For his birthday last month my brother/sister-in-law gave my husband a membership to Costco. This has to be one of the most useful, outside the box, and very much appreciated gifts either of us has ever received. We went on Sunday to sign up, but the place was a zoo, so I went back today for our first shopping trip.
Some observations, although all prices are rounded since my son was not about to let me take notes.
Some things are cheaper! This should not be a surprise. But six cans of tomatoes --crushed, diced or whole -- were just a little more than $6. This works out to about $1 can. Considering most stores here sell them for about $1.50-$1.75, this is a great deal. As I have blogged before, I now make all our spagetti/pizza sauce since its cheaper and I believe (with no medical training to back it up) that this is healthier.
Also cheaper, much cheaper, were SmartOnes frozen meals. You can get a package of four for slightly more than $6. At best, I have been able to find these on sale at grocery stores for $2 each, so there is savings there.
Milk too. Their price for a gallon of milk is $2.35. I have paid as little as $2.39at Magruders, but that was a sale price. Most milk I find is $2.99-$3.65.
Some items though were not cheaper. Notably ground beef. Theirs sell for $2.29/lb in bulk, whereas Wegman's sells theirs for $1.99/lb in bulk.
I know some of my readers go to Costco, my question is, how are their generic diapers? I noticed our Costco did not sell Pampers, and thats my go to brand. If Costco diapers don't leak (I have found that Huggies are horrible and do) than they are cheaper than Diapers.com. But if they are cheapo and not strong for boys, it is not worth spending the money.
Over the next year during our membership, I am going to try to keep track of the difference in spending to see if it amounts up to the $50-$60 membership fee. Thats the real question. I will let you know what I figure out, and welcome your thoughts if you are a Costco/BJs or other price club type member.
Posts
Slow Cooker Troubleshooting
1 year ago
I regrettably have a Costco membership. It works for us (regrettably so) because I share the cost with my mother, so it works out to $25 a year. They send out coupons every few months, which are great if you already buy the items. The thing with Costco is that it's easy to get sucked into buying big packages of things that you end up throwing away because it goes bad. We buy gas there, and it is the cheapest around. We buy big vats of ketchup and use a funnel to put it in the Heinz bottle. I buy BIG cans of diced/crushed tomatoes (6 pounds, I think) and make a big vat of chili and spaghetti sauce at the same time. Tortilla chips, almonds, and some other basics that I have verified that are the cheapest. I do buy the baby wipes if they have a coupon in the mailer. I've heard the diapers are similar to Huggies.
ReplyDeleteWe don't buy a lot at Costco. But I've seen people get sucked in just because they think it's the cheapest without checking (good for you for checking!). I despise the shopping experience there. The parking lot is insane. It's incredibly crowded, the lines are long, and I ABHOR the line to get OUT of the store.
I buy all of my diapers for the year the day after Thanksgiving at Babies R Us. All their diapers are $10 for a big ol box on Black Friday. Last year I spent $160 for 16 boxes, and I still have 2-3 boxes to get me through to this Black Friday. $160 for a year's supply of diapers is pretty darn good!
I love costco diapers and wipes. We just did the diapers.com order for newborns and size 1s with the coupon you gave us and we may order one more order at some point with the hospital coupon we got at delivery. But we still buy Brady's diapers at Costco. The diapers are "made with Huggies manufacturing standards at the same plant" as I understand it. So they really are Huggies. The coffee is really starbucks coffee. Coffee probably pays for our membership each year. We have saved a ton on a new camera, cordless phones and a bluray player as well. There is a great article on the building of the Kirkland's brand in the Costco magazine this month. Kirkland's sheets and white towels are amazing.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts both of you, many thanks. Good to know that Costco are Huggies-like, that saves me money since Huggies did not work for our little boy. And Miss J's mom, good points about over shopping, I will definitely keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteWe have a BJ's membership- Sam's Club is much closer to our house & sells gas, but I refuse to support a Wal-Mart company. BJ's has great deals on tires (they mount/balance/align, etc.) & we buy Dunkin' Donuts coffee there. We drive to the Pasadena one rather than the Bowie one, because the Pasadena one has Berger Cookies (two-box packs) we usually keep one box, give the other as a gift (in lieu of a bottle of wine, take to friends who live out of town, but are from Bmore if we visits, etc.) I have found amazing clothing deals there- Reebok yoga pants for $12 a pair, blue cult jeans for $19.99 a pair- both of which were maternity staples for me- instead of buying real maternity jeans I bought 2 pairs of jeans there 2 sizes bigger than my normal size and made them work w/ the rubber band trick and the belly band- I was going to take the jeans & belly bands to the dry cleaner and get them sewn together, but never bothered. BJ's also has great stimulating/eduational baby/toddler toys @ good prices too- I got this cool music set for 9.60- it's a drum w/ other music-makers inside it- again a great gift to have on hand.
ReplyDeleteour first couple of years as warehouse club members we certainly did overshop. Now, we keep a list of things that we only buy at costco like pork tenderloin, chicken breast, frozen lasagnas, organic juice boxes, whole grain bread, diapers, wipes, tuna, detergent, garbage bags and mayo. We print the list and circle what we need every three weeks and go. Then we think about what we have coming up like am I hosting book club or did I sign up to bring someone from church dinner and we add any special ingredients. If we want to make a big purchase like a Christmas tree or a blu ray player we do our homework and look it up online or make an extra trip to buy it after going once to check it out. I think having been a BJs member, a Sam's member and now a Costco member we have learned our lessons. Also, I am loving their photo services right now. You'll see Colin's birth announcement soon--printed at Costo!
ReplyDeleteWe not only do Costco, but also their Amex and the executive membership. I get tires for the cars there, TVs, laptops, cameras. The card gives us 1% back, the executive membership give us 5%. All of this is given as a check toward another Costco purchase, but I would be going to Costco anyway and it adds up to over $350 a year.
ReplyDeleteI like their diapers and wipes, even though we're not using those anymore. They did a good job and cost a lot less. Since we had 3 kids in diapers all at the same time, this was a major savings for me. Also, their generic formula is not bad either. I couldn't use it when the kids were tiny babies (powder is nto as fine and gave them constipation), but for 6 months and older it was great.
The biggest savings for us is that we have a big freezer in the garage. We stock up on all kids of frozen foods and slowly go through them. It saves us trips to the store as well as a lot of time.
COSTCO-
ReplyDeleteCheerios are also a good savings there. for $4.99 you can get the equivalent of 2.5 regular boxes. We also love them for eggs--36 for less than $3, I think. We buy toilet paper (their house brand is nice and soft) and bottled water there (Deer Park is a great deal!. I agree with the poster who says take a list and stick to it. It's easy to go crazy there but we buy essentially the same 5-6 things that we use daily every 2 weeks. I avoid weekends at all costs but have found early evening, earlier in the week is just fine. (Also if you ever have to buy a giftcard--for yourselves/a gift for things like movies, iTunes etc. they are greatly discounted. )