Shopping at the Big Stores

In this case, BJ’s Wholesale Club. As you may have noticed from reading some of my earlier posts, I can’t decide between Costco and BJ’s. Well, I can, but, no, I can’t. As we were all home due to Tropical Storm Fay on Tuesday (and she is still making news!) we of course got a little stir crazy. Ds wanted/needed to get stuff for lunches (see my later post on the agreement we’ve made for lunches this year), the weather was ‘clearing’ up which means the winds were finally below 30 mph and the rain was coming every 20 minutes instead of 5 (could almost time it!), we decided to go to BJ’s. Costco was out of the question because a) it’s much further away and west, where the rain & winds were probably MORE constant , b) it was 4pm and I didn’t want to go into the early evening hours shopping and c) I had a visa gift card – Costco only accepts debit cards & AE credit cards. Off we went. Noticed the gas was 2 cents cheaper than my local station. A LOT of people in the parking lot…hmmm, were they all thinking the way we were? Have to stop at customer service desk. Last few times I had to get an “OOPS” pass because I have lost my card. Figured I might as well get a real card again. So smile for the picture, make note to self that I really need to comb my hair one day this week, and off we go to shop. Spent $194.06 for 25 items. Geesh. The GOOD news is that $174 of it went on my VISA gift card that I had (I think I still have $2 left). The other $20 went on AE which I will probably pay tomorrow online. Anyways, it’s always a good shopping experience for ds, in my opinion. He’s much more thrifty & conscientious then his sister, and really, does know how to comparison shop. So as always, I make sure that he looks at the shelf stickers to figure out which item is a better deal when making a choice. He’s pretty good about it, most times. Bad deals: 10 lbs of chix breast filets, $21.99. Crumb. I can get it cheaper if I watch for a sale, but lately, haven’t seen any. 3 lbs of shredded cheddar (sharp) $10.96. What on earth has happened to the price of cheese lately? Milk has started to come down some, so I would think cheese would too? 2 lbs blueberries, $6.99. Ok, that’s not so very bad, BUT at least the kids will eat something healthy. They actually got spoiled in Indiana a few weeks ago picking fresh from the bush … now they know the difference! Actually, now that I look at my receipt, nothing was really a ‘great deal’. What a bummer. BUT I did get plenty of stuff for less than a regular store and it’s really all free anyways with the use of my gift card. I have another $100 one coming in about 2 weeks so I will use that again. Bought flour, 20 lbs for $7.99. That was considerably cheaper than the stores have been lately. Ground beef (93% / 7%), 5.04 lbs for $14.65. About the same as a sale price in the grocery store. Passed the coffee up and I’m glad I did, Publix has it on sale now for $5.99 which of course, is not a GREAT deal, but better than regular price. Of course, picked up the 8 lbs of Valencia oranges, $8.99, dd & I love these things. Bananas, $1.39 for 3 lbs. I really need to go back to looking at banana & orange trees Of course the chips, twizlers, and 2 pizzas for that nights dinner. That set me back about $30. So BJ’s or Costco? There are certain things I like from Costco that I can’t find at BJs. But BJs takes coupons. They take ALL credit cards (not like that’s really a deciding factor for me, but it IS when I have the visa gift cards) … and it’s closer to home (for me).

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