the edge of physical ability to find storage space. This is not helped by the fact that my dad has never had to cook for himself at any point in his life, and he insists on a variety in his meals that I think is just pompous.

37

I’m actually on my dad’s card at Sam’s Club, so I don’t pay a thing myself for the membership (though I think he pays about $35 a year for it, but he goes there all the time).
Anyway it’s a good place to get stuff that you use a lot of, like soap. The jumbo pack there cost us eight bucks and has lasted my wife and I about six months. Their giant jug of laundry detergent cost us about $12 and lasted almost nine months.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything there that I didn’t end up using.

38

We have a membership at BJ’s, we are a two person, 1 dog, 2 cat household.

I like it for paper towels, toilet paper, tissues and laundry detergent. They often have cat litter for $11.99 for 35 lbs of Tidy Cat, which I can’t find cheaper except for special sales in other stores.

Our house goes through yogurt like water, so it is easier to buy a 24-pack of it at BJ’s and save a couple of cents. If I buy fresh fruit and veg, I usually split with my sister or it is for a special occasion large meal where none will go to waste.

The generic Zyrtec at BJ’s was $17.50 for 100 tablets, can’t beat that. Razor blades are hit or miss, depends on your brand.

I haven’t had to throw anything away because I bought too much of it there.

39

Costco has great meat. The vons has really weird cuts of meat. With these stickers on the packages saying sliced thin to save you money.
It has decent booze not the greatest selection but good prices.
I like it for things like toilet paper, soda etc. Stuff that wont spoil.
The one right near my house has a gas station that consistently has the lowest priced gas in reasonable driving distance.

40

We get some great deals, but I’ve done some comparison shopping and found that a lot of the groceries are almost exactly the same price per pound as the supermarket. Plus my wife started buying spices in restaurant sized packaging - I have no idea how I’m going to use 2 pounds of cumin before it goes bad.