I was just at Sam's club with a friend and was thinking of joining.

The meats looked great and some were a deal. I could not really find anything cheaper than I already pay with sales and coupons. I checked napkins, tp, paper towels, cans of veggies, shampoo and lots of stuff. Their brand of baby aspirin was cheap though.

What do you all find cheaper at Sam's than at the regular store with sales and coupons?

Paulette

I agree with the above posters...I wanted to add for me it's the gas prices. I filled up yesterday for $3.61 as opposed to $3.89 everywhere else in town!

We just bought a new mattress set for our bedroom there as well. Got a Queen set for $600 as opposed to $900 elsewhere.

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Love Sams. We buy tons of huge bags of frozen chicken cheap; frozen vegetables; hamburger meat (best around); bread; dog food; we've purchased numerous Serta (or is it Sealy?!) mattress sets (our king set has lasted wonderfully for 14 years); furniture; clothing; they have tons of stuff on clearance from time to time and ours also has a clearance section always; film processing; milk is cheaper; gas is cheaper for members, etc. I could go on and on. We bought our 1,000 thread count sheets there at Christmas for $90 King size, and boy are they GREAT. I buy mattress pads, pillows (two packs cheap), big huge blocks of cheese, sometimes cereal if it's cheap enough. We buy a lot in there and have had our membership for about 15 years. As an added bonus, go in there on a Saturday or Sunday between about 11 a.m. and before like 5 or 6 p.m. and you can pretty much eat a full meal with all of the free samples, ha ha. You can also eat pretty cheaply at the snack bar. We don't buy much in the shampoo aisle unless it's clearanced, but huge bottles of generic Acetaminopen is very cheap too. Same with aspirin and all other generics. I also agree that the fruit is the cheapest around (3 lbs of bananas are $1.32 here and they're Dole) and freshest (the pineapple is great and sometimes they are set up to take the skin/outside peel? and slice it for you), but I can't seem to buy lettuce in there that will last past 4 days (anyone else have this problem--I've tried both the heads and the bagged). We LOVE the cupcakes and cakes and they are wayyyy cheaper than even Wal-Mart and much larger (30 cupcakes decorated $11.88). Give it a try for a year and see if you like it or not. I bet you will (and I am also a major coupon shopper but we find we buy more and more at Sams). Next time they have a 'free pass', go in and look around. Or, just tell the people at the front that you are interested in a membership and go to the service desk and see if they will let you look around before you 'decide'.

I love Sam's. They have very nice and unique seasonal type items and I can always find gifts for that hard to buy for person. My entire family is hooked on the Hormel Ready Bacon. It comes in a package of 72 slices and is already cooked, just needs microwaved for approx 10 sec per slice. Never ever again will I fry bacon in my house. I've always had great luck with the meat dept with steaks and roasts. Our nearest Sams is 50 min away so we really load up when we go.
I think their paper products are kind of high and feel like I can do better with coupons locally.

I share a Sams membership with my sister, so that makes it $20/year for each of us. They don't seem to mind that we live in different states (although we were together when we signed up) and have different last names.

I live alone, so I don't do a lot of Sams shopping, but I do find it great for some things. Many of these have already been mentioned: gasoline, bread, meat.
- String cheese sticks are a great price
- Quaker oatmeal (the single serving packages) if I don't have coupons or haven't stocked up on sales (although right now I've got enough Kroger brand to last me many months).
- Tollhouse chocolate chips for baking.
- Canned tuna - I like the albacore stuff and it's rare to find sales/coupons on that at least where I live.
- Books and sometimes DVDs - They often have great prices on just released stuff, especially paperback books. It's rare that I'm not willing to wait for the book to show up at the used book store, but on those occasions Sams has the best price.
- Honey - It's a huge bottle but it doesn't ever go bad and the unit price is great.
- Cat litter - I get the "store" brand. I haven't found a better priced scoopable litter that works well enough for my taste that I can stand the smell of (Tidy Cat is great and usually has good coupons but I can't do the smell of it).
- Baking soda - you have to buy huge quantities, but I use it for laundry and in the cats' litter box.
- Store brand tissue (Kleenex but not that brand) - I get a big box of boxes to suppliment the sales/coupon deals of the good ones. They're not as soft as the name brand ones, but they're cheaper and are fine for me unless I have a cold or major allergies.

Also, I'm a volunteer youth leader and before trips I usually buy a couple of boxes of snack items to share with the kids. Usually it's Fruit Roll Ups, Rice Krispie Treats and something like Starburst or Dum-Dums. Sometimes I can do better with coupons and sales, but not always in the quantities I want/need. And it's also great to have the card when the youth guy gets bogged down in something and needs someone to run to Sams to get food for a cookout or whatever.

I think once you buy a big ticket item like tires then the membership is free.

I have a Sam's within 3 miles of my house so I run through at least once a week. I look for clearanced items. I save the cost of the membership on clearnaced items alone. This year my husband got a fancy tree stand (deer hunting) for a significant reduction--maybe half price, I bought a rug shampooer deeply discounted--when I opened it, there were some assembly screws missing. i called the manufacturer's cs and they sent the screws without question. I saved nearly 50%.

I ALWAYS go to the store before noon. The meat on clearance is left on the counter for sale until noon and then it is tossed. I go up and down each aisle looking for a clearance tag ie. a tag ending in 1¢. If the last number is one then the price has been reduced. This is the way I get all my specialty cheeses for parties. I just watch for 1¢ tags and buy. Cheese lasts forever if you don't open it! Well, maybe not forever but until your next party that either you bring something or you host the party. People think I actually bought expensive cheese. (lol)

Generic meds also can not be beat. We buy ibuprofen and Ranitidine. I used to buy Alli there but now Amazon's monthly deal beats Sams price.

Also they do have some specialty items like baking sheets with rims that you can not get any where else for the price. If you are a GOOD shopper and you KNOW your prices then you can do well at Sams. if you do not have a clue, then you will have a lot of stuff at an OK price.

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Lyn Clarke

I am not sure if you have a Costco near you, but I have found their prices to be within cents of Sams. The quality of their products is far superior to Sams. Their Kirkland brand is as good if not better than most name brands. For example, their paper towls are stronger than Brawny or Bounty. The Kirkland Vodka ranks up there with Absolute and Stolichis (SP?).

Not to mention if you are concerned about the membership fee, which is $50 per year, then get the executive membership. It costs $100 per year but pays you 2% cash back. If you combine the Executive Membership with the co-branded American Express card, you get even more back, plus miles/points.

Remember when you are shopping at Sam's Club, you are shopping at the warehouse version of Wal-Mart. The crappy quality products from Wal-Mart are sold at Sam's but in bulk.

Another tidbit about Kirkland brand. Every two years they upgrade the quality of each product. I have seen this happen with their toilet paper, T-shirts (Which by the way last FOREVER 6 or so years with weekly washing!), Oilive Oil etc.

One last point I will make is when you shop anywhere, don't shop by the price of the Item but shop by total cost of ownership. In other words, sure the toaster at Store T only costs 7.99 and looks nice, but it only will last two years. Wouldn't make more sense to but the toaster at Store V for 12.00 that will last 10 years???

The savings we get on milk alone pays for the membership every year. Plus lots of other things like the other posters mentioned.

We recently signed up as my dd is going off to college and needed to look for some bulk items
and stuff, we recently bought this spinach dip by Goldies brand I have never tasted something so
bad,I recommend you dont buy this as its a waste of money, but I do agree the snack bags are a good deal.

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Im looking for the swirl glasses from Red Robin...pm me if you know
where to find them.

BJ's takes coupons and is much friendlier than Sam's.

Just got a great deal on Michelin tires and they include lifetime rotation, balancing, and flat repair along with road hazard.

Sam's is overrated in my opinion.