I do mostly washington's green grocer, with a costco trip every couple months. I don't get any prepared foods usually (except sometimes the applesauce packets). I get milk, nuts, lettuce, green beans, blueberries (both fresh and frozen), some other fruit and another vegetable, wild fish individually frozen, shrimp, a few kinds of organic meats, organic whole chickens, and organic chicken breasts and thighs. Sometimes I will get some clothes for my daughter and occasionally an appliance, such as the tv we are buying next week.

I have 4 sons that are elementary and middle school age, so we go through a lot of food in our house. Also we live just 3.5 miles from a Costco, so it makes sense for us to do the majority of our shopping there. I'm there at least once a week.

Things I buy most of the time
-Innkeepers bread (It's about $4.xx a loaf that lasts us about 3-4 days)
-produce--typically a bag of broccoli, a bag of baby carrots, whatever fruit looks good
-milk
-half and half
-frozen chicken breasts
-2 pack of those whole chickens
-5 pack of frozen ground beef "chubs"
-bag of frozen tortellini
=bag of frozen pot stickers
-Dietz and Watson herbed turkey breast (deli sliced for sandwiches)
-hannah Tzatziki
-pack of Progresso soup (the cans of Italian Wedding soup and Chickenarina)
-coffee beans
-bacon
-most spices
-organic sugar
-tortillas

About once every other month or so we buy one of their take and bake pizzas.


I used to buy the Kirkland brand of natural peanut butter, but several months ago during that huge peanut butter recall they stopped carrying it.

Things I usually buy at my "regular" grocery store (Wegmans)
-pasta
-jarred pasta sauce
-cereal
-peanut butter (smuckers natural)
-jelly
-flour
-ketchup, mustard, mayo, other sauces

It depends how you eat and cook and what your big money saving items are at Costco.

With 2 in diapers and home with me, the money saved on diapers and milk is worth the tub of lettuce I may or may not finish that may or may not be cheaper at giant if they are doing 2 for 1 or $2.99 bagged lettuce if it saves me the trip. Also, Costco carts hold 2 kids!!

I don't do much frozen or prepared food, but I usually get staples from Coscto so that a fresh dinner might only require a quick grocery trip to pick up fish and scallions, for example.

I like the produce, although it's not organic. With only two kids, I still use most of the berries, avocados, clementines, and lemons I buy. I get salad, but find the baby carrots and celery and broccoli to be a waste. I never finish them.

I get frozen salmon and frozen huge shrimp there for easy last minute meals and the shrimp is way cheaper there. I also get yogurt, cheese, hummus packs, apple sauce, pb, cereal, and veggie soufflés there.

Rotisserie chickens are great there and I think only $5 vs $8 elsewhere.

My kids are young and picky and aren't eating much packaged snack foods besides goldfish yet. So, for now, it's fine for the bulk of our stuff.

I don't get produce from Costco, because the bags are so big most of it goes bad before we have a chance to use it. We do get apples, potatoes and the like there though.
Milk is way cheaper at Costco - I think a dollar less per gallon than other stores. And we make our own yogurt, so it is a big saving. We also buy dry goods like oats and cereal, and all cleaning products such as detergent, clorox, etc. And don't forget gas!

I tried to do exactly the Costco and TJ's combo, but we could not use up the perishable items in our family of 4 (two very young kids) and it was ending up being more expensive.

I love Costco for cheeses, organic milk, apples, avocados, cucumbers, grapes, the best canned tuna ever...For paper products, detergent, and other cleaning supplies. My favorite product from there by far are the Kirkland brand baby wipes. Like other posters have said, there are some great deals, and others are pretty much the same as other stores when they have specials, so it is more the one-stop shop convenience. Now that I live in an apartment though and have to schlep heavy items from the garage and all way to the 11th floor, I find I do a lot of my bulky product shopping from Amazon - toilet paper and towels, diapers, tide detergent... It is so convenient with the 2 day free shipping. I also don't have that much storage room for bulk shopping anymore. So what is left is the food stuff and I am so rarely motivated to go all the way there and wait in the big lines when for a slight premium, I can walk to Giant and buy only what I need.

I do most of my shopping at Costco, supplementing a bit from Walmart and the grocery store. I shop at Costco twice a month, Walmart about every month and a half and maybe a small grocery store trip every week or so.

Thing about Costco is you have to stay away from the middle section to save money. These are the things I buy at Costco: small packs of snacks for school lunches (crackers, fruit chews, fiber one bars, cookies, etc.), microwave popcorn (gross I know but my teenager who eats non stop loves it), breads (tortillas, flatbreads, rolls, etc.), almost all of our meats and fish, lunch meat, cheeses, veges (broccoli, tomatoes, string beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, spinach - I hate their lettuce), fruit (strawberries, apples, pears, plums, grapes, babanas, raspberries, lemons), milk, eggs, frozen waffles, frozen sausage patties, hot dogs, butter, yogurt, half and half, juices, hot chocolate mix, chocolate syrup, sugar, certain spices we use a lot, cereal, flour, brownie mix, maple syrup, some canned goods (chicken broth, tomato sauce, mushrooms, tuna, chicken, soups). Occasionally I buy some frozen items - individually wrapped pieces of fish and chicken, chicken nuggets, crab cakes, taquitos,.

I realize that occasionally I could save a dollar or two on an item, such as cereal, but it's so infrequent that I find something cheaper that it's not worth my time to shop around. I've compared costs often enough to know that by limiting my shopping trips and shopping at Costco, I save tons of money.

Not the majority but lots.

Things we buy:

Organic milk, organic ground beef, wine, beer, bread, bags of carrots, applesauce pouches, cat food cans, dry cat food, tp, paper towels, kleenex, chicken nuggets, frozen chicken breast, frozen veggies (organic!), cold cuts, sliced cheese, pears, blackberries, asparagus, frozen salmon, yogurt, oj, bananas, kids clothing (carters), sliced, butternut squash, deodorant, shampoo, razors, baby wipes, almond butter, jelly, pasta, pasta sauce, coffee.

We buy a lot of stuff there and fill in the gaps with fast trips to Giant or Whole Foods. The baby lettuce at costco is terrible--always rotting. I sometimes buy the whole heads of lettuce with the roots still attached but usually buy lettuce at a regular store.

The price for organic milk and organic ground beef is good.

You cannot buy the way we buy unless you have a second refrigerator and storage. We cook a lot and don't go out a lot and have kids. Before kids, we shopped at costco infrequently and mostly for wine and toiletries.

It just depends on how fat and out of shape you are comfortable being. Especially when you get into their prepared foods. Other than looking like a typical fat ass american, I think it is a great place to shop.

Before you do this, make sure you compare prices on things like paper products. It's actually not always cheaper at Costco versus Target or even your local grocery store when they have sales. I like the convenience of being able to buy it in bulk, but when I do the comparison, it's not always worth it.

the quality of their produce has gone down in the last couple of years. I won't buy much produce there except for avocados and bananas. We will buy snacks/juice/milk for kids' lunches and some organic meat.

We've done most of our grocery shopping at Costco for the last couple of years because DH thinks it's cheaper and I hate to shop, so that's where he goes. Honestly, since we had DC 2 about two years ago, I've appreciated Costco's prepared foods-- the meals they make there at the store are pretty good and you just bake them at home. (I like the stuffed salmon and the flank steak.) We eat those about once a week. They also make great soups. Favorites are broccoli cheddar and loaded baked potato soup.

Aside from that, I have a list of like ten meals that I make all the time and whose ingredients I can mostly stock up on at Costco, especially meats, veggies, pasta.

We don't do much processed food, although there are a couple of things that DS loves in his lunch, like miso soup, which we buy there. Mini quiches from the freezer are quick and yummy breakfasts.

Thinking it might be a good money saver to do al my shopping (groceries, paper products, etc.) at Costco and Trader Joes. Any one have success doing that? What do you buy at each location? We are middle of the road on processed foods.. mostly snack-y type stuff. Thanks!