Pages

Thursday, May 1, 2014

What I buy at Costco (small family style)

Thanks for stopping by for week 4 of Thrifting Thursday. A few years ago I learned how to coupon shop which meant I really had no need for Costco. Now, I find I do not have the time commitment needed to keep up with the coupons year round. I will however try to coupon shop a few months of the year in order to restock our health and beauty supply cupboard. Otherwise I am checking sales and shopping our discount grocery store for most of our food. I have found that shopping Costco lately has been beneficial to our family. Here is what I buy at Costco for our small family of 3.

I will say up front that Costco is at least 45 minutes from where I live. So I only make it there about every other month and when I do go I want to make it count. I will also usually go with someone else and split the gas or go when I have other errands in that area too. Also this is a partial list, I will do an updated post when I get other items next time.

First up is toilet paper. When I coupon shopped I rarely got a 12 pack for under $4. I still to this day can't figure out how someone would have gotten it for free, lol! I personally think that Costco brand toilet paper is great. It is a 30 roll pack, 425 sheets a roll, 2 ply. For a family of 3 it is a lot of tp- we will never run out, but more importantly, when mom stops buy I can offer her some which helps her budget stretch even more. I will also buy the paper towels when needed and this time I bought the kleenex. We go through a lot of tissues (allergies). Usually I will pay around a $1 a box for 86-120 count store brand somewhere. When I was at Costco this time they had them on sale for $14.99 for 10- 230 count 2 ply. It makes it only $1.50 for a more than double size box of what I usually buy. It's a great deal for us! Also this time I am trying Costco's brand of dishwashing tablets, it was $10 for 120 count. We will see if I like them?? Something else that I bought is a 500 count box of ziploc sandwhich bags ($9.49 for 500 count). We don't need 500 however my sister bought the big box of gallon size bags and we are swapping some out for the other size. This is a huge benefit of buying in bulk- split the bag or box with someone!

A couple of items I always buy here are the 60 count string cheese for $12.99 (22 cents each) and the 24 count yogurt for $9.99 (42 cents each). These are two foods my small family has no problem eating within the sale by date. Another item that I don't really think is a savings- price wise, except it saves from "going to waste". It is the individual size packs of hummus. Two of us love it! I have have not had success yet with making my own (need to keep trying), so I buy it. When I buy a regular size container of it, it ends up in the back of the fridge and eventually going to waste. Buying this pack of 16 for $6 makes them only 38 cents each and all of it always gets used. I feel the "no wasting" is a huge savings!

Fruits and veggies when bought here usually are split with someone. But this time I bought the big bag of organic baby greens ($4.29) to freeze for my smoothies and my made from scratch spinach dip.
Since I have started my own party business I have been making more cakes and frostings; I was needing some cream cheese and powdered sugar, so to save time bought what they had.

Sunshine loves to go with me to Costco because of all the samples. So I will usually allow one splurge purchase. This time we bought the Baked Fry's for $5.29. They are yummy for sure!

My total purchase was $101.32 (inc tax). That is a big chunk of our budget so I always go with a limit of only spending $80-100 each time. And most always try to pay in cash so I won't go over board.

There are other items I will purchase here, and will share in another post next time I go. Do you shop Costco? What items do you purchase there? 


4 comments:

  1. This is really great! You have excellent points about why some items are not purchased for the savings, but because it's just "a good idea"
    The only problem I have is I wasn't there! lol...

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's just my husband and I in our house, but we occasionally go to Sam's Club for similar products: trash bags, paper products, and frozen fruits and veggies. It's nice because what we buy there lasts so long! We bought a box of 150 trash bags when we first got married and we didn't run out of trash bags until we'd nearly reached our 3rd anniversary! :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. We LOVE Costco! It's only 15 minutes away. Sometimes my married son will call and ask me to meet him there for lunch! ;)

    I buy the sandwich bags and the freezer bags and aluminum foil. It all lasts forever. Also the tp, paper towels, and kleenex. Laundry detergent, oxiclean, and dishwashing liquid.

    I also buy my lean ground turkey there. We used to buy the boneless chicken breasts but now we but it from Zaycon. Also buy meatballs there and sometimes pork.

    I buy milk, shredded cheddar cheese as well as the shredded mozarella cheese, bisquick, frozen corn and also buy frozen strawberries (for smoothies).

    I sometimes will buy bananas and apples there too. And sometimes grapes.Also buy special K cereal there too. I have bought a lot of clothes there in the past, both for myself and my family.

    I buy a few other things too (such as packets of mashed potatoes that you add water to and voila! Mashed potatoes)! We love Costco.

    Thanks for linking up to Making Your Home Sing Monday!

    ReplyDelete