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What do you buy there?
How much are the memberships?
I've never been but have a weird desire to go and buy stuff

Dh doesn't think it's worth it.
Lovin' Life: M+D 7/06, T 1/08, B 5/10
Getting back to it- my diet and exercise blog
Losing it...Without Losing it
Re: s/o Costco
I believe memberships are 50/year. We buy contact solution, bottled water, ground turkey, chicken, milk, cat litter, Chobani greek yogurt, Dove shampoo & conditioner, Cetaphil facewash & lotion, Aveeno Lotion,deodorant, snacks on a regular basis... and then random stuff that we find (cell phones, dvd player, bras, bathroom rugs, bedding, etc).
ETA: Toliet paper, laundry detergent (love the Kirkland brand), dishwasher soap, potassium chloride for our water softener, vinegar, cakes, cheesecake, pain killers, vitamins. We also bought our mattress from their website and have been very happy with it. So many things!
Standard membership is $50, you can add your spouse for free. I buy toilet paper(Kirland Brand, which is the Costco brand name), paper towels, napkins, dishwasher detergent, washing machine detergent, dryer sheets, bathroom cleaner, bodywash, Dover bar soap, Makeup remover wipes, shaving gel, Secret Clinical Anti-perspirant, snacks for the kids' lunches, peanut butter, K-cups for my Keurig, sugar(5 lb bag), batteries. When I am having a big dinner party I buy a filet mignon tenderloin. They send coupon booklets quite often so I stock up on the items that I normally buy when they have a coupon available.
You can walk around as a guest and see if it would be worth it to get a membership.
It's funny you posted this, we just got a Costco membership on Friday!
DH had a rep come to his office and sign people up and he got suckered into the Executive one for $100. We went on Friday to get it, and it didn't turn out that bad. We got a $20 Costco gift card for signing up, coupon books every month (the basic memberships are 1x every 3 months I think the guy said), then we signed up for their Am. Exp card where you get 3% cash back on everything and we got $25 for signing up for that. There were some other perks, but I can't remember.
We have the executive membership. It's $100/year but we earn 2% back. We spend A LOT of money there. We buy things like:
Christmas cards ($14.99 for 50 inc envelopes), dog food, meat, bulk shredded cheese, Greek yogurt (Kirkland brand, it's $5ish for two 32 oz containers), frozen chicken, printer ink, spices, some produce, kid snacks, books, toys for the kids and the 8 trillion birthday parties we go to, sheets, electronics (we bought our last TV from there), milk, clothes, vitamins, until we switched brands we bought formula there, dishwasher detergent, laundry supplies and batteries.
The lowest rebate check we've ever got was about $45, so we still ended up paying $55 for our membership, but we would have paid that anyway. I have found that for some things like paper products (toilet paper, paper towels etc) that it's not always a better deal, but some things like dog food, you can't beat it.
I love Costco.
Actually, you should have gotten a $5 refund then. The way the executive membership works is that it's $100 for the year, but if you don't earn the extra $50 back in the cash-back program that PP mentioned (2% of all purchases), then they refund you the difference. So really the most you can ever pay is still $50/yr.
We buy a lot of stuff at Costco too. We have been particularly impressed with the Kirkland brand.....we've loved everything we've tried by them.
One thing to be careful about is that some things are legitimately cheaper at Costco, and some are not. You just have to be aware of what you're spending per unit. I have found that if you go to a regular grocery store and combine sale prices with coupons, you can beat Costco prices just about any day.....but I don't have time for that, so I go to Costco.
One thing that I really like about Costco over Sam's Club (which we were members of before Costco) is that Costco has coupons that they put out every month. Usually with a coupon it becomes a really good deal, and it's minimal effort for me.
)
HTH!
We had a Costco membership (it was a gift), but when that expired we switched to Sam's club because (1) it's closer to us and (2) they have a $25 student membership. I'm sure we'd save more money if we had a bigger family and if I had the energy to go more often, but even still I know we save more than $25/year.
We buy: cat litter, contact solution, beer, pop, laughing cow cheese, Progresso soup, oatmeal, rice, pasta, Carnation instant breakfast, crystal light, cliff bars, olive oil, jars of sun dried tomatoes and kalamata olives, dove deodorant, Venus razor refills, laundry & dish washer detergent...I'm sure there's lots more, but that's all I can think of right now.
ETA: I forgot, we also bought our mattress at Costco online. And DH went to the Costco optical center for his last eye exam. We called around and it actually was the cheapest place if you don't have eye insurance!
Gas is usually the least expensive at Costco and with the Am Ex card you get 3% cash back on gas purchased everywhere.
Thanks! I didn't know that. I think it only happened that one time, but that's good information to know.