I always seem to be late to the party. I watch shows years after all my friends are raving about them. I show my husband insta reels that he saw days ago. I highlighted my hair for the first time in my 30s. Speaking of being in my 30s, I have recently fallen for the thing most people in my age group are already smitten about- Costco. I am, once again, late to the party, but at least I got here eventually.
So what sparked this flitter in my heart after years of complacency with my go-to grocer? I was watching the Netflix documentary “Get Smart with Money” (as you do on a wild Friday night when you’re 38) and one of my personal heroes, Mr. Money Mustache, was mentoring a couple and showing them the multitude of money saving benefits of Costco. I thought to myself, why haven’t I broken my wholesale virginity and taken advantage of all the warehouse world has to offer? Pretty soon, I was googling Reddit threads to discover the best money saving purchases suggested by my fellow frugals. That’s it. It’s time I join the coolest crew in town. I did my diligent research and decided the Executive Membership far exceeded the paltry Gold Star Membership for my family of 4.
Reasons why I chose the Executive Membership:
- It is refundable if I am not satisfied.
- I will earn an annual 2% reward (up to $1,000) on qualified purchases. Basically if me and my husband spend a total of $3,000, we will make back the $60 difference between the Gold Star Membership ($60) and the Executive Membership ($120). That assumes we will spend $250 per month which I don’t think will be hard for our family of 4 that mostly eats homemade meals. Not to mention all of the savings from buying in bulk!
- If I use Costco travel, I will get 2% back on qualified purchases.
- I am kind of obsessive with getting a good deal so I did a quick google search and found a Groupon where you get a $30 gift card to Costco when you buy the Executive Membership so that covers half the difference of the upgraded membership right there.
- If you don’t make up the $60 difference because you spent less than $3000, you can get a refund for the difference. Let’s say you only get a check for $20 and are thus grumpy about being convinced by yours truly to upgrade to the Executive membership. They will pay you the $40 difference! Say what?! This is Costco’s no risk guarantee and it makes the decision easy peasy!
- Extra membership perks like discounted pet, home and auto insurance.
With my sleek black membership card in hard, I prepare to do my first Costco shopping trip. In order to not be overwhelmed, I keep my list of things I am hoping to find short. Eggs, milk, bananas, perfect bars, toilet paper, dog food, protein powder, frozen crispy chicken strips and seltzers. I begin my journey and immediately find my son’s favorite school snack (Nature Valley Sweet & Salty granola bars). A good start. I hit up the next aisle and my eyes light up when I spy my exact brand of protein powder in a 5 pound bag. I immediately grab my phone to calculate the difference and realize I will save almost $10 per pound of this gold when I buy here instead of Amazon (plus I will waste less plastic since this comes in a bag instead of those huge indestructible tubs). I am hooked! I fill up my cart and call my husband while shopping to share in the blissful glee of saving money. After check out, I load up my car and head over to fill up my tank with gas that is 6 cents cheaper than my go to gas station that typically has the cheapest gas in my area.
One thing I didn’t expect is that most of the things I bought were brands I always buy. I thought I would have to sacrifice this luxury when shopping in bulk but I was pleasantly surprised to find my exact brand when it mattered most. Some examples include Charmin TP, Gold Standard Protein Powder, Tyson crispy chicken, Polly-O String Cheese, Polar and La Croix Seltzers and even Perfect Bars in my favorite flavor (which are a bitch to find these days). Win, win, win!
Another perk of buying in bulk is that it lightens the load when I do my weekly Giant grocery shopping trip. Now that we fully stocked our essentials, I can skip the 3 boxes of seltzers, the two dozen eggs, and the cart-filling toilet paper. Even better, I don’t have to keep my eye out for when they have the big bag of dog food in stock (which feels like once in a blue moon).
I love passing by my back-up Nutellas, ranch dressing, crackers, school snacks and other various items neatly lined up on my basement shelf. My own personal grocery store, swoon! I know it is so very American of me to enjoy having back up groceries, but it represents less wasted mental energy and time spent procuring those items. One of my many jobs as a stay at home mom is to always be aware of what we are currently running low on. From shampoo to laundry detergent to our precious half and half, I am always keeping a tally of what to add to my list. With these back-ups on display, I can let my mental grocery list float away and instead focus on more fulfilling matters beyond my role as a walking and breathing to-do list.
Last but not least, the people that work there are just as kind and seemingly happy as I had read about on the internets. The average employee makes about $18 per hour and they get perks like a free membership plus 3 more to give to friends and family. They also get quality healthcare (if working full time) and get paid time and a half when working on Sundays. They get 7 paid holidays off and are eligible for paid time off after working there for a certain amount of time. If that isn’t enough to convince you, Costco also matches up to 50% of their 401k contributions up to $500. This makes me feel good about supporting a company that seems to care about their employees and treat them well. Take my money Costco!
As if writing a blog post about my new obsession with Costco wasn’t nerdy enough, I will now be 100% transparent with you, reader, by showing you what I did with my time after putting all my groceries away on that special, memorable day. You guessed it (or maybe you didn’t because you are not a fellow nerd), I made a spreadsheet of some of my savings! I didn’t include every item I bought on this list so assume more savings than presented here. Also, not every item is the same brand so keep that in mind. I also have to add that I showed this to my kids when they came home from school and was thrilled when my 6 year old was actually interested. He proceeded to go around telling his dad how much I saved on various items. Yessssss! Let the teaching begin!
So there you have it. Even though my closest Costco is a 22 minute drive (as opposed to the 6 minute drive to Giant) and it is an added trip to my monthly errands, it is completely worth it for the satisfaction of saving money and freeing up space in my already crowded brain. I love knowing that I can push back my weekly grocery shopping list when I am feeling lazy because we will always have a steady supply of canned tuna and crackers if I can’t be bothered to dedicate an hour to cook dinner. By putting in the extra effort to plan my Costco shopping trips, I can rest assured that my bank accounts will be fuller (as well as our bellies) and my brain will be freer.
MAKE THE DAMN BED 