Money-Wise Mondays - Costco

   To save money, one must know not only what to buy, but also where to shop for cheaper items. By cheaper items I don't mean Kraft dinner (or other over-processed, over-salted, and nutritionally lacking foods) but good quality food for less. Sales are always a good option, but unless you have tons of time on your hands to look through millions of flyers and then have the time to drive to millions of stores within the days that the sale is on, then you need another option. Enter Costco!


   Costco is a great option for saving money without waiting for sales. I still buy milk and cream and eggs locally, as well as bread (when I am not baking my own) from local stores (locally produced and organic), as well as meats (from local farmers and free-range, grass fed), but I do save some money on other things by buying it at Costco. Costco is actually really great for carrying some organic and natural products as well as clothing, household appliances and electronics, and even seasonal items (like Christmas decorations, toys, books, games, etc).

   On our last trip to Costco, I was able to pick up some frozen bags of organic mixed berries, as well as frozen organic corn, organic yogurt, well aged cheddar (made with Canadian milk, so no growth hormones), gluten free crackers (not that we avoid gluten, just like the taste of it and the ingredients), BC cucumbers, BC tomatoes, large box of pomegranates, box of persimmons, raspberries, large box of Chanterelle mushrooms, BC sweet peppers, ancient grain pasta, as well as organic pasta sauce. And all these items were much cheaper than going to our local Whole Foods, or Choices market and picking them up.

   There is a catch if you want to buy items at Costco, there is a membership fee that you have to pay in order to get a Costco card. The fee is 55 dollars, and it's well worth it. That is for a regular membership. There is another membership that's called executive membership., which is 110 dollars per year but the benefit of it is that you enjoy 2% reward on any grocery item you buy. For big families that would spend over 1000 dollars there on food and other items it's a great chance to have membership payed for from just buying groceries.

   Another problem that people have with buying in Costco is that they are single, or there are only two of them and that they don't need large portions of food. Everyone knows that buying in bulk saves money, but even we can't justify buying a 10 pond jar of pickles. The good news is that many foods at Costco are sold in large boxes but the product inside is divided into smaller packages. The crackers we bough last time had 12 smaller packages inside. So they were very accommodating even to small families. As to other products, like big bags of pasta or frozen fruits, it's really easy to divide them into smaller reusable containers and use only what is needed.

   In my opinion, wholesale stores, like Costco, are a great solution to saving money for anyone, from single people to large families. As long as the savings in a year outweigh the cost of the membership, then it's worth it. I use Costco often since it's one more place in my arsenal of places that help me save money.