The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: somebody8198 on September 02, 2018, 08:26:04 AM
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I'm making a project of driving down my food costs. I live in a relatively high COL city but taxes on things like groceries, even beer and alcohol, are low. When I moved here (from another HCOL city) I cut my grocery bill by at least 20%. My goal is to keep that trend going and see how low I can get it.
Is Costco really the answer? I'm loath to pay an annual fee to have the privilege of buying bulk granola bars. I'm used to grocery shopping once a week and enjoying fresh meat. I buy big bags of frozen vegetables only because it's more practical for meal prepping. I pay a lot of attention to my diet and I'm not willing to compromise much on the actual quality of my diet because being fit and able to do hard things with my body (weight lifting and martial arts) is a big part of my day-to-day happiness, not to mention long-term health.
For example, while it's perfectly rational to note that I could cut a major cost out of my budget by going vegetarian and eating cheaper starchy prepared foods, it would mean slower recovery time between workouts, less lean muscle mass, etc. Is a Costco membership going to doom me to a life of frozen foods and weak arms?
I'm also curious how the financials work out in the long term. I'm a single guy so I don't know if I'll get a lot out of the bulk purchasing model.
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I've heard (unconfirmed) that you can shop at Costco without having a membership if you have a gift card. You may want to buy one online and try that.
I personally don't shop there b/c it involves a long drive into exurb hell (Shudder) and I'm not willing to deal with that. YMMV on it as an experience for you.
Do you have an Aldi by you? If so, check that place out. Where I live, that is the place to get inexpensive groceries.
But the real way to tell what is the best price is to do a price book as described in the book "The Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn. The book came out in the 90's but I'm sure you can find some directions online. It involves recording prices of commonly bought items at different stores and there probably is not one store that is the "cheapest" on any item, especially when you figure in sales and loss leaders. I'm sure there are apps that basically do the same thing these days.
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It depends.There are two of us and we make weekly trips to Costco. Many weeks, I don't even touch the kale and chicken, so my husband would probably do this eveni if he were single. Although he hates picking apart the rotisserie chicken...
For the vegetables they have, yes Costco usually is better. A bag of kale salad mix is the same price as our grocery stores, but twice the size.
For meats, they are often better, but not necessarily the same cut. You can always get a large tri tip, cook to eat hot, then use the leftovers for sandwiches or salads.Their rotisserie chicken is the best around and usually cheaper than grocery stores.
We used to buy Morning Star breakfast patties there and have since switched to Jimmy Dean turkey sausage. Both are considerably cheaper in bulk and the Jimmy Dean goes on sale every six months.
Oh, and when the price of eggs shot up, we switched to the large Costco eggs, whereas my husband always insisted on jumbo when eggs were cheap.
However, not everything is cheaper and not everything is practical in bulk. We can't use two gallons of milk. Costco doesn't carry any cheap pasta...
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For example, while it's perfectly rational to note that I could cut a major cost out of my budget by going vegetarian and eating cheaper starchy prepared foods, it would mean slower recovery time between workouts, less lean muscle mass, etc. Is a Costco membership going to doom me to a life of frozen foods and weak arms?
This dude can lift 800 pounds. He's vegan and has the US record for c&j. If you don't like black beans or lentils, it becomes much harder.
https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/vegan-diet-american-olympic-weightlifter-kendrick-farris
Back to your question. It may not be worth it. The snack section is large. Do you need a 3 pack of 32 ounce mustard? Or a family 2 pack of quiche? They have good quality peanut butter and almond butter.
Find a friend with a membership.
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Of course the answer is "it depends". For me it is definitely cheaper for the quality. It depends on what you plan to buy, what products are alternatives for you, what stores are alternatives for you and how far away they are from you... A lot of things.
As a single person it might be more difficult for you to justify it. We're just a couple but find it pretty easy to justify the cost.
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However, not everything is cheaper and not everything is practical in bulk. We can't use two gallons of milk. Costco doesn't carry any cheap pasta...
Interesting note, the Costco near me sells milk in single gallons. A single gallon of nonfat milk was $1.95 when I went a few days ago. Whole milk is something like $2.75, also as a single gallon.
We also buy our coffee at Costco. Good roasts are $4.50-$7.00/lb, where they'll often sell for $10-20/lb elsewhere for the same roasts -- including many local roasts (from places within 1-3 hours away).
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I'll generally only get bulk dried foods from costco. I go about once a month when my sister goes (she has a card). It's just me and my wife (she is living in a different city for 5 days a week right now for work) so bulk anything perishable is a waste of money. I'll buy bulk oatmeal, rice, beans, etc at costco when i go and it's generally cheaper than the bulk foods isle of my local grocery store for those things unless it's a great deal there. I only eat meat 1-3 times a week and when I eat meat I usually buy from my local butcher, it's much more expensive but the quality is way higher so for me it's worth it. If I don't go to my butcher then I buy what's on sale at the local grocery store.
Also I would challenge you to take a look at your assumption about having weak arms and needing more meat. I do a 6 day PPL, I'm lean and my #'s are decent and I don't have weak arms or legs or back. I used to eat meat like 2-3 times a day and eventually cut back and have continued to progress well on my strength. My overnight oatmeal breakfast has 60g of protein in it. I also have gone from like 200g of protein a day to like 120g and have continued to gain a lot of strength. Lots of non meat foods have good amounts of protein like oatmeal, lentils, beans, etc. Unless you're competing in strong man comps and stuff I would really challenge you to think about your meat consumption.
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It depends. We (household of 2 adults) use our Costco membership to buy a lot of non-food things (store-brand laundry detergent, paper towels, toilet paper), relatively shelf-stable foods (coffee beans, rice, canned tomatoes, peanut butter, nuts, gluten-free crackers, vodka, gin), and some perishables (eggs, butter, deli meat, frozen fish, organic chicken and ground beef). We’ve been able to achieve good savings on the things we buy, but we are careful to buy only what we can feasibly use. It also helps to know the unit prices at other local stores. For us, decent coffee beans, laundry detergent, and organic eggs and chicken are always cheaper at Costco, but organic ground beef is a wash and things like bananas are more reasonable elsewhere.
Edit: Not sure how I forgot the 3-pack boxes of actually good gluten-free frozen pizzas for $16. We keep these on hand for nights when we’re exhausted and don’t want to cook, but don’t want to deal with the cost and hassle of takeout (I have celiac disease so our options are limited).
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It depends. I go there for cheese, coconut oil, coffee beans, pork belly, frozen fish, liquor, over the counter medication, and eye glasses. Given how much European cheese I eat, I imagine that it saves me money in the end. With that said, I could just eat less cheese. They have really great clothing prices (for new clothes) but the selection is pretty random. They usually have really good prices on smart-wool style work/hiking socks. When I had infants I got all of their diapers and wipes there.
In the west we have a legitimate restaurant supply store called Smart Foodservice (formerly Cash and Carry) which is cheaper for some things with no membership fee.
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I go through about 12 peppers a week and the price is better than what I can get at my grocery store, and high quality than Aldi.
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It depends. I go there for cheese, coconut oil, coffee beans, pork belly, frozen fish, liquor, over the counter medication, and eye glasses. Given how much European cheese I eat, I imagine that it saves me money in the end. With that said, I could just eat less cheese. They have really great clothing prices (for new clothes) but the selection is pretty random. They usually have really good prices on smart-wool style work/hiking socks. When I had infants I got all of their diapers and wipes there.
In the west we have a legitimate restaurant supply store called Smart Foodservice (formerly Cash and Carry) which is cheaper for some things with no membership fee.
In San Diego, the Costco and grocery store prices are better than Smart and Final, except for Red Baron frozen pizza. At $3/pizza, it makes the cheapest date night around.
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In San Diego, the Costco and grocery store prices are better than Smart and Final, except for Red Baron frozen pizza. At $3/pizza, it makes the cheapest date night around.
Even for 105oz cans? I guess you might not want any of those. The one by my house is the only place local that carries gallons of peanut oil.
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I love Costco, first off, the executive membership with the Costco credit card gives you 4% back right off the bat (2% from executive membership, 2% from credit card).
I find Costco's price is consistently as cheap or cheaper than elsewhere on the following :
Oatmeal: super cheap, lasts forever
Fresh seafood
Lactaid milk
Avocados
Generic baby formula (HALF THE PRICE OF BRAND NAME!!!)
Baby wipes
Diapers
Some school supplies
Tissues
Paper towels
Quality meats (for equivalent quality meats I find other stores more expensive. ex Costco has organic, hormone free ground beef for 2/3 the price of other stores)
Laundry detergent
Spices (limited selection though)
Cooking Oils (olive oil, vegetable, etc)
Mouthwash
Over the counter Medicines (only useful for medicines you take frequently, otherwise they tend to expire before you use them due to how many are in the bottle)
Frank's red hot sauce
Cheap, but good premade meals (they have a couple of varieties of pre-made Indian style beans and lentils, as well as Oriental style chicken fried rice which are tasty, filling and cost about a dollar per meal)
Salad mixes
Bottled water
Gasoline (sometimes as much as .25 per gallon cheaper)
Some home improvement stuff (we had a new heat pump/central AC unit installed for the same price as competitors quotes but got the 4% cash back from membership/credit card and another 10% cash back on a gift card as a promo)
Random stuff for a limited time: they had a genuine Italian leather office chair priced way below comparable chairs, beach stuff, Schwinn bikes for $150 or less, high quality adjustable flow shower heads, etc
In general I find that stuff at Costco is either lower priced, higher quality or sometimes both.
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I love Costco. Definitely saves me money on the main items I purchase.
Toiletries and detergents.
Dog food.
Clothes and shoes
All meats.
In three years I went from a family of four w four dogs to just me and one dog, two kids left the nest, three dogs passed away and I divorced the big meanie. But I still shop there and love it! I hate running out of things and you’ll never catch me in a convenience store getting toilet paper. I still have a roll of aluminum foil I bought 4 years ago, it’s just now light enough to lift w one hand.
I use Aldi for fresh fruits and veggies and some things like mayo. Other than the salad mixes the Costco fresh items are too large for just me to eat.
Really you can’t beat the quality for the price. Yes you can get everything cheaper somewhere else and maybe the same price but the quality is top notch. They guarantee everything, if you don’t like it you can bring it back. I once returned a leather recliner after having it a year, the arms were fading and it just wasn’t holding up well. They had no problem giving me my money back.
They do sales every month and things go on clearance all the time. Just a little tip if the sign has an asterisk that means it won’t be restocked. If it ends in .97 or .00 that means the price is reduced or it’s the last item.
Online clothes are cheap, usually the same price as the store, and most stuff will ship for free or a buck or two and free returns. They have the best leggings for 10$ and free shipping.
My son is in college w no car and uses instacart for Costco w no extra shipping fees, stuff costs a little bit more but not much. It’s a great deal.
They have plenty of cool stuff and lots you don’t need but you can control that part. I went last week and was thrilled to find their Kirkland peanut butter cups are back. 9$ for a nice sized tub. They haven’t sold those in years except in the big bag of mixed candy. I absolutely needed them! They are divine, best peanut butter cups you can buy.
I used to be an executive member and get back about 300$ yearly which covered the fee. I spend much less now so I’m a regular member but I save enough to make up the 60$.
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Echoing the "it depends" answer. Not everything is cheaper at Costco, but many things are, especially in bulk. But you can't assume that because it's a big bulk item and it's at Costco, even if it's on sale, you can't find it cheaper in smaller amounts elsewhere. You really have to do some comparison shopping to start getting a sense of which items are worth getting there.
Their gasoline tends to be quite a bit cheaper than the alternatives. For us, the gas savings alone makes up the membership cost.
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I used to go to Costco a couple of times/year with a friend, but when a trader Joe's opened in town I found their prices on nuts and cheese are comparable per lb, and there's no driving required. Also, sometime around then my local grocer started having better sales on the stuff we eat regularly.
So not really worth the time/effort/driving for the $, for us. (Also, our nearest Costco doesn't sell the stuff I'd like to buy in real bulk -- they have pinto beans, but not black beans, for instance. And white flour, but not white whole wheat -- which TJ's sells for quite cheap.)
I sort of miss random stuff, like the merino wool socks at 3 pairs for $10 or so...
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Oh the merino socks, love them.
I compared pool chemicals, Costco is definitely best. Same for dog food and dog treats.
For meat I just cut into appropriate portions and freeze. Cream is way cheaper than grocery stores, even cheaper than Walmart's house brand, and from a dairy I trust. Cheese is definitely competitive with our grocery stores.
Some things are not always the best buy, often a grocery store will be better - but then things are not always on sale at a grocery store.
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We like Costco but go with family members that pay the membership fee. They have a fantastic salad mix that I could easily eat daily. Their prices on frozen fruit is great so our smoothie expenses come down quite a bit. Our biggest benefit is buying individually packaged snacks that are required to send with our youngest to school. If we lived closer and went more often, I think we’d find a big savings but we only go a couple times a year so it isn’t worth paying for a membership.
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Although he hates picking apart the rotisserie chicken...
My wife taught me that the meat is way easier to pick off the bones while the chicken is still warm. She will put the chicken on the counter while she puts away the groceries, then pick apart the chicken. We usually have dinner with some of the warm chicken that night, then the rest goes into other dishes for later in the week.
For the OP, Costco has a 100% money back guarantee, you can always get a refund of your membership fee anytime before it expires. We have an executive membership and only have to pay $0.15 for it this year after our rebate.
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I'm just one person, but I eat a lot of veggies, meat, fruit, not a lot of shelf stable starches, and I think Costco is the best!
Here's what I get, and have compared and found cheaper (at least for here, in Colorado)
1 pound boxes of baby greens
6 pack of organic romaine heads
1 pound boxes of fresh spinach
3 packs of English cucumbers
10 pound bag of organic carrots
Rotisserie chicken
organic boneless skinless chicken breasts, and thighs
organic ground beef
organic ground turkey
frozen organic Brussels sprouts
frozen organic broccoli, cauliflower, and cauliflower rice
frozen organic blueberries, cherries, mango, etc
organic almond milk (in a shelf stable case)
Kerrygold butter (way, way cheaper than anywhere)
organic coconut oil
I used to buy the case of 5 dozen organic eggs, but now I get them from my neighbor who has chickens!
I buy a lot of spices, and nuts and olive oil
I think if you are like me, and try to eat as much organic as possible, it is a way better deal. I live in a small town, and grocery prices are insane. I stock up at Costco, and I'm able to eat almost all organic for less than $300 a month. I buy some things (apples, peppers, onions, etc) in town because I just don't like having large amounts. I think if you eat 2 meals a day that are veggie/meat heavy, Costco is the way to go.
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I love Costco! Whether it's a better deal for a single guy will depend a lot on what you eat and what other stores you have.
I've found that Costco has fantastic deals on meat, cheese, and frozen vegetables. Fresh fruit (though too much packaging for me). For my family of four, it's a good deal.
Many of the things we buy we simply cannot find at grocery stores cheaper than Costco, even with loss leaders. And I consider it to be pretty high quality.
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Things are a good deal at Costco even without a coupon:
Kirkland vitamins and over-the-counter meds
Salad greens
Organic Baby Spinach
Grape tomatoes
Bananas
Organic Brown Rice
Kerrygold butter
Organic chicken
Shredded parmesan
Feta
Wine
Toilet paper
Laundry detergent
Dishwasher detergent
Organic Peanut Butter
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Deli Meat
Rotisserie Chicken
Thick cut Bacon
Shredded cheese
Protein bars
Frozen wild-caught salmon
Spiral Cut ham
Pesto
Salsa
Stuff I find cheaper at Kroger:
Organic Whole Milk
Stuff I find cheaper at Sprouts:
Avocados (but the Costco ones are consistently better)
Dried Beans
Steel Cut Oats
Non-organic chicken
Grass fed ground beef
Onions
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I like Costco and shop there at least once a month even though there are only two of us. It helps that there are 2 within 5 miles of our house. For an alternate view:
https://rootofgood.com/costco-costs-more-bulk-buying/
Personally I will never shop at Walmart or Sam's Club for philosophical reasons. I like Aldi's but there isn't one within reasonable distance from my house.
I suggest triying Costco either by going with a friend with a membership or buying a gift card online and using it.
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Well they let you return anything, including your membership! I live in suburbia and it’s like there’s something wrong with me bc I don’t have one. So I got it. For me and 2 kids I didn’t think it was worth it and returned the membership.
However, I just can’t stand having large stockpiles of anything around. I get my giant bag of jasmine rice from the Asian market. Meat is a good price but I don’t like buying tons of it and freezing. Nor do I have that kind of freezer space. I don’t need giant containers of Panera soup, quiche, blocks of cheese, etc. Even with kids, I don’t buy tons of snack foods. The case of beans was worthwhile.
But it really comes down to that I prefer to shop twice a week for only what I need.
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It is “cheaper” if you demand high end/luxury or convenience food. If you meal plan/prep and cook most of your food from scratch, Costco is much less valuable. We used to have a Costco membership but have found that we do better in terms of cost with a combo of TJ’s (eggs), local Indian grocery (legumes), and shopping loss leaders or “reduced for quick sale” items for produce and meat. This does require some more flexibility and creativity about what you cook, but we find we eat very well. We also buy less random stuff that we don’t really need and that isn’t all that healthy for us (cheese...)
As others have mentioned, I would also re-examine just how protein-rich and meaty you need your diet to be. In my experience, it’s possible to get plenty of protein from vegan or vegetarian sources, you just don’t have as much room for low-quality carbs or fat because vegan/veg protein sources typically also contain a fair amount of carbs or fat. You definitely aren’t doomed to weakness.
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My husband and I do essentially all of our grocery shopping at Costco - and we're vegetarian. The quality is consistently high, the prices are consistently competitive (particularly when certain items are on sale) and we never throw food out because we buy staples and then meal plan based on what is in the fridge at any given time. It's easy to get a ton of protein - beans, lentils, etc. are all high-quality protein sources and are available at a very low-cost.
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Good answers so far but I will add one more nice benefit. Their customer service is excellent. If you ever have a problem with any product, even groceries they will refund you the price no questions asked (depends on the warranty for some items). For example we once bought some fruit and one of them in the package was bad when we got home. All we had to do was tell customer service on our next trip and bam, refund. We never actually knew they would do this but happened to mention it to the checkout person and they made the recommendation.
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Being a person who runs a tight ship (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/have-a-sub-$200month-grocery-budget/) with my grocery budget, here's what I've found. On average, regular non-sale grocery store prices are more expensive than Costco, but Costco is usually more expensive than loss-leader grocery store sales. If you're used to just going to Safeway and buying whatever is on your list, regardless of whether it's on sale---Costco will save you money. But if you watch the sale prices and buy when your household staples are on deep sale at Safeway and at Costco only if they're cheaper there, you can do even better.
For example, a can of black olives:
Regular Safeway price: $1.79
Costco price: ~$1.15
Loss-leader Safeway price: 10/$10
There are a few things for which Costco is usually cheaper than even the loss leaders: bananas, gasoline, toilet paper, tortillas, spices, big bags of rice/bread flour, and bulk olive/canola/soybean oil (I'm probably missing a couple things, but I think those are the main ones).
Pay attention to your ad flyers, and be formulating a price book (even if it's just in your head). I have general rules that live in my head: beef shouldn't cost more than $3/lb; chicken shouldn't cost more than $1/lb; bell peppers should be 50¢/each or less; lettuce no more than $1/head; cheese for $2/lb or less; etc., etc. You can formulate your own rules by watching the ad cycles for your local grocery stores, and noting how grapes that are usually $2.99/lb are $.98/lb this week, so you know that $2.99 is too much for grapes and that you should buy grapes only when the ad cycles them through as the $.98 featured item.
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On Kauai the gas at Costco is 50 to 60 cents/gallon cheaper so the gas savings alone makes it worth it. The executive card gets you 2% back, which also pays for the membership.
Safeway has more 50% off sales for food that is about to expire. If you only eat that, Safeway is cheaper.
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I adore Costco. I also love Grocery Outlet, 99 Cents Only, Winco, and Sprouts. I so wish the Winco was close enough to go to more often, and really wish there was an Aldi anywhere near me. Trader Joe's is meh, and Safeway is outrageous, IMO. And no, I can't be arsed with paying attention to weekly flyers or apps. Costco's prices are consistent, and I appreciate that. They do have sales, and they last for weeks, which is very helpful.
Here's a little tip: Costco gas stations price shop within a 1-mile radius. If there's a cheapo gas station nearby, you're going to pay less at Costco, even if it's just a penny/gallon. If there is no competition, that Costco's gas will most likely be more expensive.
I used to drive a LOT for work in my pre-FIRE days. I always gassed up at the Costcos with the best prices. This is not worth going out of your way for, but a good thing to notice when you're out and about. Nowadays, we drive to and from SoCal on a regular basis. We have all the "best price gas" warehouses figured out along the route.
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In Hawaii Costco is essential to grocery survival. This was true when I was single and even more so now that I'm married with two kids. All my grocery price information is really out of whack because Hawaii. When I go to the mainland I get horribly confused and run around buying everything because it's all such a relatively good deal.
HOWEVER: Target's diapers are cheaper. That one was quite a shock.
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Although he hates picking apart the rotisserie chicken...
My wife taught me that the meat is way easier to pick off the bones while the chicken is still warm. She will put the chicken on the counter while she puts away the groceries, then pick apart the chicken. We usually have dinner with some of the warm chicken that night, then the rest goes into other dishes for later in the week.
For the OP, Costco has a 100% money back guarantee, you can always get a refund of your membership fee anytime before it expires. We have an executive membership and only have to pay $0.15 for it this year after our rebate.
Oh, he loves it when we Costco together on the weekends and I rip off the legs and hand them to him warm. He also know we are both miserable if for some reason it goes in the fridge and has to be picked apart cold. He just hates doing it.
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It depends on where you live and what other stores are available in your area. In my parts(SoCal), I can get everything cheaper somewhere else.....except gasoline. They are always .20/gal less and 4% back on gasoline purchases using their Visa card. The savings on gas alone more than pays for the membership fee.
If it's possible, find a friend who already has a membership and gain access, just to peruse the aisles and see what they have and the prices. It helps greatly to know what prices you already pay elsewhere. Once in awhile, when I have a hankering for a mocha freeze, I'll go up and down the aisles to see what "new" stuff they have. The most tempting things are the baked goods. But, instead of my buying it, I go home and make it.
For many years, I would buy at Costco, but now at
coffee Grocery Outlet
sugar G.O.
butter G.O.
half and half G.O.
cheese G.O/aldi
nuts aldi
chocolate chips G.O./aldi
manila envelopes(ebay sales) amazon
minced garlic G.O.
toilet paper still costco
eggs Aldi
movie tickets Netflix/amazon prime
antihistimines still Costco
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Even for just two of us, Costco is cheaper -- much cheaper. And I buy no convenience foods except the roasted chickens, which we get 3 meals for 2 out of for $5.
When prices are similar, Costco's quality is much better. This includes produce and meat. It's very good overall.
I still buy canned and dried beans, and canned tomatoes, at Walmart or Food Lion. Frozen peas too, which Costco strangely doesn't have.
I get specialty stuff like tahini, and spices and sauces from Amazon.
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I love Costco, first off, the executive membership with the Costco credit card gives you 4% back right off the bat (2% from executive membership, 2% from credit card).
You're not getting 4% right off the bat. You're getting 4% after spending $3000. 2% of which you will get back in Costco credit.
It's an extra $60 so it really only gives you 2% back from executive membership after you spend $3000/yr when you do the math. Before then it is a negative %/is costing you. Being as I don't spend $3k on shit at Costco having an executive membership is more expensive overall.
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We went a few days ago. Hadn't been for a few yrs. Costs seemed very high. Roasted chicken was only $5 which is the same cost as yrs ago.
Seemed most everything else was fairly high. We'll stick with the local health food store and grocery outlet for now on.$13 for two half gallon vanilla ice creams by Kirkland. Shwanns delivers to our small town on Thursday afternoons for that price.
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Since I'm a single person, I was skeptical that a Costco membership would be worth it for me, but I decided to take the plunge about a year ago. I couldn't be happier! I did as others mentioned though and made a Google sheet to track the price of grocery items I regularly purchased so that I would know if the Costco price was a good deal. Some things I regularly buy:
Propane refills: <$11 for them to refill a propane tank at my Costco
Walnuts
Large blocks of cheese to shred
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Spices
Coffee beans ($8.99 for 48 oz of organic beans!)
Turkey sausage
Frozen chicken tenderloins
Frozen cauliflower rice
Frozen berries
Plain Greek yogurt (toss the above frozen berries into the yogurt the night before and enjoy berry-flavored yogurt the next day)
Eggs (have to watch prices closely because sometimes its not a good deal)
Salad greens
Avocados
Pistachios
Rotisserie Chicken (then make chicken stock from the bones when finished)
*Alcohol (may not be sold in your state though)
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I love Costco, first off, the executive membership with the Costco credit card gives you 4% back right off the bat (2% from executive membership, 2% from credit card).
You're not getting 4% right off the bat. You're getting 4% after spending $3000. 2% of which you will get back in Costco credit.
It's an extra $60 so it really only gives you 2% back from executive membership after you spend $3000/yr when you do the math. Before then it is a negative %/is costing you. Being as I don't spend $3k on shit at Costco having an executive membership is more expensive overall.
YMMV. We currently have a (non-Costco) 2% cashback MC, so get 4% from the first dollar spent. Since we do all our grocery shopping at Costco, our spend is about $6k/year, which roughly pays for the Executive Membership.
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Honestly, we don't find a ton of deals at Costco compared to Aldi and our local grocery stores, especially if you eat seasonally. Pound for pound, kale salad may be cheaper at Costco, but I can also make a spinach salad with the $1.49 baby spinach from Aldi.
My mom usually gifts us a Costco Cash card for Christmas, which allows you to shop with the card without having a membership. This means we are judicious in what we buy there since we are limited to the funds on the card.
Best deals for us:
-cheese (shred and freeze)
-coconut milk (not cheaper than the Asian grocery store, but more convenient for us)
-quinoa
-walnuts
-frozen salmon
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I rarely see the inside of a grocery store. People who think Costco is about bulk don't get it. You can buy a gallon of milk, a Rotisserie chicken, a bunch of bananas. What? You're not going to go through a bag of asparagus? To the poster who said they don't get through a bag of salad greens: You're not eating enough salad greens. And even if they were to go bad, buying a full bag at Costco and eating half is still cheaper than buying a smaller bag at the grocery store.
There are certain things at Costco that are so much cheaper than anywhere else, Costco must be taking at hit. This includes gasoline, a dozen roses -- you can get two dozen roses for $15.99 - and a sheet cake that can feed 30 easily for $15. In the category of annoyingly expensive things -- i.e. pool chemicals, ink cartridges, protein powder - Costco wins here, too. Then there's clothing. Try finding Adidas, Levi's, Calvin Klein or Under Armour at prices anywhere near that of Costco.
There are dozens of expensive products ranging from Rogaine to 5-Hour Energy that Costco private labels as its Kirkland brand and sells for half the price.
Costco is the No.1 wine seller in America and No.3 bookseller to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. There's a reason for that.
My $100 executive membership annual fee is covered by gasoline savings alone.
Furniture, TVs, cameras...Costco kills it there, too. Hell, I bought Costco stock 12 years ago and it's one of my best investments ever.
The world is going to hell but Costco will rule 500 years from now. Just watch the movie Idiocracy.
Sam's Club is just Walmart with a cover charge.
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I used to work right near a Costco and my work had free memberships. One of my coworkers literally went in every day. To get an idea about the big savings, I made a grocery list of typical things I'd need for the week. I shopped at my normal store, Stop & Shop, which isn't known for being all that cheap, but they're nearby and I do get gas points.
Then, the next week, I took the same list to Costco along with my coworker who had his membership card. The total was more than Stop & Shop. I talked with a few people at work who told me that if I needed tires or a major appliance, a Costco membership might make sense....although these days, most major tire and appliance outlets will match anyone's price.
Now that I'm at a different job, Costco is an hour away, so there's no way I'm going there.
You really need to do your own homework on this. Some people (I hear) do save. My friend who came with me? He buys the latest high end projector for his home theater and 5 months later, returns it and buys the new highest end projector. For him, the annual expense is his cost to "borrowing" projectors.
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I rarely see the inside of a grocery store. People who think Costco is about bulk don't get it. You can buy a gallon of milk, a Rotisserie chicken, a bunch of bananas. What? You're not going to go through a bag of asparagus? To the poster who said they don't get through a bag of salad greens: You're not eating enough salad greens. And even if they were to go bad, buying a full bag at Costco and eating half is still cheaper than buying a smaller bag at the grocery store.
There are certain things at Costco that are so much cheaper than anywhere else, Costco must be taking at hit. This includes gasoline, a dozen roses -- you can get two dozen roses for $15.99 - and a sheet cake that can feed 30 easily for $15. In the category of annoyingly expensive things -- i.e. pool chemicals, ink cartridges, protein powder - Costco wins here, too. Then there's clothing. Try finding Adidas, Levi's, Calvin Klein or Under Armour at prices anywhere near that of Costco.
There are dozens of expensive products ranging from Rogaine to 5-Hour Energy that Costco private labels as its Kirkland brand and sells for half the price.
Costco is the No.1 wine seller in America and No.3 bookseller to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. There's a reason for that.
My $100 executive membership annual fee is covered by gasoline savings alone.
Furniture, TVs, cameras...Costco kills it there, too. Hell, I bought Costco stock 12 years ago and it's one of my best investments ever.
The world is going to hell but Costco will rule 500 years from now. Just watch the movie Idiocracy.
Sam's Club is just Walmart with a cover charge.
I love the enthusiasm for Costco, LiveLean!
In Hawaii, the savings are so obvious that you almost don't need a price book to realize that Costco is a score. The hilarious thing about that, though, is that everybody's stuff is from Costco, which means there's a sort of communist lack of individuality among the locals on island. All parties are "catered" by Kirkland. Potlucks are very popular in Hawaii, and we all dutifully bring our Costco kale salad, giant bag of Kettle chips, Stacy's pita chips and hummus, quinoa salad, Costco poke, etc.
Two months ago there was a sale at Costco for The Perfect Women's Athletic T-Shirt. Jewel tones. Wicking fabric. Not-clingy--doesn't emphasize jiggly tummies. A little peek-a-boo on the back collar; just enough to make you feel sort of stylish. I bought two because they were only $10 each. And I knew that the t-shirt would become the uniform of women over 35.
Yep, sure enough, at least three ladies at my church have The Perfect Shirt in 2+ colors. I went hiking with my family yesterday and laughed with a random lady on the trail who was wearing The Perfect Shirt in the same color as the one I had on. Costco is basically the company store of Hawaii. I'm not sure where he got his information, but my husband frequently cites the Iwilei (downtown Honolulu) Costco as the busiest Costco in America.
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I rarely see the inside of a grocery store. People who think Costco is about bulk don't get it. You can buy a gallon of milk, a Rotisserie chicken, a bunch of bananas. What? You're not going to go through a bag of asparagus? To the poster who said they don't get through a bag of salad greens: You're not eating enough salad greens. And even if they were to go bad, buying a full bag at Costco and eating half is still cheaper than buying a smaller bag at the grocery store.
There are certain things at Costco that are so much cheaper than anywhere else, Costco must be taking at hit. This includes gasoline, a dozen roses -- you can get two dozen roses for $15.99 - and a sheet cake that can feed 30 easily for $15. In the category of annoyingly expensive things -- i.e. pool chemicals, ink cartridges, protein powder - Costco wins here, too. Then there's clothing. Try finding Adidas, Levi's, Calvin Klein or Under Armour at prices anywhere near that of Costco.
There are dozens of expensive products ranging from Rogaine to 5-Hour Energy that Costco private labels as its Kirkland brand and sells for half the price.
Costco is the No.1 wine seller in America and No.3 bookseller to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. There's a reason for that.
My $100 executive membership annual fee is covered by gasoline savings alone.
Furniture, TVs, cameras...Costco kills it there, too. Hell, I bought Costco stock 12 years ago and it's one of my best investments ever.
The world is going to hell but Costco will rule 500 years from now. Just watch the movie Idiocracy.
Sam's Club is just Walmart with a cover charge.
I mean, there's no doubt Costco is a "good deal" for consumer suckas. If you've buying discounted 5 hour energy, I think it's safe to say you've not on the Mustachian path.
Overall, my family saves money by buying less stuff. Costco has a ton of stuff we *could* buy, but don't, because we don't need it. This kind of saving money at Costco take discipline, which is my main problem with Costco.
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Then there's clothing. Try finding Adidas, Levi's, Calvin Klein or Under Armour at prices anywhere near that of Costco.
Any secondhand store.
Yes, overall Costco works for our household. The propane twice a year, gasoline about once a month, and the frozen fruit savings easily surpass the cost of the membership.
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I love Costco, first off, the executive membership with the Costco credit card gives you 4% back right off the bat (2% from executive membership, 2% from credit card).
You're not getting 4% right off the bat. You're getting 4% after spending $3000. 2% of which you will get back in Costco credit.
It's an extra $60 so it really only gives you 2% back from executive membership after you spend $3000/yr when you do the math. Before then it is a negative %/is costing you. Being as I don't spend $3k on shit at Costco having an executive membership is more expensive overall.
Thank you for reminding us to run the numbers now that we have moved to eliminate the daily commute and are selling the SUV!
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Then, the next week, I took the same list to Costco along with my coworker who had his membership card. The total was more than Stop & Shop.
You adjusted for quantity and quality differences, correct? Your statement is a straight apples-to-apples comparison?
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It is “cheaper” if you demand high end/luxury or convenience food. If you meal plan/prep and cook most of your food from scratch, Costco is much less valuable. We used to have a Costco membership but have found that we do better in terms of cost with a combo of TJ’s (eggs), local Indian grocery (legumes), and shopping loss leaders or “reduced for quick sale” items for produce and meat. This does require some more flexibility and creativity about what you cook, but we find we eat very well. We also buy less random stuff that we don’t really need and that isn’t all that healthy for us (cheese...)
As others have mentioned, I would also re-examine just how protein-rich and meaty you need your diet to be. In my experience, it’s possible to get plenty of protein from vegan or vegetarian sources, you just don’t have as much room for low-quality carbs or fat because vegan/veg protein sources typically also contain a fair amount of carbs or fat. You definitely aren’t doomed to weakness.
- Depends on where you live and what other stores are around - it may be cheaper without the "high/end luxury"
- Lots of food at costco is not high end or luxury
- It also matters if you care philosophically about workers, etc. Living wage and all that.
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I forget the source, so maybe someone can fact check me but I remember hearing that Costco's maximum mark up is only 14%
I like to use them for frozen fruits and such, and I love paying 20 bucks for several weeks worth of chicken breasts. I don't buy fresh produce there currently because I can never finish it before it goes bad...maybe that's a sign I need to shuffle my diet lol.
Also, for those of weak vision like myself, the optometrists they have on site (at least here in Austin, TX) are WONDERFUL.
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Oh, and glasses!
I got progressives, and an eye appointment.
With insurance, cost at Costco: $85
At my regular eye doctor, with insurance: $600
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Very hit and miss.
Some things are totally worth it (cheap propane refills, cheap gas, toilet paper, dog food, detergent/soap, etc), but you've got to really be careful and do your research before going. Sales at our local grocery stores are usually cheaper. Stuff on Amazon is often the same price as stuff in Costco. I've also found that a lot of the items sold at costco are higher quality than I would tend to buy if in another store . . . so, you might get a good deal for the quality of the item but end up spending more money on a higher quality item that you wouldn't have purchased otherwise.
The experience of shopping at the Costco near us is fucking terrible. Huge crowds, slow checkouts, terrible parking lot, pushy people, ugh. It might be better during business hours on weekdays, but I am only really able to shop there on weekends. If I can't be there 30 minutes before the doors open with a specific list of things to buy, I won't bother to go.
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It is “cheaper” if you demand high end/luxury or convenience food. If you meal plan/prep and cook most of your food from scratch, Costco is much less valuable. We used to have a Costco membership but have found that we do better in terms of cost with a combo of TJ’s (eggs), local Indian grocery (legumes), and shopping loss leaders or “reduced for quick sale” items for produce and meat. This does require some more flexibility and creativity about what you cook, but we find we eat very well. We also buy less random stuff that we don’t really need and that isn’t all that healthy for us (cheese...)
As others have mentioned, I would also re-examine just how protein-rich and meaty you need your diet to be. In my experience, it’s possible to get plenty of protein from vegan or vegetarian sources, you just don’t have as much room for low-quality carbs or fat because vegan/veg protein sources typically also contain a fair amount of carbs or fat. You definitely aren’t doomed to weakness.
- Depends on where you live and what other stores are around - it may be cheaper without the "high/end luxury"
- Lots of food at costco is not high end or luxury
- It also matters if you care philosophically about workers, etc. Living wage and all that.
In response:
-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items. It's true that basics like oatmeal, dried beans, flour, TP, etc. are often also available at Costco for a good price, but for a single person I would question whether the savings on those items alone is really enough to justify the annual membership. In my area, I have found a lot of those basic items are periodically cheaper at places like Sprouts, Smart & Final, the local Indian grocery, or even Whole Foods at times, if you are willing to keep an eye out for sales. I find also the selection of these kinds of basics is better elsewhere. Costco only has 1-2 kinds of dried legumes, for example, limited spice selection, etc. The produce is also on the higher end...when did you last see a cabbage at Costco? I never have. But I concede that every location is different and there are probably some places where Costco makes a lot of sense. OP needs to do their own research and my view is that Costco is not uniformly cheaper and that if you are not insistent on particular high-end versions of items, you may not find Costco to be that amazing. Some people have also pointed to the gas savings as being worth the membership, to which I say maybe you need to be re-examining how much you are driving. We fill up our 10 gallon tank less than once a month.
-Towards the end of our Costco days I was finding they were moving more and more towards pricier versions of even basic items. For example, when we started shopping there, they stocked the 105 oz. cans of tomatoes and the price was great. At some point they stopped selling those and instead started selling a flat of 16oz cans of organic tomatoes. At that point it was cheaper to buy 32 oz cans from the grocery store. I noticed this more and more as they started to emphasize their organic offerings--sure they were doing more organic fruit and veg, but also a LOT more organic snacks, frozen foods, and stuff like coconut water. I'm sure the basics are still there but they are getting crowded out by fancier items in our areas.
-Definitely see your point about living wage, but my city (where all the stores we frequent are located, unlike Costco, which is a couple towns over) has a fairly high minimum wage and has further increases scheduled. So I'm not convinced I would be supporting something better by driving 10 miles to Costco. But certainly, YMMV on this one.
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Then, the next week, I took the same list to Costco along with my coworker who had his membership card. The total was more than Stop & Shop.
You adjusted for quantity and quality differences, correct? Your statement is a straight apples-to-apples comparison?
I've done this comparison too, using my dorky grocery spreadsheet to make sure I strictly compare price/weight. My regular grocery shopping system is significantly cheaper than Costco, and far more convenient for where I am located. Obviously, that's not true for everyone -- if this thread illustrates anything, it's that there are many, many factors that go into individual grocery savings!
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-Towards the end of our Costco days I was finding they were moving more and more towards pricier versions of even basic items. For example, when we started shopping there, they stocked the 105 oz. cans of tomatoes and the price was great. At some point they stopped selling those and instead started selling a flat of 16oz cans of organic tomatoes. At that point it was cheaper to buy 32 oz cans from the grocery store. I noticed this more and more as they started to emphasize their organic offerings--sure they were doing more organic fruit and veg, but also a LOT more organic snacks, frozen foods, and stuff like coconut water. I'm sure the basics are still there but they are getting crowded out by fancier items in our areas.
I do miss the 105 oz cans of tomato products.
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-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items.
I didn't realize that some folks here think buying bulk coffee beans is considered a "higher end food" and "luxury".
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-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items.
I didn't realize that some folks here think buying bulk coffee beans is considered a "higher end food" and "luxury".
You don't consider a recreational drug to be a luxury?
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Sam's Club is just Walmart with a cover charge.
Aldi's will beat those prices for actual food (and flowers), though. And I've shopped at both Sam's and Costco, and find them almost indistinguishable.
We buy gas, tires, clothes, giant bags of coffee beans, stuff like that at Sam's/Costco. And rotisserie chicken! It's a good place to go if you're having a big party or a church dinner.
(For those looking for the giant cans of tomatoes - GFS. And their spaghetti sauce is awesome!)
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-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items.
I didn't realize that some folks here think buying bulk coffee beans is considered a "higher end food" and "luxury".
You don't consider a recreational drug to be a luxury?
Oh coffee is much more than just a recreational drug :). But anyway, if we simply rule out the importance of anything other than those "things you NEED to have to live a healthy life" we can effectively eliminate 99% of the discussion on this forum. That seems kind of pointless to me.
edit: Are you also saying you agree that bulk coffee itself is a "higher end food"?
edit 2: The economics definition of "luxury good' is a good with an income elasticity greater than one -- where if your income goes up your quantity demanded will increase proportionally. Compare this to a "necessity" good, where it has an income elasticity of demand of less than one. For me, without a doubt, coffee is a "necessity good", if my income increased by 5% or 500%, my quantity demanded would not budge.
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Being a person who runs a tight ship (https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/have-a-sub-$200month-grocery-budget/) with my grocery budget, here's what I've found. On average, regular non-sale grocery store prices are more expensive than Costco, but Costco is usually more expensive than loss-leader grocery store sales. If you're used to just going to Safeway and buying whatever is on your list, regardless of whether it's on sale---Costco will save you money. But if you watch the sale prices and buy when your household staples are on deep sale at Safeway and at Costco only if they're cheaper there, you can do even better.
For example, a can of black olives:
Regular Safeway price: $1.79
Costco price: ~$1.15
Loss-leader Safeway price: 10/$10
There are a few things for which Costco is usually cheaper than even the loss leaders: bananas, gasoline, toilet paper, tortillas, spices, big bags of rice/bread flour, and bulk olive/canola/soybean oil (I'm probably missing a couple things, but I think those are the main ones).
Pay attention to your ad flyers, and be formulating a price book (even if it's just in your head). I have general rules that live in my head: beef shouldn't cost more than $3/lb; chicken shouldn't cost more than $1/lb; bell peppers should be 50¢/each or less; lettuce no more than $1/head; cheese for $2/lb or less; etc., etc. You can formulate your own rules by watching the ad cycles for your local grocery stores, and noting how grapes that are usually $2.99/lb are $.98/lb this week, so you know that $2.99 is too much for grapes and that you should buy grapes only when the ad cycles them through as the $.98 featured item.
I agree with everything here. Costco's everyday prices are often significantly lower than the everyday prices at your neighborhood supermarket. Costco mostly keeps their prices pretty consistent, unlike the neighborhood supermarkets. We had a Costco membership the past couple years. When it was about to expire earlier this summer we decided to do one last big stock-up and let the membership lapse until we started running out of stuff, to save a bit on membership fees. Since then I've started paying a bit more attention to the loss leaders at our neighborhood supermarkets. A lot of the things we usually get at Costco (cereal, cheddar/colby/jack/mozzarella cheese, crackers, snack bars, butter, and more) have been offered for less than Costco prices on at least one occasion. Other things (flour, rice, beer, fancier cheese, vegetarian sausage, cooking oil) have not. Once we start to run out of several of these things we'll probably renew our Costco membership.
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I have always had a very positive experience with Costco. Gasoline is about 10 cents cheaper than the local convenience stores. Whole-bean coffee is way cheaper, and very high quality. Non-perishables (paper towels, t/p, etc.) are all a big win. Store brand canned and frozen veggies are consistently good. The meat is high quality and you can divide up the portions to freeze half. I don't generally purchase fresh fruits and vegetables there. If you get the "executive" membership and use the Costco credit card, you get 4% back on everything.
Luxury items? Sure. We have even purchased high-end items from the jewelry department. Very satisfied.
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For example, while it's perfectly rational to note that I could cut a major cost out of my budget by going vegetarian and eating cheaper starchy prepared foods, it would mean slower recovery time between workouts, less lean muscle mass, etc. Is a Costco membership going to doom me to a life of frozen foods and weak arms?
This dude can lift 800 pounds. He's vegan and has the US record for c&j. If you don't like black beans or lentils, it becomes much harder.
https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/vegan-diet-american-olympic-weightlifter-kendrick-farris
LOL. He became vegan *after* he was already a very strong and muscular Olympian. Maintaining strength and muscle mass is a lot easier than building. Also, he was/is a professional athlete with *way* better genetics than the average dude. And he probably took PEDs, like almost every other weightlifter who makes the Olympics.
For the typical skinny fat middle-aged Mustachian, extrapolating from Kendrick Farris is a bit like saying you should pick individual stocks, because look at Warren Buffet!
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I just finished updating my price book today -- really the best way to know which store is cheaper. I don't have an Aldis anywhere near me. For most of the things I regularly buy, Costco is still cheaper. Sale prices and loss leaders at my local Kroger affiliate can be less expensive -- my price book lets me know when this happens and I'll stock up. Costco is never going to replace my regular grocery store, but it definitely saves me money on staples.
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Luxury or not, I’m gonna buy coffee beans and frozen salmon filets because we genuinely enjoy those things, and I’d rather pay $5.20 and $8.50 per pound of good-quality product, respectively, at Costco than $6.70 and $11, respectively, at Aldi.
I’m not convinced flour is a necessary basic for health but I do like to bake for holidays, and our local Costco has good prices on gluten-free all-purpose flour and almond flour (celiac disease precludes a lot of the standard American diet).
Thanks to the person who mentioned optometry services. Husband needs to replace his glasses.
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Luxury or not, I’m gonna buy coffee beans and frozen salmon filets because we genuinely enjoy those things, and I’d rather pay $5.20 and $8.50 per pound of good-quality product, respectively, at Costco than $6.70 and $11, respectively, at Aldi.
I’m not convinced flour is a necessary basic for health but I do like to bake for holidays, and our local Costco has good prices on gluten-free all-purpose flour and almond flour (celiac disease precludes a lot of the standard American diet).
Thanks to the person who mentioned optometry services. Husband needs to replace his glasses.
GF all purpose flour?? I haven't looked for that. Thanks for the tip!!
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Luxury or not, I’m gonna buy coffee beans and frozen salmon filets because we genuinely enjoy those things, and I’d rather pay $5.20 and $8.50 per pound of good-quality product, respectively, at Costco than $6.70 and $11, respectively, at Aldi.
I’m not convinced flour is a necessary basic for health but I do like to bake for holidays, and our local Costco has good prices on gluten-free all-purpose flour and almond flour (celiac disease precludes a lot of the standard American diet).
Thanks to the person who mentioned optometry services. Husband needs to replace his glasses.
GF all purpose flour?? I haven't looked for that. Thanks for the tip!!
My regular store also started carrying packs of GF brown rice+quinoa ramen-style noodles (no seasoning, just noodle blocks). We like to cook them up separately and put them in the chicken stock we make from the rotisserie chicken bones (along with leftover meat and some veg).
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I eat mostly gluten, and grain free, so I consider the salmon, cauliflower rice, organic frozen veggies, etc to be staples for me. Yeah, they are not optimizing my grocery budget to be the cheapest, ever. But, my health is way more important than that to me, and my body feels terrible on flour, beans and rice. I want to compete at a professional level in endurance sports, so eating healthy food is just part of the game plan. Everyone is different though, and I know the beans, rice, homemade bread, etc works great for a lot of people!
I have to also give an endorsement for Costco optical. I get 2 years worth of contacts for $150, and last year I got new glasses for $199, frames+lenses, with no optical insurance. That is the cheapest I have ever gotten glasses, especially because I have such strong lenses.
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-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items.
I didn't realize that some folks here think buying bulk coffee beans is considered a "higher end food" and "luxury".
You don't consider a recreational drug to be a luxury?
Oh coffee is much more than just a recreational drug :). But anyway, if we simply rule out the importance of anything other than those "things you NEED to have to live a healthy life" we can effectively eliminate 99% of the discussion on this forum. That seems kind of pointless to me.
edit: Are you also saying you agree that bulk coffee itself is a "higher end food"?
edit 2: The economics definition of "luxury good' is a good with an income elasticity greater than one -- where if your income goes up your quantity demanded will increase proportionally. Compare this to a "necessity" good, where it has an income elasticity of demand of less than one. For me, without a doubt, coffee is a "necessity good", if my income increased by 5% or 500%, my quantity demanded would not budge.
I would actually consider coffee to be one of the more luxurious items listed...unlike actual food, it provides zero calories (which are a necessity up to a point). For me, it’s definitely something I have limited my purchasing of during low-income periods of life and I rarely purchase even now because even Costco prices make me shudder.
If you have a coffee addiction or just enjoy it, fine, but I really don’t think it’s a necessity, and I’m sure there is some income level at which you might reconsider purchasing it. Same goes for most of the items I listed—it’s fine to enjoy them and to seek out the best price, but be real with yourself that they aren’t needs and they aren’t the most budget friendly items.
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-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items.
I didn't realize that some folks here think buying bulk coffee beans is considered a "higher end food" and "luxury".
You don't consider a recreational drug to be a luxury?
Oh coffee is much more than just a recreational drug :). But anyway, if we simply rule out the importance of anything other than those "things you NEED to have to live a healthy life" we can effectively eliminate 99% of the discussion on this forum. That seems kind of pointless to me.
edit: Are you also saying you agree that bulk coffee itself is a "higher end food"?
edit 2: The economics definition of "luxury good' is a good with an income elasticity greater than one -- where if your income goes up your quantity demanded will increase proportionally. Compare this to a "necessity" good, where it has an income elasticity of demand of less than one. For me, without a doubt, coffee is a "necessity good", if my income increased by 5% or 500%, my quantity demanded would not budge.
I would actually consider coffee to be one of the more luxurious items listed...unlike actual food, it provides zero calories (which are a necessity up to a point). For me, it’s definitely something I have limited my purchasing of during low-income periods of life and I rarely purchase even now because even Costco prices make me shudder.
If you have a coffee addiction or just enjoy it, fine, but I really don’t think it’s a necessity, and I’m sure there is some income level at which you might reconsider purchasing it. Same goes for most of the items I listed—it’s fine to enjoy them and to seek out the best price, but be real with yourself that they aren’t needs and they aren’t the most budget friendly items.
Gee, thanks for giving us permission and a lecture.
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If you ever rent a car, Costco can be an amazing deal. I rent a car for a week a year for an annual family trip, and the last time I did the math, the amount I saved more than paid for the membership. When you compare prices, the Costco price includes all taxes and fees, as well as a second driver, but most quotes you see online do not.
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I'm a single guy(40y/o) and picked up a membership a few months ago. I initially justified the membership cost for the better rewards card, and boy is it better than my BoA card! 5 months in and I have more than $225 in rewards! I use my card for everything possible.
Grocery shopping becomes a bit of a tough battle as described. I'm a huge fan of the frozen foods/veggies. That works out very well. I actually buy 2 or 3 units of laundry detergent, softener, TP, paper towels etc... I do that consumable type stuff proper and only need to re-up like once, maybe twice a year.
So really, overall I pay for a really really good rewards card that comes with a Costco membership!
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-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items.
I didn't realize that some folks here think buying bulk coffee beans is considered a "higher end food" and "luxury".
You don't consider a recreational drug to be a luxury?
Oh coffee is much more than just a recreational drug :). But anyway, if we simply rule out the importance of anything other than those "things you NEED to have to live a healthy life" we can effectively eliminate 99% of the discussion on this forum. That seems kind of pointless to me.
edit: Are you also saying you agree that bulk coffee itself is a "higher end food"?
edit 2: The economics definition of "luxury good' is a good with an income elasticity greater than one -- where if your income goes up your quantity demanded will increase proportionally. Compare this to a "necessity" good, where it has an income elasticity of demand of less than one. For me, without a doubt, coffee is a "necessity good", if my income increased by 5% or 500%, my quantity demanded would not budge.
I would actually consider coffee to be one of the more luxurious items listed...unlike actual food, it provides zero calories (which are a necessity up to a point). For me, it’s definitely something I have limited my purchasing of during low-income periods of life and I rarely purchase even now because even Costco prices make me shudder.
If you have a coffee addiction or just enjoy it, fine, but I really don’t think it’s a necessity, and I’m sure there is some income level at which you might reconsider purchasing it. Same goes for most of the items I listed—it’s fine to enjoy them and to seek out the best price, but be real with yourself that they aren’t needs and they aren’t the most budget friendly items.
Gee, thanks for giving us permission and a lecture.
Oh come on. Someone decides to snark on my reasonable point that coffee is technically a luxury, yeah, I’m going to get up on my high horse a bit.
If someone started talking about the great deal they got on a monster truck, would this forum congratulate them on the good price or deliver a facepunch about bicycles and used compact cars?
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I think that, historically, coffee is more elastic than you might think - when prices double, people cut back.
What changes the equation now is that so many people drink coffee away from home, the actual price of the coffee as an ingredient is a fairly small amount of what you pay for that drink at Starbucks.
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Single lady here. I buy:
Glasses/exam
Gas
Car Rental
Kirkland brand TP
Their roasted chicken
The single organic humous packs - probably not a "deal" but for me - I love them
Pineapples - only when not available at another grocery and they are always 2.99 at Costco
Vitamins B,D, Magnesium when offered with a coupon
The big bag of purple lightly sweet salt popcorn. There was special - buy a bag and get a bag free not too long ago
Starbucks coffee when a coupon is offered
Worth it to me to have the basic card probably for gas alone
I also shop Aldi
Headed to Hawaii in December with family and we are planning big Costco run for groceries
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Luxury or not, I’m gonna buy coffee beans and frozen salmon filets because we genuinely enjoy those things, and I’d rather pay $5.20 and $8.50 per pound of good-quality product, respectively, at Costco than $6.70 and $11, respectively, at Aldi.
I’m not convinced flour is a necessary basic for health but I do like to bake for holidays, and our local Costco has good prices on gluten-free all-purpose flour and almond flour (celiac disease precludes a lot of the standard American diet).
Thanks to the person who mentioned optometry services. Husband needs to replace his glasses.
GF all purpose flour?? I haven't looked for that. Thanks for the tip!!
My regular store also started carrying packs of GF brown rice+quinoa ramen-style noodles (no seasoning, just noodle blocks). We like to cook them up separately and put them in the chicken stock we make from the rotisserie chicken bones (along with leftover meat and some veg).
No luck on the GF flour yesterday. And I wandered most of the store because they moved everything over the weekend... now I have to look for the noodle blocks. My kid loves ramen.
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Luxury or not, I’m gonna buy coffee beans and frozen salmon filets because we genuinely enjoy those things, and I’d rather pay $5.20 and $8.50 per pound of good-quality product, respectively, at Costco than $6.70 and $11, respectively, at Aldi.
I’m not convinced flour is a necessary basic for health but I do like to bake for holidays, and our local Costco has good prices on gluten-free all-purpose flour and almond flour (celiac disease precludes a lot of the standard American diet).
Thanks to the person who mentioned optometry services. Husband needs to replace his glasses.
GF all purpose flour?? I haven't looked for that. Thanks for the tip!!
My regular store also started carrying packs of GF brown rice+quinoa ramen-style noodles (no seasoning, just noodle blocks). We like to cook them up separately and put them in the chicken stock we make from the rotisserie chicken bones (along with leftover meat and some veg).
No luck on the GF flour yesterday. And I wandered most of the store because they moved everything over the weekend... now I have to look for the noodle blocks. My kid loves ramen.
Aw, bummer! Ours carries the Namaste brand and Blue Diamond almond flour. It looks like you can get the Namaste flour online for $3.06/lb, but it comes in a 6-pack of 3-lb bags.
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-Towards the end of our Costco days I was finding they were moving more and more towards pricier versions of even basic items. For example, when we started shopping there, they stocked the 105 oz. cans of tomatoes and the price was great. At some point they stopped selling those and instead started selling a flat of 16oz cans of organic tomatoes. At that point it was cheaper to buy 32 oz cans from the grocery store. I noticed this more and more as they started to emphasize their organic offerings--sure they were doing more organic fruit and veg, but also a LOT more organic snacks, frozen foods, and stuff like coconut water. I'm sure the basics are still there but they are getting crowded out by fancier items in our areas.
I do miss the 105 oz cans of tomato products.
One of our King Soopers (are they a Kroger family store?) has a half aisle of industrial food sized products. We buy hominy in 110 oz cans (for pozole in the winter), and I think they have tomato products there, too. It's .... fairly random? Like, they have marinated artichoke hearts in huge bottles? (and olives -- maybe they sell to local pizza joints?)
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It depends.There are two of us and we make weekly trips to Costco. Many weeks, I don't even touch the kale and chicken, so my husband would probably do this eveni if he were single. Although he hates picking apart the rotisserie chicken...
For the vegetables they have, yes Costco usually is better. A bag of kale salad mix is the same price as our grocery stores, but twice the size.
For meats, they are often better, but not necessarily the same cut. You can always get a large tri tip, cook to eat hot, then use the leftovers for sandwiches or salads.Their rotisserie chicken is the best around and usually cheaper than grocery stores.
We used to buy Morning Star breakfast patties there and have since switched to Jimmy Dean turkey sausage. Both are considerably cheaper in bulk and the Jimmy Dean goes on sale every six months.
Oh, and when the price of eggs shot up, we switched to the large Costco eggs, whereas my husband always insisted on jumbo when eggs were cheap.
However, not everything is cheaper and not everything is practical in bulk. We can't use two gallons of milk. Costco doesn't carry any cheap pasta...
i just did a price inventory of costco vs other places in our area. costco won, we'll see about the quality.
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-Certainly, but from this thread, quite a bit of what people are reporting buying there is higher end food. Things like fancy cheese, coffee, quinoa, salmon, turkey sausage, frozen cauliflower rice, greek yogurt, chicken tenderloins, pita chips, salad mixes, chocolate, rogaine, pool chemicals, energy drinks and protein powders...none of these are things you NEED to have to live a healthy life, and I would class them all as "luxury" items.
I didn't realize that some folks here think buying bulk coffee beans is considered a "higher end food" and "luxury".
You don't consider a recreational drug to be a luxury?
Oh coffee is much more than just a recreational drug :). But anyway, if we simply rule out the importance of anything other than those "things you NEED to have to live a healthy life" we can effectively eliminate 99% of the discussion on this forum. That seems kind of pointless to me.
edit: Are you also saying you agree that bulk coffee itself is a "higher end food"?
edit 2: The economics definition of "luxury good' is a good with an income elasticity greater than one -- where if your income goes up your quantity demanded will increase proportionally. Compare this to a "necessity" good, where it has an income elasticity of demand of less than one. For me, without a doubt, coffee is a "necessity good", if my income increased by 5% or 500%, my quantity demanded would not budge.
I would actually consider coffee to be one of the more luxurious items listed...unlike actual food, it provides zero calories (which are a necessity up to a point). For me, it’s definitely something I have limited my purchasing of during low-income periods of life and I rarely purchase even now because even Costco prices make me shudder.
If you have a coffee addiction or just enjoy it, fine, but I really don’t think it’s a necessity, and I’m sure there is some income level at which you might reconsider purchasing it. Same goes for most of the items I listed—it’s fine to enjoy them and to seek out the best price, but be real with yourself that they aren’t needs and they aren’t the most budget friendly items.
Gee, thanks for giving us permission and a lecture.
Oh come on. Someone decides to snark on my reasonable point that coffee is technically a luxury, yeah, I’m going to get up on my high horse a bit.
If someone started talking about the great deal they got on a monster truck, would this forum congratulate them on the good price or deliver a facepunch about bicycles and used compact cars?
Actually, I was using the technical definition you can look up in a principles of microeconomics textbook.
But anyway, there's still nuance as to when a facepunch would be delivered. Clearly, I think store-bought bulk coffee beans is not in facepunch range. Your example about cars and bicycles is curious, as I don't own a car OR a bicycle. And I live perfectly healthy without either, so by your definition, if you own a car OR bicycle, it's facepunch worthy... right.
edit:smoothed out some language. :)
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The technical economic definition of luxury good fits very well for coffee. When people can't afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. If people can only afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. When people have excess money, they sometimes choose to buy coffee. That's income elasticity. As people become wealthier they buy more coffee.
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The technical economic definition of luxury good fits very well for coffee. When people can't afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. If people can only afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. When people have excess money, they sometimes choose to buy coffee. That's income elasticity. As people become wealthier they buy more coffee.
Your explanation only describes an edge case where a person is at absolute subsistence.
At that level, your bicycle is facepunch worthy, nearly all property you could own is facepunch worthy. As I mentioned earlier, probably 99% of the discussion here is facepunch worthy. At that level, almost all of the discussion on this forum is moot.
My definition fits the vast majority of the continuum of cases, particularly for folks on this forum.
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It doesn't however make your definition correct. Coffee IS a luxury good as are many other commonly consumed items in the United States. It has elastic demand. You might not consume MORE if your income INCREASES 5% or 500%, but you will very likely consume less if your income DECREASES 80% or at minimum substitute home brewed coffee for purchased coffee or the like. Increased income does correlate with increased coffee demand...but of course there is a limit because one can only consume so much coffee every 24 hours and people don't tend to hoard it in cellars or garages like wine or sports cars.
https://econlife.com/2014/06/coffee-is-an-economic-indicator-in-developing-nations/
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It doesn't however make your definition correct. Coffee IS a luxury good as are many other commonly consumed items in the United States. It has elastic demand. You might not consume MORE if your income INCREASES 5% or 500%, but you will very likely consume less if your income DECREASES 80% or at minimum substitute home brewed coffee for purchased coffee or the like. Increased income does correlate with increased coffee demand...but of course there is a limit because one can only consume so much coffee every 24 hours and people don't tend to hoard it in cellars or garages like wine or sports cars.
https://econlife.com/2014/06/coffee-is-an-economic-indicator-in-developing-nations/
I do love that you're trying to use economics here. However, just because a product doesn't have a perfect zero income elasticity of demand does not preclude it from having an income elasticity of demand between zero and 1. I was hoping your link would have estimated income and price elasticities of demand for coffee in the United States, but alas, I did not see any.
Also, we're talking about the income elasticity of demand for bulk coffee beans specifically. Not store prepared coffee beverages. Of course store prepared coffee beverages would likely have higher income- and price- elasticities of demand.
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IMO, two things are required to maximize the value and also obtain the healthiest diet from CostCo:
1) A chest freezer (or two.) At CostCo they are well under $200 to buy.
2) Willingness to actually cook. What's more, to cook in large batches and freeze for use on work nights.
We have two chest freezers, will cook up big batches of things on the weekend, like grilled chicken breasts (use in everything from pasta to salads,) or buy pork and make our own sausages.
CostCo is of course great for dry goods in bulk, but for the fresher stuff, a freezer and cooking is required to maximize things, IMO.
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I agree with the posters @APowers and others that the place to start saving money on groceries is to look to your own meal planning first.
- figure out the top 8 meals that you already like to eat that also cost the least, and eat those meals a lot more often.
- then check your costco prices for those ingredients (I have not found much difference, loss leaders are much lower here than costco, even baking nuts were lower on a typical sale compared to Costco).
- most of your food will be staples, cooking from scratch. Costco is not targeted at these types of items.
- keep a price book / mental price book for your top 50 items that you buy.
Costco is wonderful for getting convenience foods and higher end stuff at good prices, this food costs a LOT more than staples from scratch.
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What rewards credit cards does your Costco accept? That can be worth quite a bit more than the Costco Savings. (if any)
It has been a while, but here, CC acceptance at Costco is very limited, and if I go with a relative, I have to pay them in cash. Missing out on 2-5% rewards depending on the card.
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I buy almost no convenience foods at Costco (in terms of premade, prepackaged, ready to eat pre-cooked meals). I find enormous value in their produce, meat, and dairy selection as well as canned goods. My staples:
fresh produce- most of which is approximately half the price as the supermarket:
6 pack of peppers
bag of avocados
giant bag of carrots
power blend of greens
green beans or broccoli
tomatoes
berries
apples/oranges/pineapple whatever's in season
My cart is always half produce.
meat/dairy
They often have specials on some meat- I got huge logs of pork tenderloin for almost nothing the other day
eggs- their 24 packs are very well priced
butter
yogurt* (still want to learn to make my own in the instant pot but for now...)
pre shredded cheese is a bargain!
canned:
beans
tomatoes
Other:
Dave's bread
granola/cereal
beer and wine
spices
Non food items: TP, kleenex, dishwashing liquid, detergent.
Like a grocery store, I stay to the other ring skipping the first part of electronics. First to produce, then dairy/meat, and finally canned. Stay away from the DVDs, books, clothes, and other thing that end up in your cart* (unless they are on your list).
I love costco, I just hate the crowds and the parking lot.
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if you have an aldi then costco is not cheaper.
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The technical economic definition of luxury good fits very well for coffee. When people can't afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. If people can only afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. When people have excess money, they sometimes choose to buy coffee. That's income elasticity. As people become wealthier they buy more coffee.
Your explanation only describes an edge case where a person is at absolute subsistence.
At that level, your bicycle is facepunch worthy, nearly all property you could own is facepunch worthy. As I mentioned earlier, probably 99% of the discussion here is facepunch worthy. At that level, almost all of the discussion on this forum is moot.
My definition fits the vast majority of the continuum of cases, particularly for folks on this forum.
I used to earn about $25k/yr, which is low but not subsistence level. However, at that level, if you want to save a decent portion of your income, you *do* notice the cost of items like coffee beans. Maybe you chose to continue buying them and cut something else from your budget instead, but you're definitely aware of the $6-12/month you are spending on coffee. And there are plenty of people on this forum who say things along the lines of "I only drink coffee because I get it for free at work". To me that doesn't sound like a necessity or an item with inelastic demand--within the MMM forums, at least, there definitely is a subset of people who are sensitive to the price of coffee.
You're right though, that at some point pretty much any purchase is potentially a "luxury" worthy of facepunches. But that's not a particularly good argument for not examining your purchases critically. The proponents of Costco membership in this thread are largely pointing to it as a great source of relatively luxurious food or other consumer items, stuff that our parents/grandparents probably didn't have access to or if they did, didn't consume very frequently. And the fact is, eating a diet of more luxurious food items is almost always going to be more costly than eating a diet of basics. Rather than just focusing on "I'm getting a great price on this luxury food, so everything is great!", I think people should also consider "does this luxury food/item *really* add value to my life?". Because if it doesn't you are wasting your money and more importantly, your time, when you purchase it. Overall, I think places like Costco can lull people into ignoring that question, because they're just seeing "this is such an awesome deal!".
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I don't if it's cheaper but being a professional and having less time in my life.... it's nice to know there is a great company with quality products at reasonable prices.... so if I need something I just go get it there and don't have to search around.
the return policy helps a lot too...
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It doesn't however make your definition correct. Coffee IS a luxury good as are many other commonly consumed items in the United States. It has elastic demand. You might not consume MORE if your income INCREASES 5% or 500%, but you will very likely consume less if your income DECREASES 80% or at minimum substitute home brewed coffee for purchased coffee or the like. Increased income does correlate with increased coffee demand...but of course there is a limit because one can only consume so much coffee every 24 hours and people don't tend to hoard it in cellars or garages like wine or sports cars.
https://econlife.com/2014/06/coffee-is-an-economic-indicator-in-developing-nations/
I do love that you're trying to use economics here. However, just because a product doesn't have a perfect zero income elasticity of demand does not preclude it from having an income elasticity of demand between zero and 1. I was hoping your link would have estimated income and price elasticities of demand for coffee in the United States, but alas, I did not see any.
Also, we're talking about the income elasticity of demand for bulk coffee beans specifically. Not store prepared coffee beverages. Of course store prepared coffee beverages would likely have higher income- and price- elasticities of demand.
Why are we using the economic definition of luxury? The economic term is used to describe a specific trend, there are lots of luxury items that do not fit this trend. If we get to pick which definition of luxury to use, I'd go with this one.
Luxury: 2 a : something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary
All definitions outside of economics include terms that are subjective which in turn means the word luxury is subjective. My opinion is that coffee is a luxury.
Anyway, the original comment where coffee was mentioned made a good point that Costco can provide savings on higher quality and luxury goods. The comment was relevant and added to the discussion, unlike everything that has occurred in response to it, including this comment :)
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The technical economic definition of luxury good fits very well for coffee. When people can't afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. If people can only afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. When people have excess money, they sometimes choose to buy coffee. That's income elasticity. As people become wealthier they buy more coffee.
Your explanation only describes an edge case where a person is at absolute subsistence.
At that level, your bicycle is facepunch worthy, nearly all property you could own is facepunch worthy. As I mentioned earlier, probably 99% of the discussion here is facepunch worthy. At that level, almost all of the discussion on this forum is moot.
My definition fits the vast majority of the continuum of cases, particularly for folks on this forum.
If the price of coffee were 700$ a bean, would you still drink the same amount of it? Or would your consumption vary with your income?
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Cats put it quite well,
I think for most families, if you are under $150 per adult/month for your grocery bill, you won't find Costco prices cheaper on that basket of groceries (carrots, onions, canned tomatoes, beans, dairy, etc are about the same price, I find, and the fancier produce is a treat that does not fit into modest food budgets often).
It is 10 miles to Costco, and 3 miles round trip to the low price grocery store near me. That is a difference of 7 miles x 50cent/mile = $3.50 (although most local trips are by bike). That is $10-15 per month.
I can get 3% cash back rewards on the grocery card I use, which is worth $15/month.
The membership is $5 per month here.
Total monthly extra cost (before "savings"): $30-$35 per month to shop Costco.
Could a person save $35 on $300-$450 per month of food at Costco, if they only bought basic staples and bulk, not fancy produce?
In my region, it is definitely a no. Loss leaders are a big thing here, and my staples are equivalent prices to regular sale prices. A great example, Starbucks VIA was a lot cheaper at Costco recently, but Maxwell house coffee or nescafe instant is more money. Other regions (seattle / honeybbq) seem to be much better, so you need to price check the items you buy for yourself.
But don't forget your "extra" costs beyond the cash register when you compare.
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if you have an aldi then costco is not cheaper.
I was under the impression that Aldi stores did not vary that much. The ones here offer about 1/3rd the goods and services that Costco provides (for example the Aldi stores here do not have a service station, sell computers, automotive section, rental cars, etc.). Where you live do the Aldi stores carry a lot more than just food?
We definitely shop at Aldi but there are plenty of things we still go to Costco for.
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We use costco for our luxury foods... decent enough "fancy" cheeses, cheapest place ever for decent pesto. Not the cheapest way to eat though. Agree with others they have good meat prices so its a way to cheaply eat a lot of meat.
I get endless flak in real life for this, but it often seems that good sale prices at regular grocery stores can be much cheaper that costco for stocking up on items that last.
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For us no. Costo and Sams are not worth it. And I am supplying a household of 9.
decent prices on bulk items we don't buy; a lot of it name-brand which we don't buy anyway. We have the best luck working the points @ Kroger while getting 6% off using the Amex card. And buying bread in bulk @ the day-old 'used bread' store, and freezing it.
YMMV. walk around the store and add it up. good luck!
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i've tried two aldi's and the quality of the food is not good enough.
very processed unhealthy food is what i saw
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i've tried two aldi's and the quality of the food is not good enough.
very processed unhealthy food is what i saw
We shop almost exclusively at Aldi and do not eat processed food. Their produce and meats are good quality, at least in my area. They don't carry regular brown rice or quinoa, but that is my only complaint. If you are eating whole foods you should have no problem at Aldi.
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The technical economic definition of luxury good fits very well for coffee. When people can't afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. If people can only afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. When people have excess money, they sometimes choose to buy coffee. That's income elasticity. As people become wealthier they buy more coffee.
Your explanation only describes an edge case where a person is at absolute subsistence.
At that level, your bicycle is facepunch worthy, nearly all property you could own is facepunch worthy. As I mentioned earlier, probably 99% of the discussion here is facepunch worthy. At that level, almost all of the discussion on this forum is moot.
My definition fits the vast majority of the continuum of cases, particularly for folks on this forum.
If the price of coffee were 700$ a bean, would you still drink the same amount of it? Or would your consumption vary with your income?
Hate to carry on this because it is pretty derailed at this point, so I will promise whatever the replies this is my last...
Now you're referring to price elasticity of demand rather than income elasticity of demand. Okay, so if price increased by... I don't know what that is, 10,000 percent? I don't know the price of a single bean wholesale, are you asking if I would drink less or switch to a substitute? Yes. But that doesn't really have anything to do with the income elasticity of demand here.
A specific necessity product can have substitutes. You can, for example, substitute some vegetables for other vegetables, so the price elasticity of demand for any specific food could be high. Perhaps coffee and tea are imperfect substitutes, but at a modest point I would switch between the two... but that says nothing about income elasticity of demand and those definitions.
Also BTW, MMM's article today mentioned coffee three times. Just saying...
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The technical economic definition of luxury good fits very well for coffee. When people can't afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. If people can only afford to eat, they don't buy coffee. When people have excess money, they sometimes choose to buy coffee. That's income elasticity. As people become wealthier they buy more coffee.
Your explanation only describes an edge case where a person is at absolute subsistence.
At that level, your bicycle is facepunch worthy, nearly all property you could own is facepunch worthy. As I mentioned earlier, probably 99% of the discussion here is facepunch worthy. At that level, almost all of the discussion on this forum is moot.
My definition fits the vast majority of the continuum of cases, particularly for folks on this forum.
If the price of coffee were 700$ a bean, would you still drink the same amount of it? Or would your consumption vary with your income?
Hate to carry on this because it is pretty derailed at this point, so I will promise whatever the replies this is my last...
Now you're referring to price elasticity of demand rather than income elasticity of demand. Okay, so if price increased by... I don't know what that is, 10,000 percent? I don't know the price of a single bean wholesale, are you asking if I would drink less or switch to a substitute? Yes. But that doesn't really have anything to do with the income elasticity of demand here.
A specific necessity product can have substitutes. You can, for example, substitute some vegetables for other vegetables, so the price elasticity of demand for any specific food could be high. Perhaps coffee and tea are imperfect substitutes, but at a modest point I would switch between the two... but that says nothing about income elasticity of demand and those definitions.
Also BTW, MMM's article today mentioned coffee three times. Just saying...
My point was merely that you would buy less coffee if the ratio of coffee price to personal income changed. If you made 8 billion dollars a year, the 700$ bean coffee would be purchased in greater quantity than if you made 100K a year. Therefore it is income elastic and a luxury good by your own definition.
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I go to Costco every week. Buy gas when you get there it's always cheaper. Then eat a hotdog and make sure to refill your soda before you start shopping. Hit every free sample ( this is where the full soda helps). At this point you will have probably covered the annual membership through gas savings and a $1.50 hot dog and free sample buffett. Look at the rotisserie chicken that is already deboned. Not many want to carve up a chicken. Check out the clothes as they are always a deal. Check out their $17.99 chicken enchiladas that they make in the back with the rotisserie chicken. Easy to get 8 meals out of it. Count the walking around as saving on a gym membership.
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if you have an aldi then costco is not cheaper.
I was under the impression that Aldi stores did not vary that much. The ones here offer about 1/3rd the goods and services that Costco provides (for example the Aldi stores here do not have a service station, sell computers, automotive section, rental cars, etc.). Where you live do the Aldi stores carry a lot more than just food?
We definitely shop at Aldi but there are plenty of things we still go to Costco for.
I highly doubt those services you just described ate benefiting you more than using other methods. Computers are much easier had thru slickdeal alerts. Rental cars don't have the savings there everyone seems to think they do. Tire savings can be found on Slickdeals. You're fooling yourself thinking that subscription is worth it.
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Costco is always cheaper on some items, usually slightly cheaper on most items, and about the same on others, after accounting for membership costs, at least here in Anchorage, Alaska but I have heard that this is not always the case in the lower 48.
If you're single buy carefully and consider how fast you will use the item, sometimes they're still cheaper even if you throw away half. Sometimes they're not (three heads of lettuce for a dollar more than I pay for one head of lettuce at WalMart is not a good deal if I only eat one head of lettuce before the other two spoil.)
Gas at Costco is not cheaper IF you have a regular supermarket loyalty card from a chain that also sells gasoline (Fred Meyer's and Safeway for me) AND spend enough at the supermarket to always get 10 cents off on a gallon.
Costco tire has terrible, terrible service. I don't care if they are slightly cheaper. I'm going to the place where I can get my tires done in one visit, not four longer visits.
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I go to Costco every week. Buy gas when you get there it's always cheaper. Then eat a hotdog and make sure to refill your soda before you start shopping. Hit every free sample ( this is where the full soda helps). At this point you will have probably covered the annual membership through gas savings and a $1.50 hot dog and free sample buffett. Look at the rotisserie chicken that is already deboned. Not many want to carve up a chicken. Check out the clothes as they are always a deal. Check out their $17.99 chicken enchiladas that they make in the back with the rotisserie chicken. Easy to get 8 meals out of it. Count the walking around as saving on a gym membership.
Are you fucking serious here a hotdog for 1.50 I can buy a pack of 8 and buns for that at Aldi. Then your buying soda. Awesome use of money. Top that off with 17.99 for chicken enchiladas. Umm let's see here chicken breast 1.69 for a lb at Aldi plus 50c for a half a pack of tortillas. Cheese is now the norm for loss leaders at the local grocery so that 1.49 for a lb. Add 20c for seasoning and a 1.59 cannot enchilada sauce. And a 59c can of beans. And I'm not even trying to make this cheaper I could if I wanted to. You're looking at 1/3 the price for the enchiladas and no f'n pop or drive to Costco to save on your gas which you lost the difference on driving to Costco. Slash all the unhealthy crap you ate walking around the gym which is just a gross waste of consumerism.
If you don't have an Aldi near you maybe you come out ahead with Costco otherwise you're just blind to the golden light the master teaches.
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The tire prices are pretty good for quality tires. You can get janky tires for less, but it's hard to beat Costco's frequent sale price for a good set of Michelin Pilot Sports with nice sticky rubber that will keep you out of an accident by significantly decreasing stopping distance vs some economy "80,0000" mile tire. Like for like the process are excellent, but like with organic foods, not everyone but organic tires. I buy a lot of beef jerky when it's on sale for $5 off every so often. I make up my $60 in beef jerky alone. I make up maybe $10 a year or so on gas even though it's the closest gas station to my home. If you don't drive much it won't save you much. I buy bananas but I end up throwing some away almost every time.
If they stopped caring beef jerky I'd probably cancel my membership tbh.
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i've tried two aldi's and the quality of the food is not good enough.
very processed unhealthy food is what i saw
Like... what? I mean, sure, there are processed foods, but I can't think what you would want that isn't at Aldi.
Mine has great produce. Beans, dry and canned. Milk - regular, organic, soy, rice. Eggs - regular and free range. Meat. Fish. Right now they've got tofu in stock, but they don't always carry it. Brown rice comes and goes, so I usually stock up on it. Ditto, whole wheat flour.
And mine has an every changing array of household items that we have to resist, but their scented candles are great!
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Many states require that you are able to use the optical shop and pharmacy without a membership. Some states also require that alcohol can be purchased without a membership as well.
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I go to Costco every week. Buy gas when you get there it's always cheaper. Then eat a hotdog and make sure to refill your soda before you start shopping. Hit every free sample ( this is where the full soda helps). At this point you will have probably covered the annual membership through gas savings and a $1.50 hot dog and free sample buffett. Look at the rotisserie chicken that is already deboned. Not many want to carve up a chicken. Check out the clothes as they are always a deal. Check out their $17.99 chicken enchiladas that they make in the back with the rotisserie chicken. Easy to get 8 meals out of it. Count the walking around as saving on a gym membership.
Are you fucking serious here a hotdog for 1.50 I can buy a pack of 8 and buns for that at Aldi. Then your buying soda. Awesome use of money. Top that off with 17.99 for chicken enchiladas. Umm let's see here chicken breast 1.69 for a lb at Aldi plus 50c for a half a pack of tortillas. Cheese is now the norm for loss leaders at the local grocery so that 1.49 for a lb. Add 20c for seasoning and a 1.59 cannot enchilada sauce. And a 59c can of beans. And I'm not even trying to make this cheaper I could if I wanted to. You're looking at 1/3 the price for the enchiladas and no f'n pop or drive to Costco to save on your gas which you lost the difference on driving to Costco. Slash all the unhealthy crap you ate walking around the gym which is just a gross waste of consumerism.
If you don't have an Aldi near you maybe you come out ahead with Costco otherwise you're just blind to the golden light the master teaches.
But the soda is included in the $1.50 hotdog price. Sounds like you need to calm down a bit. You're getting excited over my walking around to save money on a gym membership really had me laughing. Everyone knows that retired people go to Planet Fitness for $10.
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I go to Costco every week. Buy gas when you get there it's always cheaper. Then eat a hotdog and make sure to refill your soda before you start shopping. Hit every free sample ( this is where the full soda helps). At this point you will have probably covered the annual membership through gas savings and a $1.50 hot dog and free sample buffett. Look at the rotisserie chicken that is already deboned. Not many want to carve up a chicken. Check out the clothes as they are always a deal. Check out their $17.99 chicken enchiladas that they make in the back with the rotisserie chicken. Easy to get 8 meals out of it. Count the walking around as saving on a gym membership.
Are you fucking serious here a hotdog for 1.50 I can buy a pack of 8 and buns for that at Aldi. Then your buying soda. Awesome use of money. Top that off with 17.99 for chicken enchiladas. Umm let's see here chicken breast 1.69 for a lb at Aldi plus 50c for a half a pack of tortillas. Cheese is now the norm for loss leaders at the local grocery so that 1.49 for a lb. Add 20c for seasoning and a 1.59 cannot enchilada sauce. And a 59c can of beans. And I'm not even trying to make this cheaper I could if I wanted to. You're looking at 1/3 the price for the enchiladas and no f'n pop or drive to Costco to save on your gas which you lost the difference on driving to Costco. Slash all the unhealthy crap you ate walking around the gym which is just a gross waste of consumerism.
If you don't have an Aldi near you maybe you come out ahead with Costco otherwise you're just blind to the golden light the master teaches.
But the soda is included in the $1.50 hotdog price. Sounds like you need to calm down a bit. You're getting excited over my walking around to save money on a gym membership really had me laughing. Everyone knows that retired people go to Planet Fitness for $10.
oh that makes it better free crappy sugar water included with an overpriced piece of fake meat all that can be had cheaper elsewhere.
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if you have an aldi then costco is not cheaper.
I was under the impression that Aldi stores did not vary that much. The ones here offer about 1/3rd the goods and services that Costco provides (for example the Aldi stores here do not have a service station, sell computers, automotive section, rental cars, etc.). Where you live do the Aldi stores carry a lot more than just food?
We definitely shop at Aldi but there are plenty of things we still go to Costco for.
I highly doubt those services you just described ate benefiting you more than using other methods. Computers are much easier had thru slickdeal alerts. Rental cars don't have the savings there everyone seems to think they do. Tire savings can be found on Slickdeals. You're fooling yourself thinking that subscription is worth it.
Oooh good, please enlighten me. Gas is going for $2.69-$2.79 right now in my area. It's $2.28 at the Costco we go to most of the time and $2.42 at the one five minutes from where my wife works (is $2.37 at nearest Sam's Club). Where is the 'slickdeal' equivalent of that? The Aldi I shop at does not sell gas, that was my point. You can't compare two stores and say one is always cheaper when they don't even offer the same goods.
What savings am I missing on the rental cars? My friend needed to rent a car for a week and it came out to ~$50. They shopped around at the various car rental companies and that was easily the best deal. Inventory changes and other factors will cause the price to fluctuate so Costco might not always win but seems weird to flippantly dismiss an entire company and their offerings because...boarder42 has doubt about shopping around? AAA wins out on occasion as well, and sometimes you just have to stomach the terrible customer service at the airport car rentals and go with them because they are lowest. YMMV.
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I go to Costco every week. Buy gas when you get there it's always cheaper. Then eat a hotdog and make sure to refill your soda before you start shopping. Hit every free sample ( this is where the full soda helps). At this point you will have probably covered the annual membership through gas savings and a $1.50 hot dog and free sample buffett. Look at the rotisserie chicken that is already deboned. Not many want to carve up a chicken. Check out the clothes as they are always a deal. Check out their $17.99 chicken enchiladas that they make in the back with the rotisserie chicken. Easy to get 8 meals out of it. Count the walking around as saving on a gym membership.
Are you fucking serious here a hotdog for 1.50 I can buy a pack of 8 and buns for that at Aldi. Then your buying soda. Awesome use of money. Top that off with 17.99 for chicken enchiladas. Umm let's see here chicken breast 1.69 for a lb at Aldi plus 50c for a half a pack of tortillas. Cheese is now the norm for loss leaders at the local grocery so that 1.49 for a lb. Add 20c for seasoning and a 1.59 cannot enchilada sauce. And a 59c can of beans. And I'm not even trying to make this cheaper I could if I wanted to. You're looking at 1/3 the price for the enchiladas and no f'n pop or drive to Costco to save on your gas which you lost the difference on driving to Costco. Slash all the unhealthy crap you ate walking around the gym which is just a gross waste of consumerism.
If you don't have an Aldi near you maybe you come out ahead with Costco otherwise you're just blind to the golden light the master teaches.
But the soda is included in the $1.50 hotdog price. Sounds like you need to calm down a bit. You're getting excited over my walking around to save money on a gym membership really had me laughing. Everyone knows that retired people go to Planet Fitness for $10.
oh that makes it better free crappy sugar water included with an overpriced piece of fake meat all that can be had cheaper elsewhere.
LOL. Well have a good day I'm off to Burger Kind for their $3.49 King Deal for lunch.
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if you have an aldi then costco is not cheaper.
I was under the impression that Aldi stores did not vary that much. The ones here offer about 1/3rd the goods and services that Costco provides (for example the Aldi stores here do not have a service station, sell computers, automotive section, rental cars, etc.). Where you live do the Aldi stores carry a lot more than just food?
We definitely shop at Aldi but there are plenty of things we still go to Costco for.
I highly doubt those services you just described ate benefiting you more than using other methods. Computers are much easier had thru slickdeal alerts. Rental cars don't have the savings there everyone seems to think they do. Tire savings can be found on Slickdeals. You're fooling yourself thinking that subscription is worth it.
Oooh good, please enlighten me. Gas is going for $2.69-$2.79 right now in my area. It's $2.28 at the Costco we go to most of the time and $2.42 at the one five minutes from where my wife works (is $2.37 at nearest Sam's Club). Where is the 'slickdeal' equivalent of that? The Aldi I shop at does not sell gas, that was my point. You can't compare two stores and say one is always cheaper when they don't even offer the same goods.
What savings am I missing on the rental cars? My friend needed to rent a car for a week and it came out to ~$50. They shopped around at the various car rental companies and that was easily the best deal. Inventory changes and other factors will cause the price to fluctuate so Costco might not always win but seems weird to flippantly dismiss an entire company and their offerings because...boarder42 has doubt about shopping around? AAA wins out on occasion as well, and sometimes you just have to stomach the terrible customer service at the airport car rentals and go with them because they are lowest. YMMV.
oooh sweet another subscription service AAA you just stacking up those monthly fees.
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Costco is great. I have the (higher fee) executive membership, but that extra fee includes roadside assistance to go along with my Costco-sourced Ameriprise car insurance, and another year end rebate check. I also use their Citi credit card, purely for shopping there and for the 4% rebate on all gas purchases.
Stuff I always buy at Costco:
Dog food and biscuits - Kirkland
Gas
Kirkland products: kleenex, rum, gin, salsa, potato chips, vitamins, pesto, paper towels, allergy meds
Beer
Cereal
Eggs
Milk
Rotisserie chicken
Fresh meat
Apples
Bananas
Stuffed pasta
Coffee beans (whole, I grind them at home)
Laundry detergent
Dishwasher detergent
Restaurant gift cards (instant 20-30% off for places we tend to go anyway)
Stuff I never buy there: (because of easy to find cheaper sales elsewhere)
Soda
Tires (usually buy through Discount Tire, on a sale + manufacturer rebate)
Motor oil
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i've tried two aldi's and the quality of the food is not good enough.
very processed unhealthy food is what i saw
Like... what? I mean, sure, there are processed foods, but I can't think what you would want that isn't at Aldi.
Mine has great produce. Beans, dry and canned. Milk - regular, organic, soy, rice. Eggs - regular and free range. Meat. Fish. Right now they've got tofu in stock, but they don't always carry it. Brown rice comes and goes, so I usually stock up on it. Ditto, whole wheat flour.
And mine has an every changing array of household items that we have to resist, but their scented candles are great!
Aldi is a fantastic option, and we have one near my house. I just paid $24.99 for a set of 100% cotton sheets to replace an old, heavily worn set. Another $20 got me two cans of beans, two containers of cottage cheese, a package of pecans, and a big bag of fresh produce. In my area, some products are cheaper at Aldi, while others are cheaper at Costco. Both stores offer high-quality products. I can get 95% of our groceries between the two stores (the other 5% includes things like corn tortillas when it's too hot to make them from scratch, certified gluten-free oats, and produce beyond the sometimes limited fresh/frozen stocks at the other stores).
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I'm jealous of those of you with an Aldi nearby. We don't have one within about 25 minutes of us. Costco is 10 minutes away which is the edge of where we go on a regular basis. The answer we've found to the original question, though, is a firm "it depends". We do shop at Costco a lot because we have three kids, one of which is a 17 year old boy who plays sports. There are specific things we buy at Costco and come out ahead. We can eat the giant bag of baby carrots for $4.99 before it goes bad...Tillamook cheese is cheapest at Costco (I'm sure I could get cheaper cheese elsewhere, but you will pry my Tillamook sharp cheddar from my cold, dead hands). We try to eat less processed food, but we keep some frozen items on hand for crazy nights/teenagers and Costco frozen pizzas are one of those cheap items. We buy the giant bag of rice (50lbs? It's huge) and staples like sugar, nuts, olive oil, at Costco. The thing to be careful about is all the junk food because it IS so much cheaper at Costco and we don't usually buy it. We generally shop Costco without the kids at lunchtime to prevent some of those purchases! I do buy wine at Costco; my favorite "cheap" Riesling is $5.99 there but $9.99 at a regular grocery store. I don't drink a lot of it, but I like to have a couple bottles on hand for company and the occasional evening.
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if you have an aldi then costco is not cheaper.
I was under the impression that Aldi stores did not vary that much. The ones here offer about 1/3rd the goods and services that Costco provides (for example the Aldi stores here do not have a service station, sell computers, automotive section, rental cars, etc.). Where you live do the Aldi stores carry a lot more than just food?
We definitely shop at Aldi but there are plenty of things we still go to Costco for.
I highly doubt those services you just described ate benefiting you more than using other methods. Computers are much easier had thru slickdeal alerts. Rental cars don't have the savings there everyone seems to think they do. Tire savings can be found on Slickdeals. You're fooling yourself thinking that subscription is worth it.
Oooh good, please enlighten me. Gas is going for $2.69-$2.79 right now in my area. It's $2.28 at the Costco we go to most of the time and $2.42 at the one five minutes from where my wife works (is $2.37 at nearest Sam's Club). Where is the 'slickdeal' equivalent of that? The Aldi I shop at does not sell gas, that was my point. You can't compare two stores and say one is always cheaper when they don't even offer the same goods.
What savings am I missing on the rental cars? My friend needed to rent a car for a week and it came out to ~$50. They shopped around at the various car rental companies and that was easily the best deal. Inventory changes and other factors will cause the price to fluctuate so Costco might not always win but seems weird to flippantly dismiss an entire company and their offerings because...boarder42 has doubt about shopping around? AAA wins out on occasion as well, and sometimes you just have to stomach the terrible customer service at the airport car rentals and go with them because they are lowest. YMMV.
oooh sweet another subscription service AAA you just stacking up those monthly fees.
Oh no! boarder42 doesn't see the value in something that others do so has to disparage and chime in with irrelevant musings.
I am not an AAA member nor is that relevant - some memberships are worth it while that same membership would not be worth it to someone else. From what I hear, AAA offers competitive deals at times on rental cars. You can substitute AAA for any store or company and rental cars with any product and shop for the best deals to your heart's content. Costco provides enough value to me to be worth it. Costco is not worth it to you. Okay. I am also not disparaging Aldi or any other place. In fact, I just bought strawberries on Tuesday from Aldi for $1.19/lb which is cheaper than the $9 six pound frozen bag I get on occasion at Costco for smoothies.
FireHiker just reminded me - I do buy wine at Costco on occasion. My MIL loves the magnum sized Three Thieves red that Costco has for $11. Wal-Mart sells the 750 ml version for $7. Have not seen it listed cheaper on slickdeals yet but will keep an eye out.
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We find that in our area hands-down the cheapest overall grocery place is a small local Chinese store. We buy almost everything there, though you do have to know your way around suey choy and daikon and stuff. They also make their own tofu at a facility a couple of blocks away, which is very good. And I suspect one of the owners might be secretly a vegan, because their vegan selection is unreal. That said, we do buy a few things at Costco:
- Cases of soy milk
- Soda
- Multigrain bread for my sandwiches (I bake my partner's bread)
- Literal sacks of flour and sugar
- Bags of broccoli
- Granola bars for hiking
- Discounted barber gift cards for me
- Sometimes movie tickets
We definitely don't wander around looking at things - we're in out and as fast as we can manage.
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Happily, our Aldi is right across the street from Sam's Club (no Costco here) so whilst I grocery shop at Aldi, my dh gets the week's gas at Sam's, which definitely does have the cheapest price on that. About once/month I run into Sams and buy stuff on our list. The price of gas definitely covers the cost of the membership, and we don't really buy all that much gas.
I don't think Sam's prices on wine are very good, really. I wish our Aldi carried wine (some do.)
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Happily, our Aldi is right across the street from Sam's Club (no Costco here) so whilst I grocery shop at Aldi, my dh gets the week's gas at Sam's, which definitely does have the cheapest price on that. About once/month I run into Sams and buy stuff on our list. The price of gas definitely covers the cost of the membership, and we don't really buy all that much gas.
I don't think Sam's prices on wine are very good, really. I wish our Aldi carried wine (some do.)
yep aldi wine is 2.89 per 750ml its pretty great - i wish we'd get the scotch selection in ours single malt for 25 or blended for 15. both have won awards.
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I go to Costco every week. Buy gas when you get there it's always cheaper. Then eat a hotdog and make sure to refill your soda before you start shopping. Hit every free sample ( this is where the full soda helps). At this point you will have probably covered the annual membership through gas savings and a $1.50 hot dog and free sample buffett. Look at the rotisserie chicken that is already deboned. Not many want to carve up a chicken. Check out the clothes as they are always a deal. Check out their $17.99 chicken enchiladas that they make in the back with the rotisserie chicken. Easy to get 8 meals out of it. Count the walking around as saving on a gym membership.
Are you fucking serious here a hotdog for 1.50 I can buy a pack of 8 and buns for that at Aldi. Then your buying soda. Awesome use of money. Top that off with 17.99 for chicken enchiladas. Umm let's see here chicken breast 1.69 for a lb at Aldi plus 50c for a half a pack of tortillas. Cheese is now the norm for loss leaders at the local grocery so that 1.49 for a lb. Add 20c for seasoning and a 1.59 cannot enchilada sauce. And a 59c can of beans. And I'm not even trying to make this cheaper I could if I wanted to. You're looking at 1/3 the price for the enchiladas and no f'n pop or drive to Costco to save on your gas which you lost the difference on driving to Costco. Slash all the unhealthy crap you ate walking around the gym which is just a gross waste of consumerism.
If you don't have an Aldi near you maybe you come out ahead with Costco otherwise you're just blind to the golden light the master teaches.
nearest ALDI to me is 33 miles away, but I can walk to Costco from my office.
The cheapest cheese is at Costco for $2.00 a pound. There has never ever been a loss leader on cheese in any local grocery store that has beat that price. Cheapest loss leader is $3/ lb. MAYBE once a year $2.50/lb.
Of course corn tortillas are cheaper at Costco too. And the chicken.
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Happily, our Aldi is right across the street from Sam's Club (no Costco here) so whilst I grocery shop at Aldi, my dh gets the week's gas at Sam's, which definitely does have the cheapest price on that. About once/month I run into Sams and buy stuff on our list. The price of gas definitely covers the cost of the membership, and we don't really buy all that much gas.
I don't think Sam's prices on wine are very good, really. I wish our Aldi carried wine (some do.)
yep aldi wine is 2.89 per 750ml its pretty great - i wish we'd get the scotch selection in ours single malt for 25 or blended for 15. both have won awards.
Wow, prices really vary by region. Only a couple of the bottles at our Aldi are that cheap. Most are $6 or higher. We usually make our own wine, though, so it’s not a big deal for us.
Our Aldi also doesn’t sell liquor. You can buy Costco liquor without a membership, and their house label vodka, gin, and reposado tequila are very good deals. Haven’t tried the scotch yet.
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We use Costco for a few specific things.
1) Gas
2) Blueberries (like 1/4 of the price of Aldi)
3) Flour: a 50-pound bag costs the price of 2 5-pound bags.
4) Sausages- their are nitrate free and lower sodium than most
5) Sandwich meat- again, nitrate free, lower sodium, cheaper than elsewhere
6) Organic Peanut Butter- ingredient: peanuts. That's all we want in it.
7) Giant jugs of Olive oil- way cheaper.
You just have to know your prices. We also use walmart and aldi.
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Here's more I haven't seen mentioned:
DH bought my wedding ring at Costco. Sure, I could just wear a piece of string tied around my finger - or nothing at all - but I'm a sentimentimental sap and I just love it.
All my eyeglasses come from Costco, and I have the kind of correction that costs big bucks if I don't want them to look like Coke bottle bottoms (I don't - they're too heavy). Decent assortment, great service and prices.
DH got his hearing aids there, saved a fortune and got the latest technology, which is absolutely crucial. He has adapted to them beautifully.
You'll pry my Costco card out of my cold, dead hands.
Costco may not work for everyone, but it sure does for me and my family. BTW, I hate their celery and never buy it there. No big deal.
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^^^
We bought our "replacement" wedding rings at Costco. It was very romantic.
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Here's more I haven't seen mentioned:
DH bought my wedding ring at Costco. Sure, I could just wear a piece of string tied around my finger - or nothing at all - but I'm a sentimentimental sap and I just love it.
All my eyeglasses come from Costco, and I have the kind of correction that costs big bucks if I don't want them to look like Coke bottle bottoms (I don't - they're too heavy). Decent assortment, great service and prices.
DH got his hearing aids there, saved a fortune and got the latest technology, which is absolutely crucial. He has adapted to them beautifully.
You'll pry my Costco card out of my cold, dead hands.
Costco may not work for everyone, but it sure does for me and my family. BTW, I hate their celery and never buy it there. No big deal.
anyone can use these services. I'm saying maybe if you've got one in your backyard and you come out ahead on the gas with the fees you're paying to be a member its working out for you. And if you dont have an Aldi or Lidl in your area its probably the best grocery place. but other than that people seem to over estimate its value which is what this thread is asking.
and i assume you're not buying wedding rings annually so a costco cash card could easily get you in the door to buy the rings if you found them to be the best value the one year you need them.
aldi diapers 8c each costco diapers 15c each
very few foods win at costco
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Here's more I haven't seen mentioned:
DH bought my wedding ring at Costco. Sure, I could just wear a piece of string tied around my finger - or nothing at all - but I'm a sentimentimental sap and I just love it.
All my eyeglasses come from Costco, and I have the kind of correction that costs big bucks if I don't want them to look like Coke bottle bottoms (I don't - they're too heavy). Decent assortment, great service and prices.
DH got his hearing aids there, saved a fortune and got the latest technology, which is absolutely crucial. He has adapted to them beautifully.
You'll pry my Costco card out of my cold, dead hands.
Costco may not work for everyone, but it sure does for me and my family. BTW, I hate their celery and never buy it there. No big deal.
anyone can use these services. I'm saying maybe if you've got one in your backyard and you come out ahead on the gas with the fees you're paying to be a member its working out for you. And if you dont have an Aldi or Lidl in your area its probably the best grocery place. but other than that people seem to over estimate its value which is what this thread is asking.
and i assume you're not buying wedding rings annually so a costco cash card could easily get you in the door to buy the rings if you found them to be the best value the one year you need them.
aldi diapers 8c each costco diapers 15c each
very few foods win at costco
Double check that statement. Last I knew, non-members could undergo vision and hearing screenings provided by independent practitioners at the stores, but only members could purchase glasses, lenses, and hearing aids through Costco.
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if you have an aldi then costco is not cheaper.
I was under the impression that Aldi stores did not vary that much. The ones here offer about 1/3rd the goods and services that Costco provides (for example the Aldi stores here do not have a service station, sell computers, automotive section, rental cars, etc.). Where you live do the Aldi stores carry a lot more than just food?
We definitely shop at Aldi but there are plenty of things we still go to Costco for.
OP was asking specifically about groceries.
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Here's more I haven't seen mentioned:
DH bought my wedding ring at Costco. Sure, I could just wear a piece of string tied around my finger - or nothing at all - but I'm a sentimentimental sap and I just love it.
All my eyeglasses come from Costco, and I have the kind of correction that costs big bucks if I don't want them to look like Coke bottle bottoms (I don't - they're too heavy). Decent assortment, great service and prices.
DH got his hearing aids there, saved a fortune and got the latest technology, which is absolutely crucial. He has adapted to them beautifully.
You'll pry my Costco card out of my cold, dead hands.
Costco may not work for everyone, but it sure does for me and my family. BTW, I hate their celery and never buy it there. No big deal.
anyone can use these services. I'm saying maybe if you've got one in your backyard and you come out ahead on the gas with the fees you're paying to be a member its working out for you. And if you dont have an Aldi or Lidl in your area its probably the best grocery place. but other than that people seem to over estimate its value which is what this thread is asking.
and i assume you're not buying wedding rings annually so a costco cash card could easily get you in the door to buy the rings if you found them to be the best value the one year you need them.
aldi diapers 8c each costco diapers 15c each
very few foods win at costco
Double check that statement. Last I knew, non-members could undergo vision and hearing screenings provided by independent practitioners at the stores, but only members could purchase glasses, lenses, and hearing aids through Costco.
Could use the exact same cash card trick. We're about saving money on this site and if you can easily get around an annual subscription why wouldn't you.
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Lol I read this and thought you had a very dry sense of humor / trying to push Border42 into a response...
- but then I reread and I think you are being straight up.
For fun, the items in red are the ones that most people looking to save money on monthly expenses cut out, what I thought you were kidding about AND I assume that someone (OP?) really worried that a Costco membership fee may or may not be worth it, is likely a person looking to reduce monthly expenses where a $100/month savings matters to them.
Costco is great. I have the (higher fee) executive membership, but that extra fee includes roadside assistance to go along with my Costco-sourced Ameriprise car insurance, and another year end rebate check. I also use their Citi credit card (does this have cash back rewards on store items? -- yep, 0.5% hahaha), purely for shopping there and for the 4% rebate on all gas purchases.
Stuff I always buy at Costco:
Dog food and biscuits - Kirkland
Gas
Kirkland products: kleenex (? do you buy a lot of kleenex?), rum, gin, salsa, potato chips, vitamins, pesto, paper towels, allergy meds (maybe)
Beer
Cereal
Eggs
Milk
Rotisserie chicken
Fresh meat
Apples
Bananas
Stuffed pasta
Coffee beans (maybe? IDK how this compares to "basic" brands(whole, I grind them at home)
Laundry detergent (how much laundry does one need to do for savings on this to matter a lot? it should be only $0.10/load, $30/yr or less if you are worried)
Dishwasher detergent (ummm,,, can reduce this if on budget..shouldn't cost more than $20/yr?)
Restaurant gift cards (instant 20-30% off for places we tend to go anyway)
Stuff I never buy there: (because of easy to find cheaper sales elsewhere)
Soda
Tires _ i only highlight this because how often are people buying tires? Yes, it makes sense to price shop and the year you buy tires the price+ membership might be cheaper, but like you I find them cheaper elsewhere... (usually buy through Discount Tire, on a sale + manufacturer rebate)
Motor oil
Anyway -- just meant to show where you made me smile, thinking that you had a dry sense of humor, not meant to condemn purchases, or anything.
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Aldi is a fantastic option, and we have one near my house. I just paid $24.99 for a set of 100% cotton sheets to replace an old, heavily worn set. Another $20 got me two cans of beans, two containers of cottage cheese, a package of pecans, and a big bag of fresh produce. In my area, some products are cheaper at Aldi, while others are cheaper at Costco. Both stores offer high-quality products. I can get 95% of our groceries between the two stores (the other 5% includes things like corn tortillas when it's too hot to make them from scratch, certified gluten-free oats, and produce beyond the sometimes limited fresh/frozen stocks at the other stores).
Aldi must be different where you are, because every one I've been in (in three states) have been in sketchy areas. They have filthy floors, horrible-looking produce, anemic meat and disinterested staff.
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Aldi is a fantastic option, and we have one near my house. I just paid $24.99 for a set of 100% cotton sheets to replace an old, heavily worn set. Another $20 got me two cans of beans, two containers of cottage cheese, a package of pecans, and a big bag of fresh produce. In my area, some products are cheaper at Aldi, while others are cheaper at Costco. Both stores offer high-quality products. I can get 95% of our groceries between the two stores (the other 5% includes things like corn tortillas when it's too hot to make them from scratch, certified gluten-free oats, and produce beyond the sometimes limited fresh/frozen stocks at the other stores).
Aldi must be different where you are, because every one I've been in (in three states) have been in sketchy areas. They have filthy floors, horrible-looking produce, anemic meat and disinterested staff.
If there's one thing I've learned from the various Aldi threads on this forum, it's that quality and selection vary widely among stores and regions (assuming the region has an Aldi at all).
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Aldi is a fantastic option, and we have one near my house. I just paid $24.99 for a set of 100% cotton sheets to replace an old, heavily worn set. Another $20 got me two cans of beans, two containers of cottage cheese, a package of pecans, and a big bag of fresh produce. In my area, some products are cheaper at Aldi, while others are cheaper at Costco. Both stores offer high-quality products. I can get 95% of our groceries between the two stores (the other 5% includes things like corn tortillas when it's too hot to make them from scratch, certified gluten-free oats, and produce beyond the sometimes limited fresh/frozen stocks at the other stores).
You’re in Orlando? The Aldi in New Port Richey is lovely, and they do have wine.
I thought the Aldi in Chicago was in a kind of sketchy neighborhood, but it was nice enough inside.
I figure that any store or office that looks luxurious will include that in the prices, though, so I’m not too fussy about that.
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Lol I read this and thought you had a very dry sense of humor / trying to push Border42 into a response...
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For fun, the items in red are the ones that most people looking to save money on monthly expenses cut out, what I thought you were kidding about AND I assume that someone (OP?) really worried that a Costco membership fee may or may not be worth it, is likely a person looking to reduce monthly expenses where a $100/month savings matters to them.
Anyway -- just meant to show where you made me smile, thinking that you had a dry sense of humor, not meant to condemn purchases, or anything.
I went back and re-read the OP -- and you're right, a lot of the stuff I buy at Costco is stuff that you'd probably want to eliminate if cutting costs as much as possible. I wasn't responding to that in my post, nor trying to provoke Boarder42. I wasn't joking about that list -- it is actually what I buy there.
FWIW, Citi's Costco cash back in the US is 2% rebate for purchases at Costco.
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Ah, the google search gave me Capital One's rate, not Citi card.
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I thought of something else that is enormously cheaper at Costco: store brand medication. I buy their generic version Zyrtec and it was $15.07 (with tax) for a full year supply. Even the very cheapest unit price of the generic at Walmart is over $54/yr for the exact same thing (I just checked online).
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Hey @boarder42, you know I love you in the most chaste "Don't Pay Off Your Mortgage" way possible, but I don't have an Aldi anywhere within striking distance, so I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. I also use 99 Cents Only (regional chain) and Grocery Outlet (especially on Senior Mornings for the 10% discount). I shop them first, then fill the rest of my list at Costco. I live in an affluent area. Rents are crazy expensive and most grocery chain's prices reflect that. When I darken the door of a Safeway, I am shocked at their prices, sale or no sale. Shocked, I tell you!
I am a fan of The Frugal Girl (pre-MMM, no less), and she's a big Aldi supporter. On our honeymoon in Orlando, between the airport and our condo, we spotted an Aldi. We pulley a u-ey and grocery shopped. We liked it so much we went back later in the week. There is now one near our rental properties in SoCal, so we hit that one when we're down there, but our last trip there was in January, boo!
It's okay if Costco doesn't work for you, really.
And OMG, my nearest Costco is one of the top ten in the country. It is always insanely busy. I just adopt a Zen attitude. I know a lot of the people who work there now, so it's a visit to a friendly place. I like that.
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Fun facts about Costco (canada):
Average Spend per year per membership: $2,200 (fits with the "$200 per shop" image)
Busiest Store in Canada: South Calgary (Think affluent, new, family-oriented, suburban neighborhoods)
Worldwide -- top seller is the toilet paper. Which is funny because very few people upthread mentioned buying toilet paper as their "good deal". One or two mentioned paper towel, and kleenex, but not many mentioned toilet paper.
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Fun facts about Costco (canada):
Average Spend per year per membership: $2,200 (fits with the "$200 per shop" image)
Busiest Store in Canada: South Calgary (Think affluent, new, family-oriented, suburban neighborhoods)
Worldwide -- top seller is the toilet paper. Which is funny because very few people upthread mentioned buying toilet paper as their "good deal". One or two mentioned paper towel, and kleenex, but not many mentioned toilet paper.
That's really interesting! According to Mint we spent $881 at Costco in 2017. So far we're at $689 this year It's actually just barely worth it for us to have a membership - we save some, but not a ton.
We don't buy TP there - No Frills is way cheaper.
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Hey @boarder42, you know I love you in the most chaste "Don't Pay Off Your Mortgage" way possible, but I don't have an Aldi anywhere within striking distance, so I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. I also use 99 Cents Only (regional chain) and Grocery Outlet (especially on Senior Mornings for the 10% discount). I shop them first, then fill the rest of my list at Costco. I live in an affluent area. Rents are crazy expensive and most grocery chain's prices reflect that. When I darken the door of a Safeway, I am shocked at their prices, sale or no sale. Shocked, I tell you!
I am a fan of The Frugal Girl (pre-MMM, no less), and she's a big Aldi supporter. On our honeymoon in Orlando, between the airport and our condo, we spotted an Aldi. We pulley a u-ey and grocery shopped. We liked it so much we went back later in the week. There is now one near our rental properties in SoCal, so we hit that one when we're down there, but our last trip there was in January, boo!
It's okay if Costco doesn't work for you, really.
And OMG, my nearest Costco is one of the top ten in the country. It is always insanely busy. I just adopt a Zen attitude. I know a lot of the people who work there now, so it's a visit to a friendly place. I like that.
I'm sure if their is no Aldi it's probably worth it if it's within 5-10 miles of your house.
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Here's more I haven't seen mentioned:
DH bought my wedding ring at Costco. Sure, I could just wear a piece of string tied around my finger - or nothing at all - but I'm a sentimentimental sap and I just love it.
All my eyeglasses come from Costco, and I have the kind of correction that costs big bucks if I don't want them to look like Coke bottle bottoms (I don't - they're too heavy). Decent assortment, great service and prices.
DH got his hearing aids there, saved a fortune and got the latest technology, which is absolutely crucial. He has adapted to them beautifully.
You'll pry my Costco card out of my cold, dead hands.
Costco may not work for everyone, but it sure does for me and my family. BTW, I hate their celery and never buy it there. No big deal.
anyone can use these services. I'm saying maybe if you've got one in your backyard and you come out ahead on the gas with the fees you're paying to be a member its working out for you. And if you dont have an Aldi or Lidl in your area its probably the best grocery place. but other than that people seem to over estimate its value which is what this thread is asking.
and i assume you're not buying wedding rings annually so a costco cash card could easily get you in the door to buy the rings if you found them to be the best value the one year you need them.
aldi diapers 8c each costco diapers 15c each
very few foods win at costco
Double check that statement. Last I knew, non-members could undergo vision and hearing screenings provided by independent practitioners at the stores, but only members could purchase glasses, lenses, and hearing aids through Costco.
Could use the exact same cash card trick. We're about saving money on this site and if you can easily get around an annual subscription why wouldn't you.
It’s something to consider, sure. I think it’s a great idea for the OP to see if Costco shopping would be useful.
I’m not too fussed about the rare subscription that I actually use. Our household expenses are low: $700/month for mortgage/property tax/insurance (actually less, but I round up), no kids, no commute for either of us. No gym, no cable TV, no student loans, no central AC, older cars, Project Fi phones, maybe one restaurant/convenience meal per month. I don’t think we’ve bought clothing since I picked up a couple of $10 skorts at Costco in early spring. I’m sure most people on this site have what someone else would consider an unnecessary expense.
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I buy bananas but I end up throwing some away almost every time.
Bananas that are getting over-ripe can easily be thrown in the freezer to use later in smoothies/banana bread/muffins. I never throw away bananas...
I already have enough bananas in the freezer for smoothies, along with cubes of plain yogurt frozen in ice cube trays :D I can't justify getting a chest or upright dedicated freezer to store more bananas. The cost of running it monthly (somewhere between $2-$3) is more than the cost of any saved bananas (and other things), not even accounting acquisition costs (assume new chest freezer at $0 cost). Plus a dedicated freezer takes up space. For 1 person the freezer attached to my refrigerator is while I wouldn't say "plenty" of space, its perfectly adequate although almost always stuffed full. Stuff in there still gets freezer burned sometimes because it doesn't all get used fast enough.
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i've tried two aldi's and the quality of the food is not good enough.
very processed unhealthy food is what i saw
Like... what? I mean, sure, there are processed foods, but I can't think what you would want that isn't at Aldi.
Mine has great produce. Beans, dry and canned. Milk - regular, organic, soy, rice. Eggs - regular and free range. Meat. Fish. Right now they've got tofu in stock, but they don't always carry it. Brown rice comes and goes, so I usually stock up on it. Ditto, whole wheat flour.
And mine has an every changing array of household items that we have to resist, but their scented candles are great!
Mine has limited produce, only some of which is cheaper than Ralph's/Kroger's, Milk is more expensive, now that my husband doesn't insisted on Jumbo, eggs are cheapest at Costco, I have never seen whole wheat flour and I don't like guessing what is going to be available week to week. My husband needs his routines and if I can't get what I came to the store for, what is the point of going?
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Unless you've charted actual prices at Costco and your local alternatives for all the things you use, there is absolutely no way to know for sure.
We have a farmers' market and dairy that are several miles closer than Costco and cheaper. The caveat (of course there would be one!) is that food bought from farmers has more dirt on it than things you buy pre-washed and packed in plastic at Costco. It makes meal time prep go quicker for the Costco shopper than for me. All my lettuce and spinach is full of sand, the kale has stems, beets have tops, and I have to chop up my cabbage and carrots.
The experience that soured me on buying in bulk in the Costco/Sam's/BJ's type stores was living thru Hurricane Sandy. With no power for an extended period, we learned just how long our frozen food lasts. I will never again purchase food that can't be consumed before it would spoil. Our price book proved that maintaining several weeks' inventory of protein using my own electricity does not save money if I have to buy the food. I'll gladly can or freeze a bumper crop of garden produce. But steep discounts on chicken parts and every other kind of protein get repeated regularly at every store (proven via my price-book). Better to store the stuff at Aldi's or ShopRite than in a freezer in my own house. Everytime there is another hurricane, forest fire, tornado or flood and people need to evacuate -- I'm reminded of the futility of stuff. "Stuff" is not just excess clothes and decorative household things, but it's also the 24 month supply of toothpaste that someone scored with double coupons. A better place to stash our cash isn't in stocks of individual items in the pantry or freezer, but in an index fund.
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I noticed nobody mentioned the non-store items. Costco has a website with decent stuff on it. If you need home improvement stuff (toilets, showers, tile, flooring, tools, etc...) they are usually cheapest by 25-50%. Not chump change when you're spending 1000's of dollars.
I bought an electric car through them and when the dealership told me the price, I was shocked beyond words when they came back with the Costco price. I think the blue book range was like 25-30k and the Costco price was 22k. That one purchase alone paid for a lifetime of annual memberships.
On a side note, you don't need meat for strength. I recovered way faster (it was very noticeable) than anyone at my Crossfit gym when I was going and had a 1000+ lb powerlifting total (bench/squat/deadlift). I'm sure you can find plenty of examples of strong people who don't eat meat online.
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I recently bought an item from this seller on ebay. After I placed the order I found it odd when I got a notice I was getting a package from Costco. I thought maybe I had ordered something from Costco and forgot. Nope. So anyway, the package arrived and it was the item I ordered from this person on ebay. I went to Costco website and saw the identical product being sold there for about $6 less than the person on ebay was selling it for. So, I am guessing he/she is doing some kind of drop shipping thing thru Costco. I paid this person and in turn he/she orders it from Costco and they ship it. The item came from California and the seller is located in CO. The item was jeans and they didn't fit right so I contacted the seller to return them. They sent me a prepaid return label and the return is going back to CA to a Costco return center in Mira Loma.
Does anyone know if Costco will do drop shipping like this? This seller has a bunch of Costco items on their ebay store. This all seems kind of odd to me that Costco would do this. Maybe this person just does it without permission from Costco. All the Costco items are jacked up in price on the ebay site.
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Roadrunner, I have purchased things with my costco card, and had them mailed to people directly (gifts for family). The same if they needed to return something they can do it either in the store or via return label. So I'm assuming Costco is fine with this sort of thing.
When the kids were in diapers it was really worth it to have Costco membership for their diapers and diaper wipes.
I signed up for a Costco membership when my computer was killed by a lightning strike and had it replaced. For me Costco is not cost effective, because I shop more. I do feel like the things I purchased were of value (everything from a sink faucet combo for a kitchen remodel, swim goggles and speedo suits for kids, some clothes for me, replacement vacumn cleaner) but I just feel like I bought more stuff than I usually do, even for food. I was able to get a bunch of photos developed and some protein powder for a family member.
My favorite things (the things I will miss) are their kirkland organic olive oil, their rainforest unground coffee, their large but inexpensive wine selection, prewashed salad selections, spanokopita, and their rotisserie chickens which my kids loved. I'm not a fan of almost everything being the higher grade more expensive version, and the large amounts needing to be purchased. I can do better grocery shopping if I alternate between Harris Teeter focusing on their sale products (and to get their meat) and Food Lion for everything else.
Admittedly it's been 15 years since I've been in Aldi but from my last experience you couldn't pay me to shop there. They would keep discounting food items (meat and deli items) that were literally discolored and rotten but still for sale, saw mouse droppings and even a live mouse running along an aisle.
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I've heard (unconfirmed) that you can shop at Costco without having a membership if you have a gift card. You may want to buy one online and try that.
I've done this. can confirm it works.
For us, Costco is far enough away that it is a hassle to shop there.
We are fortunate, though, to have a Winco within biking distance (with a safe route) and find that to be the best choice for us. They have an awesome bulk foods section.
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I have (had) a Costco membership. It expired at the end of last month and the wife and I are debating whether to re up. It seems that we spend way too much when we shop at Costco and I really never feel like I save that much money, except when I eat at the food court. There is a Costco near my work and I would fill up on gas there early in the morning before the store opened and probably saved a decent amount on gas that way. The few things I feel that we were saving money on like allergy medicine I found even cheaper on Amazon. It all depends on what you buy there and go there with a list. I know of way too many people that overspend going to Costco in the name of saving money. Like my boss who bought a $1000 grill there that he didn't even know he needed!
Aldi FTW. We started shopping at Aldi on a regular basis a couple years ago. Plenty of good produce, staples, and snack foods. We are not a big fan of their meat selection but it seems to be getting better all the time. We wait for the monthly meat sale at the locally owned supermarket chain and go there. They have butchers on site and better cuts with a bigger selection. Aldi has even started carrying good quality non-food staples like dishwashing detergent, laundry detergent, paper towels, and toilet paper.
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I thought of something else that is enormously cheaper at Costco: store brand medication. I buy their generic version Zyrtec and it was $15.07 (with tax) for a full year supply. Even the very cheapest unit price of the generic at Walmart is over $54/yr for the exact same thing (I just checked online).
This. Savings on allergy medication alone almost pays for my membership. Gasoline savings pays for whatever is left. My Costco also had unmatched prices on LED and CFL lightbulbs (partly subsidized by the local power company).
For me the only problem of shopping at Costco is the temptation to buy things I don't really need --because they are "such a good deal."
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I thought of something else that is enormously cheaper at Costco: store brand medication. I buy their generic version Zyrtec and it was $15.07 (with tax) for a full year supply. Even the very cheapest unit price of the generic at Walmart is over $54/yr for the exact same thing (I just checked online).
This. Savings on allergy medication alone almost pays for my membership. Gasoline savings pays for whatever is left. My Costco also had unmatched prices on LED and CFL lightbulbs (partly subsidized by the local power company).
For me the only problem of shopping at Costco is the temptation to buy things I don't really need --because they are "such a good deal."
Get allergy shots.
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The co-pay on my dd's allergy shots is $17 every month, forever.
I can buy a year's worth of generic Zyrtec at Sam's for less than $17.
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
Allergy shots aren't a good alternative for me right now.
I did allergy shots as a kid. If they helped, I didn't notice it. They've probably improved, but my lifestyle involves major international moves every few years, and I've been told that shots that are effective in one place might not be effective in a new place with different allergens.
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
Really? Is that how allergy shots work? My best friend has been getting allergy shots for probably 20 years and if she is late to get them, still, then she's in really rough shape. It could be she's an extreme case, I don't know.
I don't actually take the (generic) Zyrtec every day; I tend to take it when I've had an allergy flare-up, which is seasonal or when I've been outside a lot. Same is true for my husband. I don't have severe enough allergies that I've ever even considered a monthly shot, which would cost much more than an annual supply of generic-Zyrtec since my co-pay for an office visit is $57 each time for any reason until we meet out giant deductible (but, we qualify for an HSA which we have maxed out so...). I'll stick with my $15 every couple years for a bottle of Costco brand Zyrtec.
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
Allergy shots aren't a good alternative for me right now.
I did allergy shots as a kid. If they helped, I didn't notice it. They've probably improved, but my lifestyle involves major international moves every few years, and I've been told that shots that are effective in one place might not be effective in a new place with different allergens.
This is true, depending on the type of allergy. If it’s to something environmental, you’d need to receive shots containing an epitope (i.e., amino acid sequence recognized by your lymphocytes as an allergen) that is present in the local environment. If it’s food-borne, that seems less of a concern (e.g., casein is casein) but it seems to be more difficult to induce tolerance to food-borne allergens anyway. Anti-histamines don’t actually treat the allergy but rather moderate the symptoms (block histamines released by white blood cells in response to allergen), which is why they aren’t particularly useful for severe allergies.
(Disclaimer: I have a PhD in immunology but am not a medical professional. Do what your allergy/atopy specialist or other trusted physician tells you.)
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
Allergy shots aren't a good alternative for me right now.
I did allergy shots as a kid. If they helped, I didn't notice it. They've probably improved, but my lifestyle involves major international moves every few years, and I've been told that shots that are effective in one place might not be effective in a new place with different allergens.
This is true, depending on the type of allergy. If it’s to something environmental, you’d need to receive shots containing an epitope (i.e., amino acid sequence recognized by your lymphocytes as an allergen) that is present in the local environment. If it’s food-borne, that seems less of a concern (e.g., casein is casein) but it seems to be more difficult to induce tolerance to food-borne allergens anyway. Anti-histamines don’t actually treat the allergy but rather moderate the symptoms (block histamines released by white blood cells in response to allergen), which is why they aren’t particularly useful for severe allergies.
(Disclaimer: I have a PhD in immunology but am not a medical professional. Do what your allergy/atopy specialist or other trusted physician tells you.)
OtherJen, Thanks for the clarification. It makes sense to me. I have been told the same thing applies to flu shots, so I should get them locally. The formulation made for the US is aimed at flu strains prevalent there. It may or may not be effective against other strains in other parts of the world.
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DH and I love Costco. Along with the Kirkland brands of many household items, we also buy most of our food there, gasoline, and probably half the clothes we own. We also bought our sofa and TV there and both our wedding rings. We’re in northern Canada, but whenever we travel to the US we make a point of checking out the local Costco, and usually find something that’s a good deal to pick up even with tax and our unfavorable exchange rate on the dollar.
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
No, you don't. You need a monthly maintenance dose, because you don't actually stop being a person with allergies.
I actually have been taking antihistamines for the last 50 years, and the only thing it's done to my health is that I don't sneeze a lot. But beyond that, antihistamines are cheap and allergy shots aren't.
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
No, you don't. You need a monthly maintenance dose, because you don't actually stop being a person with allergies.
I actually have been taking antihistamines for the last 50 years, and the only thing it's done to my health is that I don't sneeze a lot. But beyond that, antihistamines are cheap and allergy shots aren't.
My experience (and the experience of the four members of my family who have done allergy shots) is that there's a bunch of shots up front for about half a year, then they're spaced further and further apart. Eventually you're getting them monthly for a few years, and then you don't need the shots any more. My symptoms went from having at least a month and a half each year of debilitating runny eyes and nose to not having any noticeable allergy for the past decade.
YMMV and all that, but for us yeah . . . you do stop being someone with allergies after shots.
(This is specifically for hayfever type symptoms caused by airborne allergens (mold, ragweed, golden rod, etc.) I've got no idea if they work at all for food type stuff.)
I have no idea if the currently used antihistamines are safe for long term use. The older, first generation antihistamines have been linked in increased prevalence of delirium/dementia later in life though (particularly the anticholinergic ones). In general, my policy is that it's best to try and avoid medication when possible.
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YMMV. Both my sister and my dh had allergy shots throughout their teens and are now as allergic as ever. They didn't stop being allergic people, though they stopped being reactive to some things. And then they moved and became reactive to new things.
The pesky allergy I had to orange blossom pollen as a kid doesn't bother me at all these days in NE Ohio, but I've found plenty of new things to make me sneeze.
However, my original point is that allergy shots are, at least in the US, no bargain. Most years, my dd has been the only family member who fills her deductible - thanks, allergy shots! The price of generic antihistamines at Sams/Costco *is* a real bargain in comparison.
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You don't need to get allergy shots forever though. After a few years you just stop having allergies. Cost aside, it's way better for your health than pumping yourself full of antihistamines day after day.
No, you don't. You need a monthly maintenance dose, because you don't actually stop being a person with allergies.
I actually have been taking antihistamines for the last 50 years, and the only thing it's done to my health is that I don't sneeze a lot. But beyond that, antihistamines are cheap and allergy shots aren't.
My experience (and the experience of the four members of my family who have done allergy shots) is that there's a bunch of shots up front for about half a year, then they're spaced further and further apart. Eventually you're getting them monthly for a few years, and then you don't need the shots any more. My symptoms went from having at least a month and a half each year of debilitating runny eyes and nose to not having any noticeable allergy for the past decade.
YMMV and all that, but for us yeah . . . you do stop being someone with allergies after shots.
(This is specifically for hayfever type symptoms caused by airborne allergens (mold, ragweed, golden rod, etc.) I've got no idea if they work at all for food type stuff.)
I have no idea if the currently used antihistamines are safe for long term use. The older, first generation antihistamines have been linked in increased prevalence of delirium/dementia later in life though (particularly the anticholinergic ones). In general, my policy is that it's best to try and avoid medication when possible.
My understanding is that there are two types of allergy shot regimens.
1) ~ weekly shots during whatever allergy season you have
2) consistent shots over the time frame you are taking about here that gradually wean a person off.
I believe that type (1) shots means you get them forever and type (2) shots means you get lots up front but eventually don't need them any more.
As a kid I had type (1) shots. Now, I generally just deal with allergies for the grass pollen season. Although this year I've been trying Wim Hof breathing and it seems to have lessened my hay fever symptoms. Maybe it will lessen my grass symptoms next spring too.
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This summer we had a couple big purchases planned and bought a costco membership that paid for itself. We also buy some prepared/frozen foods for easy meals there to avoid eating out. My wife will likely want to renew next year, but I will fight it. It does save a few cents a gallon on gas as well. Winco still beats costco out on the majority of our grocery purchases. Winco is 2.5 miles away vs. costco's 1 mile.
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Headed to Hawaii in December with family and we are planning big Costco run for groceries
We shopped every Costco in Hawaii. The one on the Big Island was the most uptight. That's the first Costco that ever has stopped me walking in the exit side (restrooms are always after the cash registers. And I even had a 5 year old that needed to pee!)
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I buy bananas but I end up throwing some away almost every time.
Bananas that are getting over-ripe can easily be thrown in the freezer to use later in smoothies/banana bread/muffins. I never throw away bananas...
Just remember to peel before freezing!
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Headed to Hawaii in December with family and we are planning big Costco run for groceries
We shopped every Costco in Hawaii. The one on the Big Island was the most uptight. That's the first Costco that ever has stopped me walking in the exit side (restrooms are always after the cash registers. And I even had a 5 year old that needed to pee!)
I was on the Big Island last week. Of course, every trip in Hawaii starts at Costco. So, we drive from the airport straight to Costco. And the parking lot is deserted! And the windows are boarded up! Costco is closed down! How can this be? It doesn't compute. Our vacation plans are severely damaged.
We pieced it together later, and concluded that it was Labor Day, so Costco was normally closed, and it was boarded up because of the hurricane that had blown through days earlier. Whew! Costco and Hawaii are safe to visit.
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I had a Costco gift card and we were running low on olive oil, so I went to Costco today. I was interested to note that in the year or so since I've last stepped inside a Costco, they've gotten even MORE upscale. They no longer sell 10-lb bags of carrots, which used to be a common purchase for me. Onions are 60 cents/lb, vs. the standard 30-40 cents/lb at my local grocery. Overall the produce section also seems a bit smaller. Lots of pricey bagged salads. The prepackaged meal selection seems to have expanded (you can get Munchery meals at Costco now). Almonds slightly more expensive than our local Indian store. Plenty of premium ice cream and chocolate hazelnut spread. Lots of energy bars. A sizeable chunk of the store devoted to selling gift cards. The food court now sells acai bowls.
I will grant that rolled oats were only 55 cents/lb, in contrast the best sale price our grocery store has offered in the past year is 69 cents/lb.
But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
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But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
That's probably true, but you can still get good deals on the other 5% of things in the store. You have to do the math to see if the deals on these items are worth the cost of being a member. You also have to ask yourself if you have the discipline to avoid purchasing from the other 95% of things in the store while you're there.
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In my area, I have found a lot of those basic items are periodically cheaper at places like ]b]Sprouts, Smart & Final, the local Indian grocery[\b], or even Whole Foods at times, if you are willing to keep an eye out for sales
This. I find it hilarious how common it is for shoppers to justify their infatuation with Costco without actually going into the real prices you are willing to pay for an item. I find the price I'm willing to pay for fresh fruit, meat (Chicken, sausage, etc.), and cheese to be better at these other places mentioned, but only when it is on sale. A staple like oatmeal is $0.50/lb at Sprouts on sale. Last time I checked Costco wasn't better than that. But indeed you do have to have self-control and not buy items when they are not on sale - no matter how much you want/crave it. Like this: you want blueberries off season at $4.99/6oz at the typical supermarket? And it is only $3/6 oz at Costco? Wow. What a deal! I pay <$1 for 6 ozs of blueberries on sale in season. Frozen fruit? Why not buy it on sale and freeze it yourself? SO much cheaper.
Costco is a luxury. You are paying for the opportunity to shop there (not sure about this whole gift card loop hole but sounds like if it became widely used it would be shut down... neat though.). The membership pass is a consumer trick to get you to shop there and spend a little more on luxuries like organic food, wine, fancy stuff, etc (hint, Amazon, too.). The classic knee jerk reaction from most people, "Oh, I love Costco, it is the best - we love them!" is exactly what they want by having a membership. It is what Amazon wants as well. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/technology/monopoly-antitrust-lina-khan-amazon.html). When consumers are happy then typical regulatory violations meant to safeguard consumers are hard to bring forward. Buyer beware.
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I know a lot of people who really save a ton on alcohol. They have great prices on that.
Their meat is super expensive. We never buy meat at costco.
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In my area, I have found a lot of those basic items are periodically cheaper at places like ]b]Sprouts, Smart & Final, the local Indian grocery[\b], or even Whole Foods at times, if you are willing to keep an eye out for sales
This. I find it hilarious how common it is for shoppers to justify their infatuation with Costco without actually going into the real prices you are willing to pay for an item. I find the price I'm willing to pay for fresh fruit, meat (Chicken, sausage, etc.), and cheese to be better at these other places mentioned, but only when it is on sale. A staple like oatmeal is $0.50/lb at Sprouts on sale. Last time I checked Costco wasn't better than that. But indeed you do have to have self-control and not buy items when they are not on sale - no matter how much you want/crave it. Like this: you want blueberries off season at $4.99/6oz at the typical supermarket? And it is only $3/6 oz at Costco? Wow. What a deal! I pay <$1 for 6 ozs of blueberries on sale in season. Frozen fruit? Why not buy it on sale and freeze it yourself? SO much cheaper.
Costco is a luxury. You are paying for the opportunity to shop there (not sure about this whole gift card loop hole but sounds like if it became widely used it would be shut down... neat though.). The membership pass is a consumer trick to get you to shop there and spend a little more on luxuries like organic food, wine, fancy stuff, etc (hint, Amazon, too.). The classic knee jerk reaction from most people, "Oh, I love Costco, it is the best - we love them!" is exactly what they want by having a membership. It is what Amazon wants as well. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/technology/monopoly-antitrust-lina-khan-amazon.html). When consumers are happy then typical regulatory violations meant to safeguard consumers are hard to bring forward. Buyer beware.
YMMV but the sale price for oats at our Sprouts is 0.69/lb, higher than Costco. Ask me how I know! Because I'm almost out of oats, and I went to Sprouts. I figured I'd buy "a little bit" if it wasn't on sale and "a lot" if it was. But they were completely out! Because it was on sale. I bought "a little bit" of the instant oats instead (blech).
But cheese man - cheese in my area is never ever on sale for better than Costco price. Never.
Same with the olive oil. Assuming you want actual olive oil and not a mixture of oils labeled as olive oil.
Let's not pretend that we know everything, mmm kay?
A lot of Costco shoppers:
1. Are like me and have done the math. Costco is cheaper. I mean, price book people
2. Don't shop for price only, are looking for quality (aka, actual olive oil not a blend of oils). Or are looking for business practices, like paying the employees a living wage. (*cough* Wally World)
3. Don't shop for price only, are looking for a certain amount of convenience. Location (Costco is right next to work), sizes (if I buy 2 gal of milk, it's cheaper and I don't have to shop as often), convenience (prepping everything yourself from salad mix to frozen fruit to roasted chicken to) ... I mean, fuck all that. I've got 2 kids and a full time job. Yes, I wash all my own produce because I like local produce, and I want to reduce my use of single use plastic, and because bagged salad mixes don't agree with my digestion. But sometimes, it fucking sucks, like now when everyone in my house is sick so I literally have to wash every bit of produce and then wash every damn dish and knife after.
I love blueberries, and I can go pick them at the source! But they ain't cheap and even with a spare freezer, there's no fucking way I can get a year's worth of blueberries in my freezer. So I balance that by eating "whatever is in season" and when I run out of my frozen blueberries - I buy them.
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But cheese man - cheese in my area is never ever on sale for better than Costco price. Never.
Same with the olive oil. Assuming you want actual olive oil and not a mixture of oils labeled as olive oil.
Let's not pretend that we know everything, mmm kay?
A lot of Costco shoppers:
1. Are like me and have done the math. Costco is cheaper. I mean, price book people
2. Don't shop for price only, are looking for quality (aka, actual olive oil not a blend of oils). Or are looking for business practices, like paying the employees a living wage. (*cough* Wally World)
3. Don't shop for price only, are looking for a certain amount of convenience.
It's like some people can't comprehend that other people who live in different regions and have different circumstances may have actually done their own research to find out what works for them. Just like the OP should do.
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YMMV but the sale price for oats at our Sprouts is 0.69/lb, higher than Costco.
I've bought rolled oats, quick oats, and steel cut oats at $0.50/lb at Sprouts when it is on sale. I've bought 50 lbs of it at a time. Sometimes they are out in the bins but have bags of it in the back. I've bee quite successful with this at Sprouts. Plus if it is out get a rain check and come back the next week when they resupply. Last time I checked Costco wasn't better than that. What is it these days? Online it says $10 for 10lbs. That can't be right.
Cheese is $2.99/lb on sale at Sprouts, sometimes just $3.99/lb.
2. Don't shop for price only, are looking for quality (aka, actual olive oil not a blend of oils). Or are looking for business practices, like paying the employees a living wage. (*cough* Wally World)
This is not the point. Can you live on a blend of oils? Is that not okay just like choosing to buy generic at the grocery store? We survive just fine on those things. And if you want to make a charitable donation to Costco to support their practices by paying more then that is again a luxury. I could just as easily support other causes.
3. Don't shop for price only, are looking for a certain amount of convenience.
Again - convenience is a common excuse. If Costco is 0.5 mile from your home and you can bike there then fine. If you pass three other perfectly good grocery stores on the way, then mmm, sure?
Let's not pretend that we know everything, mmm kay?
The whole point of this forum is to bring up points of our own knowledge. My response to Costco is what I know. If you just want people on here to agree with your way of thinking then just don't respond to people who challenge your own knowledge. Or are you saying you know everything?
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This Sprouts store sounds amazing. I wish we had them in my state.
Although I buy very good cheddar at Costco for a regular price of $2.50/lb so I'm pretty happy with that.
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This Sprouts store sounds amazing. I wish we had them in my state.
Although I buy very good cheddar at Costco for a regular price of $2.50/lb so I'm pretty happy with that.
Yes, and that's true. I think Kroger/Safeway brands occasionally have deals where it is $2.50/lb as well. Again - it is finding the sale. Or picking up the flier and determining what you want to eat that week based of the flier.
I get people's idea that the shop for quality/convenience. At some point the answer to the question "Is Costco really cheaper?" has to be answered with an objective in mind. If you want to consider all the permutations of taste/etc, then that's way to subjective. If you want to say, at the bottom, when you take it account sale prices and loss leaders everywhere else, is Costco cheaper? My math has always said no. Yes, some items are less expensive at Costco, but adding a membership is huge. What if I travel for a month or two? Now that membership cost has to be spread out of less months instead of a full year. It just never adds up for us when we consider it.
Add in fancy living and it may be better. Again, the saying "Your mileage will vary" is not the point here. It is like saying are bicycles cheaper than cars? Well, if you buy a $5,000 road bike and compare it to a $2,000 clunker, no. If you buy a $500 road bike and compare it to a $35k Tesla, the of course bikes are cheaper. Again, your mileage varies in this situation, too.
In answering this repeatedly asked question, "Is Costco really cheaper?", the answer, in my view, it is always no when you are wondering if it is possible to be cheaper than the glorious-consumer-eating Costco. All other answers based on individual tastes are irrelevant because they are just too subjective.
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This Sprouts store sounds amazing. I wish we had them in my state.
Although I buy very good cheddar at Costco for a regular price of $2.50/lb so I'm pretty happy with that.
Fresh Thyme is the mid-West equivalent. They were started as a separate company by a former Sprouts executive. Their flyer is almost identical themed but not the same chain.
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This Sprouts store sounds amazing. I wish we had them in my state.
Although I buy very good cheddar at Costco for a regular price of $2.50/lb so I'm pretty happy with that.
Fresh Thyme is the mid-West equivalent. They were started as a separate company by a former Sprouts executive. Their flyer is almost identical themed but not the same chain.
The nearest one of those is several miles further than Costco. Ditto for Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We do have an excellent produce market about 5 miles away.
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I found a weekly ad for Fresh Thyme in the metro Detroit area. Here (https://www.freshthyme.com/weekly-ads/?ID=563).
Grapes $0.79/lb
Sweet corn $0.19 each
1 lb bag of carrots $0.50 for 1 lb
Ground beef 85% value pack - $2.89/lb
Green bell peppers - $0.50 each
I'd be curious to know what the same prices for those items would be at Costco today in metro Detroit.
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I found a weekly ad for Fresh Thyme in the metro Detroit area. Here (https://www.freshthyme.com/weekly-ads/?ID=563).
Grapes $0.79/lb
Sweet corn $0.19 each
1 lb bag of carrots $0.50 for 1 lb
Ground beef 85% value pack - $2.89/lb
Green bell peppers - $0.50 each
I'd be curious to know what the same prices for those items would be at Costco today in metro Detroit.
Thanks. I don't buy produce at Costco, and I'm not about to make a trip for a price check (husband has our car today, anyway). We're a 2-person household and it's more cost-effective to buy produce at the produce market. I choose to buy organic grass-fed ground beef, which we eat less than once per week.
The closest Fresh Thyme is 10 miles away in a high-traffic sprawl suburb that I don't think I've had a need to visit in at least a decade (i.e., would require a special car trip just to go to that store). I pass a Costco a couple of times per month.
We get local flyers weekly for Aldi (good prices on most things, although Costco definitely beats them on things like the granola bars that my husband likes, some types of nuts, good cheese, and coffee beans), an independent grocery store (not particularly well stocked), Kroger (occasionally screaming deals for which I will make a special trip; otherwise, generally higher prices), Meijer (big box store that disappointingly does not always have great prices), and Save-a-Lot (their sales are often for processed foods that we don't eat).
I promise you, I have done my research in this area. I've been the grocery shopper in my household for the last 16 years and have lived in the same area for 40 years. I'll afford you the respect of assuming that you've done the same.
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It is not about whether 'you have done your homework' and that I respect that - don't make it to this. Occasionally Fresh Thyme will have killer deals on nuts. I often buy Walnuts at $3.99/lb. Trail mixes at $3.99 to even $2.99 on their mega-deals (extrapolating Fresh Thyme from Sprouts). Even granola can be $1.99/lb. All it takes is for one weekend sale and you are set for months. Isn't that the premise of Costco, too?
It is that I honestly have never seen the math work out for Costco and I think that is a perfectly okay response to this thread. When people add in thing like specialty meats, cheeses, and fancy nuts then we get into a whole different conversation. It goes from "Is Costco Really Cheaper" to "Is Costco Really Cheaper if I want this lifestyle". And I am not going to go down that rabbit hole. My bike analogy is perfect. Want a fancier bike? Want this fancy car? Want fancy olive oil? These are lifestyle choices.
Bare bone healthy living: eating healthy, fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, oatmeal, granola, protein, cheese, eggs, milk, etc. can all be done at grocery stores cheaper than Costco. I rarely eat processed foods, by the way.
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It is that I honestly have never seen the math work out for Costco and I think that is a perfectly okay response to this thread.
That's been my point all along. My posts today have largely been in response to this:
This. I find it hilarious how common it is for shoppers to justify their infatuation with Costco without actually going into the real prices you are willing to pay for an item.
Many of us have done this. The OP needs to figure out what works for him. Like you, Costco may not be a good deal for him, and that's totally fine. That's my whole point. I note that the OP said nothing about a bare-bones diet; in fact, he said that he was unwilling to compromise on types and quality of foods.
I admit that I had never looked at the Fresh Thyme sale flyer before. It isn't mailed to my house because of the distance, and my lifestyle doesn't involve a 20-mile round trip through suburban-sprawl hell to visit one store. Compared to that flyer, I do actually get better prices at Costco on butter, coffee beans, paper towels, deli meat, stew beef, avocados, and cheese slices. As noted elsewhere, none of these things are necessary. But if I'm going to buy them anyway, I may as well use the math that works in my situation.
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We don't have a Costco, a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe, or any Wild Thyme sort of store, either.
We've got a neighborhood IGA, which does have pretty good meat and they cut it in store and this time of year they carry 4H meat (because the fair was two weekends ago).
We've got Aldi and Save A Lot.
We've got a Farmers' Market during the summer, and it's quite expensive, but good.
We've got a local Italian Market which has a lot of nice specialty ingredients, but is otherwise pretty expensive, except the wine is pretty cheap.
We've got Giant Eagle which is a regional chain and pretty expensive, but they do have sales if you pay attention.
I don't drive and only the IGA is in walking distance, so we make *one* trip to Aldi/week, and then every other week I add an extra stop of some kind.
But *this* weekend we're going to Wisconsin and I'll run into Woodman's and stock up on my favorite very aged cheddar which is remarkably cheap there, plus a couple of bags of whole wheat flour from a regional brand that I like. This is not exactly a great savings because we have to drive to Wisconsin, but it's definitely worth the extra stop!
So, for me, Sam's/Costco *is* a savings, for the gas and the other stuff we buy there, especially OTC meds and coffee, but we have to be disciplined about not buying too much fun stuff in the process. However, I'm not much of a shopped, and "fun stuff" is general household stuff, really.
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It is that I honestly have never seen the math work out for Costco and I think that is a perfectly okay response to this thread.
That's been my point all along. My posts today have largely been in response to this:
This. I find it hilarious how common it is for shoppers to justify their infatuation with Costco without actually going into the real prices you are willing to pay for an item.
Many of us have done this. The OP needs to figure out what works for him. Like you, Costco may not be a good deal for him, and that's totally fine. That's my whole point. I note that the OP said nothing about a bare-bones diet; in fact, he said that he was unwilling to compromise on types and quality of foods.
I admit that I had never looked at the Fresh Thyme sale flyer before. It isn't mailed to my house because of the distance, and my lifestyle doesn't involve a 20-mile round trip through suburban-sprawl hell to visit one store. Compared to that flyer, I do actually get better prices at Costco on butter, coffee beans, paper towels, deli meat, stew beef, avocados, and cheese slices. As noted elsewhere, none of these things are necessary. But if I'm going to buy them anyway, I may as well use the math that works in my situation.
Just because you have done it doesn't mean there are not way more that don't go into the price differences. I hear it all the time - you hear the average shopping cart value at Costco. And you kind of prove my point by not being aware of the Fresh Thyme flyer. One of the reasons for memberships like the one at Costco are to make you forget and not care about their competition. They exist to make you justify the membership by always going to them first.
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It is that I honestly have never seen the math work out for Costco and I think that is a perfectly okay response to this thread.
That's been my point all along. My posts today have largely been in response to this:
This. I find it hilarious how common it is for shoppers to justify their infatuation with Costco without actually going into the real prices you are willing to pay for an item.
Many of us have done this. The OP needs to figure out what works for him. Like you, Costco may not be a good deal for him, and that's totally fine. That's my whole point. I note that the OP said nothing about a bare-bones diet; in fact, he said that he was unwilling to compromise on types and quality of foods.
I admit that I had never looked at the Fresh Thyme sale flyer before. It isn't mailed to my house because of the distance, and my lifestyle doesn't involve a 20-mile round trip through suburban-sprawl hell to visit one store. Compared to that flyer, I do actually get better prices at Costco on butter, coffee beans, paper towels, deli meat, stew beef, avocados, and cheese slices. As noted elsewhere, none of these things are necessary. But if I'm going to buy them anyway, I may as well use the math that works in my situation.
Just because you have done it doesn't mean there are not way more that don't go into the price differences. I hear it all the time - you hear the average shopping cart value at Costco. And you kind of prove my point by not being aware of the Fresh Thyme flyer. One of the reasons for memberships like the one at Costco are to make you forget and not care about their competition. They exist to make you justify the membership by always going to them first.
And yet, I feel like you're deliberately missing my point. I think I've written clearly. I've never argued that the OP or anyone else MUST have a Costco membership. People should optimize their own time and money budgets, including transportation time/money costs. (For example, that 10-mile drive to Fresh Thyme—which from that sale flyer doesn't look like it has great deals compared to a combination of the 5 local stores whose flyers I do receive regularly—would be on busy surface streets and would take about 35 minutes each way.) I'm pretty sure that's all I've ever argued on this thread, going back to my first post where I responded to the OP's question with "It depends."
I need to spend the rest of my afternoon on some client work, so I'm done. You're more than welcome to have the last word.
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Just because you have done it doesn't mean there are not way more that don't go into the price differences. I hear it all the time - you hear the average shopping cart value at Costco. And you kind of prove my point by not being aware of the Fresh Thyme flyer. One of the reasons for memberships like the one at Costco are to make you forget and not care about their competition. They exist to make you justify the membership by always going to them first.
But if Costco costs more, then you can't justify the membership right? Here's how to make Costco work: Grocery stores don't make money on every day staple items like hamburger and milk. They know consumers comparison shop on those items, so they keep prices rock bottom on staples, in order to upsell you on all the other stuff. All that other stuff is where Costco is cheaper, and sometimes wildly cheaper. Coffee beans, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, nuts, butter, yeast, tofu, and spices are all consistently cheaper at Costco. OTC medicines and vitamins, and cheese, are usually much cheaper. Unusual cuts of meat like say, a brisket or rack of lamb are much cheaper than a typical grocery store. It is pesto making season. So I buy the peeled garlic and pine nuts for about 1/3 the grocery store price.
Then there are oddball items. I don't wear dress shirts much anymore, but back in the day I did. The Kirkland men's dress shirts are equal or superior in quality to any designer brand and they cost less than $20, compare with $60-$100 in a department store. Same with batteries, plastic wrap, paper products, etc. And of course gasoline.
I shop at Costco maybe four times a year. But the savings are huge, and justifies the membership cost many times over.
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YMMV but the sale price for oats at our Sprouts is 0.69/lb, higher than Costco.
I've bought rolled oats, quick oats, and steel cut oats at $0.50/lb at Sprouts when it is on sale. I've bought 50 lbs of it at a time. Sometimes they are out in the bins but have bags of it in the back. I've bee quite successful with this at Sprouts. Plus if it is out get a rain check and come back the next week when they resupply. Last time I checked Costco wasn't better than that. What is it these days? Online it says $10 for 10lbs. That can't be right.
Cheese is $2.99/lb on sale at Sprouts, sometimes just $3.99/lb.
2. Don't shop for price only, are looking for quality (aka, actual olive oil not a blend of oils). Or are looking for business practices, like paying the employees a living wage. (*cough* Wally World)
This is not the point. Can you live on a blend of oils? Is that not okay just like choosing to buy generic at the grocery store? We survive just fine on those things. And if you want to make a charitable donation to Costco to support their practices by paying more then that is again a luxury. I could just as easily support other causes.
3. Don't shop for price only, are looking for a certain amount of convenience.
Again - convenience is a common excuse. If Costco is 0.5 mile from your home and you can bike there then fine. If you pass three other perfectly good grocery stores on the way, then mmm, sure?
Let's not pretend that we know everything, mmm kay?
The whole point of this forum is to bring up points of our own knowledge. My response to Costco is what I know. If you just want people on here to agree with your way of thinking then just don't respond to people who challenge your own knowledge. Or are you saying you know everything?
Costco: 0.55/lb for oats. Sprouts: 0.69/ lb is the sale price
Costco: $1.99 - $2.49/lb for cheese. Sprouts: $3/lb lowest price I've ever seen, and that's the same for any other grocery store. (This is sharp cheddar, by the way).
Olive oil: I've done too much research I guess. I want actual olive oil, not a blend of oils. If I wanted a random blend of oils, I'd buy them, and not expect to be paying a premium for actual olive oil.
As far as "knowing everything: - I'm specifically responding to people who talk about Costco being "ridiculously luxurious" and "obviously you are paying a premium compared to the grocery store" when...no. I created my price book back in 2001. I kept it faithfully updated for 10 years. Like, on the computer. Now I have it all in my head. And I know, for sure, that Costco prices are cheaper on a large # of items that we buy regularly. I know this because I check regularly. I still look at the flyers. Any time I'm in a store, I wander past the sections of interest and check current prices for unadvertised sales. In the last 5 years we've gotten a host of new stores (including Sprouts, which I love) and I've checked them ALL out, even down to knowing that Sprouts has the best bulk price on oats (even though Costco is cheaper per lb, if I buy in the bulk bins I avoid generating new trash), but Smart and Final wins for dried beans and rice and lentils. Whole foods, for some reason, has cheaper corn meal and the best price on tahini.
It's no different than people saying "obviously it's better to shop at Aldi" (no Aldi here) or "obviously you should shop at Walmart" (no Walmart either). The point is that grocery prices are HEAVILY location dependent - they depend on the general cost of living in a particular area (overhead), the type of store, the specific location (cost of rent, cost of transportation to get the food there) and size of the store (pretty stores are going to be more expensive than the dingy 0.99 only store with no parking), competition (if you are the only store in miles, you can charge a premium). I'm always shocked at the cheap prices at the Walmart when visiting the inlaws in upstate NY, and equally surprised that the prices are so much higher when visiting family in rural PA - but as most of the other stores went out of business when Walmart came to town - I guess it's not too surprising.
It's completely ridiculous for anyone to make gross generalizations about the cost of groceries in any area where they don't currently live. Which is why you will OFTEN see suggestions to do a price comparison yourself, because it depends. You will also see suggestions on "different types of stores" to check out. A lot of people don't think beyond the typical grocery store. You have to think about the Mexican, Asian stores. The 99 cent stores. Scratch and dent. Day old bread. Big box. Food 4 less. Trader Joe's. Farm stands. Farmer's markets. Every area has their own "mix" of stores, etc, and you pretty much have to check them all out to find the best prices. AND you have to decide what you are shopping for besides price. Like I'm not willing to drive the 30-40 miles to Aldi, but I actually had a coworker years ago do that same drive to shop at Walmart, all so he could save money on canned vegetables and ramen.
By the way, the cheese and milk savings alone save me $130 a year. I guess I could save more if we gave up dairy.
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By the way, the cheese and milk savings alone save me $130 a year. I guess I could save more if we gave up dairy.
Seems high but again lifestyle splurges is a point I am making here.
my first post where I responded to the OP's question with "It depends."
Anyone can of course say "It depends". If I had to drive 200 miles to work everyday, or 5-7 gallons a day, and Costco gas was $0.10 cheaper, then of course a Costco membership just to get gas will easily pay for the membership in a year.
One point I am trying to make people realize is that Costco's idea of a membership up front to have access to cheaper specific goods drives a kind of consumer behavior that is not consumer friendly. It drives people to buy more of something to make it seem like they are getting their money's worth.
So, that being said. I still firmly believe in any city in this country, a healthy balanced lifestyle can be achieved for less than what would be equivalently spent at Costco for the same goods (including the membership fees). If you want to splurge on any item, from dairy, meats, cheese, or gasoline for driving, then by all means have at it and figure out if it is cheaper. But that latter point is a completely separate topic. If that is the "It depends" or the "what works for me" item, then make sure that is clear in why it works for you. I am trying to give the general thread readers, both OP and other glancing readers, that someone here actually does not believe it is necessary to take advantage of the Costco cult and is living a healthy, fine life, for less.
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By the way, the cheese and milk savings alone save me $130 a year. I guess I could save more if we gave up dairy.
Seems high but again lifestyle splurges is a point I am making here.
my first post where I responded to the OP's question with "It depends."
Anyone can of course say "It depends". If I had to drive 200 miles to work everyday, or 5-7 gallons a day, and Costco gas was $0.10 cheaper, then of course a Costco membership just to get gas will easily pay for the membership in a year.
One point I am trying to make people realize is that Costco's idea of a membership up front to have access to cheaper specific goods drives a kind of consumer behavior that is not consumer friendly. It drives people to buy more of something to make it seem like they are getting their money's worth.
So, that being said. I still firmly believe in any city in this country, a healthy balanced lifestyle can be achieved for less than what would be equivalently spent at Costco for the same goods (including the membership fees). If you want to splurge on any item, from dairy, meats, cheese, or gasoline for driving, then by all means have at it and figure out if it is cheaper. But that latter point is a completely separate topic. If that is the "It depends" or the "what works for me" item, then make sure that is clear in why it works for you. I am trying to give the general thread readers, both OP and other glancing readers, that someone here actually does not believe it is necessary to take advantage of the Costco cult and is living a healthy, fine life, for less.
So, no mustachian should ever get credit card rewards, because they are designed to.get you to spend more...
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^^Actually, this IS what Dave Ramsey says about reward cards. Dave Ramsey is not the same as Mustachianism, though. I always feel a little guilty about my extensive reward card collection, because I started out with Dave and have a hard time breaking away.
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By the way, the cheese and milk savings alone save me $130 a year. I guess I could save more if we gave up dairy.
Seems high but again lifestyle splurges is a point I am making here.
my first post where I responded to the OP's question with "It depends."
Anyone can of course say "It depends". If I had to drive 200 miles to work everyday, or 5-7 gallons a day, and Costco gas was $0.10 cheaper, then of course a Costco membership just to get gas will easily pay for the membership in a year.
One point I am trying to make people realize is that Costco's idea of a membership up front to have access to cheaper specific goods drives a kind of consumer behavior that is not consumer friendly. It drives people to buy more of something to make it seem like they are getting their money's worth.
So, that being said. I still firmly believe in any city in this country, a healthy balanced lifestyle can be achieved for less than what would be equivalently spent at Costco for the same goods (including the membership fees). If you want to splurge on any item, from dairy, meats, cheese, or gasoline for driving, then by all means have at it and figure out if it is cheaper. But that latter point is a completely separate topic. If that is the "It depends" or the "what works for me" item, then make sure that is clear in why it works for you. I am trying to give the general thread readers, both OP and other glancing readers, that someone here actually does not believe it is necessary to take advantage of the Costco cult and is living a healthy, fine life, for less.
Hey NaN, feel free to do whatever you want for yourself all day long, every day of your life. But what's best for you isn't what's best for me and I'll thank you very much for not trying to tell me I'm wrong because I don't see things exactly your way. Some of your comments are approaching Rule #1 violations, so please try to keep it civil. After all, what someone else decides to do has no impact on your life.
There are a million ways to FIRE. We can all chart different courses and still get to the finish line. Amazing!
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YMMV but the sale price for oats at our Sprouts is 0.69/lb, higher than Costco.
I've bought rolled oats, quick oats, and steel cut oats at $0.50/lb at Sprouts when it is on sale. I've bought 50 lbs of it at a time. Sometimes they are out in the bins but have bags of it in the back. I've bee quite successful with this at Sprouts. Plus if it is out get a rain check and come back the next week when they resupply. Last time I checked Costco wasn't better than that. What is it these days? Online it says $10 for 10lbs. That can't be right.
Cheese is $2.99/lb on sale at Sprouts, sometimes just $3.99/lb.
2. Don't shop for price only, are looking for quality (aka, actual olive oil not a blend of oils). Or are looking for business practices, like paying the employees a living wage. (*cough* Wally World)
This is not the point. Can you live on a blend of oils? Is that not okay just like choosing to buy generic at the grocery store? We survive just fine on those things. And if you want to make a charitable donation to Costco to support their practices by paying more then that is again a luxury. I could just as easily support other causes.
3. Don't shop for price only, are looking for a certain amount of convenience.
Again - convenience is a common excuse. If Costco is 0.5 mile from your home and you can bike there then fine. If you pass three other perfectly good grocery stores on the way, then mmm, sure?
Let's not pretend that we know everything, mmm kay?
The whole point of this forum is to bring up points of our own knowledge. My response to Costco is what I know. If you just want people on here to agree with your way of thinking then just don't respond to people who challenge your own knowledge. Or are you saying you know everything?
It's no different than people saying "obviously it's better to shop at Aldi" (no Aldi here) or "obviously you should shop at Walmart" (no Walmart either). The point is that grocery prices are HEAVILY location dependent - they depend on the general cost of living in a particular area (overhead), the type of store, the specific location (cost of rent, cost of transportation to get the food there) and size of the store (pretty stores are going to be more expensive than the dingy 0.99 only store with no parking), competition (if you are the only store in miles, you can charge a premium). I'm always shocked at the cheap prices at the Walmart when visiting the inlaws in upstate NY, and equally surprised that the prices are so much higher when visiting family in rural PA - but as most of the other stores went out of business when Walmart came to town - I guess it's not too surprising.
It's completely ridiculous for anyone to make gross generalizations about the cost of groceries in any area where they don't currently live. Which is why you will OFTEN see suggestions to do a price comparison yourself, because it depends. You will also see suggestions on "different types of stores" to check out. A lot of people don't think beyond the typical grocery store. You have to think about the Mexican, Asian stores. The 99 cent stores. Scratch and dent. Day old bread. Big box. Food 4 less. Trader Joe's. Farm stands. Farmer's markets. Every area has their own "mix" of stores, etc, and you pretty much have to check them all out to find the best prices. AND you have to decide what you are shopping for besides price. Like I'm not willing to drive the 30-40 miles to Aldi, but I actually had a coworker years ago do that same drive to shop at Walmart, all so he could save money on canned vegetables and ramen.
I couldn't agree more. I used to work in the pricing department for a regional grocery chain. Prices could vary as much as 25% within the same city depending their proximity to certain neighborhoods, competitors, nursing homes, etc. There is a great deal of analysis that goes into pricing each and every product on the shelves.
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Headed to Hawaii in December with family and we are planning big Costco run for groceries
We shopped every Costco in Hawaii. The one on the Big Island was the most uptight. That's the first Costco that ever has stopped me walking in the exit side (restrooms are always after the cash registers. And I even had a 5 year old that needed to pee!)
Our Costco membership just lapsed. We also got it for grocery shopping when we were on the Big Island.
We normally shop at BJ's Wholesale at home because it's closer to my work.
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But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
That's probably true, but you can still get good deals on the other 5% of things in the store. You have to do the math to see if the deals on these items are worth the cost of being a member. You also have to ask yourself if you have the discipline to avoid purchasing from the other 95% of things in the store while you're there.
Mustachians aren't supposed to eat premium ice cream? I may have to rethink my commitment to Mustachianism...
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But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
That's probably true, but you can still get good deals on the other 5% of things in the store. You have to do the math to see if the deals on these items are worth the cost of being a member. You also have to ask yourself if you have the discipline to avoid purchasing from the other 95% of things in the store while you're there.
Mustachians aren't supposed to eat premium ice cream? I may have to rethink my commitment to Mustachianism...
I've done my best to only eat premium ice cream the occasional times that I do eat ice cream.
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But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
That's probably true, but you can still get good deals on the other 5% of things in the store. You have to do the math to see if the deals on these items are worth the cost of being a member. You also have to ask yourself if you have the discipline to avoid purchasing from the other 95% of things in the store while you're there.
Mustachians aren't supposed to eat premium ice cream? I may have to rethink my commitment to Mustachianism...
I've done my best to only eat premium ice cream the occasional times that I do eat ice cream.
At nearly six years FIRE, I am damn sure I'm a serious mustachian. I'm with GuitarStv on this one.
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I would like to point out that Pete, Mr. Money Mustache himself, eats premium foods. I believe he shops at Costco. His principle is NOT to spend the least amount of money on everything, but to get the most enjoyment out of every dollar.
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So, that being said. I still firmly believe in any city in this country, a healthy balanced lifestyle can be achieved for less than what would be equivalently spent at Costco for the same goods (including the membership fees). If you want to splurge on any item, from dairy, meats, cheese, or gasoline for driving, then by all means have at it and figure out if it is cheaper. But that latter point is a completely separate topic. If that is the "It depends" or the "what works for me" item, then make sure that is clear in why it works for you. I am trying to give the general thread readers, both OP and other glancing readers, that someone here actually does not believe it is necessary to take advantage of the Costco cult and is living a healthy, fine life, for less.
So...I mean, I guess a vegan would say that milk and cheese aren't necessary.
But, since when is it a "splurge"? For decades, there's been the recommendation to drink 2-3 cups of milk per day, particularly for children.
Also, we don't eat much meat, so we get a fair bit of our protein from cheese.
When you add up about 1 pound of cheese per week (for 4 people, comes to 2.25 ounces of cheese per day, total, or a little more than 0.5 ounce per person per day), and 1.5 gallons of milk (7 ounces per person per day) per week - you get $130 a year.
That was not a made up number - I calculated that.
So, since when is $1 pound of cheese and 1.5 gallons of milk a splurge? For a family of 4? It's not even premium cheese or organic milk. It's the cheapest stuff they've got per pound.
As I already noted, I have priced out the sales prices for cheese and milk in this town, and they never ever beat the Costco price. And I don't even live in Hawaii. And our Costco doesn't have a gas station. Quite literally, cheese and milk more than pay for our annual fee.
It's like you aren't even reading.
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So, that being said. I still firmly believe in any city in this country, a healthy balanced lifestyle can be achieved for less than what would be equivalently spent at Costco for the same goods (including the membership fees). If you want to splurge on any item, from dairy, meats, cheese, or gasoline for driving, then by all means have at it and figure out if it is cheaper. But that latter point is a completely separate topic. If that is the "It depends" or the "what works for me" item, then make sure that is clear in why it works for you. I am trying to give the general thread readers, both OP and other glancing readers, that someone here actually does not believe it is necessary to take advantage of the Costco cult and is living a healthy, fine life, for less.
So...I mean, I guess a vegan would say that milk and cheese aren't necessary.
But, since when is it a "splurge"? For decades, there's been the recommendation to drink 2-3 cups of milk per day, particularly for children.
Also, we don't eat much meat, so we get a fair bit of our protein from cheese.
When you add up about 1 pound of cheese per week (for 4 people, comes to 2.25 ounces of cheese per day, total, or a little more than 0.5 ounce per person per day), and 1.5 gallons of milk (7 ounces per person per day) per week - you get $130 a year.
That was not a made up number - I calculated that.
So, since when is $1 pound of cheese and 1.5 gallons of milk a splurge? For a family of 4? It's not even premium cheese or organic milk. It's the cheapest stuff they've got per pound.
As I already noted, I have priced out the sales prices for cheese and milk in this town, and they never ever beat the Costco price. And I don't even live in Hawaii. And our Costco doesn't have a gas station. Quite literally, cheese and milk more than pay for our annual fee.
It's like you aren't even reading.
We're reading, @mm1970. It appears that NaN is the primary vitriol slinger. I just looked. NaN registered in June, 2018 and has a whopping 17 posts. To me, that's troll territory, or simply someone with a lot to learn. Being nasty in these parts isn't conducive to learning much. Same with life in general, I guess.
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But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
That's probably true, but you can still get good deals on the other 5% of things in the store. You have to do the math to see if the deals on these items are worth the cost of being a member. You also have to ask yourself if you have the discipline to avoid purchasing from the other 95% of things in the store while you're there.
Mustachians aren't supposed to eat premium ice cream? I may have to rethink my commitment to Mustachianism...
I've done my best to only eat premium ice cream the occasional times that I do eat ice cream.
At nearly six years FIRE, I am damn sure I'm a serious mustachian. I'm with GuitarStv on this one.
Ah, but a serious mustachian would sort it under "treats" not "groceries" and recognize it as a luxury to be savoured!
LOL, JK, that's what I do, but YMMV. I honestly don't care how much I spend on luxury treats, as long as it does not exceed my monthly allowance / budget for treats. I do care about the grocery bill, for some reason...
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But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
That's probably true, but you can still get good deals on the other 5% of things in the store. You have to do the math to see if the deals on these items are worth the cost of being a member. You also have to ask yourself if you have the discipline to avoid purchasing from the other 95% of things in the store while you're there.
Mustachians aren't supposed to eat premium ice cream? I may have to rethink my commitment to Mustachianism...
I've done my best to only eat premium ice cream the occasional times that I do eat ice cream.
At nearly six years FIRE, I am damn sure I'm a serious mustachian. I'm with GuitarStv on this one.
Ah, but a serious mustachian would sort it under "treats" not "groceries" and recognize it as a luxury to be savoured!
LOL, JK, that's what I do, but YMMV. I honestly don't care how much I spend on luxury treats, as long as it does not exceed my monthly allowance / budget for treats. I do care about the grocery bill, for some reason...
Yeah, maybe I should have added the caveat "often enough to make a Costco membership worthwhile". There's no shame in enjoying premium ice cream, just that it's another treat/luxury food (even at Costco prices). My point was more of a "gee, now that I only step into Costco once a year or so, the trend towards high-end and away from basics is becoming more and more glaring". It's a very different shopping experience than it was back when MMM first wrote his Costco love letter!
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I feel like every grocery store (or retailer) plays a game of "lets keep reasonable or low prices on a bunch of products, but lets see how much can we get away with charging for the rest of these items". That's how they make their money, from the complacency of suckas. Costo is great on a number of items, but absolutely terrible on others. I buy strawberries from costco and occasionally bananas. The rest of the produce is high way robbery. $5/lb for asparagus when it's in season? I'm sure it's high quality, but it's almost entirely profit for them at that price and they are making money off lazy consumer suckas that aren't aware the local grocery store has asparagus for $0.99-2.99 depending on the season. Most of the produce never goes on sale either, it's just a set price year round. Conversely my local kroger ALWAYS has some kind of in season fruit and vegetables on sale.
The meat at my local costco is ridiculously high quality, much higher than the grocery stores. You can go to high end super markets or a butcher and get comparable quality meat, but not for the same price as costco.
Gas is usually slightly cheaper, but the lines are insane. I purchase gas at costco approximately once a year when I happen to catch it empty. Usually it's a 30 minute wait, to save like 50 cents off a full tank? No thanks I'll pay the 50 cent premium and my 30 minutes of time to fill up at kroger.
They also have a lot of super delicious prepared meals that are super expensive.
Things we regularly purchase at costco:
paper products
cleaning products
meat
cereal
spices
medications
clothing
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But overall, it felt like a huge store that was 95% full of things that no serious mustachian really ought to be purchasing.
That's probably true, but you can still get good deals on the other 5% of things in the store. You have to do the math to see if the deals on these items are worth the cost of being a member. You also have to ask yourself if you have the discipline to avoid purchasing from the other 95% of things in the store while you're there.
Mustachians aren't supposed to eat premium ice cream? I may have to rethink my commitment to Mustachianism...
I've done my best to only eat premium ice cream the occasional times that I do eat ice cream.
At nearly six years FIRE, I am damn sure I'm a serious mustachian. I'm with GuitarStv on this one.
Ah, but a serious mustachian would sort it under "treats" not "groceries" and recognize it as a luxury to be savoured!
LOL, JK, that's what I do, but YMMV. I honestly don't care how much I spend on luxury treats, as long as it does not exceed my monthly allowance / budget for treats. I do care about the grocery bill, for some reason...
Sigh.
The only reason I rolled my last half marathon training program into another half marathon in six weeks' time is because I developed QUITE an ice cream habit. And I'm not quite ready to go cold turkey.
On the other hand, there is currently ZERO ice cream in the freezer right now, but a whole bunch of Talenti ice cream containers with various nuts and seeds stored in them.
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I love Costco. I haven't done the numbers recently on how much we save by getting certain things there, but it's more than enough to justify the membership.
I have a running "Costco staples" shopping list that I check against our current stock ahead of each trip. It contains (laid out in the same order as my local Costco is arranged):
Onions
Carrots
Avocados
Bananas
Romaine
Chicken thighs
Chicken drumsticks
Manchengo cheese
Eggs
Heavy cream
Household:
Paper towels
Toilet paper
Garbage bags
Frozen Broccoli florets
bacon
Kerrygold butter
Cream cheese
Coffee
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Avocado oil
Apple cider vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Canned coconut milk
Maple syrup
Tuna
Tomato paste
Tomato sauce
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Oregano
Crushed red pepper
vanilla extract
Rice
Almond crackers
Gasoline
Once in a while I'll get something else there, but that's basically it.
^^Actually, this IS what Dave Ramsey says about reward cards. Dave Ramsey is not the same as Mustachianism, though. I always feel a little guilty about my extensive reward card collection, because I started out with Dave and have a hard time breaking away.
And I think we're smart enough around here to know that Mr. Ramsey is full of shit with regards to certain topics...
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The meat at my local costco is ridiculously high quality, much higher than the grocery stores. You can go to high end super markets or a butcher and get comparable quality meat, but not for the same price as costco.
I worked in the food production industry, in Canada, and this is one thing that SEVERELY pissed me off about Costco.
The primary reason* the steaks and other meats at Costco were so "high quality" for the price was because they needled them. The local high end grocer with full service counters would also needle some of the steaks, but they would then label them as such, and you could choose. Costco did not.
https://www.chowhound.com/post/costco-needling-beef-dangerous-practice-1048309 (https://www.chowhound.com/post/costco-needling-beef-dangerous-practice-1048309) -- the article says that "for the past year" they have been doing this, but I can assert that the practice has been in place for over 10 years at the stores I know of.
The problem is that needled meat should have a "cook to XX temperature" label / warning on it, just like hamburger.
Because Costco did not, and they needled their steaks on the same counters that they packaged their ground beef, the someone got ill with EColi from eating their rare steaks purchased at Costco. Health authority did not know why whole cuts like steak were contaminated, it did not make sense from their investigation into the hamburger recall, so in the interest of public safety, and an attempt to reopen the border for other producers to ship beef to the US, put an instant 100% recall on all meats from this producer, and shut them down for a while to investigate the plant. In the end, the source was always the hamburger, and the recall should have been well contained / limited in scope. But it wasn't because Costco needled their steaks, put them on the same counter as processed raw hamburger that was packaged in store, and they did not give the consumer a chance to decide if they wanted to risk eating under cooked meat or not.
End result was a massive "all cuts" recall for that processor, which resulted in their going bankrupt / selling their processing plant.
* Okay, this was in Alberta, Canada, where pretty much ALL beef is very high quality to extremely high quality. Needling makes sirloin taste a bit more like tenderloin. I lived in the USA so I know that some retailers there have a 30% risk of "not great" quality meat randomly, and it can be a crap shoot what you will end up eating for the same price / package you thought you were buying....
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-Orgain Vegan Protein Powder (my family goes through pounds of it a month) -even Amazon comments say buy it at Costco (goes on sale every other month or so)
-OTC allergy products (yearlong environmental allergies for 2 family members) save $15 a month alone on that
- Sales on consumer products (Olay regenerist, Venus razors, Honest Company body wash, Breath Rite Strips,etc). If you wait to buy these type of items when they go on sale 4-5 times a year I haven't been able to come close to beating those prices.
-Rao's tomato sauce. Basically my favorite food item every brought to Costco ( I had been buying it for 10 years at 60% more than Costco prices)
Aldi and Amazon beat most of the food type items (although produce at Aldi is very hit or miss and I have 3 within 4 miles of me)
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On the other hand, there is currently ZERO ice cream in the freezer right now, but a whole bunch of Talenti ice cream containers with various nuts and seeds stored in them.
Lol, I found some good flavors on sale at Target (Where I rarely shop) for 1.98 last Christmas. I bought a bunch and saved the cute containers. I now have about a dozen and a half or so. I use them to batch prep my husband's breakfast oats. I buy the oats and dried blueberries at Costco. The rest of the goodies come from the bulk section at Winco.
Here's a deliciously horrible tale: when a tenant moved out a couple of years ago, there were dozens upon dozens of these containers on a shelf in the garage. He left a mess and we were in such a hurry to get the clean-up done that I noticed how cute they were, but didnt recognize them otherwise. We pitched them into the recycle bin. Now, I could kick myself. OTOH, the ones I have now have memories of delicious ice cream consumed by me and my loved ones. I hear you can sell them on eBay for a buck apiece!
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6) Organic Peanut Butter- ingredient: peanuts. That's all we want in it.
No salt?! What is this madness?
[sorry, necroposting]
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6) Organic Peanut Butter- ingredient: peanuts. That's all we want in it.
No salt?! What is this madness?
[sorry, necroposting]
Not sure. I'm looking at a jar of organic peanut butter from Costco and the ingredient list is organic peanuts and sea salt.
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I feel like every grocery store (or retailer) plays a game of "lets keep reasonable or low prices on a bunch of products, but lets see how much can we get away with charging for the rest of these items". That's how they make their money, from the complacency of suckas. Costo is great on a number of items, but absolutely terrible on others. I buy strawberries from costco and occasionally bananas. The rest of the produce is high way robbery. $5/lb for asparagus when it's in season? I'm sure it's high quality, but it's almost entirely profit for them at that price and they are making money off lazy consumer suckas that aren't aware the local grocery store has asparagus for $0.99-2.99 depending on the season. Most of the produce never goes on sale either, it's just a set price year round. Conversely my local kroger ALWAYS has some kind of in season fruit and vegetables on sale.
Huh, this is interesting. My Costco will sell 2.25 lb bags of asparagus usually for around $5-6, and it is typically of high quality. I have never once seen asparagus sell for $5/lb at Costco, while at the same time I have never seen any other local grocery store sell it for <$2/lb, and it's typically $3.5 to $5/lb at the grocery stores, and usually of lower quality.
I think a lot of the produce comparisons here are probably worthless/does not apply to others, since local/regional markets vary a lot. Grocery store produce in my area is usually expensive and of low quality... there are occasional sales but taking at extra 20-30 minutes or more in transport time (round trip) for a single sale item is hardly worthwhile.
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6) Organic Peanut Butter- ingredient: peanuts. That's all we want in it.
No salt?! What is this madness?
[sorry, necroposting]
Not sure. I'm looking at a jar of organic peanut butter from Costco and the ingredient list is organic peanuts and sea salt.
Thank god, I was worried there for a second. :)
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However, Winco has a cool machine that grinds peanuts into peanut butter at the touch of a button. That's all, just peanuts. It's amazing.
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However, Winco has a cool machine that grinds peanuts into peanut butter at the touch of a button. That's all, just peanuts. It's amazing.
And its warm! We have bought that a couples times, but I eat it too fast so not a good buy. Not sure if it is more expensive than the Adams 100% natural peanut butter we buy otherwise, but it does seem more luxurious.
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However, Winco has a cool machine that grinds peanuts into peanut butter at the touch of a button. That's all, just peanuts. It's amazing.
And its warm! We have bought that a couples times, but I eat it too fast so not a good buy. Not sure if it is more expensive than the Adams 100% natural peanut butter we buy otherwise, but it does seem more luxurious.
I love that It's warm, too! It's always cheaper than Adams, when I bother to check, because...fresh, warm peanut butter!
Alas, the nearest Winco is far away, in a direction I rarely go now that I'm FIRE. Boo-hoo.
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I want to get in on this fresh, warm peanut butter action. . . Never seen one of these magic peanut grinding machines though. :(
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I want to get in on this fresh, warm peanut butter action. . . Never seen one of these magic peanut grinding machines though. :(
I've only ever seen one at a Whole Foods (no Winco), but it also seems like something a health food store might have.
To combine two recent topics, I highly recommend melted peanut butter as a topping on chocolate ice cream. I mean, if you're going to indulge in a luxury anyway.
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Our Fred Meyer (Kroger chain) has a peanut butter grinder in the organic/whole foods section -- near the bulk foods area.
I had heard so much about FM over the years that I wanted to check them out on our trip to Spokane a couple of years ago. FM did not disappoint!
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I want to get in on this fresh, warm peanut butter action. . . Never seen one of these magic peanut grinding machines though. :(
I've only ever seen one at a Whole Foods (no Winco), but it also seems like something a health food store might have.
To combine two recent topics, I highly recommend melted peanut butter as a topping on chocolate ice cream. I mean, if you're going to indulge in a luxury anyway.
They also have almond butter at my WinCo.
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I want to get in on this fresh, warm peanut butter action. . . Never seen one of these magic peanut grinding machines though. :(
I've only ever seen one at a Whole Foods (no Winco), but it also seems like something a health food store might have.
To combine two recent topics, I highly recommend melted peanut butter as a topping on chocolate ice cream. I mean, if you're going to indulge in a luxury anyway.
They also have almond butter at my WinCo.
Lucky you!
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I want to get in on this fresh, warm peanut butter action. . . Never seen one of these magic peanut grinding machines though. :(
They also have them at Wegman's stores in upstate NY if that helps.
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My experience is that it's not really worth it. There are a few low price items we buy like oatmeal ($0.95/lb), coffee ($3.66/lb), coffee creamer, toilet paper, and paper towels. It was also very handy when we were furnishing our house: We got a great deal on a couch and a mattress and a few other items. Most other items we buy are regular price or higher in price. Honestly, if I was paying for the membership myself I'd cancel it. Currently, I'm on a plan with my mom and she likes to pay for my portion of the plan as a Christmas gift each year (I prefer this over useless stuff she might purchase for me otherwise). I've found most other items are about the same as everywhere else. If you're looking to save money I highly recommend checking out Living on a Dime on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRa5x3hEOmufj1P1jafv-Cw). We already had a low grocery bill for DW and I (about $300-400 a month) and have managed to cut it in half with their advice. They just had a video on what a good sale price is for various items & have some great gems like their Penny Pinching Mama series and articles on their site (like this one: https://www.livingonadime.com/saving-on-groceries-make-do/) with some great advice. I highly recommend them and really like their attitude of making it easy on yourself while still saving money.
Also, just a note: If your Costco has their own gas station, it's often worth the membership in gas savings.
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We've found Costco is a good value for only certain things. It's great for some meats, cheese, paper towels/toilet paper, bread, coffee, cereal. Occasionally I'll even buy some clothing items there, they are a pretty solid value. It's especially superb for wine (and beer/liquor), Costco is the best wine retailer in terms of $:value ratio (their Kirkland brand primarily, as you're buying top quality brands at a drastically reduced cost -- but also the brands can be excellent value. Good resource for their wine:
https://www.reversewinesnob.com/search/label/costco/ ). One thing I like about Costco is that it has the best return policy I've ever experienced. After trying all sorts of different wines from all over the world, at the end of the day we have found that Kirkland is the best value in terms of cost:value.
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I do most of my shopping at Aldi and Costo. Costco isn't always the cheapest and with many perishable items I don't need them in bulk but I do love Costco.
Recently for example I got something like 120 Keurig pods for like $23. At Jewel Osco I'd pay $6 to $10 for 12 pods. Other snacks and things that last a long time are a great bargain.
Costco's clothes are good quality and cheap, just got a pair of fleece lined jeans for under $20. Costco also has awesome return policies you can pretty much return anything for any reason.
There's also a lot of other cheap perks, cheap great america tickets, movie tickets, water park tickets, cheap gas, often get deals on rentacars and other services.
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Don't forget to use your Discover card to buy Costco gift cards online to get 5x cashback.
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Don't forget to use your Discover card to buy Costco gift cards online to get 5x cashback.
Or Chase Freedom in-store.
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Don't forget to use your Discover card to buy Costco gift cards online to get 5x cashback.
Or Chase Freedom in-store.
Does anything consistently exceed the Costco/Citibank combination of rebates enough to be worth the additional hoops?
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Does anything consistently exceed the Costco/Citibank combination of rebates enough to be worth the additional hoops?
not sure what you mean.....the costco card only gives 2% back.
I don't even use the Costco CC because my Alliant CC gives a better %.
edit: Oh i see, maybe the exec membership card doesn't give a rebate on the gift cards as payment. Not sure on that.
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Does anything consistently exceed the Costco/Citibank combination of rebates enough to be worth the additional hoops?
not sure what you mean.....the costco card only gives 2% back.
I don't even use the Costco CC because my Alliant CC gives a better %.
That's what I was getting at.
I'm fuzzy on the details, but isn't there a rebate from Costco and a rebate from Citi when you use the branded credit card? I'm referring only to purchases made at Costco. I don't use it anywhere else.
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I'm fuzzy on the details, but isn't there a rebate from Costco and a rebate from Citi when you use the branded credit card? I'm referring only to purchases made at Costco. I don't use it anywhere else.
The costco rebate is tied to the executive membership. You don't have to use the Costco CC to get this rebate. What I'm not sure on is if you get this rebate if you pay with a gift card. I'd imagine the answer is yes, but no idea. Anyone who does a lot of Costco shopping should look into getting the Alliant credit card.
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The comment about using your Discover card was in reference to this quarter’s 5% cash back offer on all purchases at warehouse clubs and Amazon. Costco stores don’t take Discover, but Costco.com does. Thanks for the reminder to order my Costco cards, @degrom7 .
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Don't forget to use your Discover card to buy Costco gift cards online to get 5x cashback.
Or Chase Freedom in-store.
Does anything consistently exceed the Costco/Citibank combination of rebates enough to be worth the additional hoops?
Well, since I have top tier status at BoA due to transferring IRAs over to Merrill Edge (and getting paid $600 for doing so) - I get 3.5% back on all Costco purchases using my BoA Cash Rewards credit card (Normal 2% back, plus an additional 1.5% for status.) Year round.
And the reward is paid out monthly directly into my checking account (got paid $100 to open it) not waiting til the end of a year and futzing around with a paper check that you can only cash at Costco.
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
See I am single, and live alone, and I feel the opposite. I love knowing that I don't have to think about running out of toilet paper, or eggs, or aluminum foil, etc. My schedule is really hectic, and I hate the feeling of waking up in the morning and realizing I'm out of toilet paper, or coffee, or whatever else I require to function outside of my bed. I also have a large garage that has ample room for storing things like that, so maybe I am biased.
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Don't forget to use your Discover card to buy Costco gift cards online to get 5x cashback.
Or Chase Freedom in-store.
Does anything consistently exceed the Costco/Citibank combination of rebates enough to be worth the additional hoops?
Well, since I have top tier status at BoA due to transferring IRAs over to Merrill Edge (and getting paid $600 for doing so) - I get 3.5% back on all Costco purchases using my BoA Cash Rewards credit card (Normal 2% back, plus an additional 1.5% for status.) Year round.
And the reward is paid out monthly directly into my checking account (got paid $100 to open it) not waiting til the end of a year and futzing around with a paper check that you can only cash at Costco.
Sweet! Thanks for responding.
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Don't forget to use your Discover card to buy Costco gift cards online to get 5x cashback.
Or Chase Freedom in-store.
Does anything consistently exceed the Costco/Citibank combination of rebates enough to be worth the additional hoops?
Well, since I have top tier status at BoA due to transferring IRAs over to Merrill Edge (and getting paid $600 for doing so) - I get 3.5% back on all Costco purchases using my BoA Cash Rewards credit card (Normal 2% back, plus an additional 1.5% for status.) Year round.
And the reward is paid out monthly directly into my checking account (got paid $100 to open it) not waiting til the end of a year and futzing around with a paper check that you can only cash at Costco.
Sweet! Thanks for responding.
Sure thing. I forgot to mention getting paid $200 for opening that credit card and spending $500 on it.
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Don't forget to use your Discover card to buy Costco gift cards online to get 5x cashback.
Or Chase Freedom in-store.
I tried buying a $25 gift card from Costco.com with my Discover card but it wasn't listed as "Wholesale Clubs". I sent a secure message to Discover and the agent said it would count at 5% but I'll have to wait a few months. Anyone can confirm this? Since I shop there so much, I want to buy a larger gift card from their website.
Does anything consistently exceed the Costco/Citibank combination of rebates enough to be worth the additional hoops?
Well, since I have top tier status at BoA due to transferring IRAs over to Merrill Edge (and getting paid $600 for doing so) - I get 3.5% back on all Costco purchases using my BoA Cash Rewards credit card (Normal 2% back, plus an additional 1.5% for status.) Year round.
And the reward is paid out monthly directly into my checking account (got paid $100 to open it) not waiting til the end of a year and futzing around with a paper check that you can only cash at Costco.
Sweet! Thanks for responding.
Sure thing. I forgot to mention getting paid $200 for opening that credit card and spending $500 on it.
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For the bulk paper products, I have a long shelf in the garage which I, myself, put up in classic DIY fashion. Since I installed it, I don't trust it to hold anything heavier than paper products, so all the Costco bulk t/p, paper towels, and tissues go up there.
I also have a small chest freezer in the garage. You can divide up most of the Costco meat packages and store portions in the freezer. We also have a local meat market in the next suburb over, and, OMG, I freaking love it. Ribeyes, pork steaks, lamb, sausages, sweet Jesus it's paradise. So between Costco and the meat market, my chest freezer is usually full to overflowing.
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
Family guy, you gotta think outside the box. A giant bag of spinach can be sautéed down with garlic to make some great side dishes. Can be portioned out and frozen. 24 eggs can be used in various ways. Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, you can even freeze them: https://nwedible.com/what-to-make-when-you-have-too-many-eggs/
I like to be stocked up at all times!
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
Family guy, you gotta think outside the box. A giant bag of spinach can be sautéed down with garlic to make some great side dishes. Can be portioned out and frozen. 24 eggs can be used in various ways. Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, you can even freeze them: https://nwedible.com/what-to-make-when-you-have-too-many-eggs/
I like to be stocked up at all times!
Me, too!
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
Family guy, you gotta think outside the box. A giant bag of spinach can be sautéed down with garlic to make some great side dishes. Can be portioned out and frozen. 24 eggs can be used in various ways. Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, you can even freeze them: https://nwedible.com/what-to-make-when-you-have-too-many-eggs/
I like to be stocked up at all times!
https://www.thespruceeats.com/scrambled-eggs-with-spinach-481680
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
Family guy, you gotta think outside the box. A giant bag of spinach can be sautéed down with garlic to make some great side dishes. Can be portioned out and frozen. 24 eggs can be used in various ways. Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, you can even freeze them: https://nwedible.com/what-to-make-when-you-have-too-many-eggs/
I like to be stocked up at all times!
https://www.thespruceeats.com/scrambled-eggs-with-spinach-481680
I love the giant bag of spinach! In the Fall/Winter, I make homemade Ramen for dinner, with homemade broth, diced chicken, noodles, and then I put huge handfuls of fresh spinach in the pot to wilt. One bag lasts me about 5-6 meals of Ramen. I also throw it in big pots of Minnestrone soup, make frittatas, and spinach salad!
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
Family guy, you gotta think outside the box. A giant bag of spinach can be sautéed down with garlic to make some great side dishes. Can be portioned out and frozen. 24 eggs can be used in various ways. Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, you can even freeze them: https://nwedible.com/what-to-make-when-you-have-too-many-eggs/
I like to be stocked up at all times!
https://www.thespruceeats.com/scrambled-eggs-with-spinach-481680
I love the giant bag of spinach! In the Fall/Winter, I make homemade Ramen for dinner, with homemade broth, diced chicken, noodles, and then I put huge handfuls of fresh spinach in the pot to wilt. One bag lasts me about 5-6 meals of Ramen. I also throw it in big pots of Minnestrone soup, make frittatas, and spinach salad!
Why use fresh to cook with when you can use much cheaper frozen spinach? This sounds a bit backwards on a "is costco cheaper" thread.
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The problem of buying in Costco for me is the bulk quantities that they sell. Stuff like Toilet papers, Kitchen towels will sit for months taking up space. Their spinach bag is huge, eggs come in like 24...It might be a big advantage for big families...but not for singles or family of 2. (my opinion :))
Family guy, you gotta think outside the box. A giant bag of spinach can be sautéed down with garlic to make some great side dishes. Can be portioned out and frozen. 24 eggs can be used in various ways. Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, you can even freeze them: https://nwedible.com/what-to-make-when-you-have-too-many-eggs/
I like to be stocked up at all times!
https://www.thespruceeats.com/scrambled-eggs-with-spinach-481680
I love the giant bag of spinach! In the Fall/Winter, I make homemade Ramen for dinner, with homemade broth, diced chicken, noodles, and then I put huge handfuls of fresh spinach in the pot to wilt. One bag lasts me about 5-6 meals of Ramen. I also throw it in big pots of Minnestrone soup, make frittatas, and spinach salad!
Why use fresh to cook with when you can use much cheaper frozen spinach? This sounds a bit backwards on a "is costco cheaper" thread.
Honestly, because I think it tastes better, and it's nice to be able to have it on hand for salads as well. I eat a giant salad at least once a day, so I mix fresh spinach with fresh baby greens, and it's a nice variety. I know it's more expensive than frozen, but I grew up eating tons of frozen spinach, and I don't know why, it just doesn't taste as good to me.
Also for the sake of this thread, just comparing apples to apples...If we are comparing the price of fresh spinach at Costco to fresh spinach at Safeway, for instance, it is about $2.00 cheaper per pound at Costco. (comparing my local Safeway, and the closest Costco). I've never seen frozen spinach at Costco, so I have no comparison there.
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I use frozen spinach in several things (wedding soup, quiche, pizza, casserole) because it’s cheaper and actually more convenient than cooking down enough fresh spinach to actually make something. GFS sells restaurant sized bags of frozen spinach and I bet Costco does too.
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I use frozen spinach in several things (wedding soup, quiche, pizza, casserole) because it’s cheaper and actually more convenient than cooking down enough fresh spinach to actually make something. GFS sells restaurant sized bags of frozen spinach and I bet Costco does too.
I've never seen frozen spinach in Costco. The closest was a frozen smoothie base of berries and kale.
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They sold frozen spinach about six years ago but we haven't been able to find it since. We buy the market pantry frozen spinach at Target, which is $.88 for a...12 oz?...bag. That's the cheapest frozen spinach I've been able to find. Keep in mind that our grocery prices in Honolulu tend to be a bit inflated and we don't have Aldi or Trader Joes. Costco is the best deal on a lot of things out here.
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My kids are on formula and the Kirkland brand pays for our membership in savings in one month. Formula is such a wicked deal at Costco! We also love the coffee, oils, oatmeal, cheese, eggs, soy milk and nuts.
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I just had to buy a battery for my car. Advanced Auto Parts price for a 500 CCA that fit my car was $159.99. Costco 500 CCA? $72.99. Did I mention Costco had a better warranty?
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We normally buy a package of 5 dozen eggs but it looks like they're eliminating that. We went yesterday and our local store had a box of 15 dozen($0.88/dozen) and the 5 dozen pack was now cage free eggs that cost $1.83/dozen. The milk was only $4.35 or $2.175 per gallon though which is a better deal than Walmart or the commissary on base. We buy 6 gallons and go through it in a week or two.
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The things that are cheaper, no brainers are-
$5 Rotissarie Chicken
$1 for a meat hot dog & soda (the only time we eat hot dogs, they are quality)
Wild Alaskan Salmon. What flavor!
Canned Albacore Tuna
Cupcakes
Ever since they got rid of the Kirkland Yougurt, we haven't visited as much though we have a membership. Our son uses the membership often.