Monday Q&A | Frugal Dates, Crossing Out Text, and Warehouse Clubs
Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
I think it is super cool that you and Mr. Frugal have weekly date nights! My hubby and I talk about wanting to do date nights, but need some frugal ideas. What do you guys do for fun?
-Tammy
Well, the dates we have on a regular basis are take-out date nights. I wrote a whole post about how we do those, so go check that out. In addition to eating dinner together those nights, we sometimes watch a movie on Netflix, play a board or card game (sometimes we play Hangman!), or just talk.
When we do go out on a regular date, we typically go out to dinner. If we can, we use a Groupon or a gift certificate, but since we go on this type of date pretty infrequently, we don't stress out about it if we don't have a discount. After dinner, we sometimes run an errand together or go window shopping...nothing too fancy, but it works for us. The main thing that's important to us is being together!
So, I guess my best frugal advice is to consider adopting our takeout date night idea...it only costs us $20, which is pretty hard to beat.
How do you "draw" a line through text? For example,
"¢ Go to "My Account"
-Laurie
That depends on what program you're using to type, but most of them have a little button that looks like this: ABC Usually, you just highlight the text you want to cross out and click that button.
Here's how it looks in Microsoft Word, and it's the same in my WordPress dashboard as well.
Are you a member of Sam's Club/BJs/Costco? If so, why or why not? I am approaching my renew date at Sam's Club and I am trying to figure out if it's worth the $100 for the year or not. I don't buy a ton of things there, but there are weeks when I do get my produce there, esp. when my local grocery store's isn't too fresh.
What is your view?
-Brooke
We are Costco members, yes. Our membership is only around $50/year, so even though we don't buy a great number of things there, it's worth it for us.
The main items we purchase at Costco are yeast (oh, it's SO cheap!), printer ink, contact cleaning solution, laundry detergent, nuts, cinnamon, vanilla, and gas.
I used to buy more things at Costco before I discovered Aldi. However, Aldi's prices often meet or beat Costco's, and I don't have to buy ginormous containers, so I tend to prefer Aldi.
If I didn't have access to an Aldi store, I'd be a much bigger proponent of a warehouse store, though. So if you're in that boat, I'd recommend keeping your membership.
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Readers, do you have thoughts to add about cheap date nights or warehouse clubs?
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Today's 365 post: How to get a Great Mom award from your children
Joshua's 365 post: Wanna Guess?
We buy toothbrushes, toothpaste and allergy meds at Costco. The Costco-brand zyrtec equivalent is so cheap it probably makes my $50 membership worth it.
I will also buy big bags of bell peppers and spinach from Costco when these are out of season and expensive at my regular grocery store.
Ditto on the zyrtec! That is the main reason I have my membership. You can buy a 365-day supply of Costco-brand zyrtec for less than $20. Considering I take this year round, that alone definitely makes the membership worth it.
A $100/yr membership equates to just over $8/month. If you are saving more than that each month with trips to the warehouse club, sounds like it would be worth it to renew.
Unless you can't resist the urge to purchase stuff you don't really need or want just because Costco has such a good price, then its better to stay away from temptation.
We haven't renewed yet so I can't speak to the truth in this statement, but when we signed up we got the "Gold Membership" which is $100 a year. (I do think we save at least $8 a month!) Anyway, they said with the 2% cash back check we get it basically pays for the next year's renewal. We like to get kitty litter there, TP and produce! Their price on strawberries cannot be beat!
Instead of a warehouse club, we use GFS. I don't know if they have them in your area, Kristen, but if so, they're worth checking out. I can buy those 2-lb bags of yeast you've mentioned in the past, along with everything on your list except printer ink, contact cleaning solution, and gas.
They're basically a restaurant supply store, only also open to the public, so I've also used them to get items like restaurant-grade pots and pans, pizza screens, those scoops you can use for divvying up cookie dough, food warming trays for big parties (the kind that use a little fuel pot to warm an aluminum tray full of water, not the electric kind), large cases of eggs, big bags of frozen fruit, etc. They also sell baking supplies in bulk, so I buy my yeast, vanilla, and heavily-used spices (cinnamon, chili powder, and cumin) there. We also buy whole-bean coffee there for half the price per pound it is at the grocery store (we tried Aldi's similarly-priced version, but it only comes in light roast, which is too "bright" for us).
There's no membership fee and the GFS near us happens to be less than a mile away vs. the warehouse clubs, which are at least 20 minutes by car.
I heartily agree with Engineer Mom. Here in the Pacific Northwest the restaurant supply store is "Cash & Carry".
I love Costco! I buy cheese (mozzarella in a 6 lb brick and cheddar cheeses in a 2 lb brick), mushrooms, pineapple, carrots in a 10 lb bag, onions, dog food, spices, etc, etc. We don't have an Aldi here, yet. To me, the cost of a $50 a year membership is by far offset by the savings. I used to have a Sams membership but prefer Costco.
At Costco we buy olive oil, cat food and litter, yakisoba noodles, smoked pulled pork, dog food for my father's dog, (he doesn't have a membership) and chicken. (Probably some other items, but I'm drawing a blank here.)
My son wears glasses, and we found that their optical services beat everyone else, and this included the eye exam!
You just have to be self-discipline about impulse purchases.
Katy
I forgot to mention a money saving Costco tip, which is to do a big stock up on the items your buy right at the end of your membership. Then, you can wait a couple of months until renewing. You end up with a 14 month membership for the price of a 12 month membership.
I've also read that you don't have to be a member to spend a gift card there. So some people walk up to customer service to buy a gift card and do all their Costco shopping that way.
Katy
We love CostCo for olive oil, spinach, and the summer berries, along with toilet paper and kleenex. I also get one of those monster-sized cans of crushed tomatoes every month or so to make my own pasta sauce. We'll have to check out the printer ink section - it seems like we're always out of one color cartridge or another.
One suggestion I'd make for buying bigger is that there can be less packaging overall. However, I've also found the opposite to be true for items like breads (an extra plastic cover to link the two bags together ugh!)...so it's sort of a draw!
If you want to make a membership cheaper, share it with someone. We split our membership with my MIL, so it's only about $28/year. The only downside is that I can't send The Hubs to grab things by himself, but otherwise sharing the membership works out well.
Our family Christmas gift from my in-laws is a yearly membership to Costco, which is great because I have a love-hate thing with Costco http://gogingham.com/2010/11/my-lovehate-relationship-with-costco/ but on several items our family uses, they have the lowest price - contact lenses for my son, coffee, organic sugar, etc. Knowing prices is always key when it comes to shopping for food and non-food items. For example, by shopping at a restaurant supply store near my home, I save on many items I previously bought at Costco and there's no membership fee to join. It also beats the drive 😉
As a mom to 3 (soon to be 4) young girls we purchased our first Costco membership just before our 1st daughter was born 7 years ago and have maintained a membership ever since. We use the executive membership and we earn a reward check at the end of the fiscal year every year. We have been purchasing diapers/Pull Ups and formula since the beginning so every single year we have earned enough rewards to pay for our membership so its totally worth the cost to me. Especially since they have a monthly coupon mail out that typically has the important things we need in them for a discount. Normally laundry detergent, oxy clean, diapers, vitamins, kleenex, and toliet paper appear in one month or the next.
I think there is a cheaper level of membership at SAM'S Club, maybe something like that would help you to save money while still having access to their good deals.
Yup, the normal membership is $35 a year and $50 for business owners ( that will allow you to get in around 7am!
If Laurie has an older version of WORD (as I do) she needs to use the FORMAT tab, choose FONT, in the EFFECTS area it gives lots of options including strikethough and double strikethrough.
Thanks, that's the answer I needed. 🙂
In html, you can use the code
I like my membership mostly for the fresh meat. I do buy detergent, toilet paper, paper plates, napkins. It isn't the frugal way to go but it goes by us, lol. I do like the produce like garlic and onions, they seem to be very fresh except for the potatoes for some reason...
I have to comment on the potatoes. I LOVE Costco... But, the potatoes. Why does it always smell in that section? You buy potatoes and they will be bad in a few days. If, you are planning to use them all up right away... They are a great deal! Otherwise, skip the potato section.
Ok, my earlier comment didn't work. Whoops. So to get
example, you need to write the word 'strike' in between the triangle bracket and write that around the word.The Costco near me offers a Printer Ink Cartridge refill service.
I can also fill up my gas tank at a good price. There is a Costco on the way to work 🙂
I don't know about where you live, but around here we get often get coupons for a FREE 60-day trial membership to BJ's on a regular basis. Sometimes they are direct-mailed, and sometimes they come in a coupon-clipper magazine. I take my coupon and use it to stock up on things I buy in bulk during those 60s days. Then I wait a couple months until the next coupon comes along. We usually get 3-4 a year, so that pretty much covers us. For nothing. Check the club websites- maybe they offer free trials?
We use our costco membership to get pretty much all of our meat - the best part is their chicken comes in great "freezer packs" with 6 packages of 2 breasts each, which are super convenient.
I have an unrelated question. We've made pizza on the grill 3 times now, and every time the bottom comes out burned! Last night we even tried it with the pizza stone on the grill and it still came out burned 🙁 It wasn't good and we ended up throwing half of it away after we ate (or rather picked the top off). What am I doing wrong??
Have you tried using the method I do? Cook the crust on one side until it's a bit browned, flip it, put toppings on the cooked side, and grill until the bottom is as done as you'd like. Have you tried turning down the heat on your grill?
Try oiling it and using Kristen's method. You'll get the typical "grill lines" but it shouldn't be burnt 🙂
I would consider the less expensive membership - $40 (just paid mine yesterday). Whether it is worth it really depends on what you buy there. Can you make a list of your regularly purchased items and compare the cost with what you could get them for elsewhere? Having been a Sam's club member for many years, I was excited to move to a place with a Costco, because people seem to rave about Costco, and I was ready to shop someplace new. On two different days, I went into both clubs on the same day and priced the same shopping list. The Costco prices were 15% higher on average than Sam's on exactly the same items. Added to that, Costco had super-long lines for checkout and a crowded parking lot. I just wonder if other people have compared the two and what you found if you did. Sam's is 3 miles (highway) further away than Costco, but given that I spend between $100-200 each time I do, the $15-$30 I save on each trip definitely pays for small additional amount of gas and time.
There are two Costco's close to me. The closest one is fantastic, but the further one makes me say bad words. So, I stick to the one closest to home.
When Costco and Sam's come up in a conversation, my explanations...
**Sam's has a huge freezer section. They have tons of choices for anything frozen. I want freezer meals... Sam's it is!
**Costco has a very small freezer section. I feel the majority of the store is focused on fixing meals. We fix meals. Costco works better for our lifestyle.
I don't regularly buy anything frozen at Sam's. I don't usually even walk through that section. Off the top of my head (and things I price matched): protein bars (example $14 at Sam's/$20 at Costco - exact same product) and protein powder, tp, paper towels, black olives, baking items like flour, yeast, choc chips, Tide, bread, some fem products, some snack items (yes, those are processed) and drinks (V8, water, and various drinks that I put in school lunches). I buy cheese and butter in the refrigerated section, but I can't think of anything else. I think part of it is I have never lived close enough to Sam's (or Costco) to be into buying much in the way of fresh vegetables or fruit, which is what I think a lot of people like about Costco. I'm not trying to debate it - I honestly wanted to join Costco and actually did, but when I saw how much more everything I wanted to buy was returned the membership and went back to Sam's. I am curious about how many people actually compare. I think in CA where my in-law's are, Costco's are all over the place and Sam's are not as convenient.
I buy Quinoa and agave at Costco, they are about half the price of buying them other places. We also buy Naked smoothies (I know a total splurge) a half gallon for $6, those are not necessary but nice to have sometimes.
About the date night, when we had three school age kids (2nd to 6th grade) we had a small table in our room where we would have our date, sometimes takeout but sometimes just a really great dinner while the kids would stay downstairs and watch a movie and eat easy kid food like sandwiches, pizza or mac and cheese. Now those kids are teenagers and we get a weekly sitter for our 1 and 3 year old. We have prioritized this for this season of our lives but it wasn't always the case. There were many bedroom date nights complete with candle light and threats that the kids couldn't bother us unless someone was bleeding. 😉
Kristen,
You have got to be the kindest, sweetest person on the face of the earth. The way you so politely and calmly explain things to people is a gift. Your children are most fortunate to have you home school them. How lucky they are!
You are most surely blessed.
Aww, thank you, Cindy. I appreciate the encouragement!
My Sam's membership was only $40, and that works for me because we don't need to shop at 7 a.m. or use the "Click 'n' Pull" service that's available to the $100-tier membership. I'm seriously considering switching to Costco, though, since they have a much better selection of organic produce and meats. Just depends on what kinds of things that you buy most of and what kind of shopping experience you prefer. (Sam's is usually pretty low-key, while Costco requires body armor and some seriously aggressive driving in my town!)
Becca - thanks for that last bit. I wondered if it was just me or even just here. Honestly, the Costco parking lot scares me - a lot of agression going on there! 🙂 I based my decision totally on price, but I almost would avoid Costco (at least the one here) and pay more just to avoid the parking lot and the lines. Surely it's not like that everywhere! But again, this is my first time to live near enough to a Costco to go, so I don't have a lot of experiences to go by. Even though I really wanted to switch, just for something new, I can honestly say that the people at Sam's are so nice, and quickly open up new checkouts anytime lines start to form. They even had trick-or-treating for the kids (we happened to be there) and gave them a bunch of goodies! So it's worked out for me to stay with Sam's on a lot of different levels.
We love our Costco membership and go there every month for a lot of dry goods like: oatmeal, almonds, olive oil, cranberries, coffee, we love their organic salsa and organic frozen blueberries and the organic beef, when they have it. I'm kinda bummed though about the fact that my Costco doesn't carry yeast! I guess there aren't enough bakers out there to create enough demand for them to carry it. Other than that, I am completely satstified with membership there- it's worth the $50 a year.
Oh my goodness-it doesn't carry yeast?? That's so sad.
I know, I was really sad when I found out. 🙁 They don't carry whole wheat flour either, only "bread flour" and white bleached. So I just get those things at Kroger instead.
As others have mentioned, there is a cheaper $40 Sam's membership (and my work gives me a $10 gift card every time I renew 🙂 ). I think it is worth saving the $60 to go later in the day. I usually go after work or on Saturday mornings after the gym.
My husband and I started going out for breakfast one day a week when our daughter was old enough to be left alone during the day. (She usually sleeps through our entire date.) We go to Waffle House, have a delicious breakfast, and spend at least an hour talking. When the weather is nice we go from there to a nearby park and continue talking while we walk around the lake. It's wonderful to be able to catch up, and we spend less than $15 (including a generous tip for our beloved waiters).
We do the same thing - over breakfast is a great time to discuss all kinds of things away from big eared kids - everything from possible birthday presents to how to handle an unexpected problem.
We have a Sam's Club membership and I even have a post on how to get your money's worth there: http://purposelyfrugal.com/2011/04/12/sams-club-and-other-warehouse-stores/#.T41yvh1KLZQ
As a former Sam's Club employee, I can tell you that $100 Plus membership is absolutely not worth it unless you are charging *a lot* of money on the Sam's credit card. You don't achieve 2% cash back unless you reach a certain threshold for the year (I can't remember exactly what, somewhere between $4,000-10,000 - check the small print). The ones that get the most benefits are the businesses that buy a lot of supplies, for families I honestly don't think it is worth the $60, so stay with the cheaper membership. The other tip is to avoid the center of the store if you are looking to save money on your trips. The center is where most clubs have their seasonal items which is where I noticed that people went out of control with their spending - a lot of people would be shocked when they got to the checkout counter!
We stock up right before our membership expires, so we can wait about 4-6 months before having to pay for the membership again.
If you're using HTML the code is enter your test here to cross off
Many times you can go into the HTML section of your blog post and add the above before and after. Just in case the comment crosses it out.....it's and (no spaces between the "<" and s or /
well it wouldn't let me post it, Check it out on WIKI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikethrough
I don't have a wholesale club close enough to make a membership worthwhile. But, I am waiting for a spot to open up in a local food share. They buy locally- and ethically-produced foods in bulk and then allow members to order the amounts they want, at prices that are almost comparable to what you'd pay at a discount club.
We are Costco members, too. $55/year. If you buy 10 gallons of gas once a week at Costco, you'll more than pay for your membership in savings! That's one of the reasons we do it.. oh and for produce, toothpaste, rice, and frozen fruit for smoothies... love it!
We belong to BJ's @ $50/year. We too selectively buy-comparing costs.
Deli meats are $2/lb less than our local stores, milk $.75 less per gallon, frozen "reheat" foods are $1.50 less per lb, coffee $.75-1.25/lb less, condiments, breads, Hershey's chocolate syrup. Gasoline at last fillup was $1.25/gallon less than local. I figure to break even on the membership fee, I have to save at least $4/trip, which I do. Plus they accept manufacturer's coupons as well as their own. We don't buy there exclusively, but it's still a good deal for us.
I suggest tracking actual savings to decide if membership is $ worth it.
By the way, Costco owns Aldi.