So as I have mentioned before, BJ's is one of the retailers I shop at most. There are a few products I personally like to have in bulk, especially if it saves me from having to shop as often. However, not only is BJ's great for stocking up, but they also provide major savings as well. A membership costs around $50 a year. Now I am not a fan of paying memberships to shop places, but the following is a list of tips and tricks that make it worth it.
1. BJ's brand. BJ's has their own brand on many of their products including household items, health and wellness products and many of the food items. I find their store brand to be of a better quality than most store brands out there. Plus they are typically always cheaper than the name brand products.
2. Pick and Pack deal. If you are a fan of Lays chips (Tostitos, Doritos, ext). it is way better to go to BJ's for those items. For just under $6 you can get two bags of chips. Try price comparing that with wherever you normally buy chips. Not only that, but these bags are significantly larger than your typical grocery store, so you are getting much more bang for your buck.
3. Use Similac checks towards BJ's brand baby formula. This is one of the primary reasons why I shop at BJ's so often. BJ's brand formula is almost straight-up comparable to Similac, once again proving to be a higher quality store brand. However, at $21.99 it is much cheaper than any other brand out there. A typical name brand is usually around $35 and other store brands are normally around $25. Not only does the price start out cheaper, but 98% of the time they will accept Similac checks (sign-up for Similac Strong Moms). There has only been two times my checks have not been accepted, since I was not purchasing the actual Similac brand, which they also offer at a better price than most. Typically the cashier just doesn't even realize I did not purchase the name brand or they just don't care. Therefore, I get an additional $5 off each formula bringing down the price to $16.99, an absolute steal.
4. Double your coupons. Yes, I said double. I had suspicions of this being possible months ago, but I put it to the real test just recently when I decided to do the check out yourself option. Apparently the in-store coupons on BJs.com and the ones you receive in the mail monthly have different scan codes, even though they are for the same product. Therefore you can get double the money off on each one you are interested in. The registers take it, without question. Check out my below receipt for a better understanding of this serious trick...
Highlighted are the items I had coupons for. If you notice, certain items have two highlights in the coupon section. That is because I had two, essentially identical coupons, however one came from printing online while the other came from the coupon book that is mailed.
Items bought:
Quinoa (organic): $11.99 with $2.75 off x2 = final price of $6.49.
Lays Pick and Pack Deal: $5.98 with $.75 off x2 = final price of $4.48
Digiorno Pizza (3 pies): $13.99 with $3 off x2 = final price of $7.99
Tyson Honey BBQ strips: $14.99 with $3 off x2 = final price of $8.99
Bertolli Pasta Sauce (3 jars): $5.99 with $1.50 off x2 = final price of $2.99
You do the math, that is some major savings. If there are products that you like, it is totally worth making another trip later to stock up.
5. Manufacturer coupons widely accepted. Check coupons.com and your local newspapers for even more savings on your favorite products. Do not be deterred if you find a coupon that says you have to buy a certain amount of a product. Since BJ's items are in bulk, you do not have to buy two large packs of something to get the deal, they will typically just accept the coupon if you have the brand at all. For example, I had a $1 off a purchase of 6 Gerber stage 2 fruits/veggies. At BJ's they come in a box of 15. They will still accept the coupon because you are still purchasing 6, in a way.
6. Check your rebate apps. Ibotta offers rewards on BJ's as do all of the other apps. Make sure you add the items to your shopping list before you check out though. After purchasing everything on the above receipt, I got $5 back for the Digiorno purchase because I was working towards a goal of $30 on Savingstar on Nestle products that was already adding up. Ibotta also gave me money back on my purchase of eggs. The big one was on taco kit. At $6.99, it is already a great price, but I also had an in-store coupon for $2 off and then I had a $1 rebate. Therefore I only paid $3.99 to load up on a party-sized taco kit.
As mentioned before, there are only a certain amount of products I buy at BJ's regardless of if I have coupons or not. If my favorite brands have coupons though, I am stocking up here. I can get certain items for close to nothing and enough to last me a long time. Just remember to stock up on coupons at the following places:
- BJs.com
- BJs mailed coupons (if they aren't sent to you, just ask at Customer Services. As long as it is not towards the end of the month when they run out, they should give you a book).
- In-store coupons when you first walk in. (These are usually different than the ones above, however I have seen opportunities to triple up on coupons on very rare occasions).
- Manufacturer coupons (coupons.com, Sunday paper, name brand websites, and more).
- Rebate Apps
