Comments on: Do You Overspend or Save at Costco?

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:21:25 +0000

Thanks everyone for the great comments on this story. I knew my fellow Costco shoppers were wise enough to look at prices and know the difference between a good deal and a bad one. This little bit of ‘research’ did us all a disservice and assumed too many things that they had no proof or information about. Bad researchers, bad!

By: Pat

Pat — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:54:50 +0000

I agree with all of the comments. First and foremost, know your prices and use the coupon book. I shop for myself and I definitely save money at Costco. I don’t buy fresh foods in bulk there, because I can’t finish them myself. But there are plenty of other products I can get such as household products and toiletries. A few years ago, I didn’t shop a Costco and was buying stuff at Target. Now, I rarely go to Target and discovered that I don’t spend nearly as much as I used to! Yep, it’s true. I guess every time I go to Target, I always pick up things I don’t need…my excuse was to try new products…totally unnecessary. So even though I may spend $100 at a monthly Costco trip, it’s less than what I was spending my weekly Target trip $30-50 each trip.

By: Tiff

Tiff — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:53:38 +0000

I live with my boyfriend so that is a meager family of two that I buy the groceries for. I noticed that I was spending $100 a week at our local grocery store and usually by the end of that week I would realize we needed something. (We are a young couple so beer is factored into the $100 – lol!) Anyway, after realizing I had a perfectly good freezer in the house and food was not lasting more than a week I decided to get the Costco membership. My first two weeks I stuck to my $100 budget. The first week was slightly brutal – While I was paying less per ounce for a staple food item, I had to bite the bullet and realize I was paying 9-10 dollars for x ounces instead of my normal smaller dollar price for lesser quantity. However, by my second trip, I needed so much less to buy, the 100 was so much more exciting to spend. The second trip was spent less on food and mostly the toiletry items. By my third week/trip, I only spent 75 dollars because we had plenty of the snack foods, beer and meats/cheese that we would need. This week is going to be my 4th trip and I am so excited I can grab those items like softsoap and shampoo because the food is covered for at least another 2 weeks. Crackers, cheese, chicken breast and sausages, steaks, we are sooo covered with food for a while. I am more than pleased with costco and as long as you have the patience to divide and freeze when you get home, you will see savings immediately, no doubt.

By: W

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:23:20 +0000

Ditto H. We are also executive members which gives us addtional rebates, I don’t think we have paid for membership since we first joined!

By: H.

H. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:55:21 +0000

I wonder if they also considered the Costco advantage of a free American Express card that provides a rebate at the end of the year? Not only do I NOT have to pay to have an AMEX card, the rebate at the end of the year (based on all my purchases, not just those at Costco) more than covers the cost of my membership. I actually make money by belonging to Costco and using the card everywhere!

By: Marco

Marco — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:27:28 +0000

My wife and I love Costco. We have made spreadsheets much like the one foudn on the comparison reports on this website and find we save hundreds of dollars buying from Cotso. Not to mention their Gas prices is always 10-15 cents cheaper per gallon. Factoring that alone over a year easily affords you the membership fee’s dues. Plus, can you place a $ amount on the cleanliness of say a Costco to a Walmart?

By: Rickie M

Rickie M — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:22:51 +0000

Costco is my favorite store, period. I go there every Saturday morning and it is doing shopping mainly for just my wife and I so those people who complain about having to buy ridiculous quantities of stuff are nuts. True, some of the products do come large (I normally don’t buy fresh meat or fish there because of that) but those kinds of things are in the minority. I guess if you live in a cubicle it would be hard to store the larger size packages, but otherwise Costco is a real moneysaver. And you don’t have to be buying for an army to enjoy it, either.

By: Jenna

Jenna — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:30:08 +0000

I love Costco & truly believe that I save money & time. We don’t buy everything at Costco, but with three growing boys who eat a lot of food – it saves a lot of money. Milk, bananas, generic Zyrtec, yogurt (Chobani Greek yogurt is a fraction of what I can get anywhere else), and many other things are frequently in my cart. I love the generous return policy. I love their general quality of products – I feel like I can cheat on shopping around a little bit because I have had great success. I think that I really do save money by shopping here – if I was a super couponer, I could definitely do better at Publix, but I don’t have the four hours per week that it took me to clip & organize & coordinate sales & flyers.

By: Protocol Snow

Protocol Snow — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:17:11 +0000

I wish my Costco was just a bit closer to my house because sometimes it’s a hassle driving half an hour when the chain supermarket is 5 minutes away. So I plan my Costco trips wisely. Not only do I find that Costco is cheaper overall, but their quality products is a big plus. The quality is something that people not familiar with Costco don’t really understand. I buy all my steaks from Costco because the meat is so much better compared to the supermarkets.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:39:16 +0000

I routinely see shoppers at my local Costco with iPhones or other gadgets checking prices on the internet or checking in with home base to verify that the Costco price is a good one. I’ve tried to keep as much price data as possible in my head so I can gauge whether Costco is a good deal or not. For example my benchmark for orange juice is below $2.50 per half gallon container at the grocery store, and Costco doesn’t always get there (although their organic orange juice at $3.50 per half gallon container is a good deal). I can get yogurt for just under 40 cents per container at the grocery store on sale with a coupon, so if there are no sales coming up I go for the Yoplait variety pack (about 32 cents per container) or the Kirkland Swiss Style variety pack (about 35 cents per 8 oz container). Just know your prices, and you won’t overspend at Costco or anywhere else.