Contributed by member SwapSavers owner of www.swapsavers.com

In order to purchase items at Warehouse Clubs (i.e. BJ’s, Costco, Sam’s Club) you have to pay a membership fee usually around $40-$50 a year. Before you pay the price for admission ask yourself these questions to figure out if it is worth it.

How far away do you live? Similar to a gym membership, if you live far away (20 minutes or more) from the Warehouse Club, the chances of you using it on a regular basis decrease significantly. If you live close by (5 minutes or less) and you are able to purchase milk and other staple items, the prices are considerably less then other stores. Also these staple items rarely go on sale at most grocery or other stores so the prices will always be less at the warehouse clubs.

Will you use the entire product? Most items sold at warehouse clubs are sold in bulk. If you have a large family or business, your odds of using up the entire food product before it goes bad increases. However if you have an average size family buying in bulk might equate to throwing away a lot of food.

How do the prices compare to nearby stores? This requires some research, but in the long run you will save either the price of the membership or you will save money from purchasing less expensive items at the warehouse club. If you already have a price log of items you purchase on a regular basis, bring it with you to the warehouse club you are considering and compare prices. You will need to do some math to figure out the price per unit for the bulk items. If you don’t have a price log create one for a few weeks making sure you write down the prices of items you purchase especially when the items are on sale since the sale prices can be noticeably lower then warehouse prices. Also keep in mind most grocery stores double coupons and warehouse clubs do not.

Does the warehouse offer a free trial membership? Before purchasing the membership, ask if you can do a month or more free trial membership (without the surcharge fees). BJ’s usually offers a free three month holiday membership in October. Obviously if you can try it for free first, you have more time to use the above questions to figure out if it is worth paying for the rest of the year.

Find more information and deal discussion in Hotcouponworld’s National Chain Stores forum

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Tags: Bj's, Bulk Shopping, Club Store, Costco, Free Trial, Grocery Shopping, Membership, National Chain Stores, Price Comparison, Sam's Club, Warehouse Club, Warehouse Store
Posted in Articles, Grocery Shopping, Stockpiling | 6 Comments »

Hotcouponworld’s very own mcatwood (Michelle) was interviewed on television for Atlanta Georgia’s 11 Alive News. Check out this segment done by another Hotcouponworld member Valerie$$.

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Tags: 11 Alive News, Coupon, Coupons, Frugal Living, Grocery Shopping, News, Stockpile
Posted in Articles, Hotcouponworld in the Media, Stockpiling | No Comments »

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Tags: Agriculture, Albertsons, Double Coupon, Economy, Finance, Financial Market, Food Industry, Food Prices, Food Trends, General Mills, Generic Food, Grocery, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, Kellogg, Kmart, Kroger, Loss Leader, Milk Prices, Oil Prices, Safeway
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I haven’t bought toilet paper in two years.  I haven’t bought dryer sheets or floor cleaners in five years.  It’s not that we don’t use these products, it’s just that once they were on sale at a price I couldn’t afford to pass up, I bought so many that I haven’t had to think about buying them since.

Since the economy began heading south year, the shopping advice from local and national media has been “try not to buy more than you need at one time” which makes me cringe every time I hear it.

While it may seem counter-intuitive to shop for something you don’t need and buy a boatload of it, if you’re buying an item at its rock bottom price and you can stock up on it, then you won’t have to buy it later at full price.

The key to this strategy? Add one or two sale items a week that weren’t on your list that you’ll likely use anyway.  Use coupons to sweeten the deal and buy as many as you can at that price.  Today at Target, 150-sheet lined notebook paper was on clearance for .12 cents each. Needless to say, at a savings of 88% off full retail, I bought enough paper for the kids that I won’t I won’t need to buy it again for several years.  I’ll toss it in a Rubbermaid tub and pull it out when we need it.

As you begin to shop this way, keep a few things in mind:

• How much can I budget on building my stockpile each week?  Take a percentage of what you currently spend and reallocate it to shopping for long-term-use deals.

• Will my family use up the product before it expires?  My kids go through one jar of peanut butter a week, so when I can get it for less than .50 cents per jar, I buy at least 52 jars to get me through a whole year.

• Do I have room to store these items in a way that makes sense?  An investment in storage totes, shelving and a deep freezer can help you save in the long term.

If you can incorporate this tactic into your personal shopping routine, you might spend a little more at first, but ultimately, it will reduce your groceries costs more each month.  A few years of shopping this way, I’ve cut our grocery bill down to about $200 a month. My family could live off the products stored in the garage for several months if we ever came on tough times. And best of all, I can take the money we save and use it somewhere else.

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Tags: Budget, Budgeting, Clearance, Economy, Freezer, Grocery Sales, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, Product Expiration, Sales, Shelving, Stockpile, Stockpiling, Storage, Storage Totes, Target
Posted in Articles, Grocery Shopping, Stockpiling | 3 Comments »

When Albertsons rolled out the first 10/$10 sales several years ago, it was the perfect promotion. Get 10 items for $10 bucks! How simple could that be? And even better, they didn’t make you buy all 10 items; so really, you were getting a variety of items for $1. Now, those sales are commonplace and the bargains are harder to find. The sales have morphed into “Buy $20 worth of Brand X, and we’ll give you $10 off”. The problem with that is that Brand X is on sale for $4.99, which means you’ll need to spend $24.95 to get the $10 off.

So, how do you get past the gimmick and make these sales work to your advantage?

Combine manufacturer’s coupons with the sale:
This week, Albertsons has 32-ounce Gatorade on sale 10 for $10. Using a $1 off 2 coupon, it brings them down to .50 cents each instead of the $1.99 they normally retail for - that’s a 75% savings.

Use a high value store coupon:
Stores in my area issue coupons for $X off $Y purchases. So this week for example, Safeway has a $10 off $50 coupon. You can find these types of coupons in your local newspaper or in the Entertainment Book. Albertsons, and many other chains around the country have coupon policies to accept these as “competitor’s coupons”.

This week, I’ll be using that Safeway coupon to match with a sale on Campbell’s soups at Albertsons. The deal is to buy 20 for $10, no limit. However, the Safeway coupon represents an additional 20% off that price, bringing the final price of the soups down to .40 cents each. With my eye on the winter right around the corner, I’ll be buying enough soup for my family, some for the local food bank, and save 66% off the retail price. Using manufacturer’s coupons will yield additional savings.

Buy all 10 items:
Even if you don’t have a coupon, most times the items in these sales are about 50% off the shelf price. If you know you’ll use a product more than a few times a month, don’t just buy the one - buy all 10. It might cost a few more dollars in the short term, but it beats buying that same item again at full price next week.

Get a rain check:
Lastly, if the store is out of an item on the 10-for sale, get a rain check. It gives you time to hunt down manufacturer’s coupons to match so when you go back to the store to redeem the rain check, not only will the item be in stock, you’ll get the additional coupon savings as well.

Make it a point to scour the sale ads weekly to see how you can incorporate these 10/$10 type sales into your meal planning, beat the gimmick, and cash in on the savings!

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Tags: Albertsons, Grocery Shopping, Rain Check, Safeway
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If you feel like there’s a little nip in the air and fall breezes are stirring, you wouldn’t be alone. It’s getting downright chilly in my neck of the woods. But my favorite thing about fall isn’t the turning leaves…it’s the crazy sales at the grocery store where the top name brands don’t hold anything back.  If you have the room to stock up, now’s the time.

Leading off with September is the General Mills family of brands. Watch for 10 for $10 type sales. With the higher ingredient costs, many brands are willing to spend money on marketing to continue developing brand awareness, particularly as consumers are being driven to generics by the media as a cost-saving strategy at the store.

In the next two weeks, watch for the Quaker family of brands to be on sale.  Not only does this include oatmeal and chewy granola bars, but Quaker also owns Aunt Jemima pancake mixes and syrups.  This sale has already hit my area and these items are 10 for $15.  But with coupons from last Sunday’s newspapers and high value “peelie” coupons you might find in-store on the boxes, you can score these items for .50 cents each.  I bought 70 assorted boxes of breakfast bars, oatmeal and granola bars for $40 yesterday morning.  And with long shelf lives, that will keep us in oatmeal long after the price has jumped back up to $4.29 a box. It’s an even better deal on the pancake fixings, for which there are rarely coupons on the Aunt Jemima brand.  At $1.50 a box versus $4 or more, this is a great deal for stocking up.

The last of my favorite fall deals is the Campbell’s family of brands which include Prego, all the soup lines, and Gold Fish crackers to name a few.  Hints of soup sales are already happening – 10 cans of tomato and chicken noodle could be found last week for .50 cents a can - a teaser of the sales to come.  And this is the month that Campbell’s makes their coupons the most available.  There were coupons in last week’s paper and watch for more as we get closer to October.  Soups have a long shelf life, so buy what you can for the year while the prices are at their best.  It’s why I love fall – the real fall harvest isn’t in the garden….it’s in the pantry aisles at the grocery stores!

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Tags: Aunt Jemima, Breakfast Bars, Campbell's, Cereal, Coupon, Coupons, Gold Fish, Groceries, Grocery, Grocery Shopping, Oatmeal, Pancake Mix, Pepperidge Farm, Prego, Quaker, Sales Cycles, Soup, Stockpile, Syrup
Posted in Articles, Frugal Living, Grocery Shopping, Stockpiling | No Comments »

This is my favorite shopping season. I actually put aside money the rest of the year so that I’ll have extra to spend during the next few weeks. The reason? I know that last year’s clothes are marked down to their final clearance to make room for new fall fashions. I also know that loss leader school supplies are being offered now. And outdoor summer items—like patio furniture, plastic margarita stemware and barbecue tools—are now on sale for 60 percent off the regular price.

There’s a sales cycle for every month and every season. Members at Hotcouponworld.com have been tracking them for years. We know that January is the best time to stock up on cheap oatmeal; new skis are better bought in March; and October is one of the best months to buy a new car. Timing is everything: Knowing when to buy can yield incredible savings if you can hold off on your purchases and buy when the item is “in season.”

You can read more here to learn about sales cycles so you never miss a deal!

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Tags: Coupon, Groceries, Grocery, Grocery Shopping, Loss Leader, Sales, Sales Cycles, Stockpile
Posted in Articles, Frugal Living, Grocery Shopping, Stockpiling | No Comments »