Frugal Frog Friday: Discount Warehouse Edition

Hello Lovely Blog Readers!!!

Happy Frugal Frog Friday!

Today I want to talk about joining Sam’s Club.

My guess is you are all familiar with Sam’s; it is a Discount Warehouse akin to Costco and BJ’s. While I love Costco, we do not have any within 100 miles of us (Boo). We have had trial memberships at BJ’s, but I have never been very impressed and never thought it was worth the money.

Now, first off, I am in NO WAY affiliated with Sam’s. I am simply a girl with a mission: to get things as cheap as possible! When I started contemplating Sam’s, I refused to pay for a membership unless I was POSITIVE it was worth it. Well let me tell you, it was MORE than worth it!

One of the things that instantly talked me into joining was that Sam’s has a Student membership. Since Chase and I are both still in school (Medical School and Ph.Dn) we paid $40 (The price of an Annual Membership), but then got a $15 gift card! So basically an annual membership only cost us $25.

We have made WAY more than that back from all of the discounts, and we honestly do not buy that much. In fact, we made a verbal agreement that we would not buy any perishable food unless we KNEW we could finish it in less than a week. We also cannot buy it unless we NEED it.

So here are just a handful of items that have more than paid for the membership:

Before I went Paleo I, like most of America, was obsessed with Greek Yogurt. In fact the sole factor that convinced me to join Sam’s was their insane price for Chobani.

This 320z:

Cost a mere $4.56

That is AT LEAST $1.50 less than other grocery stores. If you buy one carton of Chobani a week/year, you have more than paid for your membership on that savings alone.

However, since going Paleo, Sam’s has still totally had my back.

Exhibit A:

That, my friends, is 26 oz Almond Butter. Now at Trader Joe’s 16oz cost $4.99, at Target, 12oz cost $7.

The Sam’s Price:

Um, Awesome.

You can also get some great deals on produce. For example, today I got 4lbs of strawberries for:

At Price Rite (aka the cheapest store ever) these would have cost $5.98 AND half of them would have been rotten. The 4lbs I got to day are PERFECTION!

Another great deal is on Fair Trade Bananas:

3 lbs of Bananas for merely:

You might be saying, what the heck do you do with 3lbs of bananas? I go home and chop up most of them and put them directly in the freezer for smoothies and other deliciousness!

One of my other Paleo standby’s is their AMAZING deal on Rotisserie Chicken

Since I do not know how or what they marinate this in, I take the skin off, but it is a delicious and last minute dinner. Plus, this is at least $2 cheaper than a grocery store chicken. In fact, you cannot even buy an uncooked bird for this cheap!

Last, but certainly not least, they have GREAT prices on Gas:

Source

Here again, we have paid for our membership more than twice over in gas savings alone.

Do you belong to a Discount Warehouse? What are your types and tricks for saving money?