Wholesale Club Membership – Update

I recently wrote a post about a frugal decision my wife and I made to cancel our BJ’s Wholesale Club membership. We made the choice to let the membership expire at the end of August, along with the $45 yearly fee. After weighing the pros and cons, we just couldn’t justify a cost savings from our typical purchases at the store on diapers and other baby products. While we did save money on these purchases by shopping at BJ’s compared to other stores, the savings over the course of 12 months did not add up to the membership fee.

One of the items that I previously had mentioned as a reason to cancel the membership was – One Day Memberships. I noted that BJ’s and other wholesale clubs offer one day free memberships to come in and try out the store from time to time. I figured that if we really wanted to still shop at BJ’s, then we could use these free day memberships to our advantage. Soon after we let our yearly membership expire at BJ’s at the end of August, we received a one-day membership coupon in the Sunday paper. So, last weekend we decided to take advantage of the free offer and stock up on purchases that we use to make at the store.

The results of the one day membership were a huge success. We went to the store on a Saturday and they were passing out all of these great BJ’s coupons for extra savings. Remember that BJ’s will let you combine their own coupons with manufacturer’s coupons for extra savings. Well, it just happened that many of the coupons were for diapers and baby products so we took advantage of the deal. We also stocked up on several other products (pasta, meat, and soy burgers) while we were there. I am not sure how often BJ’s runs these types of promotions for the free one day memberships, but at this point my wife and I are very glad with our decision.

Tagged as: Frugal