Is it really worth getting a Costco or Sam's Club Membership? (old, price)

[usmcfamily]

Hi! I love Costco. The gas prices are so much cheaper, it's worth it.

I hate grocery shopping and love buying in bulk. Less trips to the store! Costco is great for laundry detergent, dish detergent, toiletries and vitamins. Their salmon price is very good, too!

[Narfcake]

It depends on your purchasing habits and your consumption ...

- If you use up some things a lot, ie. diapers.
- If they have the cheapest gas in town.
- You don't mind things in giant packages.
- You rather one-stop shop.

It's not worth it if ...
- You already have a nicely priced supermarket nearby.
- A couple extra stops to different places doesn't bother.
- You simply don't consume enough.

For me, I can't justify it. There's a Winco Foods (a supermarket the size of a Home Depot!) that's not too far from here, I thrift shop, I'm still on the same bucket of homemade laundry detergent (borax/washing soda/fels naptha) from last year that averages about 5 cents/load, and buying stuff online or on sale from other nearby stores isn't any issue.

[f_m]

Depends on what you get. I get gas at Costco when I'm nearby, and the Amex you can use gets 3% back, so in addition to the 10 cents less than regular stations (Shell) the gas savings pay back more than my membership cost.

[plf86]

i dont have one

Typically sales at grocery stores will see the same items go on sale every 6 to 8 weeks. If it aint on sale i dont buy, When it is on sale I buy enough to get through at least two months.

[subsound]

I love ours, we have had it a good 5 years now and I love it. Bulk canned goods, coffee, electronics (esp Costco), meat, TP....it's usually a good bit cheaper and I hate shopping with a passion that I like to have it all set for a bit. If you watch the grocery stores you can get a better price about half the time, but I find it time consuming to see which ones are really a deal in comparison, the savings are more likely to be small between the two, and often what I need to use is often not on sale when I need it in a recipie.

[Rhenzanite]

We originally got a costco membership to buy a tv. The savings on the tv more than paid for the card and now we go there once a month or so for meats, wine and liquor. There's a Bevmo in the same shopping center as our Costco but the prices are soooo much cheaper at Costco.

[DarlaLogan]

Originally Posted by FLGAL76

... I just don't want to have to shop there and get so much then turn around and shop another store or two to get everything we need.

Years ago, I took the time to compare prices at Sam’s Club with those at supermarkets. The savings made it well worth my while to shop there for many items, but I still had to go to a supermarket or specialty store for certain things. I planned meals and made lists so I could do the Sam’s Club/Asian market/Big Y circuit without impulse buying my way into the poor house.

It’s the same where we live now, except it’s BJ’s/WalMart/Stop & Shop. If you have the room and a smidgen of organization, shopping at such places can save you a bundle.

[dpgtfc]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

Since we're a small family (just the two of us) we don't make back the yearly $50 membership in savings. If you can buy and use in bulk and IF you know the standard store cost for items you can save money at Costco, but they count on those impulse buys. A lot of stuff there isn't any cheaper than other stores, per unit cost.

It's also 75 miles from our home, which adds cost and just makes it not worth it.

My wife and I have a membership and we more than make up the difference (i.e there are just two of us).

Some things aren't necessarily cheaper, but a gallon of milk there is about 2.50 here in Missouri. At a grocery store it runs 3.50 or so, IIRC. So that is 50 dollars right there (yes, we go through a gallon of milk a week).

We also buy bulk chicken breasts, which for like 7 lbs runs 16 dollars. Wings and tenders are cheaper, but we like the breasts. I'm pretty sure even at wallmart breasts run about 2.99 a lb. So that saves us quite a bit in the long haul.

Eggs are crazy cheap, 3 dollars and something for two 18 packs. Not a huge savings I suppose (about 9-11 cents per egg, so 1.30 or so for a dozen, but they usually run 1.89 or so for a 12 count of large eggs)

Veggies in bulk are harder, but 3 something for a huge plastic thing of spring mix lettuce is cheap compared to the little bags that run 2-3 dollars at walmart. We buy a lot of fruit that is pretty cheap, as well as veggies that last a long time.

My wife likes Bagels, and Sams club has 2 packs of 6 bagels for 4.50 or so, of Sara Lee, which IIRC, runs about 2.99 at the grocery store for 1 package. So we freeze one and save a little bit of money.

Over a year this all adds up, and has saved us about 250+ dollars on our grocery bills.

We still do some shoping at a grocery store and farmers markets though.

*we don't eat a bunch of junk food, but we do save a bunch on wine and beer there too.

[Mike from back east]

Honest answer: Maybe. Depends on your requirements and situation.

For the two of us, we can only take advantage of those food items that are non-perishable and won't expire anytime soon, i.e., mostly canned goods or similar items with very long shelf life, or paper products, etc. We cannot eat enough Cheerios quick enough to buy the super mega mammoth monster box, etc, maybe if I ran a day-care or motel....

Costco seems to have a better class of merchandise than most any club.

We get to Costco once in a while. We made our $50 fee back in 2008 by saving a couple hundred dollars on 4 Michelin tires.

[RjRobb2]

I've done the math and most items are the relatively same price as buying at Wal-mart or the grocery store it is just that you can get them in bulk which saves you trips which in turn saves you time and money.