About 6 weeks ago I finally paid the $50 to join Costco. There are several reasons why I never joined before—there wasn’t one close to our house, I didn’t want to pay a membership fee, and I had no idea how much I could save.
However, a Costco just opened a few miles from our house. Also, I have recently tried to feed our family more organic foods and I have also started making all of our bread from scratch. Several of my wonderful readers on Facebook recommended Costco as a great place to both buy organic food at lower prices and to get bulk yeast, so 6 weeks ago I took the plunge and joined, and I couldn’t be happier.
Much of our special food purchases are dictated by my finicky body; I have within the last year discovered I am intolerant to dairy, soy and peanut butter. I recently made the switch to almond butter and was quite pleased to find a good sized jar for $5.79 at Costco. A similar size jar at Whole Foods ran more than $10! At Costco, we were able to buy a huge jar of organic strawberry preserves for less than $6, and rice milk, which routinely runs $2 per small box, can be had at Costco for $1.38. However, the greatest savings came when I bought a 2 lb. package of yeast. I had been buying yeast in little 4 oz. jars that run $6.99 each. Costco’s 2 lb. package, which contains 32 ounces, is only $3.99!! The 32 ounces of yeast at Costco costs $51.93 less than the equivalent in the small 4 ounce jars. The purchase of yeast alone recouped my membership cost. Considering I make all of our bread from scratch including sandwich bread, garlic bread, hot dog and hamburger buns and English muffins, I will definitely use up the 32 ounces of yeast in a year’s time.
But that is not all. The savings get better. Costco has their own gas station which routinely sells gas .15 to .20 cents less than other gas stations in our area. Our mini-van takes approximately 20 gallons of gas to fill. Even if I use a conservative estimate and say we only save .15 cents per gallon and need to fill up 1.5 times a month, we are still saving $54 a year. However, we usually fill up a little more often than that, so I think our savings will be more than that just from gas on a yearly basis.
Yes, I found it irritating to spend money on a membership fee, but a quick analysis of the numbers shows I am saving much more than that on a yearly basis by shopping selectively at Costco. The key is resisting impulse buys and sticking to the list I make. So, thank you readers for an excellent suggestion!
What are your favorite items to buy at Costco? If you purchase organics, where do you like to buy them?
A great tip I receved couple of years back and since then I am sharing my costco membership with another friend. We are two person household, we don’t always buy in bulk, hence the items we need in bulk can be bought by going there once a month. So, my friend and I never had a problem sharing the memberhsip. Plus its further saving!
If you find that you are spending quite a bit of your budget at Costco you may want to consider switching to the Executive membership. We haven’t paid a membership fee at Costco in 3 years because our rewards cheque always more than covers the cost of renewal.
We buy all of our meat at Costco as we’ve found it to be the best quality. Their frozen cheese pizzas are cheaper than I can make them from scratch and they make a quick, easy dinner when we don’t feel like cooking. I can usually get great deals on lettuce and spinach there as well.
How exactly does the executive membership work?
Hey – just thought I would answer this question for you:
“Executive Membership is our highest level of membership. Executive Members enjoy an annual 2% Reward on most Costco purchases, as well as additional values on member services, such as lower prices on check printing, payroll services and identity protection; an account bonus for money market and online investing accounts; free roadside assistance for vehicles covered through the auto insurance program; and extra travel benefits.”
It costs $100 per year, but if you spend $5000 a year at Costco (about $416/mo in gas and groceries), you will get it all back in a check at the end of the year. Of course, everything over this amount is money back in your pocket. Also, this membership includes the roadside towing and some other items for free – so they can be taken off of your insurance. (oh and rental car insurance whenever you rent a car).
I am not sure if the 2% goes towards getting car servicing done too at Costco.
Thank you. We don’t spend that much monthly, but it still might be worth considering. They have their own auto insurance program? That is crazy!
Unfortunately for us, the nearest Costco is quite a drive from our house so we’d spend a lot more in gas to save a few dollars on food 🙁
That’s the way we were until last year. Now I am glad they just built one so close.
Also if anyone in your house wears contact lenses, their prices are much cheaper on contacts. Even cheaper than Wal-mart.
I do wear contacts. I’ll have to check that out.
We just joined there because I can walk there from our house. My husband and I had a baking weekend and figured even with the cost of supplies we saved $45 on baked items for our family of six. We are trying a $30 grocery week. The baking items alone save us hundreds of dollars a year.
$30 a week for groceries!? Wow. Are you blogging about it? I would love to learn more because I always feel like we spend too much for groceries even when I am trying to be conservative.
No there is no blog. I am focused on the kids (4 of them) and getting health issues taken care of. I try for one week a month where we only spend $30. I can do this because of stocking, canning, my dad hunts and shares the meat (yum for ground elk) and we bake all bread products in our house. It has taken awhile to get to this point in our lives and there are times when the kids don’t want to take whatever is in the fridge for friday lunch but we find that we eat more varitey this way. On the $30 weeks it is only milk and produce/ fesh fruit if needed. Sometimes we use the canning stash.
I get it. So you spend regularly for 3 weeks of the month and just $30 for one week. That is a great idea. 🙂
It may not seem like it helps keep the bill down but we find that our groceries went from $600 a month to $350. We make every dollar count for something.
I’ll have to try this.
I have been a customer on and off over the years. I had difficulty justifying their membership fee for what I purchased until they added the gas station. That cash back (3%) pays for the membership. I generally buy fresh vegetables, chicken, juice, ice cream, vitamins and toothbrush replacements. I even bought a small TV.
I just bought the chicken this last trip. It was frozen, and I hated that each one was packaged individually, but it was a good value.
A great buy at Costco is their Kirkland unsalted butter sticks.
And for Easter, great price for a large quantity of eggs.
We can’t eat dairy, but I will definitely keep the eggs in mind. 😉
I love Costco. I buy lots of organics there – broccoli, milk, apples, ground beef. Their Kirkland brand organic salsa is the best. I also buy over the counter meds like Ibuprofen and allergy meds.
Glad you’re enjoying your membership!
Thanks, Julie. I will have to try the salsa.
We buy both dry and canned dog food there, canned cat food, coffee, greek yogurt, toilet paper, eggs, cheese, bacon, and bread.
I pass Costco on my way to my regular grocery store so it’s not out of the way at all.
I bought the toilet paper, but it was huge! 🙂 I’ll have to check out the cat food.
We have the Executive Membership. Even though it is $100 per year, we get credit for all of our purchases and get a check each year that pays the majority of our membership fee. Last year we bought 2 new TVs, most of our produce at Costco (mainly during the fall and winter), Costco diaper wipes (wonderful), vitamins and OTC medicines are a bargain, so when I renewed our membership this year…combined with our check from Costco it cost me $12.00 out of pocket. LOVE COSTCO!!!!
And you can’t forget about the eggs! Yes, they sell them in large quantities but they do last quite a while.
Oh one more thing (can you tell I love Costco a lot) – around Christmas time, they usually have several gift card packages for about 20% off. I know right now they have 2 $50 California Pizza Kitchen gift cards for $79.99 and a few others, but Christmas time usually brings more gift cards. 🙂
The gift cards seem like a great idea. Right off the bat you are saving 20%!
We just joined costco earlier this year also. We buy formula, TP, chicken, gas, and that’s pretty much it. I don’t like buying bulk in general. Oh yeah, diaper wipes. 🙂
We bought pretzels for my son’s lunch, and once we were home, the large package didn’t fit in any of our cupboards! However, we go through things so quickly with the 5 of us, that buying in bulk is generally okay.