How I save money with my Sam's Warehouse Club Membership.

Warehouse Club

Sam's Warehouse Club benefits far outweigh the cost of membership. There are four levels of membership available: Advantage Membership at $40, Advantage Plus Membership at $100, Business Membership at $35, and Business Plus Membership at $100. While all the warehouse club memberships offer the same basic privileges, the Plus Memberships offer early shopping hours and eValuesSM.

I have the Advantage Membership; and year in and year out, I save more than enough to justify the $40 membership fee. Recently, they added the eValuesSM program, and I am considering upgrading to that membership. eValuesSM is a program where you can save even more because discounts are added to your membership card so that when you checkout at the register discounts are applied to certain items.

This warehouse club offers a wide variety of goods and services. In addition to buying grocery items, you can also purchase a large variety of other items from antifreeze to toy zebras and everything in between. Seasonally, they carry many items to help you decorate for holidays such as Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, and Halloween. They also offer extra food items to help you prepare for your celebration of these and other holidays.

The warehouse club will help you save money on groceries because they buy in large quantities, and they pass the savings onto their customers. Also, the items they purchase are usually in bulk quantities. So, instead of purchasing one box of whole grain Penne pasta, they offer a box of Barilla whole grain pasta containing four boxes of Penne and four boxes of Rotini pasta, all for $8.29. In my local chain grocery store, they want $1.39 for one box or $11.12 for eight boxes; making savings on this pantry staple $2.83 on eight or $.35 per box.

Another food staple is Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. I purchase a shrink wrap pack of ten cans for $8.88. My local chain grocery store sells one can for $1.33 or $13.30 for ten cans. The savings on ten cans of soup is $4.42 or $.44 cents per can when purchased from the warehouse club. Ten cans may seem like a lot of Cream of Mushroom Soup, but when you consider how often you use it in recipes, or just as a great bowl of soup, it doesn't last long.

While many items are sold in bulk packaging, not all everyday grocery items are. For instance, milk is sold by the gallon, some chips by the bag, wine by the bottle, many health and beauty items are sold individually, etc.

Domino granulated sugar is sold in a ten pound bag for $5.13 at my Sam's Warehouse Club. In my local chain grocery store, they sell five pound bags for $3.69. Ten pounds of granulated sugar, purchased in two five pound bags, would cost $7.38. That makes a savings of $2.25 on ten pounds of sugar.

I purchase liquid soap to use in my sensor soap dispensers from the warehouse club. I buy their brand, Member's Mark Moisturizing Hand Soap (Aloe Vera) in the one gallon size refill jug, and I pay $5.98 for it. I will compare this to the Soft Soap brand sold at Walmart in the 56 fluid ounce size for $4.97. Since there are 128 fluid ounces in one gallon, that means the warehouse club brand sells for $.0467 per ounce, whereas the Soft Soap brand sells for $.0887 per ounce. I know store brands usually sell for less than name brands, but sometimes the store brand is just as good or perhaps better.

One of my husband's favorite purchases from Sam's Warehouse Club is from their Cafe. Our store in Richmond, VA sells a large beef Nathan's hot dog or Polish sausage on a bun with a large drink for $1.50. What a lunch deal! In fact, I think he sometimes just goes shopping with me to indulge in this treat. For dessert, to go along with his lunch, they make an ice cream sundae with a delicious fruit topping for $1.50. So, lunch out for both of us costs $6.00 plus tax. They also offer soft pretzels, whole or slices of pizza, and salads. Our particular store is clean, and they maintain excellent county health department food service inspections.

Apply these savings across everything you buy for your pantry, and you will see that you can easily save money with a warehouse club membership. Also, this warehouse club carries many other items such as furniture, flooring, cameras, computers, printers, and ink cartridges. They also carry a selection of clothing for the entire family.

Many other services are offered by this warehouse club including a pharmacy, tires, optical department, photo developing, and travel arrangements.

While out shopping at our warehouse club, my husband also takes advantage of their discounted gas price by filling up our car with gas. Gas prices change so much, it is hard to quote a price. Usually we save anywhere from $.06 to $.12 per gallon on gas.

We also use our Sam's Warehouse Club membership when traveling. Whether we need gas, a new book to read, snacks, or beverages, we know we can find what we need at a warehouse club.

Sam's Warehouse Club also offers their own credit card - the Sam's Discover credit card, which you can apply for. When shopping at the warehouse club, you can use a Sam's Discover credit card, pay with cash, or either use another Discover card to pay for your purchases.

In Closing

I save considerably more money than what the warehouse club membership costs me. In addition to actually saving money when shopping, I also save time. Personally, I like buying in larger quantities since I am able to store the extras, and not have to spend my valuable time shopping for these pantry items weekly. Go by your local Sam's Warehouse Club, and ask if you could walk around inside the store. Carry a list of your staple items and their cost, and see if you, too, will be able to save with a warehouse club membership.

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