But, the trip didn't exactly turn out as planned...
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See, I didn't fully read the small print on the coupon. Everything I purchased today would be charged a 10% service charge. :( Well, that just about takes care of some of the savings.
But, Sam's Club is running a sale on summer memberships (good today for just over 100 days) for $15. That sounded appealing. Just for kicks, I thought I would ask about their student membership. It's $40... but, when you sign up, you get a $15 gift card, in effect making the membership $25. Thus, for 10 more dollars, we could have a full-year membership rather than just a summer one. So, we took the plunge.
This means, we can now enjoy bulk shopping on a regularly scheduled basis. We purchased a few good items today, and took time to scope out the store and the prices.
Here's what we brought back with us today....
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Oatmeal - 100+ servings (9lbs) for $6.76
Peaches - 106oz (6+cans) for $5.38
Raisins - 4 lbs (90 servings) for $6.84
Yeast - 2 lbs for $4.16
Mushrooms (16oz) - $2.87
Brown Sugar (7 lb bag) - $4.39
Raspberries (12 oz) - $3.88
Cheese (2lbs) - $4.67
I'm super excited to make dried fruit and fruit leathers (see recipes under snacks on the left side of the blog) with the peaches, and am thrilled to have more oatmeal. We seem to go through oatmeal like water at our place.
Normally, this would have cost...
Oatmeal -- $23.00
Peaches -- $6.00
Raisins -- $18.50
Yeast -- $64.00 (yikes!)
Mushrooms -- $4.00
Brown Sugar -- $5.25
Raspberries -- $7.50 (when on sale)
Cheese -- $5.32 (when on sale)
Which, when totaled yields 133.57, and we spent $23 (out of pocket) + our gift card. We saved roughly $95!
What we noticed during our trip was that not all things are a good deal. Frozen veggies -- not good. We can get those on sale (especially when coupled with coupons) for a better price at our regular grocery store. The mushrooms are only a good deal on the weeks when our mushrooms are not on sale -- when they go on sale, we can score those for $1!
But, here are the items we found to be a really good deal -- things we'll come back for again:
-Cheese (unless we find a sale cheaper than $0.14 an ounce)
-Yeast
-Oatmeal
-Dried fruit (raisins, Craisins, cherries and blueberries)
-Pickles (speaking of which, how long do these last in the fridge once opened?)
-Spices (e.g., cinnamon, basil)
-Diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste
-Half and half
-Whipping cream
-Oscar Meyer Lunch Meat
-Turkey bacon
-Frozen blueberries (and fresh ones)
So, we're pretty excited. There's a few more items I'm calling the companies to find out if they are safe for me to eat (with my nut allergies) and then, we might be able to add olive oil to our list too!
