What to buy at the Warehouse Club Stores:

 COSTCO, SAMS, BJ’s

My personal favorites to buy at the warehouse stores:

1. Soy and/or Almond Milk

Consistently cheaper than the grocery store. My Costco sells these in the 3 pack. I’m the only one that drinks it in our house and I still use them in plenty of time before the date is out.

2. Baking items and nuts

Costco has a great price on organic sugar, spices, etc. They also have the best price on pure maple syrup. I can’t find it cheaper anywhere else. You can also purchase almonds, pecans, pine nuts at a terrific price. I really like getting my vanilla extract in bulk too. We bakers need lots of it on hand.

3. Oils

Coconut, extra virgin olive oil, avocado and they have a terrific Mediterranean blend that I like to use for salad dressings and such.

4. Eggs & Butter

I find eggs & butter to be a consistently great price at the warehouse stores so I rarely buy them anywhere else. However, Aldi is sometimes comparable in price.  I can’t speak from experience  on milk because milk prices are regulated in Pennsylvania. It’s pretty much the same price everywhere.

5. Organic chicken,beef and vegetable base (Sold at Costco)

This makes whipping up our infamous soups a bit easier. I don’t have to buy ready prepared broth but I can cut some costs and it’s organic. Makes me happy!

6. Clothes

I know the variety and selection isn’t the best but I have a few favorites: running shoes, a blue belted coat (that I love), socks (for all family members), slippers, fancy dresses for my daughter, bathing suits for my daughter. I just recently picked up Skechers sneakers for my 5-year-old for $16. That’s a deal!

 7. Beach chairs, beach towels and boogie boards.

You can’t beat the prices compared to the beach stores. You just can’t! They sell them almost every year and the quality for the price is hard to find elsewhere.

What others recommend buying:

Cereals

Tip: Wait until there’s a store coupon. Then buy as many as they will allow. Usually there’s a limit of 2 or so.

Peanut Butter

Tip: If you only buy name brand peanut butter and don’t have time to clip coupons you won’t find a cheaper price anywhere else!

Vitamins/Supplements

Tip: My daughter needs to take probiotics now on a regular basis. Costco has the best price hands down. And several times a year they offer a coupon for an additional $4 off. I wait until then and stock up as much as possible.

Meat

Great prices on beef, chicken, etc. Especially if you like to buy in bulk and then freeze a bunch all at one. Tip: I sometimes take my bulk ground beef, brown it all at once. I then freeze it in dinner size portions. When dinner is coming quicker than you imagined, grab it and defrost in the microwave. It’s already browned and ready to go for tacos, sloppy joes, etc.

Diapers

The warehouse clubs are a terrific place to buy diapers. TIP: If you have time to watch sales and clip coupons you’ll probably do better at the drugstores but if not this is a great place to stock up. I’ve also heard great things about Amazon Mom for diapers too.

What my readers recommend:

I did a small survey on what to buy in bulk on Facebook recently. Here are some of my readers thoughts on purchase.

– Jen R. “Cat litter! The BJ’s brand is always the best value even if they have coupons for a brand name!”

– Aleta L. “Paper goods are the best items to buy in bulk (with coupons, of course!), detergent, canned goods….”

– Sharon B. “Sam’s has their boneless chicken breasts right now for 1.77 lb and I always buy romaine lettuce there, 6 heads for under $5…also sometimes they have promotions like $3 off certain items.”

– Pam T. “I save on wipes at BJ’s especially when I have a coupon or they offer one of their coupons. I also save on small paper cups, plastic forks and spoons, pepperoni to name a few.

– Sheila S. ” I always buy my ground beef in bulk.”

– Carla M. “Paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, apple juice, lettuce, bread. Those are the things we buy in bulk the most. They have great clothing there too (Costco), for great prices!”

– Jennifer H. “We are a family of six, so we but a lot of our meat in bulk from Sams, and the quality is excellent. Toilet paper, olive oil, cereal, soup, lots of different food items. We also buy infant formula in bulk at Sams.”

– Michael K. “Diapers is one of a few things that we save on at BJ’s.”

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A warehouse club membership is not for everyone. Especially if…

1. You like to buy everything local.

2.You don’t have space to buy things in bulk.

3. You’re a family of 2-3. (These people could still benefit from a membership but maybe they won’t save as much.)

4. It’s not within close driving distance.

5.You’re a great couponer. See below.

Coupons at the Warehouse Stores

Tip from Melissa R. “Here’s a little known secret about BJ’s, not only do they have store coupons for brand name items, you can combine them with UNLIMITED manufacturers coupons. (Yes, I’ve done it many times) that makes buying in bulk even more cost effective. Diapers, snack foods, Ziploc bags, etc. You name it. If you can take the time to collect the coupons, you can save a lot!”

If you save your family a lot of money using coupons then a warehouse membership may not be a good fit for you. Each club does have it’s own coupons that are offered on a regular basis. But BJ’s is the only one who accepts manufacturer’s coupons. These can be used in addition to the BJ’s store coupons. So for a 6 pack of toothpaste you would be able to use one manufacturer coupon (i.e. one from the Sunday paper) along with a BJ’s store coupon.

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*Disclaimer* These are just my opinions. You may or may not agree. It’s just information I want to share from my experiences.

I love shopping at warehouse stores like Costco, Sams and BJs. I’ve been a member to all 3 so I speak from experience. I have been a member at Costco for about 10 years. I have been a member at BJs for about 5 years. And I have been a member at Sams for about 3 years.

Some things to note about warehouse clubs in general.

– All charge a yearly membership fee ranging from $45 – $55 a year.

– All have limited brands that are sold. Because of the bulk size of products they do not offer 10 varieties of peanut butter  or 30 varieties of yogurt.

What are your best tips from buying at the warehouse stores??? I’d love to hear in the comments section.