On Wednesday, I talked about “Is Costco Worth It?”
And while the answer will depend on each family, I thought it might be a good exercise for me to list all of the grocery items I buy at Costco on a regular basis.
In some cases, the items are a much better deal than I find at the grocery store on sale with a coupon. In other instances, it is a personal decision because of either the quality or the taste.
1. Spices, Seasonings, and Vanilla. Unfortunately, coupons for spices are few and far between and paying retail can really add up. By purchasing spices and vanilla at Costco, the savings is close to 75% off retail prices. I store the bulk spices in the freezer and fill up smaller containers that are used in my spice rack.
2. Bisquick. Another item that is rarely on sale or has amazing coupons. This 96 oz box is close to three-times the size of a grocery store box and is usually around $5.00 (which is close to a 60% savings). This is a convenience item, because while we could make our pancakes and waffles from scratch – Bisquick makes it so much easier.
3. Parboiled Rice. Our family loves this rice. It is much quicker than regular white rice, but with a superior consistency to Minute Rice. Don’t let the 10 lb bag scare you – unboiled rice can also be frozen, so it is easy to store. And at $.44 per pound it is a great savings too.
4. CLIF Bars. We burn through these babies. Even though there are sales and coupons for CLIF bars, it isn’t enough to keep us stocked. At $.74 a bar, we are saving almost $.50 each over retail prices and the occasional sale allows us to bring different flavors into the house.
5. Kirkland’s Brand Columbian Coffee. We are coffee snobs. And while we pay close to $4.00 per pound with the Kirkland’s coffee, it is still a significant savings over Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts bagged coffee. And I’m a happy camper each and every morning.
6. Higher-End Meat. Purchasing a whole beef top loin and cutting it up into KC Strip steaks saves us close to $1.00 per pound. Add benefit is having a thick steak the Hubs likes and a higher quality of meat.
7. Higher-End Cheese. Our family likes sharp cheddar, feta, fresh mozzarella, and gorgonzola cheese. Buying these at the grocery store means paying close to $10 per pound, even with a coupon. Most cheeses at Costco run from between $5.00 – 7.00 per pound. A significant savings vs. the grocery store.
8. Heinz Vinegar. We use a vinegar, water and soap mixture as our all-purpose cleaner. And since I like to use my spray bottle A LOT, it means we go through a fair amount of vinegar. Costco has Heinz Vinegar for $3.29 for a 1.32 gallon jug – and that price makes it much cheaper than store-brand name vinegar.
9. Organic Fruits & Veggies (Frozen and Fresh). I will never eat any other frozen veggies than what is sold at Costco and what I freeze myself. It is impossible to match the taste, texture, and quality of Costco veggies vs Birds Eye or Westpac. Occasionally there are better sales on organic fruits and veggies at the stores – but consistently Costco’s price is hard to beat.
10. Mrs. Buttersworth Syrup. My kids BURN through syrup. They eat waffles or pancakes every morning for breakfast. And syrup is expensive. This HUGE two-pack of Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup lasts our family for several months and at under $6.00 it still makes waffles or pancakes affordable. (And I realize it isn’t the healthiest syrup – but neither are Lucky Charms.)
11. Eagle Mills Flour. I puffy heart this flour. There shouldn’t be a difference in flour, but there is. Unfortunately, baking product sales are cyclical. And while you can stock up in November and December, this flour is a great price at $1.92 for 5-lbs for those off months.
12. Kirkland Brand Bathroom Tissue. I gave up trying to figure out the best price for bathroom tissue. These are big rolls, last a long time, and soft enough for Hubs not to complain. I buy one and then forget about bathroom tissue for a couple of months.
13. Dairy (Milk, Half & Half, and Whipping Cream). Their dairy is close to 50% off grocery store prices. Added benefit – it’s organic. And it has a long-shelf life. And seems to last a week past expiration date. Enough said.
14. Trash Bags. We never seem to get great sales or coupons for trash bags. I buy the big 200-count box and forget about trash bags for six months.
15. Items with a Costco Coupon. A small disclaimer – just because Costco has a coupon, doesn’t mean it is a great deal. However, those Costco coupons can turn not such a good deal items into super good deal items quickly. I just stocked up on Ziploc Bags because they were $.97 a box after coupon vs. $1.25 per box we pay after coupon at a drug or grocery store. Know your prices and you will always get the best deal.
And here is a list of the 15 Things I Will Never Buy at Costco Again.
What did I miss? What items do you think are great deals at Costco? Leave a comment and let me know.
Definitely milk. We don’t get milk anywhere else. The price of milk is close at Aldi but my Aldi doesn’t have 1% and that is what my husband and son drink!
For us it’s all about the Starbucks French Roast coffee beans. Even the other month when Target had a gift card deal and we had big coupons for starbucks coffee it was still not cheaper than Costco (per ounce).
Our deals at Costco include some of yours plus:
**cat and dog food- great quality at a wonderful price. Compare the ingredients!
**soymilk
**canola and olive oil
**nuts
the best though, as you mentioned, is their very high quality fruits and vegetables.
Toilet paper! It’s perplexing figuring out what the best deal is and my hubby is super picky. If I can’t wait for a coupon for the brand name they carry, I know the Kirkland brand is acceptable for my toilet paper snob! We’ve gone back to cloth diapering but I’ve bought diapers there in the past and been happy with the quality of the Kirkland brand as well.
Precooked bacon.
I know I would save money to buy uncooked bacon and cook it myself, but I really don’t like cooking bacon- at all. It’s messy, it splatters, and the house smells like bacon for days.
It is better than any precooked bacon I have purchased at the grocery store.
I store it in the freezer and pull out enough for breakfast and microwave. We don’t eat bacon all that often, so it lasts us a while we only have to heat what we need for that meal
Dog food for our Great Dane, nuts, meat, cheese, weight loss shakes….Costco staples at our house!
I have streamlined A LOT of what I buy at Costco since couponing. To add 6 things to your list: dog food, fresh cut large flower bouquets, grade A maple syrup, rotisserie chicken (I realize HH also does $5 RC, but Costco’s is definitely larger), dried fruit (especially their apricots, per ounce I have never found cheaper), and for a store-bought LARGE sheet cake, their prices are hard to beat and from carrot cake or vanilla or chocolate with various fillings, they are all tasty! I am with you on #1, 5-9, 11, 13, & 14 for sure. I might also add, with a disclaimer like you put on #15, certain toys. For example, my son is a HUGE Dinosaur Train fan (it’s on PBS). For $39, they had a huge T-Rex and a smaller Buddy combo pack. Comparing prices to Wal-Mart, Target, and the T-Rex Cafe, the pack was a $20 to $60 savings at Costco. I find this to be the case for their toys on occasion. Finally, it is a great place to shop and then get lunch for the kids for cheap. For myself and my 2 boys, I usually get a hotdog and drink and a slice of pizza for $3. We share between the three of us along with some fruit I already have in the cart, and it’s a time-saver for me.
Oh as I read this I forgot but someone else mentioned the raw nuts. They are by far cheaper at costco and I don’t see many coupons or sales for them either in regular grocery stores. And, you can’t forget the restaurant gift cards they offer that give you a free 20.00 just for buying them thru costco. I’d say we are very price conscious, and costco has always been worth it for all the things listed here today. And who can forget the 5.99 huge amazing pumpkin pies when it’s Thanksgiving time?
My list:
1. Cremini mushrooms– $3.99 for 24 oz. That’s 3 typical store packages.
2. Organic Spinach– $3.99 for a 16 oz. clamshell ($6.99+ anywhere else!)
3. Grape tomatoes– $4.99-5.99 for a 2 lb. container. They actually taste like tomatoes year round!
4. GoGo Squeeze applesauce– $7.99 for 16. Not the cheapest applesauce, but great for when you’re on the go. Though I feel like a dork at times, sipping my toddler packaged applesauce. 🙂
5. Pork chops. They’re just gorgeous. And on coupon this month!
6. Allergy meds. 300 ct. generic zyrtec or claritin for under $13 a bottle. Behind the counter generic Claritin-D is $5.99 for a 15 ct.
7. Other supplements. Adult Gummy multivitamins 250 ct. is $11.99, the same price as a 120 ct. of the same brand at Target. I also get my CoQ10 here as well, and the Nature’s Bounty 1400mg fish oil they sell for around $20 is an absolute steal for the dosage you get (points to Nature’s Bounty for being very open with the sourcing of their fish oil!)
8. ECOS laundry detergent. 210 HE load bottle for $12.99. A bottle less than half that size sells for the same price at Whole Foods.
9. FAGE 0% Plain Greek Yogurt. 32 oz. container for $4.99. Their other brand of plain yogurt is great as well, and I know many people rave about the price of Chobani there (haven’t tried it).
10. Kashi cereals. Not always the cheapest if you use coupons, but if you’re in a coupon/sale drought, their big box of GoLEAN crunch is the equivalent of three regular boxes for like $7-8.
11. Goat cheese. Huge double log for I think $5.99. That price will get you about 1/3 of ONE of those logs anywhere else.
12. Vodka. Huge bottle, and the Kirkland brand is actually Grey Goose. 🙂
13. Kraft String’em String Cheese. $10 for a 64 ct. I eat these every day. They aren’t my favorite string cheese, but that price simply can’t be beat.
14. Kashi frozen pizzas. $11.49 for 3. These sell for $5.99 each at HyVee. They also randomly have lean cuisine meals, kashi meals, etc. This time of year, they are cheaper with coupon, but I always keep one of their jumbo boxes of Kashi Thai Chicken Spring Rolls in the freezer. So tasty and you could do far worse for dinner!
15. Calvin Klein ribbed tanks. They aren’t the cheapest, but they’re the best quality I’ve found and are comfy and soft.
I agree with many of the things you mention. I save a lot on milk there. Also energy drinks…i can never find coupons for monsters so this is the cheapest. I also buy protein powder…..it is name brand and the best price I can find.
I agree with the list as well. I would add romaine lettuce since it is a good deal and sometimes very hard to find decent lettuce.
While I have majorly cut back on my Costco purchases this place is still worth the yearly membership. Sometimes convenience comes into play too. I.e. driving to 6 CVS’s to find the latest deal on something you are low or out of isn’t very feasible. Picking up dishwasher tabs with the manufacturer’s automatic discount saves a lot of headaches. Might not be the most awesome ever price but still very good and done.
I get their Brothers All Natural freeze dried fruit (great snack on the go for kids) Sells for 50% of what it does at PC and other grocery stores. We also buy Kirkland whole coffee beans. Also…when I need diapers, and am short on deals/coupons, and Costco has a coupon…I will “splurge” and pay a tad more to get a good stock of diapers/wipes while I wait for another good deal to roll around. I had two in diapers for a year, still have one in diapers and will be adding another one in April.
Butter. I was surprised to not see Butter on here. We use a lot of it. The only time I can find a better deal is if a store brand is on sale for under $2/box. Which usually has a limit of 2 at that price, so I hit every store on the way to work and back home.
You can easily save $3,000 or more buying a good set of hearing aids from Costco instead of elsewhere.
Glasses! I got 2 complete sets for $200 and my insurance covered $125 of it, but even without insurance, it is a really good deal on name brand (and Kirkland brand) glasses.
Red star yeast! 2 lbs for less than $5! If you buy the small jar in the grocery store you’ll pay upwards of $6!! I do lots of baking, so this is a super deal for me!
Our Endocrinologist said Kirkland brand Vitamin D is the best you can buy. Kirkland Brand generic Claritin D is less than 1/3 the cost of Claritin and less than half the cost of the Wal-mart Brand. When they have Splenda $5.00 off you can buy 3 for less than the regular price of 2. This way it will last until the next time it goes on sale.
Great tips. I’d never heard that about Vitamin D. Thanks for letting us know.
Windshield wipers and tires! At Costco they sell Goodyear all season wipers for under $10 a wiper, where they will easily run you $20 or more a wiper at any traditional auto store. However they usually run a sale on wipers 2x’s a year and you can get the pair for $10. My other favorite buy at Costco has been our car tires. We saved over $150 dollars on all for tires compared to the “Walmart” price on better Michelin tired that are rated for 30k miles more than the competing brand. They ride well, are super quiet, and have improved our gas mileage. Tire service is always fast, and the workers are very friendly. We’re never buying tires anywhere else!
Those are great additions, Sarah!! Thanks for the tips.
To Buy- more cheaply than elsewhere: Kirkland Ibuprofen. Doesn’t go bad & cheaper than anywhere else. Milk, Land O’Lakes 1/2 & 1/2, Kirkland greek yogurt, Kirkland columbian coffee, hardcover books(if you’re buying new), children’s book sets, batteries, homemade cheesecake, personalized filled sheet cakes, car tires, boxes of plastic spoons & forks for BBQ’s (have lasted 5 years & I’m sure there’ll be enough for this summer, too), Dixie paper plates, goat cheese, refrigerated salsa, fresh take & bake pizza, fresh bakery blueberry muffins, lox, Kirkland Vitamin C, Kirkland Vitamin D, Kirkland Calcium, Abuelita Tortilla chips, bananas, gift cards, stamps. Also, I can say without exception, that any Kirkland item I have tried has never disappointed me. Don’t forget- any electronic device or appliance they sell, they DOUBLE the warrantee time. Just save receipt.
Living in Asia, coffee, cereals and cheese are often tiny quantities for huge prices! Streamline shopping at Costco really makes their store a great savings for these. In Taiwan, local fruits and veggies are still the better deal. Great to eat Tillamook cheddar cheese from Costco as opposed to tiny chunks of cheddar in local stores, or processed slices. Almond milk also is nonexistent in local markets. If you restrain spending on a vast majority of overly processed or narrow application products, it’s a great one-stop shop!
After a round of Whole 30, I switched from traditional mayonnaise to avocado mayonnaise, which can be kind of pricey. I was very happy to find Chosen Foods avocado mayo at a giant savings over anywhere else.