Haha. Our new Costco just opened last week and I'm going today and buying a membership.
I feel like there was a thread in the past saying what you NEED to buy there but I can't seem to find it. Any last minute things I should make sure to buy?
I think I'm going today mostly to stock up on meat and buy some fruits/veggies but I do fear I'm going to end up buying a ton of other stuff because I'm a sucker for a good deal and a huge supply of something.
Also, is their AmEx worth it? I'm probably going to apply for one since we normally use Discover for everything to get points and I know that can't be used there.
Post by keweenawlove on Jul 7, 2012 10:34:22 GMT -5
Me too! We're trying to decide if it's worth the regular or gold membership. It looks like we'd need to spend a little over $2000 to make it worthwhile. If I could do our regular grocery shopping there it'd be worth it but it's too far away to be able to do it conveniently.
Have fun! Go at lunchtime for maximum sample tables. Although if this is a brand new store, they might have mores samples than normal all day. When our store opened, they offered free memberships for a short period. So definitely check to see if your store is doing that if you haven't already.
Go with the regular membership for your first year until you get an idea of your spending level. You have to spend well over $2k there per year to realize any of the 2% benefit - the $2100 is just to break even, and if you don't spend that much, it will end up costing you more. I wouldn't want that pressure. I like Costco but I can only buy certain things there - they usually only have one brand of each item, and you may not want to buy everything in quantity. And not everything is cheaper there. On my first trip, I made a list of prices, then compared it to Target and the grocery store.
Me too! We're trying to decide if it's worth the regular or gold membership. It looks like we'd need to spend a little over $2000 to make it worthwhile. If I could do our regular grocery shopping there it'd be worth it but it's too far away to be able to do it conveniently.
I was told nuts and fruit are a great deal there.
One of these days we're going to have to meet, lol. I may see you there!
I don't see us spending 2k there either honestly. That's over 1/3 of our yearly grocery/house product budget and I don't want to feel stuck shopping there. Of course DH needs new tires this year and the gas might be cheaper (?) so perhaps. I don't live very far from there (I'm guessing 10 minutes, less if I stop on my way home from work) so maybe.
I'm looking forward to the samples, lol. I may not need lunch today!
Morningstar farms chipotle black bean burgers. That was a Harpy recommendation and they really are awesome. They are great for quick meals. Yum!
LOL. We bought those for our vegan friend. Totally forgot to take them to the tailgate. And since they have gluten, I can't eat them until my trial diet is over. Total fail on our part!
Post by dancingirl21 on Jul 7, 2012 14:03:45 GMT -5
We usually get a pizza that you can take home and bake. They are huge and under $10. If you do summer treats, they have great deals on ice cream/Popsicles. Books are also priced well. On the way out, we always get frozen yogurt at the food stand. It's one of the only places I can still find twist and it's around $1.50. Fruits and veggies are priced well, too. I love Costco!
We tend to buy all of our electronics at Costco. They are normally a bit cheaper but, at the very least, never higher than the cheapest price I can find AND they have an awesome extended warranty.
Give the Kirkland Brand products a try. They have very high quailty control standards and the Kirkland products are generally very good.
Random things we like: - men's no-iron dress shirts. Yes, DH meets with the CIO's of Fortune 500 companies in $18 Costo dress shirts - Kirkland's brand marinara sauce. Cheap, yummy, and convenient. I no longer bother making my own. - frozen Mexican food snack items (Don Miguel's brand) - Kirkland's dish soap - Kirkland's brand Zyrtec (crazy cheap) - Kirkland's brand margarita mix - the various breads and bagels (can be frozen) - giant tub of Fage Greek Yogurt
There are plenty of other things we buy (I rarely get out of there for less than $300, and that's on a cheap trip) but those are the major repeats. I need to get DH to stop buying the shirts, though, lol. They hold up very well and he has at least 20 from there alone.
Post by biscoffcookies on Jul 7, 2012 15:10:05 GMT -5
If you like wine, keep on the look out for Kirkland label wine. My understanding is that they get the product from "real" wineries that have a surplus or something. We've had the Napa cabernet and merlot, and both were as good or better than the wines we paid $25+ a bottle for on our last trip to Napa.
Our staples are: dog food (well, non-recall bags anyways) meats apples Kirkland salsa Kirkland toilet paper (was still cheaper than Charmin with the Costco coupon last we looked) chicken stock coffee pain meds (Kirkland Tylenol/ibuprofen) trash bags dishwashing detergent a canned chili for DH laundry detergent shop towels (the thicker blue disposable paper towels - we love them for staining furniture and clean-up while camping. They make a great dish cloth)
otherwise we'll add a few things here and there as we need them. Stocking up on the meat has been HUGE for bringing down our grocery bill AND encouraging us to eat at home more.
Their return policy is great, so if you don't love anything, bring it back. We buy always buy bread, milk, cheese, produce, lunch meat, cleaning supplies, and diapers. We've liked most of the frozen good we've tried. My favorite easy meal is the lettuce wraps.
You guys are making me want to go back! I didn't buy most of the things you listed (because I stopped reading this thread too soon).
I was there for three hours. THREE. It was absolutely insane with the lines of people trying to get signed up. There were only 4 people processing memberships which was just stupid IMO. Then once I got approved for the AmEx (yay for a $55 credit on my first bill plus 1% cash back!) I had to go to the service desk and wait in another line for my temporary card. The lines made me :@
But, I love the store! I bought chicken, ground beef, salmon, goat cheese, feta cheese, blue cheese, individually packed hummus, a huge bag of pita chips for 50 cents more than I normally pay for a small bag, stocked up on diced tomatos, ketchup, and black beans, and a bunch of other stuff. There were a handful of other things I wanted to buy but stopped myself since we don't need them yet (like 100 dish washer tabs for for $6 more than we usually pay for 20 of them!). And the samples were really yummy.
I think I'll probably stay out of the store for a few weeks now that I'm stocked up and wait for the craziness to die down. I guess the lines to actually check out weren't horrible but this was more of an ordeal than I anticipated so I may need some time to mentally recover, haha.
If you like wine, keep on the look out for Kirkland label wine. My understanding is that they get the product from "real" wineries that have a surplus or something. We've had the Napa cabernet and merlot, and both were as good or better than the wines we paid $25+ a bottle for on our last trip to Napa.
This is true. My BIL is a vitaculturalist for Francis Ford Coppola and they provide the chardonney under kirkland brand.
The first few times my H and I went to Costco, we were very, very careful about things we bought. I would write down prices of things you see that you buy frequently, and then price-check them at your normal store before getting them at Costco - some things are really worth it, and others are basically the same price as at the grocery store but you buy so much that you may end up wasting it if you can't eat it fast enough.
THIS. I used to buy my chicken breasts there - but I can get them for less when the grocery stores around me have them on sale (which is about every other week).
Our go-to list Milk (2 gallons for $4) Zone Bars Frozen OJ salmon patties kleenex paper towels orowheat bread Those round sandwich breads pork (chops/loin) ground turkey meat shelled pistachios fruit calzones tortilla chips sunchips tortillas (in the freezer section - you heat on the stove)
I seriously considered this. They are cheap and look great! They had HUGE red velvet cupcakes. My friend has a birthday next week so I may have to buy her a cake there so I can try one. If I buy a cake for our house I'm in big trouble.
I seriously considered this. They are cheap and look great! They had HUGE red velvet cupcakes. My friend has a birthday next week so I may have to buy her a cake there so I can try one. If I buy a cake for our house I'm in big trouble.
They freeze well. They may taste even better frozen. The red velvet is fantastic, but their white cake with vanilla mousse is the best cake ever.
It's just SO and I and I can't tell if it would be worth it for us.
There are just two of us and I think it is worth it. We freeze meat in meal sized portions and most things come in smaller containers in the box and have good dates so it isn't as if you have to eat 2 quarts of hummus at once.
One of these days we're going to have to meet, lol. I may see you there!
We should have meet up in that line! We waited probably close to an hour. That wasn't a fast process at all.
We just went for the basic membership. I can tell we'll get some stuff from the regularly (berries, nuts, olive oil, etc) but other stuff is just way easier to get from the grocery store.
One of these days we're going to have to meet, lol. I may see you there!
We should have meet up in that line! We waited probably close to an hour. That wasn't a fast process at all.
We just went for the basic membership. I can tell we'll get some stuff from the regularly (berries, nuts, olive oil, etc) but other stuff is just way easier to get from the grocery store.
No kidding! I was in line for an hour too. I was surprised they didn't have more people working to make the line move faster. Obviously there are going to be a lot of people signing up on a Saturday right after it opens, so I would have thought they'd have extra staff there to accommodate. Oh well!
I got the basic membership too. I guess you can always upgrade later if you find you are buying a lot there, so I figured it was safe to start out lower.
For some reasons I expected the fruit to come in smaller packages. I just couldn't bring myself to buy 4lbs of grapes, even though it was a good price per pound, because that's a lot of grapes to eat quickly and our freezer is already stuffed.
I love their work out clothes, Kirkland and champion brand
Most of my coats and jackets are from there
Detergent and paper products
The individual Sabra hummus'
Organic meats galore
Their rotisserie chickens
Their Kirkland brand microwaveable bacon
I could go on and on
Oooh, good to know about the workout clothes! I was just thinking I should replace the tattered tanks and sweat shorts I usually run in. lol.
To the poster who asked - there are just 2 in my family, me and DH. I think some of the perishables are probably not going to be worth it for us (like my example of 4lbs of grapes) but I bought mostly stuff to stock the freezer and pantry. I have enough TP and paper towels to last me several months now too. I think we'll definitely be saving money overall since a lot of the stuff I saw we buy anyway and we get a much larger amount of it for a reasonable increase in price - like for 2x what we normally spend on TP I think we got 3x the amount.