Over the last year and over the next several years we will be buying a lot of diapers and wipes. We have a 15 month old and another one on the way so we will even have 2 in diapers at the same time for a little while at least.
Right now I buy most of my diapers and wipes at BJ's. We can get them in bulk so I have to buy them less often and we have a membership there so I figure why not. Lately I have been wondering if I am paying too much for them. I think some recent decisions we have made about my job next year and knowing we will be buying double the diapers soon has encouraged me to research the price of diapers at 3 different stores. I attend these stores on a regular basis I feel and I wanted to see how they compared in prices.
I only compared the different kinds of Pampers Diapers and wipes. That is what we have seemed to use most of. I have tried Huggies and they are ok but for our son Pampers seem to work best.
So here is a spreadsheet I made showing the total price, how many wipes/diapers are in each pack, and how much money I pay per diaper/wipe. You may need to click on "sheet1" at the bottom of the google spreadsheet. The yellow boxes are prices I still need to fill in but I could not find them at the stores right now.
Some conclusions I have come to...
- Overall BJ's does seem to be cheaper. BRU can be comparable depending on the size of diapers.
- Unscented Pamper's Wipes is definitely cheaper than the Baby Fresh or the Sensitive Wipes.
- Baby Dry Diapers seem to be cheaper than almost all other Pampers diapers.
- The price per diaper goes up as the size of the diaper gets bigger.
- At Target you can't seem to buy the bigger boxes of diapers like you can at BRU and BJ's.
- Does anyone know why packs of diapers get smaller as the size of the diaper gets larger?
- Why can't every store have the same box of Sensitive Wipes? But no instead I found boxes of Sensitive Wipes with 384 wipes, 448 wipes, and 512 wipes. Doesn't make sense to me.
BRU will take several manufacture coupons at one time. Also our friends told me about a Rewards R' Us Card that you can use at BRU. Then once you buy 9 boxes of diapers you get the 10th one free. (I went back and got a Rewards R' Us Card just in case I decide to shop there) All the same deals apply to Toys R' Us and Babies R' Us.
At BJ's you get a book of coupons in the mail for being a member. I think the book of coupons come just about every month. Almost always there is at least one for $3-5 off on diapers. I found out you can use those coupons with manufacture coupons on the same visit.
Well there you go. It was a fun task for me! If you add to my data please share.
5 comments:
What's the price of a membership at BJ's? That could factor into the overall cost.
I'd bet that the boxes for the diapers stay the same size, but the diapers themselves. Therefore, less diapers fit into the boxes as the size goes up.
You should also look into coupons in the Sunday paper for diapers. Most grocery stores double coupons up to a dollar always and typically run quarterly specials where they triple coupons. If you save up the coupons and use them when the diapers on are sale, you get the sale price, plus the coupon, plus the doubled amount. Even though you would buy them pack by pack instead of the bulk way like at BJ's and Sam's, you might save more, because you're saving more per pack. (and there's no membership fees)
And just so you know, if you clip off the expiration date, they still scan normally. And most cashier's don't care if it is expired.
I used to sit for a lady who was really into "couponing" and you wouldnt believe how much money you can save, and there are ways to make it time efficient, so you're not clipping coupons every day. Just last year in 6 months, my mom saved over $860 and that's just for two people, no kids. You really could save a lot of money. You could actually be getting paid to shop at their store, just by using coupons.
The price of a membership at BJ's is $40.00 a year. So yeah I guess you could factor that in. I buy several other things there that I believe help save us money as well but yeah there is still a cost to shop.
Dana - there is a class offered at SAS about saving money on groceries. I noticed in an email I get about the classes being offered. It was already filled up this time but I would like to go b/c it seems like it will talk about coupons as well. :)
Thanks for your research! We arent lucky enough to have double and triple coupons in Florida. I found that with stacking coupons, BJ's is cheaper too.
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