How Do You Spell Relief? C-O-S-T-C-O

I have a confession to make – I have never been a huge fan of Costco. It always seems too busy, too big, and too overwhelming. I have also felt that you tend to walk out with more than you really need and impulse more than you really should. One of the things we wanted to do in the second half of our family budget challenge, was get ahead on some of the basics, spending more money upfront, leaving us with less to get by on for the rest of the month. Our solution: a trip to dreaded Costco. Boy, how things change when you are trying to save money. This week we went to Costco to stock up on some basics, and I kept lingering on every aisle saying aloud to my husband “Do you know how much this is in the grocery store?” Now I am sure that you don’t win on all items at Costco, but I felt we really did. We bought a half pound of yeast for $3.59 (two small sachets cost me $1 and only made one loaf of bread). We bought six boxes of penne pasta for $6.00 when one was costing me $1.76 for the same box in the grocery store. We bought cleaning items as well as the basics of milk, eggs, yogurt, and cheese and figured out that on each item we were saving up to a third or half the price we had previously paid elsewhere. We realized we were in risk of what many do at superstores like this one – buy too much because “it is cheaper.” So you have to use common sense when shopping in such places:

• Make a list before you walk in.
• Don’t impulse. If you see something you want that is not on your list, make note of it and put it on your list for a future shop.
• Make sure you have the room for what you are buying in bulk (if the milk goes bad because you don’t have room for three gallons what was the point of buying it?)
• Make sure you can finish the item. Although the avocados were cheaper we would have to use ten of them in the week – a bit of stretch for us.
• Don’t make it a habit to shop in these sort of places more than once a week (as over time you might spend more not less).
• Make sure you can get there often enough to make it worth the membership cost. If not, don’t join.

We walked out having spent more than half of what we had for the rest of the month, and we think realistically that we will have to “borrow” from savings to get by this month. But we did notice that since our shop on the 15th, we haven’t had to go grocery shopping once, and we are creatively using all the items we have in. So once again, we will keep you posted on our budget challenge – but more lessons are being learned every day!