@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak: No, it really works. I had a friend on WIC (the food program for pregnant women and women with babies) and she could only make it to the store once every other week. She froze everything she could. You have to allow the milk to completely defrost, but it doesn;t separate that I remember.

@ekthesy: When I was assistant manager at a movie theater, one of the concession stand workers had the multi-gallon jug of mustard out to refill the dispenser at the hot dog fixin' stand. She dropped the jug, and it bounced along the tile floor. Do you know how hard it is to clean five gallons of splattered mustard off about 50 square feet of tile floor before the next rush starts? Hard, very hard.

@miss_roxxan: Eight boxes of pasta in your panty sounds a little painful :-).

Mob scenes at Costco on a Sunday afternoon aren't limited to Brooklyn, BTW. Pretty much every Costco I've been to is that way. Something about the free samples, I suppose.

And then the receipt lady tried to stop me and I was literally, holding three items. I was like "really?"

Eat all the what???? Inquiring minds are dying to know

@ekthesy: They let me put it in a pastry bag and squeeze it in that way.

@RevRagnarok: Milk freezes well too. Let it defrost in the fridge though.

@Randy Treibel: Except that you're paying your own way instead of relying on welfare. It may not seem like much of a difference to you, but it does to those of us who are not living with their mommies and daddies or sponging off their working girlfriends.

@ekthesy: I was commuting back and forth every couple of weeks to London from Michigan back in 2002.

One of my co-workers called me before I left for England and asked me, no, pleaded with me to bring "Mustard. Yellow. French's."

So I picked up a couple on the way to the airport and put them in my checked bag. I wrapped carefully. Still, one exploded. Not horribly, but it did get out a little.

The dogs smelled it at Gatwick. I was taken into a little room and my bags were inspected. Turns out mustard will mask drug smells pretty good.

Oh, and I totally ate my chocolate pudding faster.

It reminds ME of my high-school job at a deli. I had to decant the 5-gallon jar of Gulden's mustard that we would get from the restaurant supply company into the squeeze containers. Mustard is one viscous condiment, let me tell you.

I needed to fill the squeeze bottles with this old sort of rusty funnel, and you couldn't just let the mustard run into the bottle because it would bottleneck at the bottom of the funnel. So you had to take the whole thing and kind of bounce it on the counter so the mustard would go through the aperture of the funnel. Mustard EVERYWHERE.

I don't remember that one!

my sister and i split a costco membership and do this. it's nice because most of the time i don't want EIGHT boxes of pasta sitting in my panty (especially since i live in NYC where ALL space is limited) so we just split it up. it works well. we're going again on friday.

OH. huge note to everyone. never, EVER go to the costco in brooklyn on a sunday afternoon. it's an obscene mobscene.

@pecan 3.14159265: Actually, the Costco near us in Delaware has some pretty random and exotic fruits and veggies throughout the year - along with the average oranges, apples and what-not.

Bagels too.

Splitting food could also turn into arguments, and you would have to eat the same thing as your friends. There is also the possibility that your friends may buy more than you would, and buy things that you don't need or want, which would result in higher costs for you. Its also confusing to calculate who pays for what so everyone gets their fair share.

We belong to Sam's but we focus on things that will not spoil. You will eventually get through that big package of toilet paper, so there is no need to split it with anyone else, just keep it longer and use as needed. Its not going to spoil. It means you don't have to waste gas by running to the store every time you need more TP.

I've never had a problem at my local Costco with "splitting" the pay or using a card twice. This happens a lot when my husband's family visits with us. We all go, and when it comes time to pay, my father-in- law will hand the cashier half in cash and I put the rest on my debit card. Or, like over Christmas, he paid for all the groceries and then I did a separate payment for the xbox 360 I bought for my husband. I don't know if Costco would accept the card if I wasn't there, however.

I do agree that when it comes to food, one has to be careful of what you buy. Its easy to store non perishables in bulk in our basement and meat in our freezer, but I'd never consider buying their mayo or mustard and we would never finish it in time.

Is there enough savings to bulk bulk Mayo and repackage the stuff, especially considering food borne illness issues?

The woman in the photograph seems to have a freakishly large right arm!

@AcceptingTheAward_GitEmSteveDave: No, it's still pretty funny now. I'll hold that mental picture with me whenever I start feeling blue.

@RedwoodFlyer: wouldn't that be haus?

The problem with buying in bulk is that food spoils before you ever get to finish it. I once bought a 3 pack of Mayo, thinking I would never have to buy mayo again, and as soon as i was ready to open the second bottle, i noticed it was spoiled already, so be careful what you buy in bulk. It may not be worth it in the end.

I was at a BJ's (here in Queens, NY) recently with a friend. We used my card to get in and both orders were processed separately. Scanned the card, they did my friend's order; friend paid. Scanned the card; processed my order; I paid. No problems. YMMV.

@MrsLopsided: @craigkay: it might be helpful to rtfa

@albear: Is "depression" the sensationalist word of the week?

We used to do this in college, but then one person would eat all the . We abandoned the system after a semester.

As for the limitations that someone mentioned at Sam's/BJs, we never noticed that. I've been to both in a group of 4 or 5 and have always been fine. I hadn't even heard of it until my mother-in-law fretted about it before we went with her to Sams while visiting her.

Retail stores usually make 40% margin on higher on fresh produce. And you can get access to higher quality product at the terminal market.

warehous club? did you guys cut off the proofreading budget due to this depression we are in?

OK, it was funnier on TV.

In my experience a lot of things (bread, yogurt) aren't necessarily cheaper per unit than normal grocery stores. You still need to compare prices if you want a deal.

Buying in bulk can save you money or cost more. The problem I see is if you and your friends/family have different tastes. If I want to split a box of hot pockets and my friends don't like hot pockets, I save nothing. I wrote an article on bulk grocery shopping. One thing I stated is only buy what you would use.

Ugh. Wear blinders.

@gondaba: Me too, but only if I get to lick the spoon! Mmmm!