Anonymous wrote:I love Costco but I don’t think it saves me money. I spend about 200 every time I go which is typically every 3/4 weeks.

You spend $200 every 3/4 weeks on things that would have cost you $250 somewhere else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We find some of the produce options "too big'. Just can't eat that many grapes before some go bad and we have to toss them.

Freeze them! They're great frozen snacks, even in the dead of winter. You don't need an industrial size refrigerator, contrary to what others here seem to suggest. I can't possibly go through five dozen eggs but they do sell a pack of 18 eggs for an unbeatable price.

Aldi can beat the egg price.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got gas at Costco yesterday. It was $2.33 a gallon. The nearby Citgo that I often use when I don't get to Costco was $2.29 a gallon. The Sunoco two blocks down was $2.34 a gallon. Usually Costco is at least 15 cents cheaper than my neighborhood gas stations. Just an observation. Not sure what's up.

Using my Giant points, I got $ .70 off a gallon and paid $1.90 a gallon.

How much did you have to spend in Giant to receive that $0.70 off a gallon if I may ask? Thanks.

Sorry, I don’t know. It is walking distance to my house so we shop there regularly and accumulate “gas points” at shell gas stations.

So not directly comparable then.

No but I don’t pay for the privilege to shop at Giant like Costco so it isn’t comparable anyway. Based on the responses, I am going hold off on Costco and just keep at with coupons. I suspect I would spend more at Costco anyway. And my Costco doesn’t have gas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got gas at Costco yesterday. It was $2.33 a gallon. The nearby Citgo that I often use when I don't get to Costco was $2.29 a gallon. The Sunoco two blocks down was $2.34 a gallon. Usually Costco is at least 15 cents cheaper than my neighborhood gas stations. Just an observation. Not sure what's up.

Using my Giant points, I got $ .70 off a gallon and paid $1.90 a gallon.

How much did you have to spend in Giant to receive that $0.70 off a gallon if I may ask? Thanks.

Sorry, I don’t know. It is walking distance to my house so we shop there regularly and accumulate “gas points” at shell gas stations.

So not directly comparable then.

Anonymous wrote:We find some of the produce options "too big'. Just can't eat that many grapes before some go bad and we have to toss them.

Freeze them! They're great frozen snacks, even in the dead of winter. You don't need an industrial size refrigerator, contrary to what others here seem to suggest. I can't possibly go through five dozen eggs but they do sell a pack of 18 eggs for an unbeatable price.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got gas at Costco yesterday. It was $2.33 a gallon. The nearby Citgo that I often use when I don't get to Costco was $2.29 a gallon. The Sunoco two blocks down was $2.34 a gallon. Usually Costco is at least 15 cents cheaper than my neighborhood gas stations. Just an observation. Not sure what's up.

Using my Giant points, I got $ .70 off a gallon and paid $1.90 a gallon.

How much did you have to spend in Giant to receive that $0.70 off a gallon if I may ask? Thanks.

Sorry, I don’t know. It is walking distance to my house so we shop there regularly and accumulate “gas points” at shell gas stations.

It's about 10 cents off for every $100 spent, but not all spending counts.

We find some of the produce options "too big'. Just can't eat that many grapes before some go bad and we have to toss them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got gas at Costco yesterday. It was $2.33 a gallon. The nearby Citgo that I often use when I don't get to Costco was $2.29 a gallon. The Sunoco two blocks down was $2.34 a gallon. Usually Costco is at least 15 cents cheaper than my neighborhood gas stations. Just an observation. Not sure what's up.

Using my Giant points, I got $ .70 off a gallon and paid $1.90 a gallon.

How much did you have to spend in Giant to receive that $0.70 off a gallon if I may ask? Thanks.

Sorry, I don’t know. It is walking distance to my house so we shop there regularly and accumulate “gas points” at shell gas stations.

I went to Costco for an eye exam last year. I also purchased 2 pair of glasses, one being progressive the other being single vision. The total for everything was about $325. Glasses at independent optometrists in the past have cost me over $500 alone.
After almost 8 months the glasses from Costco have held up great. I’ll never go back to an independent again unless I develop a “medical issue” that requires an ophthalmologist.

Yes, at Costco we found very good deals to replace our garage door, fridge, car tires, reading glasses and I especially love the warm leggings and the garden center (in spring).

I love Costco but I don’t think it saves me money. I spend about 200 every time I go which is typically every 3/4 weeks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got gas at Costco yesterday. It was $2.33 a gallon. The nearby Citgo that I often use when I don't get to Costco was $2.29 a gallon. The Sunoco two blocks down was $2.34 a gallon. Usually Costco is at least 15 cents cheaper than my neighborhood gas stations. Just an observation. Not sure what's up.

Using my Giant points, I got $ .70 off a gallon and paid $1.90 a gallon.

How much did you have to spend in Giant to receive that $0.70 off a gallon if I may ask? Thanks.

Anonymous wrote:I got gas at Costco yesterday. It was $2.33 a gallon. The nearby Citgo that I often use when I don't get to Costco was $2.29 a gallon. The Sunoco two blocks down was $2.34 a gallon. Usually Costco is at least 15 cents cheaper than my neighborhood gas stations. Just an observation. Not sure what's up.

Using my Giant points, I got $ .70 off a gallon and paid $1.90 a gallon.

I got gas at Costco yesterday. It was $2.33 a gallon. The nearby Citgo that I often use when I don't get to Costco was $2.29 a gallon. The Sunoco two blocks down was $2.34 a gallon. Usually Costco is at least 15 cents cheaper than my neighborhood gas stations. Just an observation. Not sure what's up.

Cage free eggs are something like $1.60/dozen if you buy them in the big pack. I haven’t seen cage free for anything close to that anywhere else. Our family of 5 goes through about 30 eggs a week, so that pays for our membership compared to buying cage free at Safeway, actually in just a month or two.

They have a lot of organic stuff (with no conventional alternative). I don’t really care about buying organic so a lot of items are a wash with buying the Safeway conventional ones (canned tomatoes for instance). Produce is generally cheaper than Safeway but more than Aldi. I find there is little in the produce section that we can consume in time to justify the bulk purchase, but I think that may change as our kids get older.

Diapers are priced well. Kirkland brand at about 18 cents per diaper depending on diaper size. Amazon subscribe and save used to be cheaper for diapers, but no longer is. Target brand may be comparable. I think I slightly prefer Kirkland brand, though.

Big savings on spices and oils. Huge bottle of e.v. olive oil for like $18. We go through enough oil that that probably covers half our membership at least, if not the whole thing. I think last time I was there I got a bottle of McCormick brand paprika for $4 when a much smaller bottle is probably $5 at Safeway. Even if I decide it’s lost its flavor halfway through I still saved money (and honestly I’m not that picky about my spices).

Medicine is another area of big savings. Enormous bottles of ibuprofen for less than the price of a normal sized bottle at CVS.

Meat you can probably do better at Aldi (or at a regular store if you catch the sales), but Costco I know I am getting a reasonable price without having to obsess over sales and also I think the quality is a little better on at least some of them.

Wine and beer can be pretty good too. Our go to wine is 25% cheaper at Costco than at Safeway, although Total Wine May be close in price to Costco.