I have my favorite club membership store. I love the good deals, the free samples, and the cheap pizza in the cafeteria. It is my guilty pleasure. But is the club membership the best idea for shopping and saving money? Let’s take a look.
Not using the membership smartly
When we first got the membership we went every other weekend. We would end up spending $300, but we justified it because we got a lot of stuff. However, when we got home we realized that we had nothing for dinner that night. We had a 12-pack of Mushroom soup, but not all of the ingredients to make a casserole. I would buy medicine in bulk but it would expire before I was able to use it all. I also noticed that in some cases it was bigger supply, but I could have purchased the same thing at the local grocery store.
Where do I find the bargains?
The bottom line is that you can save money with a club membership but you have to do your homework. Every store is different but I was able to find significant bargains in things like laundry detergent, veggie trays, pizza, gummy vitamins, dishwasher tabs, and sliced cheese. But you don’t need all of that stuff every week.
Where do I need to be cautious?
Where I do NOT find deals are with “every day” things like cereal, bread and kitty litter. Those go on sale at the regular store and you can get them for much cheaper (especially if you have a coupon).
I also find that there isn’t a lot of variety at the club membership. Sure they change stuff out every once in a while, but my kids got really sick of a lot of the stuff we kept buying.
If you are driving across town to get the club discount on gas, then you are wasting time, money and energy. There are often gas stations closer to your house than the club.
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How do I shop smarter?
The answer to that is to use a club membership in moderation and go there with a budget. Don’t go every week. Go once a month at most. Use the coupons they provide ONLY for something that you know that you will use that week (remember they do not allow outside coupons).
I have written an article on how to save at the grocery store, and I will repeat some of that here: only shop for the week. If you buy more than you need a week, then you are using more money on food than you need to.
If you are spending more money on food than you need to, you are sacrificing it somewhere else. Is there something that you are saving up to buy? Do you live paycheck to paycheck? Do you have credit card debt? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then cutting down on the groceries is the first place to start.
Is the “corporate membership” worth the cost?
After a few years of membership, the club representatives talked me into going for the corporate membership which offered me cash back. At first, I made enough cash back to pay for the membership. But then I started going less and less, so the cash back rebates were less than half of my cost of the corporate memberships. So keep all of that in mind when you are deciding what membership plan to choose.
No doubt about it — the membership stores are fun. Just be careful to only get what you need. Don’t get the giant role of holiday paper if you are going to get sick of it. Don’t get the giant veggie tray if it wilts and grows mold before it is eaten. Even now when we don’t save enough to justify going over there, it is so fun that we have decided that we are going to keep it another year.
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