rewrite this title My first Sam’s Club shopping trip in *years*!

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 17, 2026  |  This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I never expected to get a Sam’s Club membership again, but after a few years of you all telling me that I really, really should check it out because I could save money by having one, when the $20 Sam’s Club membership offer came up, I decided to go for it!

It was so easy to get the $20 membership online! It just took a few minutes to do. Then, you just go to the membership desk in-store and get your official Sam’s Club card. I added Jesse onto my account for free, too!

I went on my first Sam’s Club shopping trip on Thursday night around 6:15 p.m. and I decided that was a GREAT time to shop because there was hardly anyone at the store! The lady at the customer service desk told me that it was almost empty but many times throughout the week, the store will be packed with people!

I felt pretty proud of this card! Like, I’m official or something! 🙂 (Years and years ago, Jesse and I had a Sam’s Club membership because we had our merchant account — the account that allowed us to accept credit cards from customers for products — through them and one of the perks of that was having a membership. We didn’t keep out membership once we switched to another merchant account.)

I asked my audience to share what deals they highly recommend buying at Sam’s Club in this post, and one of the number one items suggested was the rotiserrie chicken! It’s just $4.98 so I absolutely grabbed one up!

This was really an exploratory trip for me to familiarize myself with the store, compare prices, and see what deals I found. I only had about 20 minutes to shop, but since there was hardly anyone at the store, I was able to make it through the majority of the store. I’m looking forward to going back again soon — likely this coming week — to search more thoroughly for deals and see what great prices I may have missed the first time!

I was really excited with the deal on cottage cheese — 3 lbs for just $5.88!!

And of course I had to stop at the free sample machine and get a free sample!

I also picked up some Bare Chicken Bites. We love these and this price was a little less than the best deal I can get at Kroger on sale!

The price I was most excited about was the Greek yogurt deal! We go through a LOT of Greek yogurt, especially since it’s one of David’s favorite foods and he usually has a big bowl at least once a day. You could get 3 lbs for $4.76! Aldi has a tub half this size for $3.76, so this is definitely a great deal!

I also picked up a 10-lb bag of sugar because we were almost out for $7.88. Here’s everything I bought above — my total (with tax) was right above $40!

Overall, I was so happy with the deals I found and that was just in 20 minutes! Now, I will say that there were a lot of items that weren’t good deals compared to what I pay at Aldi or Kroger. In addition, I see where it would be easy to get distracted with all of the sales on clothes and appliances and who knows what else they have in the middle section (I didn’t go there!) and end up spending WAY more than you would just shopping at a grocery store.

However, if you are careful, intentional, and strategic, I think you can definitely save money by shopping at Sam’s Club — and that the $20 membership fee will quickly pay for itself and then a lot more in the savings!

What are your honest thoughts? Do you have a Sam’s Club membership? Do you save money by shopping there? I’d love to hear!