The More You Buy, The More You Save

December 20th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under • by Debbie Dragon

This is an often used line in marketing- and it works. How often do you find yourself buying three shirts when you only intended to buy one because the price per shirt was less when you got three of them? Individually, the shirts might cost $15 each; but when you get 3 they’re only $12 each! So you end up with three shirts for $36, which is a bargain- but you spent $21 more than you intended because you got two more shirts than you planned!

Warehouse clubs use the “more you buy” marketing tactic a lot, as the entire premise of these clubs is to give consumers a way to buy items in bulk. In theory, buying in bulk is supposed to save a lot of money- but how much do you really save when you buy things in multiple quantities or larger sizes?

Saving at your local Sam’s club or BJ’s is possible- but you do have to be careful. First- it’s easy to be lurred into buying things you weren’t planning to buy because of the bargains you see all around you. Here are some tips for saving money when shopping at your warehouse club:

When buying things at the warehouse club, focus on the price per unit. So if you’re looking at four jars of Ragu spaghetti sauce that are packaged and sold together at the warehouse, compare the price of the same size Ragu sauce at your local grocery store. Most of the time, you’ll find you’re saving an average of 31% on the cost of items purchased in bulk at the warehouse.

If you are a coupon-savvy shopper though, keep in mind many warehouse clubs do not accept manufacturer coupons. If the jar of Ragu sauce is normally $2.29 at the grocery store, but is on sale for $2.00; and you have a coupon to save $1 off the purchase of one jar- you can get a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce for just $1 – where as you would pay about $1.58 per jar for the four pack at the warehouse discount prices.

For people who are not coupon clippers, a warehouse club may be a good way to benefit from discounted prices. Consider the box of cereal you buy every week for your kids to eat before heading off to school. On average, you can save about 20 cents per bowl on brand cereals like Raisen Bran. If 20 cents doesn’t sound much to you, let’s say your household has three bowls of cereal per day- buying the cereal at the warehouse club would recent in a savings of 60 cents each day; or $218 per year.