Costco, Sams or Skip it?

[ahutton]

DH and I are working hard on budgets this year; have some clear financial goals. I'm also working on a health and wellness goal, and am working with a nutritionist. She has me eating lean protein, fruits and vegetables. I find my grocery budget is up quite a bit, and that is looking at what the specials of the week are, going to multiple stores and buying volume when the prices are "good" but we are wondering if we might do better by re-joining a warehouse club.

What are your thoughts?

 

[themommy]

DH and I are working hard on budgets this year; have some clear financial goals. I'm also working on a health and wellness goal, and am working with a nutritionist. She has me eating lean protein, fruits and vegetables. I find my grocery budget is up quite a bit, and that is looking at what the specials of the week are, going to multiple stores and buying volume when the prices are "good" but we are wondering if we might do better by re-joining a warehouse club.

What are your thoughts?

I would think it would be a great idea to join one again if someone is going to help you eat some of the fresh stuff. If you have to eat 2 or 3 pounds of something yourself it’ll probably be too much. You wouldn’t get much variety that way. Good for you and good luck!

 

[Shanti]

DH and I are working hard on budgets this year; have some clear financial goals. I'm also working on a health and wellness goal, and am working with a nutritionist. She has me eating lean protein, fruits and vegetables. I find my grocery budget is up quite a bit, and that is looking at what the specials of the week are, going to multiple stores and buying volume when the prices are "good" but we are wondering if we might do better by re-joining a warehouse club.

What are your thoughts?

For two people on a natural foods & low-carb diet, you're unlikely to recoup the cost of the membership strictly via genuine savings on food that you actually eat.

Your grocery budget is likely up because your diet has fewer carbs, which are cheap, and more meat and produce, which often aren't cheap. The prices of meat and produce in the warehouse clubs aren't cheap enough to make up the difference, especially when you factor in the annual cost of membership. People save a little money there when they buy food in bulk, but bulk purchases only lead to savings when you actually eat all of the food, and it's hard for a healthy couple to eat bulk amounts of produce, in particular, before it spoils.

In my experience, the real savings people get via warehouse clubs come from purchases of non-food items.

 

[cel_disney]

I think that you are likely to get better prices on chicken and pork at your grocery store than a warehouse club. We belong to Costco now but we rarely use it for those purchases (I saved more than the price of membership on a rental car in April).

 

[mousehockey37]

DH and I are working hard on budgets this year; have some clear financial goals. I'm also working on a health and wellness goal, and am working with a nutritionist. She has me eating lean protein, fruits and vegetables. I find my grocery budget is up quite a bit, and that is looking at what the specials of the week are, going to multiple stores and buying volume when the prices are "good" but we are wondering if we might do better by re-joining a warehouse club.

What are your thoughts?

Are you using any of the coupon apps? BJ's, Sam's, Costco are on stores on Ibotta. I've also started using FetchRewards as well. Just because they're bulk stores doesn't mean they don't participate with rebates/coupons. That could ultimately help your budgets too!

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

Will you buy TP, bottled water, paper towels etc there also? Need tires this year? Costco has organic spinach and organic baby lettuce mix. They have some other organic produce and many organic products. They have organic ground beef and organic chicken.

Oh and their gas is always a better price then local gas stations. You can do it for a year and then decide if it was worth it to you.

 

[mousehockey37]

You can do it for a year and then decide if it was worth it to you.

Depending on where you work, check with your HR department. You may have a company discount for a membership to any or all of the clubs.

 

[GZanta77]

Costco is great for frozen organic berries and kale if you are into making smoothies. You can also get some organic fresh fruits and veggies - just freeze whatever you don't think you will use over 48 hours.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

My Costco sells organic chicken breast for $5/lb. The cheapest I see it at Fry's (unless it expires that day ) is $8.
6 lbs/week = 312 lbs per year. At $5 per pound that's $1560. At $8 per pound that's $2496.

Similar savings on sharp cheddar (not organic but $2.50/lb Costco vs. $4/lb on sale at Fry's).
Organic eggs Costco $2.79 vs. $5 or more at Fry's.
Huge avocados at Costco about $1 each vs. crappy little avocados at Fry's for .79 and up.
I can't even imagine buying olive oil or avocado oil at a regular grocery store!
Organic romaine 6 hearts $3 at Costco vs. $3 or $4 for just 3 at Fry's.

We have a better rate and perks with Ameriprise car/home insurance with Costco membership, that pays for Costco Executive many times over even if I never shopped there at all.

All you need is one item you buy regularly that is cheaper at Costco vs. grocery store to justify membership, and you'll never have to stalk sales again.

 

[Dakota731]

I do better at Aldi for produce and organic meats

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I buy a lot of meat and produce from Costco. I find it's a as good as sale prices at my local grocery store, but I don't have to wait for the sale. We also buy seafood, cheese and eggs. I don't know if it's just our local Aldis, but the produce isn't good quality there. I have to pick through to find stuff that's not already going bad. Even then only the sale produce is a good deal. Everything else is regular prices. It's probably just the location near us.

We also save on car rentals, and seasonal items. We fill up with gas every time for a good savings. I love the rotisserie chickens and we buy their cakes for parties. We have the credit card which gives cash back for gas, dining, travel, and Costco purchases. We only use the card for those categories, and it gives us a nice check every February.

 

[ahutton]

Thank you! We are a family of 5 and have a food saver so buying protein in bulk is very realistic. We are all eating this way so it may be worth it to join for the year and track closely what we get and save. I probably eat 2 boxes of salad mix in a week, and my girls have smoothies every day.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We find Costco to be much higher than our grocery stores(Kroger/Aldi/Meijer) on fresh items over all. In addition, we've found that the quality of Costco's produce isn't the greatest and goes bad quickly. I have 3 lbs of solid black bananas on the counter, that I bought Friday night-less than 72 hours ago. I'd return them but it would cost $6 in fuel for a $1.39 return. As for meat, Costco is $3.19/lb for 80/20. Meijer is currently $1.78. Pork loin, chicken breast, steaks, all are cheaper for comparable quality at the local grocers.

For us, dog medicine, rental cars, and tires more than make up for the membership cost. Occasionally they will run decent things in their ads, but their grocery prices overall aren't anything special around here. If you are in a higher cost grocery market, you may do better.

Gas as Kroger/Speedway is currently $2.75. Costco is also $2.75. The only time fuel prices are lower is when the others go up, Costco delays a day before raising their prices.

 

[Klayfish]

Thank you! We are a family of 5 and have a food saver so buying protein in bulk is very realistic. We are all eating this way so it may be worth it to join for the year and track closely what we get and save. I probably eat 2 boxes of salad mix in a week, and my girls have smoothies every day.

DW and I are both very much into health/nutrition/lifting weights. We're members of Costco. We don't find their prices on fresh fruit and veggies to be any real savings on a routine basis. Sometimes it is, but often things are on sale at our local grocery store and it's cheaper. But where we do save at Costco are things like tilapia (yuck, DW eats it), greek yogurt and most of all protein powder. We use a lot of it and it ain't cheap.

 

[missnic]

Also keep in mind that Costco will refund your membership price if you don't think it's working for you.

Costco meat is way cheaper than Publix, (I don't buy meat at Aldi) but Aldi has them beat on produce unless you need a lot of something. We typically buy meat every 2-3 months from Costco, and then I do an Aldi/Publix run once a week or so. This works well for 2 of us.

 

[luvsJack]

Do you have a Sam’s and a Costco?

We only have Sam’s. The meat is cheaper and much better.

Here Walmart is the next cheapest but they have horrible meat. Sam’s has everyone else beat.

Fresh produce is tricky with warehouse clubs because it’s such a big amount but with the amount of salad mix you go through and your daughters with the smoothies it will probably work for you.

I try to keep a notebook with my local stores’ prices on things I can buy at Sam’s. Brand for brand, Sam’s usually beats them.

 

[mousehockey37]

Do you have a Sam’s and a Costco?

We only have Sam’s. The meat is cheaper and much better.

Here Walmart is the next cheapest but they have horrible meat. Sam’s has everyone else beat.

Fresh produce is tricky with warehouse clubs because it’s such a big amount but with the amount of salad mix you go through and your daughters with the smoothies it will probably work for you.

I try to keep a notebook with my local stores’ prices on things I can buy at Sam’s. Brand for brand, Sam’s usually beats them.

How does your Sam's have better meat than Walmart? They're both the same company, no?

 

[tasha99]

We buy our meat mostly at Costco. It's not really cheaper than grocery stores, but it's much higher quality. We like prime steaks that are well marbled--not gonna get good ones at most stores, and Costco is well priced, but that's compared to butcher store meat. I usually buy chicken at grocery stores (for 1/3 the price of Costco), being careful to avoid the "flavor injected" ones. Costco is the only local store we have that sells plain pork. All the other stores sell injected pork, unless you look for "natural" pork, which is a highly priced "health food" product. Fish at our Costco is a hit--excellent salmon, and $3.99 a pound for rainbow trout (I wish they had branzino, but we eat what we can find). The frozen seafood is good as well and often has a coupon.

Some people say to avoid their veggies, but we almost always manage to eat ours, even with only 2 people at home. The exception is potatoes--I love their huge potatoes, but even when the kids were home, we had to work hard to get through them. The premade salads are good, too.

Should you do it? If it's to save money, probably not. If you have a freezer and want to get nice quality stuff, then yes. One place we buy that is cheaper than Costco, but also bulk is Cash and Carry. It's a restaurant supply store with a walk in freezer where you can buy huge cryopacs of meat. I got 80/20 ground beef there yesterday--10 pounds for $19.90 ($1.90 a pound!!!!). Costco doesn't even sell 80/20 ground beef, only leaner and grass fed varieties. Bought the brisket i corned for St Patrick's day at Cash and Carry as well. It's cheaper than Costco, but often not quite as good a quality (depends what you buy).

 

[luvsJack]

How does your Sam's have better meat than Walmart? They're both the same company, no?

They are the same company but the quality of meat at Sam’s is head and shoulders above Walmart.

Sam’s produce is better quality too. But it is large quantities.

They don’t sell the same things. Kitchen appliances at Sam’s is better brands than at Walmart.

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

I am super health conscious as well. The cage free egg whites(liquid) that I get at Sams Club are a great value. Also, as others have said the frozen berries, greens like spinach and kale are a good value. The protein powders are a good buy too. My oldest is an athlete and at school for very long hours and the protein bars are a go-to for her busy schedule. It can be a great value as long as you don’t overbuy and let things go to waste(or rot). Congratulations on making steps to improve your health, that’s awesome!