I was glancing through the latest Sam’s Club ad I received in yesterday’s paper (a rare find already) they are touting big savings on items focused on entertaining for the Super Bowl. I couldn’t help but notice that the items they were listing as being “great savings” are really incredibly over priced compared to sales that we see in other stores.

Many folks ask about savings in warehouse clubs, and I’ve covered a lot of that in a Warehouse vs. Grocery Store comparison post.  In general a warehouse club (like Sam’s) shouldn’t be your first option if you’re wanting to save the maximum amount of money. After you pay them membership prices and then remember that a majority of the warehouse stores don’t allow coupons, you can start to see how you could get the most bang for your buck at regular stores. That being said, if you don’t enjoy or plan on using coupons, buying in bulk at stores like Sam’s will save you money versus paying full retail prices in other stores.

Check out some of the items listed in the Sam’s ad below and see how they compare to items in local grocery and drug stores. Note that the regular store prices are examples of prices after sales and coupons, but if you stock up (just like buying in bulk from Sam’s) you can really see some huge savings.

*these prices are based off of averages and subject to change

Sam’s Club vs. Regular Store Prices:

DiGiorno Rising Crust
Sam’s – $4.66 per pizza
Rite-Aid – $2 per pizza
Sam’s is selling DiGiorno in packs of 3. Buy 3 pizzas from Rite-Aid instead of Sam’s and you’ll save $7.98!

Bounty Paper Towels, Huge Roll
Sam’s – $2.14 per roll
Target – $1.96 per roll
If you’re willing to buy regular Bounty paper towels (not the huge roll), you can get them for 54¢ at CVS or  75¢ per roll at Rite-Aid.  The huge roll is advertised to 2.5 times a regular roll meaning the CVS price comes out to around $1.35 in comparison.

Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
Sam’s – 7¢ per oz
Publix – 3¢ per oz
Remember, this is the price per ounce. The Sam’s bottle is a 40 oz and the Publix is 18 oz, so you have to compare apples to apples and go down to unit prices.

Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
Sam’s – 82¢ ea.
Publix – 27¢ ea.
Sam’s is selling Rotel in packs of 8. Buy 8 cans of Rotel at Publix instead of Sam’s and you’ll save $4.40!

Hunt’s Diced Tomatoes
Sam’s – 78¢ per can
Target – 60¢ per can
Sam’s is selling these in packs of 8. If you bought 8 cans of Hunt’s tomatoes at Target instead of Sam’s and you’ll save $1.47!  This deal ended last week, but shows you the general gist that it is cheaper other places.

Pepsi, 2 Liters
Sam’s – 99¢ per 2 L
Walgreens/Publix – 99¢ per 2 L
These are the same price, but there is no membership fee required for Walgreens or Publix.

This was just a few items, but pretty much anything that you compare will have the same results.  Wanna get started and learn how to coupon?  It’s super easy and really does save you money!