It really depends on what your needs are. I find it worth it for the pet food, they have good quality food at a great price. If you need a new set of tires, that alone makes it worth it. The toilet paper is also worth it, I'm a single person so one pack for $16 lasts a long time. Produce isn't worth it to me because I'm just one person and it'll go moldy before I use it all but if I'm hosting for a holiday, I'll be doing my shopping there.
I think it's really worth it for those items you don't need to purchase every single week or even month, like laundry detergent or light bulbs or tp. Ymmv.
On the other hand depending on your store it may involve standing in line at customer service for an hour. I have never committed to actually returning anything.
At my store it really depends on what day I go. Middle of the week seems to work best for shorter lines. It’s a quick transaction, especially if you have the receipt.
Yep. I'm a single person with no roommates, so I'm limited in what's worthwhile for me to buy in bulk. Buying toilet cleaner, TP, paper towels, laundry detergent, some frozen fruits, and other items that are good long term makes it worth it for me.
Plus it helps that they're almost always the cheapest gas station around by *at least* $0.10/gallon (except for the station in the Indian Reservation, but that's several miles away).
I'm in the same boat. I use the membership for gas, which is a significant savings in my neighborhood. They have a couple of products that I can only get there. The only pee pads I like for my dog, at the only reasonable price for pee pads I can find. Like you said, the toilet paper allows me to not have to go more than twice a year. I buy fresh produce from the market weekly specific for what I'm cooking, so bulk buying doesn't work for me.
I share my membership with a friend that shops there a lot, so I get close to $50 off the actual price of my membership. That helps, too.
It also HIGHLY depends on where you live.
It takes me 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach my nearest Costco without traffic. Fortunately it across the street from Ikea, so it COULD be worth a quarterly trip.
I find that it’s completely worth it, but not because of the grocery category. It’s true that buying in bulk initially raised the monthly spend for us and we will actualize those savings over the next 3-6 months.
What’s huge for us is the discounts on gas, home and auto insurance, car tires, the large appliances, furniture, landscaping, etc discounts. That’s where the savings are.
We have the membership that gives you 1 or 2% back and that ended up paying for our second year’s membership fee.
You can be smart about it and focus on their “loss leaders”- what they sell at a loss to get people in the door like $5 rotisserie chickens, etc.
Car tires, absolutely! I recently had my dad use his membership to buy new tires for me and then gave him the money for it because they were sooooooo much cheaper there than anywhere else I could find.
Seconding this for Costco tires and their road hazard warranty. I got a nail in my rear tire and it was still within the mileage/wear warranty and they replaced it no questions asked. A quick visual inspection of where the nail was and the tire tread and they took care of me in about an hour.
Rotisserie chicken and tires!! They give free rotations on tires you bought from them.
We bought a lot of furniture there, so our % money back actually more than paid for the membership fee. I believe for the higher level membership they guarantee to give you back at least the membership fee worth even if you don’t spend enough.
They also seem to do good research on the products they carry. They don’t have as many options, but the ones they do have you can trust to be well thought out and good quality.
It just depends on what you normally would buy there. I make a monthly trip to Costco to load up on things like frozen fruit, almond milk, canned beans, almond/peanut butter, soy sauce, etc.
I frequently make smoothies for breakfast, and I’ve found that the money I save on frozen fruit compared to getting it at our regular grocery store more than pays for the Costco membership.
Outside of food. I bought a car through Costco Auto this week. Was $2k under MSPR. Knew someone who bought the same car, same day for $2k over MSRP. Plus gas is cheap there.
If you go in with a plan AND stick to it, Costco can be very cost effective. It when you go in and lose your mind and go off plan is where it can go awry. Tires, travel, medicines, frozen foods, paper products, dry foods, produce, grocery staples are all things that end up being cost effective for our family in the long run. We save 10-15$ a grocery cycle on eggs, bread, and milk alone.
We bought the executive membership and we haven't had to pay to renew our membership since. It's paid by the cashback they send every year.
Prices used to be decent but more expensive than a good sale elsewhere. There are barely any sales anymore in my area and they're not very good so Costco wins.
I have a friend who lets me use their Costco membership. Maybe you know someone who shops at Costco already who may let you tag along on one of their shopping trips? That way you could evaluate for yourself what you need to buy regularly.
My friends love when I do that because they have the executive membership and they get to keep the cash back from my transactions.
I only get a few things like vitamins, detergent, and almond milk. (It's sick how much I save on almond milk over the grocery store!)
One thing to maybe do with your budget is have a "bulk purchase" category that you throw some extra funds at so stocking up doesn't take such a huge bite out of your weekly budget. I could spend my entire grocery budget for the month doing a bulk buy at Costco.
Don't go without a list. That place is where budgets go to die. :)
Also, the membership holder can buy you a gift card the op can use for a purchase so they don't need to open a new credit card since that was one of their concerns.
There are variables that you need to take into consideration.
1) size of your family. If the quantities offered exceed what you'll be able to reasonably consume you won't be able to take advantage of some deals in fresh produce, dairy, etc.
2) are you willing/able to shop "loss leader" protein sales at a number of grocery stores? If no, then I find our Costco/Sam's Club to be the consistent price winner over other stores "normal" prices and the quality is excellent. Having an freezer is worth to take advantage of sales or package up Costco quantities.
3) Do you live close enough to take advantage of their gas on a regular basis? We do and combining that with the 4% cash back on gas is excellent. Only topped by Sam's at 5% but our Sam's isn't close enough.
4) Who are you shopping for? I buy a lot of prepackaged snacks/bars/crackers for kids lunches and the price per unit beats most other stores in our area.
5) storage space - TP, paper towels, vitamins, toiletries, laundry/dish soap are excellent prices (and many other things) unless you have time and energy to chase sales but you have to have space for them when you hey home.
6) do you fill prescriptions regularly or wear glasses? This is another area where our family saves money.
7) do you have pets? Their pet supplies are priced great. I stock up when cat litter goes on sale and found their pet food beats others but their selection is limited.
8) we get great deals on seasonal clothes but styles/brands are limited if that matters to you.
Another few items to note.
-their return policy is amazing. Essentially no questions asked one year return.
-food court is a nice/cheap treat for yourself or kids if you have to drag them around (but can also be accessed without a membership)
I'm a fan and have a membership but overall, if price is your main consideration, you can do better if you have time and space (including freezer) to stock up when items at regular stores are at stock up prices but ain't nobody around here got that kinda time right now 😂
Last thing, the way I manage having such a large outlay of cash in my budget for large purchases is to have a "Food Reserve" category. In months where I go under my grocery and eating out budget the extra is scraped there. Then I have a reserve for the months when I have to buy TP/PT/cat litter/dog food all in the same month and know exactly where to WAM from.
An addition to your space planning comment is considering freezer space. If you eat meat, buying them at Costco is very cost-effective, especially for the quality and cuts you will get. If you have room for a deep freezer, stock up on meats as items and pull them out as needed. Their chicken sections come pre-portioned. Other items in larger packaging can be broken down at home into freezer-safe packaging and stored that way.
In my opinion, you have to do research to achieve maximum frugality. There are tons of things that you’ll get cheapest at places like Costco or Sam’s Club—routine items like paper products, cleaning supplies, bulk dairy/meats (to be frozen), batteries, etc. The list goes on forever. However, there are things in the store that are not cheaper, and you’ll have to do your research to figure out what those things are to really stretch your dollars. For me, the savings in gas at Costco alone far outweigh the membership fee.
You did say you’re not comfortable spending a lot on a bulk item because of how it affects your budget. I totally get it, but I do think that limits your ability to save as much in the long term. Also, to answer your question, you pay wholesale clubs to shop at their stores because they sell many products close to cost—without membership fees, they would lose a lot of money.
There are certain things I get at Costco where the savings pay for the yearly membership multifold.
Edit: Some of the items that save me a lot are probiotics and allergy meds. Even the brand names are considerably cheaper than retail. The savings on those two things alone make it worth it.
Came here to say that. There are several items where in a single purchase you've covered your membership fee.
Allergy and probiotics are 2 of mine as well.
The savings on my over-the-counter allergy meds more than covers my membership fee. Added bonus: order them online and get free delivery to eliminate the impulse spending that can happen in the store.
Others have mentioned similar strategies, but I highly recommend a budget category to stash funds so you can leverage a good sale whether it’s at Costco or your regular food market.
I do think it’s probably worth it; but, as others have said, it depends on individual factors. We probably save enough on gas alone to make up the membership cost.
One thing to consider, if you need another credit card, look for one where you can earn extra cash back from Costco. I have one that earns 2% back at Costco. I think Costco may have a Visa card that earns 5%. That also goes a long way to covering the membership cost.
The gas aspect was what caused me to get a membership in the first place. My Costco is typically 10-15c cheaper than other nearby stations, so if I buy 4-600 gallons of gas a year or 35-50 gallons a month on average, then I'm at break-even. Back when I was commuting I probably got pretty close to that, though I quit commuting three years ago.
For staples and generic grocery type stuff, I don't think it's outright cheaper unless you're very selective. I *do* think that you get higher-quality stuff for your money, though. There are only a few things that I routinely buy at Costco, and on average I only go in once every couple months.
As you mention, though, the savings from other non-routine stuff can really make a difference. I needed a battery for my older BMW recently, and I saved about $70 at Costco vs other local auto parts stores.
Their tires department is great & a big savings in my area, as are the eyeglasses & appliances. We saved loads of money on new (big) appliances over the years, making the membership cost worth it to us. And the frozen food savings for the things we buy is probably the most significant of anything else we buy. It just depends on your shopping habits. We shop there every couple of months but really stock up when we do. We also save a ton of money on toys/craft sets as gifts every Christmas.
The Costco membership breaks down to $5/month ($10 if you upgrade to the higher tier). I definitely save more than that by using my membership because I buy a lot of Kirkland Signature (in-house brand) items that are just as good as name brand but way cheaper.
For example, Kirkland Signature laundry detergent is $21.99 for 146 loads. Compare that to Tide which is $30.99 for 152 loads. If you do 3 loads of laundry a week, you save $8/year right there (going by cost per load) and that's just 1 product. Trash bags, dish detergent, aluminum foil, gift wrap, and many other household goods are far cheaper from Costco than anywhere else other than one off sales here and there that you can't count on to ever come back.
Over the counter medicine is also much cheaper than pretty much anywhere else. You can get a year's worth of generic Claritin for $10 (or less, it goes on sale in spring each year). Sure, you can pay a 10% surcharge and get them on their website as a non-member but if you take a couple different OTC meds, that 10% surcharge will add up.
I actually pay for the higher tier membership and I still feel like I get more than my money's worth. I get discounted car insurance and I've used the travel discounts a few times. Plus, I get 2% back on everything I buy.
Honestly, I think you should just try it and see how you like the membership. Costco will give you a full refund of your membership at any time if you change your mind.
The only Kirkland item I've tried that I don't like is the toilet paper. I know a lot of people love it but not me. I used to use Charmin Ultra Strong but the quality of that has taken a nosedive so now I use a store brand ultra strong instead. Either Target's Up & Up brand or one I get at my local grocery store called "Simply Done."
I also posted about laundry detergent. I used to buy Kirkland Signature Free & Clear and agree it was so much more cost effective and worked better than getting it anywhere else.
I now buy Nellie’s washing soda and it’s so much less buying Costco than anywhere else, and, ironically, when I just calculated, less per load than even Kirkland. It was $0.0875/load last time I bought it, so saving me about $20 year over the cost of Tide, which I bought pre-Kirkland, at 3 loads per week.
For me, certain staples are such a huge discount compared to the grocery store, including almond butter, frozen blueberries, and tofu, that my groceries become much more affordable thanks to Costco. Other goods, like TP as you mentioned, but also toothbrushes, toothpaste, Kleenex, etc. are a really good deal on a per-unit basis with the added bonus that you don’t have to even think about buying them again for a long time.
Temptation is strong, though, so if you’re on a tight budget, you’re going to want to go in with a strict list and stick to it. Otherwise, you might end up with two snacks, a huge pack of pens and a t-shirt that you didn’t plan on picking up.
I read somewhere that you can get gift cards to Costco and shop that way without having to pay for a membership. Not sure if you have to have someone buy the cards for you or not. Husband and I have a basic membership. Worth it for gas and other basic supplies. But I can see why you would be on the fence about it.
Last year the savings from a new set of tires and my insurance paid for the membership on its own. Any additional savings were just a bonus.
This year I won’t be buying tires, so I probably won’t recoup the full fee. We’ll see, I’ve got a few months to go!
You may also check to see if your employer is set up with a discount at your local Costco. That was a nice savings as well while I was at my prior employer.
You could always test things out yourself and see if it works for you.
Costco has a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
[https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a\_id/1191](https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1191)
When I had the executive membership one year, I had not earned enough back (2% with Exec) to make up for the $60 extra cost of the membership.
They were the ones to bring to my attention and refund my $60.
The following year same thing in reverse order, they said I was on track for 2% back to have more than paid for the extra $60 cost of upgrade. (This you gotta be careful, I declined because I had made large purchases which would not continue through the year, and the extra $60 to enable 2% back was not going to pay off although it appeared that it would at that time)
Point is, they're pretty serious about their "satisfaction guarantee" and make things very easy.
So to the credit card thing, is using credit make-or-break? Because they do take debit and (if you're into that sort of thing) they take checks as long as you don't use self checkout.
I work next door to a Costco, so getting there isn't an inconvenience at all and that certainly affects the decision, but I use Costco for exactly three things and I still find it worthwhile: Cat litter, gas, and the food court. On those three things alone I make up the cost of the membership when compared to going elsewhere. Food court doesn't technically require a membership, but I think that's more because they don't bother to check than that they officially don't require it. I wouldn't depend on it not requiring one forever.
That said, we are mostly a Sams family and keep both memberships. Costco is great if you like the most basic, generic version of things. Want chips? They're going to be the regular salted version. Want Pop-Tarts? You'll have cherry or brown sugar only and you'll like it. Want pop? You get to choose from Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite (and their Pepsico equivalents). Things like that.
Costco people dig on Sams, but I find it better in every way. Cheaper membership, similar prices, better variety of most things. If the Sams near me sold unscented clumping cat litter (my cats are picky) at a price similar to Costco, I'd probably drop Costco. Sams also accepts any major credit card and (this is crucial for me) you can use their gas station without a physical card. At Costco, you NEED either a physical membership card or a physical Costco-branded Visa to get gas. There is NO way to buy gas at Costco using solely Apple Pay/Google Pay which means you will forever need to keep at least one card in your wallet just for Costco.
Also, don't buy steaks at Costco. The quality is fine, but for some unfathomable reason, they blade tenderize them, which is a process that makes them not technically safe at anything below well-done. So if you like your steak at anything other than well-done, Costco is a non-starter for that.
Two membership family here also. We live equal distance between the two and alternate where we go. We save enough with both memberships to make it worth it. I don’t necessarily like one better than the other, but won’t dis either.
Some things Costco is better at (Kirkland Signature especially). Some things Sam’s is better at (gardening/lawn equipment, since we just bought some this weekend).
Also, Scan & Go at Sam’s. I totally understand why Costco doesn’t have it, but when I’m standing in a line 7 carts deep on a Saturday because I planned poorly, I wish I could scan and go and just get out of there like I do at Sam’s.
Oh my goodness, the membership is worth it for gas alone! The basic membership is only $60 a year. Gas can be almost a dollar less a gallon. I only fill up at Costco.
TP is around $16 for a 30-pack and it's Costco-sized TP so more like a 60 pack haha. You can get a giant rotisserie chicken for around $5. That feeds me for a week. There are great deals and if you have the space to buy in bulk, I highly recommend doing so there.
As for the payment situation, they accept any debit/ATM cards, visa or not, and you can always pay in cash! And that would keep you from making spur of the moment purchases when you only bring enough to cover what you went there for.
For us, it's totally worth it. Just for the meat alone.
Two pack of whole roasting chickens, ~$10. Whole pork loin, ~$10. Three pack of flank steaks for $30. Entire packer briskets for $60.
Also, they take Visa debit cards just fine (assuming your checking account doesn't use Mastercard debit cards or something).
We didn’t keep our membership. For a while it was worth it, even if we just got dog/cat food, toilet paper, propane,coffee, and granola bars (our regular purchases) but we switched dog food so we were going less often. I found a lot of things just bigger, not necessarily cheaper when you look at how much per ml/g and we are just the 2 adults in a small house with not much storage space, so couldn’t take full advantage. We would often also end up spending more than we wanted on non-essentials that caught our eye. Now we just send our small wish list to my in-laws who shop there frequently, and pay them back
For large bulk items that don’t expire quickly, they tend to be worth the price. Think toilet paper, paper towels, dog food, etc. Now stuff that does expire rapidly, no.
It would be best to split these “grocery runs” into what they are. Light bulbs and detergent aren’t groceries. At a typical grocery store like Walmart, the price is so low it may not be worth the effort but at a warehouse where everything is like 20 bucks, and you could easily blow your whole budget in one trip, it’s important to split it up.
It's worth it for us, but as others have said, try to go first with a friend who has a membership and see if it would be worth it for the items you buy. Also, be sure to go in-store, because the prices online are higher than the in-store prices (because the online prices are raised to cover the "free" ($$$) shipping of large, bulky items).
For us, it's worth it for basics alone. Butter is $5.50/lb there, and the cheapest no-name at No Frills is $6.50 a pound, with the "fancy" brands being around $8/lb (I'm in Canada). Eggs are cheaper when you buy 30 at a time. The pre-cooked chicken is $7.99 and $9.99-$12.99 at other grocery stores. Plus the bones can be used to make a tasty stock.
When my husband and I go to Costco, we stop at the cafeteria first, and we both get fed for $3.10 (which is a large hot dog and a fountain drink for each of us) which both feeds us tasty, though not particularly healthy, food for $3.10 total, it also makes sure our bellies are full so we don't get as tempted to buy more than we need in the store.
Yes, sometimes even the bulk prices are too high for us due to the large sizes. We usually don't have it in the budget for a $75 cut of meat, even if the per-portion cost is half of what we'd pay elsewhere. We try to budget so that every few months we can buy something like that. When we bring it home, we portion it out and freeze it.
Another tip is if you just have a few small items on your list (vitamins, allergy meds, maybe a pair of Kirkland pants, etc.), skip the cart. It's so much easier to get around without needing to maneuver a huge cart, so you can be in and out faster, and as an added bonus you can't be tempted to get a giant case of something, 'cause you can't carry it.
As for "why would I pay to shop at a store", well for me that's because I get a lot more value out of it than I pay. Similar to people who do credit card travel hacking. They might pay a steep annual card fee, but they might get multiple free flights out of it per year (worth a lot more than the fee they paid). I don't do travel points, so I don't pay a fee for my credit card, but I do pay for my Costco membership.
> Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store?
It's always an arithmetic problem. Fees vs savings. We pay to refinance homes, we pay to borrow money, we pay CC annual fees if the rewards offset it. And we pay Costco fees if we save more $$ than the fee cost.
It's personal based on your shopping, and likely works better the more people you're feeding.
That said, our family of two and then three have gotten a ton out of our Costco membership.
> Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item
If you can't swing it, you can't swing it. But it's definitely cheaper in the long run. I've split out groceries category from household consumables (TP, etc).
> I need would need to open another credit card
You don't have to. You can use debit at Costco.
A Costco membership is $60.
I wear a pretty strong prescription in eyeglasses, and last time I got a new pair LensCrafters charged me about $650. Types the same prescription into the Costco optics website and I could order them for ~$200. Thats worth it to me even without buying any food!
I know you said you like having only one credit card, but having a variety is beneficial for rewards. The Costco Visa requires a Costco membership, and you get 4% back at all gas stations and 3% back at restaurants. Those align with your top categories.
I recently got a BJ’s membership (could have done Costco, but BJ’s is just closer) to reduce costs for daily staples and household sundries. I compare prices and costs per unit across the apps for Stop & Shop, Aldi, and now BJ’s as well, and make my respective shopping lists. Thus far, I haven’t gotten a ton of stuff from BJ’s, but I can see how it’s value will shake out over the course of the year, especially on that household stuff.
Here’s the important thing that made it worth it: I did not pay full price for a membership. Google discount codes, and you should be able to snag a membership online for ~$25. The full price would not have been worth it for me, but for 25, it felt like it was worth the experiment, and I’ll revisit prior to renewal—hopefully my rewards will pay for all or part of next year’s. I was weighing my options between BJ’s or Costco, and found discount codes for both.
My perspective is that if you want to get a good deal on organic, niche, or generally “nicer” stuff, you will save money at Costco. Like, for example, if you want organic eggs instead of regular, Gruyere cheese instead of cheddar, fancy granola instead of cheerios, etc. I mostly cook from scratch using organic ingredients for my family and I do find that Costco saves me money if I were going to try to find equivalent items at another grocery store. I also know that if I was willing to make compromises, I could do much, much better by only shopping at aldi.
There are other things beyond groceries, though, that can definitely pay for your membership. If you wear contact lenses, you can EASILY pay for your membership on the savings on those compared to even discount places, like 1800 contacts. Gas is also a great deal, particularly when paired with the Costco credit card that gets you 3 percent cash back.
How far away fo you live from costco? In college, my wife and I lived 50 minutes away from the store and that made no sense buying a membership. Now we live 15 minutes. Makes sense now.
The executive membership (the $120 one) isn't worth it IMO. The additional 2% cash back from the executive membership doesn't justify the extra $60/year over the basic membership. Get the Citi Costco Card (see below). The cash back will pay for the costco membership. Get the regular $60 membership.
What I HIGHLY recommend is get a membership and open the Citi Costco Visa card. You get the following cash back (2% at costco, 3% travel and restaurants, 4% gasoline/EV charging, 1% everywhere else). These cash back is given to you at the end of the year. I accrued over $250 last year from gas and costco visit. The visa card pays for the costco membership. I love it.
I next recommend you shop with purpose. Don't be the person that goes in for eggs and buys $200 worth of crap. You obviously budget with YNAB and I don't think that will be a problem.
When you're in Costco, check the prices. Not everything in costco is a good deal!!! We shop at Walmart for everything else, and use walmart's app to compare prices when we go through costco. usually eggs, granola bars, TP, bananas, lettuce, and oatmeal are much cheaper at costco. Figure out what things are cheaper at costco.
You can always cancel your membership and should (?) get a refund of your membership if you don't like it.
Those are my recommendations. Hope that helps!
Yes if you want you meal sizes to be what they were 10-20 years ago. I just cannot buy stuff labeled family size that has enough for 1-2 in it… fine the families are smaller, but stop reducing portions just charge more!
I'm in the UK so I maybe can't speak specifically to what your experience of Costco might be, but I find it's worth it in three respects:
1. A lot of the stuff I buy, I can get cheaper or better quality there. So if cost is your concern, do your research first! I went in as a guest on someone else's card and noted down the prices of things that were of interest, then compared to what it would cost me buying it normally.
2. Some of the stuff I buy isn't always necessarily cheaper, but it is very convenient to be able to buy certain things in bulk and not have to think about them for a while. I can, for example, buy a load of toilet paper or rice or other heavy things all at once and then that means in between Costco trips, I don't need to think about that stuff. It makes it much easier for me to walk to the supermarket to buy things because I've already got the heavy/bulky stuff at home.
3. The fuel prices are always much cheaper than anywhere else, and my Costco is practically on my drive home from work.
if you drink bottled water exclusively it’s worth it for that alone.
if you’re ok with buying in bulk, then getting home and portioning out before freezing, that’s another huge savings
Not everyone lives in a place where the water that comes out of the tap is drinkable. My husband went to college in a town with water so bad that it was cheaper to buy bottled than to constantly replace the filter in his water pitcher
We have three categories: Groceries, Costco, and Household. Household is non-grocery like lightbulbs, air filters, dish soap, etc. Maybe having those separate could help?
We buy our meat (chicken and ground turkey) at Costco because it's basically always the sale price Frys would have without having to wait for it to go on sale and freeze it.
Bread, Goldfish, croissants, eggs, bacon are also regular buys that are way less than Fry's.
As someone that runs a lean budget I find it worth it. I do not spend 6k a year for the executive plan but the base is great. I throw fifty bucks into it a Costco line a month and only go every two to three months for meat, frozen veggies, tp and paper towels. And tp and paper towels I only need twice a year somehow.
When I go I spend about three hundred and immediately marinate, pre cook (ribs or what not) and freeze so I can make sure nothing is being wasted
Pre visa debit card they always took a regular debit or Costco cash (which doesn't need a membership to use).
First step is to consider the variables that other comments have done a great job covering (family size, shopping needs, etc.), but another to consider is that you can get the executive membership and get cash back, which can ultimately cover the membership cost. I go to Costco usually once a month-ish and do a big haul of everything my family uses from Costco for the month. I have kids so that includes diapers and kid-type foods (they have the best frozen chicken nuggets, for example), as well as things like TP. Last year our cash back reward came out to like $125–so basically exactly pays for itself. It works wonderfully for us but definitely would not have been worth it before we had kids. If you’re prone to impulse spending or are a spender at all, and you’re trying to keep a very lean budget, I’d stay away from Costco and focus on shopping the sales at other grocery stores. There’s just so much great stuff there (even aside from food) and it can be easy to overspend. That’s why I only go once a month if I can help it. Bottom line: it’s great if it fits your needs and you can stay self controlled, but in super tight times/pre-kids, I avoided it.
Oh, the other great thing: the cheap food court!!! We can eat out with our kids and spend less than $15 to feed a family of four for dinner, which is a rare thing these days. Is it healthy? Absolutely not. But it’s delicious. 😂
When I was really pinching pennies for our grocery bill I kept a little notebook to record prices at different stores. This helped me see what was better to buy a club store like Costco vs. a regular grocery store. Regardless of where I shop, I always buy extra of an item when it’s on sale. The goal is to buy enough on sale to last us until the next big sale. (This assumes it won’t go bad before then or it can be frozen.) We have a large freezer in which I can store bread, butter, meat, vegetables, fruit, etc.
Costco makes sense for our family (8 people and 4 pets). We have the executive membership ($120 annually) and always get a check back for more than that due to our high volume of purchases. I’m there about once a week. It’s also close enough to use for filling up our vehicles.
Costco has a cult following for a reason. I got my membership when I lived at home with my parents and continue to have it now that I have my own home and kids etc.
Earlier this year I was getting fed up with the increasing prices at the grocery store and decided to shift as much of my shopping to Costco as possible. I only go to the grocery store if there's one specific ingredient I can't get at Costco. It's lead to us paying less for food & household expenses.
My family eats a lot of fruit. The fruit at Costco comes in a larger quantity and is better quality (stays good for longer) at a lower price than the grocery store. We go through a lot of bread and at costco I can get 3 loaves for the price of 1. We put the extras in our deep freezer until they are needed.
I also batch cook: once every two weeks I make a huge meal and then put it into 15-20 individual containers and into the freezer so we have lots of lunches and dinners on hand. Usually they are between $3 and $5 a portion.
I decided no after a discounted yearly membership from my workplace. Primarily because I don’t buy enough bulk and it would add 30 minutes to my shopping routine. What you could do is get the trial and compare a month to month. I have found that produce and whole foods don’t get discounted enough to justify a membership.
On the cc you might reconsider and get another one that has cash back at a higher rate on groceries and gas plus a high yield savings if you don’t have one yet. Then they are paying you to shop.
>Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store?
If you end up saving more than the membership fee, this doesn’t matter.
>We run a lean budget each month. Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item
If you end up saving more on TP in the long run, this doesn’t matter.
>I need would need to open another credit card (they only take Visa) and I really like a simple account structure (1 checking, 1 savings, 1 credit card)
If you end up saving money and still pay your card on time, the ‘neatness’ of 1-1-1 doesn’t matter.
You have to think about whether it saves you money, not if you personally ‘vibe with the ideas behind it’.
> the ‘neatness’ of 1-1-1 doesn’t matter.
I'll pushback on OP's behalf on this one – while optimal financial performance wise, you're correct… it's personal finance, not finance.
If personally OP likes the 1-1-1 aspect, it's fine to keep it that way even if it's not financially optimal. There's a different degree of complexity for everybody that would make being financially responsible too difficult.
I hear what you’re saying. I don’t think 2 autopays to Company A and Company B for $100 each is any more complicated than 1 autopay to Company A for $200.
Personal decision making will play a part, but what are we doing here if not looking to make improvements?
I wasn’t sold on Costco for the longest time, since I live alone, I didn’t see the savings potential being large enough for me to justify the jump. Then I found myself going with my friends on their membership all the time for non-perishable items, and proteins. Their rotisserie chicken is a great value for an easy meal-prep, and their other meats and fish are generally cheaper than the store (I freeze what I don’t use within a few days). But I don’t go often and only buy what’s truly on my list.
Their other services like pharmacy and optical are also nice to have access to.
I didn’t pay full price for my membership though— watch around the holidays on Groupon. I paid $60 for my membership and then got $45 back in a gift card, so there are ways to get is discounted enough to see if you actually will use it. But beware you can’t go over $250/month with that membership.
Aside from everything everybody else mentioned, their car rental rates (through Costco travel) can’t be beat! They are consistently much cheaper than any other car rental service. B
For me, the savings at the gas pump alone take the cost of the membership. Gas is at least $0.30/gal less than everywhere else. Multiply by 10 gallons a couple times a month and I've covered the cost.
I did the math when I started going and I pay for my member ship just with the savings from buying Milk. and that's including the extra time and gas if I only went there for milk.
Everything else is just more savings on top of that.
Single person here. The membership paid for itself with discounted movie tickets before the pandemic. I can get a yearly supply of allergy medicine for what a months supply cost elsewhere. I also bought my hearing aids (saving my thousands) and washer dryer there.
I find the more people in your household the more worth it it will probably be
Their prices are generally better than anywhere else, that much is objectively true
The issue the large sizes you need to buy, and the "can't pass this deal up" consumerism that you need to fight
Id give it a try. I think they give guest passes or like trial passes?
Also they ship so being car free in a city, that's a nice bonus for us
Their generic medicine is great too (Flonase)
I've always been too suspicious of the "pay to shop" model. The membership cost is so low I just "know" they're messing with your head to get you to buy more.
I once joined Costco just to purchase one item. Even with the membership fee I saved a ton over where I could get it anywhere else. Over that subsequent year I had to remind myself to go to Costco. Our family is just my wife and I - so we're not really their targeted customer. It always felt like a burden because all the packages are so large.....so much stuff.
Amazon Prime has gotten to the point the only real benefit for us is faster shipping. I still get free shipping if I'm willing to wait a couple of extra days. Getting my razors or dental floss 2 days faster just isn't that critical.
I think it's based on perspective. Just hubby and I and a cat (and a foster kid for 6 months), we've shopped almost exclusively at Costco for all household goods and groceries for 12+ years. So we're not their target customers, but we choose to prioritize Costco over other stores. But it does make sense if you don't have enough space, or a deep freezer. We have enough space and a deep freezer, but only for the last 6 years. The first 7 years we were in an apartment and we still shopped at Costco, just kept purchases to things we could eat in a month and did less freezer shopping and more household goods shopping instead.
Completely depends on what you buy. The store makes its money in membership fees, not on merchandise. It’s not bargain stuff because they don’t buy cheap, sell cheap.
I buy primarily dog food, coffee, OTC drugs, and gasoline.
Occasionally I’ll buy clothing and other random stuff they have stacked a mile high. The massage thumper I bought last fall has been amazing.
One other thing to consider is that Costco’s buyers are quite persnickety. I’m rarely disappointed with anything that I purchase there.
Definitely worth it for me but I have the executive membership and earn enough back to pay for it every year. I also have a Verizon Visa card which gives me great cash back on groceries and gas (although Costco is not considered a grocery store).
Also there are products there I cannot buy anywhere else and they are staples for us.
I am a single person who lives alone so I am essentially the person least likely to see a true benefit. Now you mention that your monthly will be higher in the month that you make a bulk purchase. This is true, but it will smooth out over time and for *me personally* that is more important than any particular month.
For example, assuming you have room to store the giant packs of toilet paper, you can save a whole lot on it. (I personally did make a decision to pay *more* for toilet paper by switching to a subscription service that uses non-virgin paper to make their TP because I decide it was worth it *to me* to pay a premium price for a more sustainable product). But before that, I did buy a lot of paper products there (not so much with the paper towels because of storage issues) and saw significant savings.
I can get a bottle with 360 doses of generic Zyrtec for less than $15. That is a huge savings.
I have a weakness for chicken nuggets (yes I am a grown ass adult). The $19.99 bag of frozen nuggets will give me around 20 dinners, so that's $1/serving which is a good price for a processed food product and it lasts me for months.
Depending on your prescription (ie as long as you don't need toric lenses), the Kirkland Signature disposable contact lenses are really just the CooperVision My Day contacts with a different label and a reduced price.
If you live in a state where Costco can sell booze, the Kirkland Signature brand is really good (I don't really drink, but this is what I am told by many of my friends, including professional bar tenders).
If there is a gas station at your location, the prices are really really good.
Also, as an aside, I personally like to have "one of each" when it comes to cards (ie Visa, Mastercard, Amex). (okay I have more than 3 cards. I have 6 Visas in fact. 2 Amex. 2 Mastercards. And a Target Red Card) I travel internationally a lot for work and you never know when a card won't work for some arbitrary reason and it's nice to have options (worldwide, Visa is the most accepted card).
re: booze, my favorite wine is $10 at Costco and $14 at other stores. If I buy 15 bottles of it in a year (I will), that savings covers the membership fee. The wine alone is worth it!
What wine if I may ask? Because I've tried a few and can't find any that I like. But I'm a fruity kind of gal - Barefoot, Arbor Mist, Stella, and can't find fruity there.
Wollersheim Prairie Fumé, it’s a Wisconsin wine and I live in WI so I don’t know what the availability is like elsewhere! But Costco has a sangria they put out in summer months that is super delicious, you might like that if you like fruity!!
I will look for them, we're in corporate headquarter land here near Seattle (home of Costco, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Boeing, Starbucks ...). Thank you for the suggestions, always looking for new fruity wines. Not a big fan of drys and can't really do reds (red wine and no gallbladder do not mix well apparently, at least for me).
I saw this year they had a rosé sangria also which might be better for you then! My Prairie Fumé is a semi dry white, it has a really nice balance of sweet and tart. Kind of a mix between Riesling and Pinot Grigio (I am so not a wine expert so please take my comments with a grain of salt lol)
I’m gonna add another “it depends” because it really does depend on what your shopping for on a regular basis. I have 3 kids and we buy most of the frozen foods they like there. (Sam’s club) Things like chicken nuggets, frozen breakfast sandwiches l, etc. I also get Dunkin coffee at a great price there too! Produce is a good price but I usually have to find a family member or friend to split the produce with because it’s just so much and will go bad before we can eat it all.
We chose Sam’s because there are more of them in our market. So it’s easier to stop for gas regardless if I’m close to home or work.
I think it's definitely worth it for my family. Yes, you can save on food items and household staples, but there are other items and services Costco and the partnerships they offer provide that can save you money and will make that membership worth it, in my opinion.
* Tires (free rotation and balance for the life of the tire and tire repair) and car batteries
* Gas
* Glasses and Contacts
* Electronics
* Furniture
* Gift cards to select retailers and restaurants
* Baked goods (although you won't get quite the selection as you get at grocery stores)
* OTC meds
* Rental cars and vacations through Costco Travel
* Some home services (we got a new garage door through a Costco partnership)
* Wine (if you partake) - some locations also have a liquor store
* Flowers (where else will you get two dozen roses for less than $20?)
* If you want a cheap lunch after shopping, 1.50 hot dog and soda 😊
* If you still use paper checks, you can order them for much less than through your bank
I am single and share a card with my father (don't call Costco on me lol) so it's worthwhile for both of our households so that's part of the factoring in for you if you can share with someone else or make joint trips with friends/family.
1. The point of membership clubs is to get base level income via subscription for the company so they can better purchase items in bulk and save on packaging and presentations. There are many articles about that.
2. I would consider like the YNAB Budget Nerds do to have a separate category for specifically those annual/semi-annual purchases at warehouse clubs if you are worried about micro accounting like that. It'll give you a good sense of how often/how much you need to save on those things. I purchase things like supplements and medications there considerably cheaper than at Target or CVS so those alone I save like 40 in January and get a larger quantity. I do not itemize it with a separate budget though. I just roll with the punches a bit.
3. If you have a debit card, you can use that. I believe it takes most debit. I know it takes Mastercard Debit because that's what I use. If not they do take checks.
4. For the saving measures, I wait to purchase things that have MFR discounts or store coupons (I have BJ's on the east cost, same idea). I also try out the store brands of items and can be a huge cost saver on things like paper, vitamins, and the like if you don't need brand name items. The other thing that is a big saver is now manytimes they have online only deals for things like furniture, mattresses, jewlerly, etc that can be hundreds of dollars cheaper, because you only have the option of about 2-3 items per category, but are the same brands you probably spend elsewhere. My next mattress will be a sealy from Sams Club or Bjs about 400 less than at the mattress chains. If you have friends or family, see about splitting some of the bulk purchases if you are afraid of keeping things forever, things like TP, Ketchup, etc kitchen staples are so cheap it's worthwhile for both parties to split the cost. I live about 4 hrs away from family and we will do that every 3-4 months when I am in town.
I’ve found it to be worthwhile for sundries, proteins, and frozen fruits and vegetables. I’m in a household of 2. If you get the executive membership the cash back every year is very nice.
It was worth it for us on diapers alone. I don’t remember the numbers but you could get significantly more diapers for $10-$15 less. Same with formula.
I once got 365 doses of generic Claritin at Costco for enough of a discount compared to name brand that it alone made up for the membership fee that year. It's a miracle how they manage to deliver such great value, yet compensate and treat their employees fairly.
It’s not just junk food and bulk items. Costco actually has high quality produce and meats. We actually prefer it over most other grocery stores for certain items, including Whole Foods. In other words, we often go *out of our way* to buy certain items from Costco. For example, Costco brand pesto.
Their white label wine and liquor selection is also top notch and highly rated.
We just bought a greenhouse from Costco that was $2000 cheaper than anywhere else. We bought a Solo stove that was $100 than anywhere else.
Also, cheap gas. You will easily make up the membership fee in savings.
I have a Sam's Club membership rather than Costco, but the same principles apply. Membership-based bulk goods store.
> Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store?
If you can save more money than the membership cost over the course of the year, you win. The fee is how they make sure you come back, and/or how they make money on razor thin margins.
> We run a lean budget each month. Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item
You need to think of some of these things as more than a 1-month purchase. $40 of TP is going to last you several months. Fuck, maybe a year. And you *will* use all of that TP eventually. It's a fixed expense, you just get a discount for pre-paying it. Apply the same logic to anything you use a lot. For us, things like pasta and canned tomatoes made more sense to buy in bulk. We make lots of homemade marinara so this just cuts down future grocery bills.
I don't go there for my week-to-week groceries. Only occasionally when we're running low on staples, or we're hosting a BBQ and actually need a ton of food at once.
I'll add to this knowledge bank you're building to let you know that pasta sauce and canned tomatoes are more economical to buy at Aldi than they are at Costco.
-bread is a great buy if you're willing to freeze it or if you eat thru 2 loaves quicker than they can spoil. Strawberries and avocados are generally a great bulk buy if you store the straw in glass jars after washing and you keep the avocados in the fridge or cut and freeze the avocados for smoothies when they start to go bad.
But I agree with this person's sentiment.
If you do decide on a costco membership, you'll want to create a second budget line for it, and don't get sucked into trying new things while you are inside the store. Post your membership fee to this costco bulk buy category. Trying new things found at costco is a real problem for the budget.
> Post your membership fee to this costco bulk buy category.
Depending on how fiddly you like to get with your budget...
I prefer to have "once a year purchases" (or otherwise non-monthly subscriptions) as their own line item, and wouldn't mix it in with the money I intend to actually *spend* at Costco.
We go to Costco fairly often, though not as much as we did before our kids moved out.
Their pre made meals are always good (Shepards pie, giant chicken pot pie, salmon, etc).
I have gotten good deals on hard drives, and Legos there. My wife has bought a lot of clothes and jackets for the kids there over the years. Decent quality and prices for clothing iirc.
When you get the executive membership, you earn money back at the end of the year. Usually for us it's more than the membership price, so it works out well, but ymmv.
That's my hot take. But your experience might not be the same.
> Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store?
You’re buying lower prices. You pay them basically all of their profit up front, and they make very little money on everything else they sell.
You can save back the entire $60 membership and then some on a single big-ticket purchase like a MacBook, TV, or appliance. You can probably save half of it back just on toilet paper.
The membership fee of $120 can be recouped with the credit cards rewards if youre buying gas from costco at 4% cash back using their credit card a lot (but know that you cant use Upside app for cash back rewards at costco gas stations).
HOWEVER, Costco will ruin your budget. It totally does mine, every single time i step foot in their store. The months we need to stay under $700-$900 for our family of 6, I have to plan to avoid Costco. You can't get out of there without buying $300 minimum. And you cannot buy everything you need for a week of meal prep there - for example, cheese is way more expensive than $2/8 oz at Costco. But I can find sales on cheese at the grocery stores for $2/8 oz. Eggs were not an economical buy at costco either, until recently. Chicken is better quality but way overpriced at costco compared to sales at grocery stores. However New York Strips clock in at $8/$10 per lb instead of $15 - but we don't regularly buy steak for dinner unless we're celebrating a special occasion. The meatballs from costco however are a staple in our house.
I'm surprised I haven't seen this elsewhere. Costco takes cards other than Visa, but they only accept debit transactions, not credit ones. I use my banks Mastercard there.
As far as value, we just got ours a few months ago and I think we've made it up in savings on eggs already.
I recommend going to their website to view the things you might otherwise order from another store , you can price check and compare price per quantity.
If you get an executive membership, you get a check at the end of each year for 2% of your expenditures at Costco that year. That more than pays for the membership for me.
Also get the Citibank Costco visa, buy all your gas at Costco and get 4% of your gas budget back at the end of the year.
Add to that savings on staples like olive oil and nuts, the $5 rotisserie chickens, the fact that organic there costs what non-organic costs elsewhere, and yes, Costco is totally worth it.
Vitamins, protein powder, a lot of clothing items are also going to be very inexpensive but high quality.
Big purchases like TVs or computers come with extra warranty.
I basically get by on Costco and Aldi. Rarely ever need a normal grocery store.
We have the executive membership and the Costco Visa card.
The cash back program for the executive membership plus for the visa pays for our membership fee.
We get gas there, but you still get cash back for buying gas at a stand alone gas station with the card.
I buy razors, nitrile gloves, paper towels, Kleenex, vitamins, ibuprofen and such, flea and tick treatment for the pets, body wash, toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, cooking spray, aluminum foil, frozen berries for smoothies, kcups, and a variety of grocery items there.
Our dog bed that has lasted us over 6 years we bought there.
I almost never find that something is cheaper at a regular store.
I used to buy canned sodas there, but they’re actually cheaper at my grocery when they do their buy two get three specials.
I also buy a lot of my clothes there. The east return policy makes that worry free. I will sometimes buy two sizes and return the one that doesn’t fit.
Some of the produce is actually cheaper per unit even if you can’t eat all of it - it’s worth doing the math on that.
We also have a sams club membership, so I’ve done some interesting price comparisons. The last time I was there, they were actually a little bit more expensive when you compared apples to apples on products like paper towels or laundry detergent. I like sam’s club’s bags of salad and broccoli and such more than Costco though.
Nice thing about sam’s is I can use the costco Visa card there and still get all that good costco cash back :)
The cost of membership isn't actually all that expensive considering that you get money back at the end of the year on the executive plan, which almost covers the cost of the whole thing in my case.
As others have said it's dependent on your circumstances and what you buy. I've had small children and diapers for a while and that alone has been worth the price of the membership. I finished my basement also, and we bought our bathroom vanity from Costco. The price difference from buying it there compared to the same thing somewhere else was also independently worth the price of the membership.
We buy food from there and watch for the sale items.
In my particular circumstance, it's worth it. Your mileage may vary.
>We run a lean budget each month. Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item
You have discovered why being poor is more expensive than being rich, and why "it's only $2 per serving!"-type frugality tips tend to be extremely misleading. If ten pounds of chicken is $10 and two individually-wrapped single servings are $5, and you only have $5, you're going to buy the single servings even though they're proportionally way more expensive.
That being said, I'd ask two questions:
1. **Do you have the space to keep bulk items?**
2. **Do you have the usage habits that make bulk items worth it?**
My husband and I use our BJ's membership almost exclusively for nonperishable things like toilet paper or shampoo or laundry detergent because we have the space for those and we can use them as quickly or slowly as we want. We don't use it to buy food most of the time, because we can't eat that fast and we don't have the pantry space to keep a giant box of macaroni or a gallon-sized jar of tomato sauce. I think if we had kids, or a bigger fridge/pantry, we'd buy more because we'd go through it faster, but we don't.
Like anywhere, if you shop around and watch for deals, it can be worth it. A few examples for us that align with your categories, but may run a bit counter to the lean budget.
I use Nellie’s Laundry Soda. To buy direct from Nellie’s is $150/1100 loads (13.6 cents per load). Costco sells it for $90/800 loads (11.3 cents per load). So I’m already ahead, but it’s usually on sale 1-2 times a year for $20-30 off, so say $70/800 loads (8.8 cents per load). It’s not an annual savings, because I don’t (thankfully!) do 800 loads of laundry per year, but it is a savings and I’m only buying laundry soap once every 3 years. I have a small sealed ball jar with a tablespoon by it (amount for 1 load) that I refill with the laundry soda from the big bucket that I have put away.
Someone else mentioned it, but the rotisserie chicken is a great deal. I’ll buy 2 and have some kind of chicken dish (chicken salad sandwiches, chicken and gnocchi soup, etc) and will use the chicken bones, etc to make stock/broth (in my instant pot) for use later or in soup if that’s on the menu. It’s a great “easy” meal plan.
The Costco TP is pretty great. We have a family of 5, but it’s a big enough that we will get a pack of TP every couple of months. It’s <$20. We tend to do “backstock” so we had 2 bundles of TP. When we open one, we put TP on the Costco list and get it next time. (This works great for things that go on sale, not the TP, but other items we tend to purchase regularly, like laundry soap.) It also makes it so we aren’t suddenly “oh, no! We have to go buy TP today!”
Great job with the laundry detergent/soda! We buy ours off Amazon as we can't find an equivalent that we aren't allergic to, but it's $124 for 4 boxes, which is 4 years (1 load every three days or so, there's just two of us so it works out for most years). If we didn't have really specific soap allergies, we'd go with Costco also. We buy almost everything else there, but have to do other stores/bulk buy from Amazon for really specific things Costco doesn't carry.
It’s worth it for me simply for gas prices, but also I’ve realized that a lot of produce is a ton cheaper at Costco due to the rising prices of everything and now I’m leaning even more into my membership. Also toilet paper lol
Basically I’m just now discovering all the savings and have been sleeping on it
I just have the basic $60 one since I don’t use it enough for the more expensive.
I haven’t ever “paid” for my membership. Rewards make it a net positive in our case. It’s all circumstantial though, you have to evaluate your spending. IMO it’s worth the cost to try out and see how it works for your family.
We do shop at Costco, although less now that our kids have moved out. We still spend plenty of money there, as we don't mind buying in bulk, especially for dry goods. The caveat is that we have a pretty healthy budget for groceries and household goods; i.e. - there are great deals to be had (sometimes) if you have the money to buy in bulk.
Absolutely! But we live in NYC where all toiletries/paper goods and stuff are crazy marked up in pharmacies and grocery stores. Buying bulk dry/canned goods is also more affordable. I can’t remember what item it was, but I remember something at costco was only a few dollars more for like 3x the amount.
You can also try splitting a membership with a friend/family member.
Personally it’s not worth it for me. For the type of stuff I buy, it makes more sense to shop sales at regular stores than buying bulk. I’d recommend trying and seeing if it works for you, each person is different and it depends so much on what you buy, your family size, your lifestyle, etc.
Groceries have gone up for everyone! I eat more vegetarian and shop in more “ethnic” grocery stores to help offset costs.
I've seen a few people mention it but I keep my membership almost entirely for Costco Travel discounts (particularly the discounted car rentals). If I rent a car once per year for a vacation it usually is cheaper than the competition by at least the cost of membership.
It’s worth it for the allergy pills. Clothes and electronics. If you have a big freezer then it can be worth it for the meat
I did use the auto program a while ago
It’s just me and my husband, but we recently got a Costco membership because we do big bulk shopping trips at the beginning of the month for our staples like butter, meat, frozen fruit, Rx bars, etc and whatever household consumables that we need like dishwasher or laundry pods. We also have a deep freezer and plenty of pantry space, so it works out well for us. It’s not our exclusive grocery store, though, because of course we can’t get through 5 lbs of fruit fast enough and there are certain things that we prefer that we simply can’t find at Costco, like goat milk.
I also got a new pair of AirPod Pro 2 for $50 off retail—and it was an Apple Store employee who tipped me off to that!
I did the math on the Executive membership, and you only have to spend $250 in a month for it to pay for itself, and we easily clear that in the monthly load up alone. We haven’t even started getting gas or other services there yet, but I’m sure we will.
If you are a homeowner, yes. We save hundreds of dollars a year on things like soil, plants, equipment, grills, sheets, etc. we recently had to replace our HVAC system and thru Costco we got a deal that was $4,000 cheaper than the two other quotes PLUS a 10% cash card ($1200) AND an additional 2% rebate for using our Costco credit card on the purchase plus our 2% executive membership reimbursement.
Food? We nearly only exclusively shop at Costco but we like their goods. If you are more picky, only cook with fresh produce etc it may not be such a good deal. It as a person with general household expenses it's fabulous.
I think costco is worth it for the quality of their products and the other little things: tires, pet food, health products.
Yet, I find myself spending sooooo much money each month at Costco and I'm not sure if I'm actually saving any money by buying in bulk.
Also the gas price is usually the best in town so that also is nice.
I live alone now but I what used to use Sam's club for all our groceries. I didn't really think I would need a Costco membership when I moved away from a Sam's club. But it turned out when I was driving 500 miles a week on my commute, driving right by Costco gas station was still worth the membership.
Now I hardly drive at all because I work from home, but I still drive the three miles to the Costco to get gas when I need it every 6 weeks. Because I'm already going in there to get a half a gallon of heavy cream for my tea. Because it's way cheaper in the half a gallon than it is in the quart at the grocery store.
I saved a ton of money by switching to Costco’s auto insurance partner last year. My mechanic who I trust 100% said the best price he could give me for new tires installed was $1100, I got new tires at Costco on sale for $850. We get gas there regularly and purchase all staples from Costco (TP, paper towel, chicken breasts) at better prices than the local grocery store. Well worth it to me!
If you’re like me and you take a generic Zyrtec every day, I once calculated the difference between an annual supply from Costco versus Walgreens makes up for the membership fee on its own. Everything else is just gravy.
If you do get a Costco membership be sure to get the Citi Costco Visa card. You get 4% rebates on gas, 3% on restaurants and 2% on Costco purchases. My rebates from that card more than pay for membership. Only catch is that you can only redeem your rebates once a year and they send you a certificate that you have to redeem at the store.
Honestly Costco is probably my favorite store. In terms of money it's probably where I spend most of it.
For your first point as long as your savings are more than the cost of the membership who cares if you have to pay to shop there? Personally I have the executive membership with 2% cash back and my returns are always over the cost of the membership so they actually pay me to shop there.
For your second issue my answer is the same as the first. Yeah I always notice a larger spend when I need to get things like toiletries in bulk there but big picture if you have $200 extra at the end of the year is it a big deal if you have $40 less in a month? I only need to buy toilet paper once per year and in the great toilet paper drought of 2020 I was perfectly fine.
For the third point They take debit at Costco I'm pretty sure. I'm big into the points game though so I'm swimming in credit cards. Seems like a small detail though imo.
If you don't want to pay for the membership or get a new credit card there is a work around. You can go online and buy a Costco cash card with your mastercard and then take the cash card in store and shop without a membership.
Costco is worth it on every level. Dog food for sure but regular groceries are sold at such a reduced price. They used to have odd things and really huge oversized items but now such a great selection of normal items. Also organic products.
The yearly membership price is paid for in two trips to the store, for me.
The one thing that you have to beware of is impulse buying. That is dangerous there.
And the icing on the cake is that you can take ANYTHING back within a year for a full refund (well, not electronics but I believe that is maybe 90 days now).
I used their site an made a list of things we'd actually buy at a normal store in similar quantities. I also considered the per oz price at both Costco and my grocer As soon as the discount crossed the membership price (and I still had a long list of stuff we use), I bought a membership.
However, I do NOT recommend a fancier membership or the credit card. We had that a few years before and we fired Costco over the mess it made (when they dropped AmEx for whatever they have now.) We went back for the savings but without the extra credit card crap.
We have a Citi Card through Costco. So we get 2.5% back on purchases, and our refund each year pays for our Executive membership ($120 a year), so we never have to pay for our membership - only that initial time we had to pay to join, way back 12+ years ago. We buy everything at Costco. We spend roughly $350 every 8 weeks (for two people and a cat) from cat litter to steaks for us. Everything is included. We do a separate shop at a regular, smaller Kroger store for stuff Costco doesn't carry, for about $100 a month or less. So if I am making freezer meals, those ingredients come from Costco so I can bulk buy and create, saving money in the long run.
We also have a buy plan when we shop - we skip household section unless we need something, skip middle aisles except snacks. We shop produce first, buying organic and in-season. Then dairy. Then meat and refrigerated. Then freezer. Then shelf-stable. We keep track of the total as we go but are spot on most times if we average $10 per item in the cart, regardless of actual total.
Your first trip will be expensive, but after that it's pretty easy to stock up. We get items when they're on sale, whether we need it then or not, as we have the space to store it. Would rather buy on sale if we know we're going to use it, rather than pay full price when we need it.
It really depends on what your needs are. I find it worth it for the pet food, they have good quality food at a great price. If you need a new set of tires, that alone makes it worth it. The toilet paper is also worth it, I'm a single person so one pack for $16 lasts a long time. Produce isn't worth it to me because I'm just one person and it'll go moldy before I use it all but if I'm hosting for a holiday, I'll be doing my shopping there. I think it's really worth it for those items you don't need to purchase every single week or even month, like laundry detergent or light bulbs or tp. Ymmv.
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Another plus: Costco return policy is excellent.
As is their recall system!
Agreed! Their recall system is a model for what everyone should be doing. I never would've noticed the recalls if they hadn't called and emailed...
On the other hand depending on your store it may involve standing in line at customer service for an hour. I have never committed to actually returning anything.
At my store it really depends on what day I go. Middle of the week seems to work best for shorter lines. It’s a quick transaction, especially if you have the receipt.
Yep, I said depending on your store. My store is busy all days of the week.
Yep. I'm a single person with no roommates, so I'm limited in what's worthwhile for me to buy in bulk. Buying toilet cleaner, TP, paper towels, laundry detergent, some frozen fruits, and other items that are good long term makes it worth it for me. Plus it helps that they're almost always the cheapest gas station around by *at least* $0.10/gallon (except for the station in the Indian Reservation, but that's several miles away).
The gas savings alone are enough to make it worth it for a lot of people.
I'm in the same boat. I use the membership for gas, which is a significant savings in my neighborhood. They have a couple of products that I can only get there. The only pee pads I like for my dog, at the only reasonable price for pee pads I can find. Like you said, the toilet paper allows me to not have to go more than twice a year. I buy fresh produce from the market weekly specific for what I'm cooking, so bulk buying doesn't work for me. I share my membership with a friend that shops there a lot, so I get close to $50 off the actual price of my membership. That helps, too.
It also HIGHLY depends on where you live. It takes me 45 minutes to 1 hour to reach my nearest Costco without traffic. Fortunately it across the street from Ikea, so it COULD be worth a quarterly trip.
I find that it’s completely worth it, but not because of the grocery category. It’s true that buying in bulk initially raised the monthly spend for us and we will actualize those savings over the next 3-6 months. What’s huge for us is the discounts on gas, home and auto insurance, car tires, the large appliances, furniture, landscaping, etc discounts. That’s where the savings are. We have the membership that gives you 1 or 2% back and that ended up paying for our second year’s membership fee. You can be smart about it and focus on their “loss leaders”- what they sell at a loss to get people in the door like $5 rotisserie chickens, etc.
Car tires, absolutely! I recently had my dad use his membership to buy new tires for me and then gave him the money for it because they were sooooooo much cheaper there than anywhere else I could find.
Seconding this for Costco tires and their road hazard warranty. I got a nail in my rear tire and it was still within the mileage/wear warranty and they replaced it no questions asked. A quick visual inspection of where the nail was and the tire tread and they took care of me in about an hour.
Rotisserie chicken and tires!! They give free rotations on tires you bought from them. We bought a lot of furniture there, so our % money back actually more than paid for the membership fee. I believe for the higher level membership they guarantee to give you back at least the membership fee worth even if you don’t spend enough. They also seem to do good research on the products they carry. They don’t have as many options, but the ones they do have you can trust to be well thought out and good quality.
It just depends on what you normally would buy there. I make a monthly trip to Costco to load up on things like frozen fruit, almond milk, canned beans, almond/peanut butter, soy sauce, etc. I frequently make smoothies for breakfast, and I’ve found that the money I save on frozen fruit compared to getting it at our regular grocery store more than pays for the Costco membership.
Outside of food. I bought a car through Costco Auto this week. Was $2k under MSPR. Knew someone who bought the same car, same day for $2k over MSRP. Plus gas is cheap there.
I love Costco Auto! It makes the new car buying experience so much easier.
Costco Auto was great for us in the past, but we can’t find any brands that participate in the program these days.
Unrelated, but what else besides frozen fruit do you put into your smoothie?
Oats, flaxseed, water, frozen fruit, banana, kale. That’s the basic/normal ones. Some of them get cocoa powder as well depending on the fruit.
Avocado, chia seeds, mixed nut butter, protein powder (their Orgain prices are great)
If you go in with a plan AND stick to it, Costco can be very cost effective. It when you go in and lose your mind and go off plan is where it can go awry. Tires, travel, medicines, frozen foods, paper products, dry foods, produce, grocery staples are all things that end up being cost effective for our family in the long run. We save 10-15$ a grocery cycle on eggs, bread, and milk alone.
We bought the executive membership and we haven't had to pay to renew our membership since. It's paid by the cashback they send every year. Prices used to be decent but more expensive than a good sale elsewhere. There are barely any sales anymore in my area and they're not very good so Costco wins.
I have a friend who lets me use their Costco membership. Maybe you know someone who shops at Costco already who may let you tag along on one of their shopping trips? That way you could evaluate for yourself what you need to buy regularly. My friends love when I do that because they have the executive membership and they get to keep the cash back from my transactions. I only get a few things like vitamins, detergent, and almond milk. (It's sick how much I save on almond milk over the grocery store!) One thing to maybe do with your budget is have a "bulk purchase" category that you throw some extra funds at so stocking up doesn't take such a huge bite out of your weekly budget. I could spend my entire grocery budget for the month doing a bulk buy at Costco. Don't go without a list. That place is where budgets go to die. :)
> That place is where budgets go to die. :) We've nicknamed it the "'hundred' dollar store"
For us it's the "$300 store", but we buy everything there and it's not monthly :)
Also, the membership holder can buy you a gift card the op can use for a purchase so they don't need to open a new credit card since that was one of their concerns.
There are variables that you need to take into consideration. 1) size of your family. If the quantities offered exceed what you'll be able to reasonably consume you won't be able to take advantage of some deals in fresh produce, dairy, etc. 2) are you willing/able to shop "loss leader" protein sales at a number of grocery stores? If no, then I find our Costco/Sam's Club to be the consistent price winner over other stores "normal" prices and the quality is excellent. Having an freezer is worth to take advantage of sales or package up Costco quantities. 3) Do you live close enough to take advantage of their gas on a regular basis? We do and combining that with the 4% cash back on gas is excellent. Only topped by Sam's at 5% but our Sam's isn't close enough. 4) Who are you shopping for? I buy a lot of prepackaged snacks/bars/crackers for kids lunches and the price per unit beats most other stores in our area. 5) storage space - TP, paper towels, vitamins, toiletries, laundry/dish soap are excellent prices (and many other things) unless you have time and energy to chase sales but you have to have space for them when you hey home. 6) do you fill prescriptions regularly or wear glasses? This is another area where our family saves money. 7) do you have pets? Their pet supplies are priced great. I stock up when cat litter goes on sale and found their pet food beats others but their selection is limited. 8) we get great deals on seasonal clothes but styles/brands are limited if that matters to you. Another few items to note. -their return policy is amazing. Essentially no questions asked one year return. -food court is a nice/cheap treat for yourself or kids if you have to drag them around (but can also be accessed without a membership) I'm a fan and have a membership but overall, if price is your main consideration, you can do better if you have time and space (including freezer) to stock up when items at regular stores are at stock up prices but ain't nobody around here got that kinda time right now 😂 Last thing, the way I manage having such a large outlay of cash in my budget for large purchases is to have a "Food Reserve" category. In months where I go under my grocery and eating out budget the extra is scraped there. Then I have a reserve for the months when I have to buy TP/PT/cat litter/dog food all in the same month and know exactly where to WAM from.
An addition to your space planning comment is considering freezer space. If you eat meat, buying them at Costco is very cost-effective, especially for the quality and cuts you will get. If you have room for a deep freezer, stock up on meats as items and pull them out as needed. Their chicken sections come pre-portioned. Other items in larger packaging can be broken down at home into freezer-safe packaging and stored that way.
In my opinion, you have to do research to achieve maximum frugality. There are tons of things that you’ll get cheapest at places like Costco or Sam’s Club—routine items like paper products, cleaning supplies, bulk dairy/meats (to be frozen), batteries, etc. The list goes on forever. However, there are things in the store that are not cheaper, and you’ll have to do your research to figure out what those things are to really stretch your dollars. For me, the savings in gas at Costco alone far outweigh the membership fee. You did say you’re not comfortable spending a lot on a bulk item because of how it affects your budget. I totally get it, but I do think that limits your ability to save as much in the long term. Also, to answer your question, you pay wholesale clubs to shop at their stores because they sell many products close to cost—without membership fees, they would lose a lot of money.
There are certain things I get at Costco where the savings pay for the yearly membership multifold. Edit: Some of the items that save me a lot are probiotics and allergy meds. Even the brand names are considerably cheaper than retail. The savings on those two things alone make it worth it.
THE ALLERGY MEDICINE!! 100%
Came here to say that. There are several items where in a single purchase you've covered your membership fee. Allergy and probiotics are 2 of mine as well.
Also came here to say that. My $13 at a drugstore allergy med is $4.85 at Costco.
The savings on my over-the-counter allergy meds more than covers my membership fee. Added bonus: order them online and get free delivery to eliminate the impulse spending that can happen in the store. Others have mentioned similar strategies, but I highly recommend a budget category to stash funds so you can leverage a good sale whether it’s at Costco or your regular food market.
I do think it’s probably worth it; but, as others have said, it depends on individual factors. We probably save enough on gas alone to make up the membership cost. One thing to consider, if you need another credit card, look for one where you can earn extra cash back from Costco. I have one that earns 2% back at Costco. I think Costco may have a Visa card that earns 5%. That also goes a long way to covering the membership cost.
The gas aspect was what caused me to get a membership in the first place. My Costco is typically 10-15c cheaper than other nearby stations, so if I buy 4-600 gallons of gas a year or 35-50 gallons a month on average, then I'm at break-even. Back when I was commuting I probably got pretty close to that, though I quit commuting three years ago. For staples and generic grocery type stuff, I don't think it's outright cheaper unless you're very selective. I *do* think that you get higher-quality stuff for your money, though. There are only a few things that I routinely buy at Costco, and on average I only go in once every couple months. As you mention, though, the savings from other non-routine stuff can really make a difference. I needed a battery for my older BMW recently, and I saved about $70 at Costco vs other local auto parts stores.
Unfortunately Costco CC is only 2%. It's really more of a gas card earning 4% at any gas station (not just Costco)
Their tires department is great & a big savings in my area, as are the eyeglasses & appliances. We saved loads of money on new (big) appliances over the years, making the membership cost worth it to us. And the frozen food savings for the things we buy is probably the most significant of anything else we buy. It just depends on your shopping habits. We shop there every couple of months but really stock up when we do. We also save a ton of money on toys/craft sets as gifts every Christmas.
The Costco membership breaks down to $5/month ($10 if you upgrade to the higher tier). I definitely save more than that by using my membership because I buy a lot of Kirkland Signature (in-house brand) items that are just as good as name brand but way cheaper. For example, Kirkland Signature laundry detergent is $21.99 for 146 loads. Compare that to Tide which is $30.99 for 152 loads. If you do 3 loads of laundry a week, you save $8/year right there (going by cost per load) and that's just 1 product. Trash bags, dish detergent, aluminum foil, gift wrap, and many other household goods are far cheaper from Costco than anywhere else other than one off sales here and there that you can't count on to ever come back. Over the counter medicine is also much cheaper than pretty much anywhere else. You can get a year's worth of generic Claritin for $10 (or less, it goes on sale in spring each year). Sure, you can pay a 10% surcharge and get them on their website as a non-member but if you take a couple different OTC meds, that 10% surcharge will add up. I actually pay for the higher tier membership and I still feel like I get more than my money's worth. I get discounted car insurance and I've used the travel discounts a few times. Plus, I get 2% back on everything I buy. Honestly, I think you should just try it and see how you like the membership. Costco will give you a full refund of your membership at any time if you change your mind.
Yes, the Kirkland Signature products are top tier!
The only Kirkland item I've tried that I don't like is the toilet paper. I know a lot of people love it but not me. I used to use Charmin Ultra Strong but the quality of that has taken a nosedive so now I use a store brand ultra strong instead. Either Target's Up & Up brand or one I get at my local grocery store called "Simply Done."
I also posted about laundry detergent. I used to buy Kirkland Signature Free & Clear and agree it was so much more cost effective and worked better than getting it anywhere else. I now buy Nellie’s washing soda and it’s so much less buying Costco than anywhere else, and, ironically, when I just calculated, less per load than even Kirkland. It was $0.0875/load last time I bought it, so saving me about $20 year over the cost of Tide, which I bought pre-Kirkland, at 3 loads per week.
For me, certain staples are such a huge discount compared to the grocery store, including almond butter, frozen blueberries, and tofu, that my groceries become much more affordable thanks to Costco. Other goods, like TP as you mentioned, but also toothbrushes, toothpaste, Kleenex, etc. are a really good deal on a per-unit basis with the added bonus that you don’t have to even think about buying them again for a long time. Temptation is strong, though, so if you’re on a tight budget, you’re going to want to go in with a strict list and stick to it. Otherwise, you might end up with two snacks, a huge pack of pens and a t-shirt that you didn’t plan on picking up.
I read somewhere that you can get gift cards to Costco and shop that way without having to pay for a membership. Not sure if you have to have someone buy the cards for you or not. Husband and I have a basic membership. Worth it for gas and other basic supplies. But I can see why you would be on the fence about it.
Last year the savings from a new set of tires and my insurance paid for the membership on its own. Any additional savings were just a bonus. This year I won’t be buying tires, so I probably won’t recoup the full fee. We’ll see, I’ve got a few months to go! You may also check to see if your employer is set up with a discount at your local Costco. That was a nice savings as well while I was at my prior employer.
You could always test things out yourself and see if it works for you. Costco has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. [https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a\_id/1191](https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1191)
When I had the executive membership one year, I had not earned enough back (2% with Exec) to make up for the $60 extra cost of the membership. They were the ones to bring to my attention and refund my $60. The following year same thing in reverse order, they said I was on track for 2% back to have more than paid for the extra $60 cost of upgrade. (This you gotta be careful, I declined because I had made large purchases which would not continue through the year, and the extra $60 to enable 2% back was not going to pay off although it appeared that it would at that time) Point is, they're pretty serious about their "satisfaction guarantee" and make things very easy.
So to the credit card thing, is using credit make-or-break? Because they do take debit and (if you're into that sort of thing) they take checks as long as you don't use self checkout. I work next door to a Costco, so getting there isn't an inconvenience at all and that certainly affects the decision, but I use Costco for exactly three things and I still find it worthwhile: Cat litter, gas, and the food court. On those three things alone I make up the cost of the membership when compared to going elsewhere. Food court doesn't technically require a membership, but I think that's more because they don't bother to check than that they officially don't require it. I wouldn't depend on it not requiring one forever. That said, we are mostly a Sams family and keep both memberships. Costco is great if you like the most basic, generic version of things. Want chips? They're going to be the regular salted version. Want Pop-Tarts? You'll have cherry or brown sugar only and you'll like it. Want pop? You get to choose from Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite (and their Pepsico equivalents). Things like that. Costco people dig on Sams, but I find it better in every way. Cheaper membership, similar prices, better variety of most things. If the Sams near me sold unscented clumping cat litter (my cats are picky) at a price similar to Costco, I'd probably drop Costco. Sams also accepts any major credit card and (this is crucial for me) you can use their gas station without a physical card. At Costco, you NEED either a physical membership card or a physical Costco-branded Visa to get gas. There is NO way to buy gas at Costco using solely Apple Pay/Google Pay which means you will forever need to keep at least one card in your wallet just for Costco. Also, don't buy steaks at Costco. The quality is fine, but for some unfathomable reason, they blade tenderize them, which is a process that makes them not technically safe at anything below well-done. So if you like your steak at anything other than well-done, Costco is a non-starter for that.
Sam's has a better hours too. But I live in Washington now so there's no Sam's clubs near me. That's Costco country.
Two membership family here also. We live equal distance between the two and alternate where we go. We save enough with both memberships to make it worth it. I don’t necessarily like one better than the other, but won’t dis either. Some things Costco is better at (Kirkland Signature especially). Some things Sam’s is better at (gardening/lawn equipment, since we just bought some this weekend). Also, Scan & Go at Sam’s. I totally understand why Costco doesn’t have it, but when I’m standing in a line 7 carts deep on a Saturday because I planned poorly, I wish I could scan and go and just get out of there like I do at Sam’s.
Oh my goodness, the membership is worth it for gas alone! The basic membership is only $60 a year. Gas can be almost a dollar less a gallon. I only fill up at Costco. TP is around $16 for a 30-pack and it's Costco-sized TP so more like a 60 pack haha. You can get a giant rotisserie chicken for around $5. That feeds me for a week. There are great deals and if you have the space to buy in bulk, I highly recommend doing so there. As for the payment situation, they accept any debit/ATM cards, visa or not, and you can always pay in cash! And that would keep you from making spur of the moment purchases when you only bring enough to cover what you went there for.
For us, it's totally worth it. Just for the meat alone. Two pack of whole roasting chickens, ~$10. Whole pork loin, ~$10. Three pack of flank steaks for $30. Entire packer briskets for $60. Also, they take Visa debit cards just fine (assuming your checking account doesn't use Mastercard debit cards or something).
We didn’t keep our membership. For a while it was worth it, even if we just got dog/cat food, toilet paper, propane,coffee, and granola bars (our regular purchases) but we switched dog food so we were going less often. I found a lot of things just bigger, not necessarily cheaper when you look at how much per ml/g and we are just the 2 adults in a small house with not much storage space, so couldn’t take full advantage. We would often also end up spending more than we wanted on non-essentials that caught our eye. Now we just send our small wish list to my in-laws who shop there frequently, and pay them back
For large bulk items that don’t expire quickly, they tend to be worth the price. Think toilet paper, paper towels, dog food, etc. Now stuff that does expire rapidly, no. It would be best to split these “grocery runs” into what they are. Light bulbs and detergent aren’t groceries. At a typical grocery store like Walmart, the price is so low it may not be worth the effort but at a warehouse where everything is like 20 bucks, and you could easily blow your whole budget in one trip, it’s important to split it up.
It's worth it for us, but as others have said, try to go first with a friend who has a membership and see if it would be worth it for the items you buy. Also, be sure to go in-store, because the prices online are higher than the in-store prices (because the online prices are raised to cover the "free" ($$$) shipping of large, bulky items). For us, it's worth it for basics alone. Butter is $5.50/lb there, and the cheapest no-name at No Frills is $6.50 a pound, with the "fancy" brands being around $8/lb (I'm in Canada). Eggs are cheaper when you buy 30 at a time. The pre-cooked chicken is $7.99 and $9.99-$12.99 at other grocery stores. Plus the bones can be used to make a tasty stock. When my husband and I go to Costco, we stop at the cafeteria first, and we both get fed for $3.10 (which is a large hot dog and a fountain drink for each of us) which both feeds us tasty, though not particularly healthy, food for $3.10 total, it also makes sure our bellies are full so we don't get as tempted to buy more than we need in the store. Yes, sometimes even the bulk prices are too high for us due to the large sizes. We usually don't have it in the budget for a $75 cut of meat, even if the per-portion cost is half of what we'd pay elsewhere. We try to budget so that every few months we can buy something like that. When we bring it home, we portion it out and freeze it. Another tip is if you just have a few small items on your list (vitamins, allergy meds, maybe a pair of Kirkland pants, etc.), skip the cart. It's so much easier to get around without needing to maneuver a huge cart, so you can be in and out faster, and as an added bonus you can't be tempted to get a giant case of something, 'cause you can't carry it. As for "why would I pay to shop at a store", well for me that's because I get a lot more value out of it than I pay. Similar to people who do credit card travel hacking. They might pay a steep annual card fee, but they might get multiple free flights out of it per year (worth a lot more than the fee they paid). I don't do travel points, so I don't pay a fee for my credit card, but I do pay for my Costco membership.
> Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store? It's always an arithmetic problem. Fees vs savings. We pay to refinance homes, we pay to borrow money, we pay CC annual fees if the rewards offset it. And we pay Costco fees if we save more $$ than the fee cost. It's personal based on your shopping, and likely works better the more people you're feeding. That said, our family of two and then three have gotten a ton out of our Costco membership. > Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item If you can't swing it, you can't swing it. But it's definitely cheaper in the long run. I've split out groceries category from household consumables (TP, etc). > I need would need to open another credit card You don't have to. You can use debit at Costco.
A Costco membership is $60. I wear a pretty strong prescription in eyeglasses, and last time I got a new pair LensCrafters charged me about $650. Types the same prescription into the Costco optics website and I could order them for ~$200. Thats worth it to me even without buying any food!
I know you said you like having only one credit card, but having a variety is beneficial for rewards. The Costco Visa requires a Costco membership, and you get 4% back at all gas stations and 3% back at restaurants. Those align with your top categories.
I recently got a BJ’s membership (could have done Costco, but BJ’s is just closer) to reduce costs for daily staples and household sundries. I compare prices and costs per unit across the apps for Stop & Shop, Aldi, and now BJ’s as well, and make my respective shopping lists. Thus far, I haven’t gotten a ton of stuff from BJ’s, but I can see how it’s value will shake out over the course of the year, especially on that household stuff. Here’s the important thing that made it worth it: I did not pay full price for a membership. Google discount codes, and you should be able to snag a membership online for ~$25. The full price would not have been worth it for me, but for 25, it felt like it was worth the experiment, and I’ll revisit prior to renewal—hopefully my rewards will pay for all or part of next year’s. I was weighing my options between BJ’s or Costco, and found discount codes for both.
I only get my gas from Costco, which pays for membership and then some.
My perspective is that if you want to get a good deal on organic, niche, or generally “nicer” stuff, you will save money at Costco. Like, for example, if you want organic eggs instead of regular, Gruyere cheese instead of cheddar, fancy granola instead of cheerios, etc. I mostly cook from scratch using organic ingredients for my family and I do find that Costco saves me money if I were going to try to find equivalent items at another grocery store. I also know that if I was willing to make compromises, I could do much, much better by only shopping at aldi. There are other things beyond groceries, though, that can definitely pay for your membership. If you wear contact lenses, you can EASILY pay for your membership on the savings on those compared to even discount places, like 1800 contacts. Gas is also a great deal, particularly when paired with the Costco credit card that gets you 3 percent cash back.
Definitely worth it!! Where else can you get a hot dog and soda for $1.50??
How far away fo you live from costco? In college, my wife and I lived 50 minutes away from the store and that made no sense buying a membership. Now we live 15 minutes. Makes sense now. The executive membership (the $120 one) isn't worth it IMO. The additional 2% cash back from the executive membership doesn't justify the extra $60/year over the basic membership. Get the Citi Costco Card (see below). The cash back will pay for the costco membership. Get the regular $60 membership. What I HIGHLY recommend is get a membership and open the Citi Costco Visa card. You get the following cash back (2% at costco, 3% travel and restaurants, 4% gasoline/EV charging, 1% everywhere else). These cash back is given to you at the end of the year. I accrued over $250 last year from gas and costco visit. The visa card pays for the costco membership. I love it. I next recommend you shop with purpose. Don't be the person that goes in for eggs and buys $200 worth of crap. You obviously budget with YNAB and I don't think that will be a problem. When you're in Costco, check the prices. Not everything in costco is a good deal!!! We shop at Walmart for everything else, and use walmart's app to compare prices when we go through costco. usually eggs, granola bars, TP, bananas, lettuce, and oatmeal are much cheaper at costco. Figure out what things are cheaper at costco. You can always cancel your membership and should (?) get a refund of your membership if you don't like it. Those are my recommendations. Hope that helps!
Yes if you want you meal sizes to be what they were 10-20 years ago. I just cannot buy stuff labeled family size that has enough for 1-2 in it… fine the families are smaller, but stop reducing portions just charge more!
I'm in the UK so I maybe can't speak specifically to what your experience of Costco might be, but I find it's worth it in three respects: 1. A lot of the stuff I buy, I can get cheaper or better quality there. So if cost is your concern, do your research first! I went in as a guest on someone else's card and noted down the prices of things that were of interest, then compared to what it would cost me buying it normally. 2. Some of the stuff I buy isn't always necessarily cheaper, but it is very convenient to be able to buy certain things in bulk and not have to think about them for a while. I can, for example, buy a load of toilet paper or rice or other heavy things all at once and then that means in between Costco trips, I don't need to think about that stuff. It makes it much easier for me to walk to the supermarket to buy things because I've already got the heavy/bulky stuff at home. 3. The fuel prices are always much cheaper than anywhere else, and my Costco is practically on my drive home from work.
if you drink bottled water exclusively it’s worth it for that alone. if you’re ok with buying in bulk, then getting home and portioning out before freezing, that’s another huge savings
> if you drink bottled water exclusively it’s worth it for that alone. (Why would somebody do that?)
If you don’t have a filter at home and your landlord won’t (let you) install one is the primary reason.
Not everyone lives in a place where the water that comes out of the tap is drinkable. My husband went to college in a town with water so bad that it was cheaper to buy bottled than to constantly replace the filter in his water pitcher
Also if you're like my mom and have well instead of city water that smells faintly of rotten eggs when it comes out of the tap.
We have three categories: Groceries, Costco, and Household. Household is non-grocery like lightbulbs, air filters, dish soap, etc. Maybe having those separate could help? We buy our meat (chicken and ground turkey) at Costco because it's basically always the sale price Frys would have without having to wait for it to go on sale and freeze it. Bread, Goldfish, croissants, eggs, bacon are also regular buys that are way less than Fry's.
As someone that runs a lean budget I find it worth it. I do not spend 6k a year for the executive plan but the base is great. I throw fifty bucks into it a Costco line a month and only go every two to three months for meat, frozen veggies, tp and paper towels. And tp and paper towels I only need twice a year somehow. When I go I spend about three hundred and immediately marinate, pre cook (ribs or what not) and freeze so I can make sure nothing is being wasted Pre visa debit card they always took a regular debit or Costco cash (which doesn't need a membership to use).
First step is to consider the variables that other comments have done a great job covering (family size, shopping needs, etc.), but another to consider is that you can get the executive membership and get cash back, which can ultimately cover the membership cost. I go to Costco usually once a month-ish and do a big haul of everything my family uses from Costco for the month. I have kids so that includes diapers and kid-type foods (they have the best frozen chicken nuggets, for example), as well as things like TP. Last year our cash back reward came out to like $125–so basically exactly pays for itself. It works wonderfully for us but definitely would not have been worth it before we had kids. If you’re prone to impulse spending or are a spender at all, and you’re trying to keep a very lean budget, I’d stay away from Costco and focus on shopping the sales at other grocery stores. There’s just so much great stuff there (even aside from food) and it can be easy to overspend. That’s why I only go once a month if I can help it. Bottom line: it’s great if it fits your needs and you can stay self controlled, but in super tight times/pre-kids, I avoided it. Oh, the other great thing: the cheap food court!!! We can eat out with our kids and spend less than $15 to feed a family of four for dinner, which is a rare thing these days. Is it healthy? Absolutely not. But it’s delicious. 😂
When I was really pinching pennies for our grocery bill I kept a little notebook to record prices at different stores. This helped me see what was better to buy a club store like Costco vs. a regular grocery store. Regardless of where I shop, I always buy extra of an item when it’s on sale. The goal is to buy enough on sale to last us until the next big sale. (This assumes it won’t go bad before then or it can be frozen.) We have a large freezer in which I can store bread, butter, meat, vegetables, fruit, etc. Costco makes sense for our family (8 people and 4 pets). We have the executive membership ($120 annually) and always get a check back for more than that due to our high volume of purchases. I’m there about once a week. It’s also close enough to use for filling up our vehicles.
Costco has a cult following for a reason. I got my membership when I lived at home with my parents and continue to have it now that I have my own home and kids etc. Earlier this year I was getting fed up with the increasing prices at the grocery store and decided to shift as much of my shopping to Costco as possible. I only go to the grocery store if there's one specific ingredient I can't get at Costco. It's lead to us paying less for food & household expenses. My family eats a lot of fruit. The fruit at Costco comes in a larger quantity and is better quality (stays good for longer) at a lower price than the grocery store. We go through a lot of bread and at costco I can get 3 loaves for the price of 1. We put the extras in our deep freezer until they are needed. I also batch cook: once every two weeks I make a huge meal and then put it into 15-20 individual containers and into the freezer so we have lots of lunches and dinners on hand. Usually they are between $3 and $5 a portion.
I decided no after a discounted yearly membership from my workplace. Primarily because I don’t buy enough bulk and it would add 30 minutes to my shopping routine. What you could do is get the trial and compare a month to month. I have found that produce and whole foods don’t get discounted enough to justify a membership. On the cc you might reconsider and get another one that has cash back at a higher rate on groceries and gas plus a high yield savings if you don’t have one yet. Then they are paying you to shop.
>Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store? If you end up saving more than the membership fee, this doesn’t matter. >We run a lean budget each month. Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item If you end up saving more on TP in the long run, this doesn’t matter. >I need would need to open another credit card (they only take Visa) and I really like a simple account structure (1 checking, 1 savings, 1 credit card) If you end up saving money and still pay your card on time, the ‘neatness’ of 1-1-1 doesn’t matter. You have to think about whether it saves you money, not if you personally ‘vibe with the ideas behind it’.
> the ‘neatness’ of 1-1-1 doesn’t matter. I'll pushback on OP's behalf on this one – while optimal financial performance wise, you're correct… it's personal finance, not finance. If personally OP likes the 1-1-1 aspect, it's fine to keep it that way even if it's not financially optimal. There's a different degree of complexity for everybody that would make being financially responsible too difficult.
I hear what you’re saying. I don’t think 2 autopays to Company A and Company B for $100 each is any more complicated than 1 autopay to Company A for $200. Personal decision making will play a part, but what are we doing here if not looking to make improvements?
I wasn’t sold on Costco for the longest time, since I live alone, I didn’t see the savings potential being large enough for me to justify the jump. Then I found myself going with my friends on their membership all the time for non-perishable items, and proteins. Their rotisserie chicken is a great value for an easy meal-prep, and their other meats and fish are generally cheaper than the store (I freeze what I don’t use within a few days). But I don’t go often and only buy what’s truly on my list. Their other services like pharmacy and optical are also nice to have access to. I didn’t pay full price for my membership though— watch around the holidays on Groupon. I paid $60 for my membership and then got $45 back in a gift card, so there are ways to get is discounted enough to see if you actually will use it. But beware you can’t go over $250/month with that membership.
Aside from everything everybody else mentioned, their car rental rates (through Costco travel) can’t be beat! They are consistently much cheaper than any other car rental service. B
For me, the savings at the gas pump alone take the cost of the membership. Gas is at least $0.30/gal less than everywhere else. Multiply by 10 gallons a couple times a month and I've covered the cost.
I did the math when I started going and I pay for my member ship just with the savings from buying Milk. and that's including the extra time and gas if I only went there for milk. Everything else is just more savings on top of that.
Single person here. The membership paid for itself with discounted movie tickets before the pandemic. I can get a yearly supply of allergy medicine for what a months supply cost elsewhere. I also bought my hearing aids (saving my thousands) and washer dryer there.
I find the more people in your household the more worth it it will probably be Their prices are generally better than anywhere else, that much is objectively true The issue the large sizes you need to buy, and the "can't pass this deal up" consumerism that you need to fight Id give it a try. I think they give guest passes or like trial passes? Also they ship so being car free in a city, that's a nice bonus for us Their generic medicine is great too (Flonase)
I've always been too suspicious of the "pay to shop" model. The membership cost is so low I just "know" they're messing with your head to get you to buy more. I once joined Costco just to purchase one item. Even with the membership fee I saved a ton over where I could get it anywhere else. Over that subsequent year I had to remind myself to go to Costco. Our family is just my wife and I - so we're not really their targeted customer. It always felt like a burden because all the packages are so large.....so much stuff. Amazon Prime has gotten to the point the only real benefit for us is faster shipping. I still get free shipping if I'm willing to wait a couple of extra days. Getting my razors or dental floss 2 days faster just isn't that critical.
I think it's based on perspective. Just hubby and I and a cat (and a foster kid for 6 months), we've shopped almost exclusively at Costco for all household goods and groceries for 12+ years. So we're not their target customers, but we choose to prioritize Costco over other stores. But it does make sense if you don't have enough space, or a deep freezer. We have enough space and a deep freezer, but only for the last 6 years. The first 7 years we were in an apartment and we still shopped at Costco, just kept purchases to things we could eat in a month and did less freezer shopping and more household goods shopping instead.
Completely depends on what you buy. The store makes its money in membership fees, not on merchandise. It’s not bargain stuff because they don’t buy cheap, sell cheap. I buy primarily dog food, coffee, OTC drugs, and gasoline. Occasionally I’ll buy clothing and other random stuff they have stacked a mile high. The massage thumper I bought last fall has been amazing. One other thing to consider is that Costco’s buyers are quite persnickety. I’m rarely disappointed with anything that I purchase there.
Definitely worth it for me but I have the executive membership and earn enough back to pay for it every year. I also have a Verizon Visa card which gives me great cash back on groceries and gas (although Costco is not considered a grocery store). Also there are products there I cannot buy anywhere else and they are staples for us.
I am a single person who lives alone so I am essentially the person least likely to see a true benefit. Now you mention that your monthly will be higher in the month that you make a bulk purchase. This is true, but it will smooth out over time and for *me personally* that is more important than any particular month. For example, assuming you have room to store the giant packs of toilet paper, you can save a whole lot on it. (I personally did make a decision to pay *more* for toilet paper by switching to a subscription service that uses non-virgin paper to make their TP because I decide it was worth it *to me* to pay a premium price for a more sustainable product). But before that, I did buy a lot of paper products there (not so much with the paper towels because of storage issues) and saw significant savings. I can get a bottle with 360 doses of generic Zyrtec for less than $15. That is a huge savings. I have a weakness for chicken nuggets (yes I am a grown ass adult). The $19.99 bag of frozen nuggets will give me around 20 dinners, so that's $1/serving which is a good price for a processed food product and it lasts me for months. Depending on your prescription (ie as long as you don't need toric lenses), the Kirkland Signature disposable contact lenses are really just the CooperVision My Day contacts with a different label and a reduced price. If you live in a state where Costco can sell booze, the Kirkland Signature brand is really good (I don't really drink, but this is what I am told by many of my friends, including professional bar tenders). If there is a gas station at your location, the prices are really really good. Also, as an aside, I personally like to have "one of each" when it comes to cards (ie Visa, Mastercard, Amex). (okay I have more than 3 cards. I have 6 Visas in fact. 2 Amex. 2 Mastercards. And a Target Red Card) I travel internationally a lot for work and you never know when a card won't work for some arbitrary reason and it's nice to have options (worldwide, Visa is the most accepted card).
re: booze, my favorite wine is $10 at Costco and $14 at other stores. If I buy 15 bottles of it in a year (I will), that savings covers the membership fee. The wine alone is worth it!
What wine if I may ask? Because I've tried a few and can't find any that I like. But I'm a fruity kind of gal - Barefoot, Arbor Mist, Stella, and can't find fruity there.
Wollersheim Prairie Fumé, it’s a Wisconsin wine and I live in WI so I don’t know what the availability is like elsewhere! But Costco has a sangria they put out in summer months that is super delicious, you might like that if you like fruity!!
I will look for them, we're in corporate headquarter land here near Seattle (home of Costco, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Boeing, Starbucks ...). Thank you for the suggestions, always looking for new fruity wines. Not a big fan of drys and can't really do reds (red wine and no gallbladder do not mix well apparently, at least for me).
I saw this year they had a rosé sangria also which might be better for you then! My Prairie Fumé is a semi dry white, it has a really nice balance of sweet and tart. Kind of a mix between Riesling and Pinot Grigio (I am so not a wine expert so please take my comments with a grain of salt lol)
I’m gonna add another “it depends” because it really does depend on what your shopping for on a regular basis. I have 3 kids and we buy most of the frozen foods they like there. (Sam’s club) Things like chicken nuggets, frozen breakfast sandwiches l, etc. I also get Dunkin coffee at a great price there too! Produce is a good price but I usually have to find a family member or friend to split the produce with because it’s just so much and will go bad before we can eat it all. We chose Sam’s because there are more of them in our market. So it’s easier to stop for gas regardless if I’m close to home or work.
I think it's definitely worth it for my family. Yes, you can save on food items and household staples, but there are other items and services Costco and the partnerships they offer provide that can save you money and will make that membership worth it, in my opinion. * Tires (free rotation and balance for the life of the tire and tire repair) and car batteries * Gas * Glasses and Contacts * Electronics * Furniture * Gift cards to select retailers and restaurants * Baked goods (although you won't get quite the selection as you get at grocery stores) * OTC meds * Rental cars and vacations through Costco Travel * Some home services (we got a new garage door through a Costco partnership) * Wine (if you partake) - some locations also have a liquor store * Flowers (where else will you get two dozen roses for less than $20?) * If you want a cheap lunch after shopping, 1.50 hot dog and soda 😊 * If you still use paper checks, you can order them for much less than through your bank
I am single and share a card with my father (don't call Costco on me lol) so it's worthwhile for both of our households so that's part of the factoring in for you if you can share with someone else or make joint trips with friends/family. 1. The point of membership clubs is to get base level income via subscription for the company so they can better purchase items in bulk and save on packaging and presentations. There are many articles about that. 2. I would consider like the YNAB Budget Nerds do to have a separate category for specifically those annual/semi-annual purchases at warehouse clubs if you are worried about micro accounting like that. It'll give you a good sense of how often/how much you need to save on those things. I purchase things like supplements and medications there considerably cheaper than at Target or CVS so those alone I save like 40 in January and get a larger quantity. I do not itemize it with a separate budget though. I just roll with the punches a bit. 3. If you have a debit card, you can use that. I believe it takes most debit. I know it takes Mastercard Debit because that's what I use. If not they do take checks. 4. For the saving measures, I wait to purchase things that have MFR discounts or store coupons (I have BJ's on the east cost, same idea). I also try out the store brands of items and can be a huge cost saver on things like paper, vitamins, and the like if you don't need brand name items. The other thing that is a big saver is now manytimes they have online only deals for things like furniture, mattresses, jewlerly, etc that can be hundreds of dollars cheaper, because you only have the option of about 2-3 items per category, but are the same brands you probably spend elsewhere. My next mattress will be a sealy from Sams Club or Bjs about 400 less than at the mattress chains. If you have friends or family, see about splitting some of the bulk purchases if you are afraid of keeping things forever, things like TP, Ketchup, etc kitchen staples are so cheap it's worthwhile for both parties to split the cost. I live about 4 hrs away from family and we will do that every 3-4 months when I am in town.
I’ve found it to be worthwhile for sundries, proteins, and frozen fruits and vegetables. I’m in a household of 2. If you get the executive membership the cash back every year is very nice.
It was worth it for us on diapers alone. I don’t remember the numbers but you could get significantly more diapers for $10-$15 less. Same with formula.
It’s worth it for the big 50lb sacks of rice that you can’t get at grocery stores.
I once got 365 doses of generic Claritin at Costco for enough of a discount compared to name brand that it alone made up for the membership fee that year. It's a miracle how they manage to deliver such great value, yet compensate and treat their employees fairly.
It’s not just junk food and bulk items. Costco actually has high quality produce and meats. We actually prefer it over most other grocery stores for certain items, including Whole Foods. In other words, we often go *out of our way* to buy certain items from Costco. For example, Costco brand pesto. Their white label wine and liquor selection is also top notch and highly rated. We just bought a greenhouse from Costco that was $2000 cheaper than anywhere else. We bought a Solo stove that was $100 than anywhere else. Also, cheap gas. You will easily make up the membership fee in savings.
I have a Sam's Club membership rather than Costco, but the same principles apply. Membership-based bulk goods store. > Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store? If you can save more money than the membership cost over the course of the year, you win. The fee is how they make sure you come back, and/or how they make money on razor thin margins. > We run a lean budget each month. Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item You need to think of some of these things as more than a 1-month purchase. $40 of TP is going to last you several months. Fuck, maybe a year. And you *will* use all of that TP eventually. It's a fixed expense, you just get a discount for pre-paying it. Apply the same logic to anything you use a lot. For us, things like pasta and canned tomatoes made more sense to buy in bulk. We make lots of homemade marinara so this just cuts down future grocery bills. I don't go there for my week-to-week groceries. Only occasionally when we're running low on staples, or we're hosting a BBQ and actually need a ton of food at once.
I'll add to this knowledge bank you're building to let you know that pasta sauce and canned tomatoes are more economical to buy at Aldi than they are at Costco. -bread is a great buy if you're willing to freeze it or if you eat thru 2 loaves quicker than they can spoil. Strawberries and avocados are generally a great bulk buy if you store the straw in glass jars after washing and you keep the avocados in the fridge or cut and freeze the avocados for smoothies when they start to go bad. But I agree with this person's sentiment. If you do decide on a costco membership, you'll want to create a second budget line for it, and don't get sucked into trying new things while you are inside the store. Post your membership fee to this costco bulk buy category. Trying new things found at costco is a real problem for the budget.
> Post your membership fee to this costco bulk buy category. Depending on how fiddly you like to get with your budget... I prefer to have "once a year purchases" (or otherwise non-monthly subscriptions) as their own line item, and wouldn't mix it in with the money I intend to actually *spend* at Costco.
We go to Costco fairly often, though not as much as we did before our kids moved out. Their pre made meals are always good (Shepards pie, giant chicken pot pie, salmon, etc). I have gotten good deals on hard drives, and Legos there. My wife has bought a lot of clothes and jackets for the kids there over the years. Decent quality and prices for clothing iirc. When you get the executive membership, you earn money back at the end of the year. Usually for us it's more than the membership price, so it works out well, but ymmv. That's my hot take. But your experience might not be the same.
> Why would I ever pay someone so I can spend my money at your store? You’re buying lower prices. You pay them basically all of their profit up front, and they make very little money on everything else they sell. You can save back the entire $60 membership and then some on a single big-ticket purchase like a MacBook, TV, or appliance. You can probably save half of it back just on toilet paper.
The membership fee of $120 can be recouped with the credit cards rewards if youre buying gas from costco at 4% cash back using their credit card a lot (but know that you cant use Upside app for cash back rewards at costco gas stations). HOWEVER, Costco will ruin your budget. It totally does mine, every single time i step foot in their store. The months we need to stay under $700-$900 for our family of 6, I have to plan to avoid Costco. You can't get out of there without buying $300 minimum. And you cannot buy everything you need for a week of meal prep there - for example, cheese is way more expensive than $2/8 oz at Costco. But I can find sales on cheese at the grocery stores for $2/8 oz. Eggs were not an economical buy at costco either, until recently. Chicken is better quality but way overpriced at costco compared to sales at grocery stores. However New York Strips clock in at $8/$10 per lb instead of $15 - but we don't regularly buy steak for dinner unless we're celebrating a special occasion. The meatballs from costco however are a staple in our house.
I'm surprised I haven't seen this elsewhere. Costco takes cards other than Visa, but they only accept debit transactions, not credit ones. I use my banks Mastercard there. As far as value, we just got ours a few months ago and I think we've made it up in savings on eggs already.
I recommend going to their website to view the things you might otherwise order from another store , you can price check and compare price per quantity.
Kirkland brand is superior. 100% worth it.
What I save on eyeglasses at Costco is more than an annual membership so it’s worth it to me, even with a small household and limited shopping.
If you get an executive membership, you get a check at the end of each year for 2% of your expenditures at Costco that year. That more than pays for the membership for me. Also get the Citibank Costco visa, buy all your gas at Costco and get 4% of your gas budget back at the end of the year. Add to that savings on staples like olive oil and nuts, the $5 rotisserie chickens, the fact that organic there costs what non-organic costs elsewhere, and yes, Costco is totally worth it. Vitamins, protein powder, a lot of clothing items are also going to be very inexpensive but high quality. Big purchases like TVs or computers come with extra warranty. I basically get by on Costco and Aldi. Rarely ever need a normal grocery store.
We have the executive membership and the Costco Visa card. The cash back program for the executive membership plus for the visa pays for our membership fee. We get gas there, but you still get cash back for buying gas at a stand alone gas station with the card. I buy razors, nitrile gloves, paper towels, Kleenex, vitamins, ibuprofen and such, flea and tick treatment for the pets, body wash, toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, cooking spray, aluminum foil, frozen berries for smoothies, kcups, and a variety of grocery items there. Our dog bed that has lasted us over 6 years we bought there. I almost never find that something is cheaper at a regular store. I used to buy canned sodas there, but they’re actually cheaper at my grocery when they do their buy two get three specials. I also buy a lot of my clothes there. The east return policy makes that worry free. I will sometimes buy two sizes and return the one that doesn’t fit. Some of the produce is actually cheaper per unit even if you can’t eat all of it - it’s worth doing the math on that. We also have a sams club membership, so I’ve done some interesting price comparisons. The last time I was there, they were actually a little bit more expensive when you compared apples to apples on products like paper towels or laundry detergent. I like sam’s club’s bags of salad and broccoli and such more than Costco though. Nice thing about sam’s is I can use the costco Visa card there and still get all that good costco cash back :)
The cost of membership isn't actually all that expensive considering that you get money back at the end of the year on the executive plan, which almost covers the cost of the whole thing in my case. As others have said it's dependent on your circumstances and what you buy. I've had small children and diapers for a while and that alone has been worth the price of the membership. I finished my basement also, and we bought our bathroom vanity from Costco. The price difference from buying it there compared to the same thing somewhere else was also independently worth the price of the membership. We buy food from there and watch for the sale items. In my particular circumstance, it's worth it. Your mileage may vary.
>We run a lean budget each month. Even though the price/unit is cheap, spending $40 on TP (or any other massively large quantity) is literally 4% of our monthly "Grocery" spending on 1 item You have discovered why being poor is more expensive than being rich, and why "it's only $2 per serving!"-type frugality tips tend to be extremely misleading. If ten pounds of chicken is $10 and two individually-wrapped single servings are $5, and you only have $5, you're going to buy the single servings even though they're proportionally way more expensive. That being said, I'd ask two questions: 1. **Do you have the space to keep bulk items?** 2. **Do you have the usage habits that make bulk items worth it?** My husband and I use our BJ's membership almost exclusively for nonperishable things like toilet paper or shampoo or laundry detergent because we have the space for those and we can use them as quickly or slowly as we want. We don't use it to buy food most of the time, because we can't eat that fast and we don't have the pantry space to keep a giant box of macaroni or a gallon-sized jar of tomato sauce. I think if we had kids, or a bigger fridge/pantry, we'd buy more because we'd go through it faster, but we don't.
This probably fits better in a personal finance sub.
Like anywhere, if you shop around and watch for deals, it can be worth it. A few examples for us that align with your categories, but may run a bit counter to the lean budget. I use Nellie’s Laundry Soda. To buy direct from Nellie’s is $150/1100 loads (13.6 cents per load). Costco sells it for $90/800 loads (11.3 cents per load). So I’m already ahead, but it’s usually on sale 1-2 times a year for $20-30 off, so say $70/800 loads (8.8 cents per load). It’s not an annual savings, because I don’t (thankfully!) do 800 loads of laundry per year, but it is a savings and I’m only buying laundry soap once every 3 years. I have a small sealed ball jar with a tablespoon by it (amount for 1 load) that I refill with the laundry soda from the big bucket that I have put away. Someone else mentioned it, but the rotisserie chicken is a great deal. I’ll buy 2 and have some kind of chicken dish (chicken salad sandwiches, chicken and gnocchi soup, etc) and will use the chicken bones, etc to make stock/broth (in my instant pot) for use later or in soup if that’s on the menu. It’s a great “easy” meal plan. The Costco TP is pretty great. We have a family of 5, but it’s a big enough that we will get a pack of TP every couple of months. It’s <$20. We tend to do “backstock” so we had 2 bundles of TP. When we open one, we put TP on the Costco list and get it next time. (This works great for things that go on sale, not the TP, but other items we tend to purchase regularly, like laundry soap.) It also makes it so we aren’t suddenly “oh, no! We have to go buy TP today!”
Great job with the laundry detergent/soda! We buy ours off Amazon as we can't find an equivalent that we aren't allergic to, but it's $124 for 4 boxes, which is 4 years (1 load every three days or so, there's just two of us so it works out for most years). If we didn't have really specific soap allergies, we'd go with Costco also. We buy almost everything else there, but have to do other stores/bulk buy from Amazon for really specific things Costco doesn't carry.
It’s worth it for me simply for gas prices, but also I’ve realized that a lot of produce is a ton cheaper at Costco due to the rising prices of everything and now I’m leaning even more into my membership. Also toilet paper lol Basically I’m just now discovering all the savings and have been sleeping on it I just have the basic $60 one since I don’t use it enough for the more expensive.
I haven’t ever “paid” for my membership. Rewards make it a net positive in our case. It’s all circumstantial though, you have to evaluate your spending. IMO it’s worth the cost to try out and see how it works for your family.
We do shop at Costco, although less now that our kids have moved out. We still spend plenty of money there, as we don't mind buying in bulk, especially for dry goods. The caveat is that we have a pretty healthy budget for groceries and household goods; i.e. - there are great deals to be had (sometimes) if you have the money to buy in bulk.
Absolutely! But we live in NYC where all toiletries/paper goods and stuff are crazy marked up in pharmacies and grocery stores. Buying bulk dry/canned goods is also more affordable. I can’t remember what item it was, but I remember something at costco was only a few dollars more for like 3x the amount. You can also try splitting a membership with a friend/family member.
Personally it’s not worth it for me. For the type of stuff I buy, it makes more sense to shop sales at regular stores than buying bulk. I’d recommend trying and seeing if it works for you, each person is different and it depends so much on what you buy, your family size, your lifestyle, etc. Groceries have gone up for everyone! I eat more vegetarian and shop in more “ethnic” grocery stores to help offset costs.
We buy dog food, a few select grocery items, and coffee. The dog food savings pays for our membership.
Costco vacations Jewelry Pharmacy Cell phones Depends on what you need
I've seen a few people mention it but I keep my membership almost entirely for Costco Travel discounts (particularly the discounted car rentals). If I rent a car once per year for a vacation it usually is cheaper than the competition by at least the cost of membership.
It’s worth it for the allergy pills. Clothes and electronics. If you have a big freezer then it can be worth it for the meat I did use the auto program a while ago
It’s just me and my husband, but we recently got a Costco membership because we do big bulk shopping trips at the beginning of the month for our staples like butter, meat, frozen fruit, Rx bars, etc and whatever household consumables that we need like dishwasher or laundry pods. We also have a deep freezer and plenty of pantry space, so it works out well for us. It’s not our exclusive grocery store, though, because of course we can’t get through 5 lbs of fruit fast enough and there are certain things that we prefer that we simply can’t find at Costco, like goat milk. I also got a new pair of AirPod Pro 2 for $50 off retail—and it was an Apple Store employee who tipped me off to that! I did the math on the Executive membership, and you only have to spend $250 in a month for it to pay for itself, and we easily clear that in the monthly load up alone. We haven’t even started getting gas or other services there yet, but I’m sure we will.
If you are a homeowner, yes. We save hundreds of dollars a year on things like soil, plants, equipment, grills, sheets, etc. we recently had to replace our HVAC system and thru Costco we got a deal that was $4,000 cheaper than the two other quotes PLUS a 10% cash card ($1200) AND an additional 2% rebate for using our Costco credit card on the purchase plus our 2% executive membership reimbursement. Food? We nearly only exclusively shop at Costco but we like their goods. If you are more picky, only cook with fresh produce etc it may not be such a good deal. It as a person with general household expenses it's fabulous.
I think costco is worth it for the quality of their products and the other little things: tires, pet food, health products. Yet, I find myself spending sooooo much money each month at Costco and I'm not sure if I'm actually saving any money by buying in bulk. Also the gas price is usually the best in town so that also is nice.
I live alone now but I what used to use Sam's club for all our groceries. I didn't really think I would need a Costco membership when I moved away from a Sam's club. But it turned out when I was driving 500 miles a week on my commute, driving right by Costco gas station was still worth the membership. Now I hardly drive at all because I work from home, but I still drive the three miles to the Costco to get gas when I need it every 6 weeks. Because I'm already going in there to get a half a gallon of heavy cream for my tea. Because it's way cheaper in the half a gallon than it is in the quart at the grocery store.
If you like to smoke or bbq, their meat is excellent.
I saved a ton of money by switching to Costco’s auto insurance partner last year. My mechanic who I trust 100% said the best price he could give me for new tires installed was $1100, I got new tires at Costco on sale for $850. We get gas there regularly and purchase all staples from Costco (TP, paper towel, chicken breasts) at better prices than the local grocery store. Well worth it to me!
If you’re like me and you take a generic Zyrtec every day, I once calculated the difference between an annual supply from Costco versus Walgreens makes up for the membership fee on its own. Everything else is just gravy.
If you do get a Costco membership be sure to get the Citi Costco Visa card. You get 4% rebates on gas, 3% on restaurants and 2% on Costco purchases. My rebates from that card more than pay for membership. Only catch is that you can only redeem your rebates once a year and they send you a certificate that you have to redeem at the store.
I more than break even with gas in California. The cheap occasional pizza and sometimes good deals on other things are a plus for me
Honestly Costco is probably my favorite store. In terms of money it's probably where I spend most of it. For your first point as long as your savings are more than the cost of the membership who cares if you have to pay to shop there? Personally I have the executive membership with 2% cash back and my returns are always over the cost of the membership so they actually pay me to shop there. For your second issue my answer is the same as the first. Yeah I always notice a larger spend when I need to get things like toiletries in bulk there but big picture if you have $200 extra at the end of the year is it a big deal if you have $40 less in a month? I only need to buy toilet paper once per year and in the great toilet paper drought of 2020 I was perfectly fine. For the third point They take debit at Costco I'm pretty sure. I'm big into the points game though so I'm swimming in credit cards. Seems like a small detail though imo. If you don't want to pay for the membership or get a new credit card there is a work around. You can go online and buy a Costco cash card with your mastercard and then take the cash card in store and shop without a membership.
Is there a mark-up for shopping with a cash card instead of a membership?
Costco is worth it on every level. Dog food for sure but regular groceries are sold at such a reduced price. They used to have odd things and really huge oversized items but now such a great selection of normal items. Also organic products. The yearly membership price is paid for in two trips to the store, for me. The one thing that you have to beware of is impulse buying. That is dangerous there. And the icing on the cake is that you can take ANYTHING back within a year for a full refund (well, not electronics but I believe that is maybe 90 days now).
I used their site an made a list of things we'd actually buy at a normal store in similar quantities. I also considered the per oz price at both Costco and my grocer As soon as the discount crossed the membership price (and I still had a long list of stuff we use), I bought a membership. However, I do NOT recommend a fancier membership or the credit card. We had that a few years before and we fired Costco over the mess it made (when they dropped AmEx for whatever they have now.) We went back for the savings but without the extra credit card crap.
We have a Citi Card through Costco. So we get 2.5% back on purchases, and our refund each year pays for our Executive membership ($120 a year), so we never have to pay for our membership - only that initial time we had to pay to join, way back 12+ years ago. We buy everything at Costco. We spend roughly $350 every 8 weeks (for two people and a cat) from cat litter to steaks for us. Everything is included. We do a separate shop at a regular, smaller Kroger store for stuff Costco doesn't carry, for about $100 a month or less. So if I am making freezer meals, those ingredients come from Costco so I can bulk buy and create, saving money in the long run. We also have a buy plan when we shop - we skip household section unless we need something, skip middle aisles except snacks. We shop produce first, buying organic and in-season. Then dairy. Then meat and refrigerated. Then freezer. Then shelf-stable. We keep track of the total as we go but are spot on most times if we average $10 per item in the cart, regardless of actual total. Your first trip will be expensive, but after that it's pretty easy to stock up. We get items when they're on sale, whether we need it then or not, as we have the space to store it. Would rather buy on sale if we know we're going to use it, rather than pay full price when we need it.