Is costco worth it?

[antelopevalley]

I am considering buying a membership for Costco. I normally shop in Lidl or Aldi. With the membership fee, will I really save enough money to make this worthwhile?

Yes it's excellent, especially the fuel at the moment

Their maple syrup is the best you can get anywhere and loads cheaper than other options. We have it every morning on porridge and I buy my memebershipfor this item alone.

We usually end up spending a fortune at Costco. It definitely doesn't save us money because we buy things we wouldn't usually. We then spend ages trying yo work out where to store everything.

It is enjoyable to browse. I like the sushi platters and the chicken hot pot.

@antelopevalley

I think it very much depends what you buy!

My local one doesn't sell petrol, which is a shame!

I live alone & have a very restricted diet for health reasons so I really only buy fresh fruit & veg, bit of dairy etc so not much that 'keeps'. So I tend not to buy a lot of that there as the sizes are huge!

homous, olives, almonds are brilliant for me, but not much else.

same really with toiletries, and I like what I like, not necessarily what they stock.

i LOVE their double sided Christmas paper & filled Christmas stacking boxes as gifts. Plus random bits of stuff.

I love having my card and going for olives & a mooch. I happily take friends without cards - share the love!

Yes. And its the closest fuel station to me, I live opposite!

Meat and portion up, freeze
Fizzy
Water 40 bottles for around £3
Christmas gifts
Some clothes especially brands

I would say we are members because we like the stuff there rather than because we save money. If we save money on some items, then that is a bonus. Some household items are better value, but not always. We have often saved money on Xmas presents though and some offers like sketchers or other branded items in past.

Should add the caveat that our nearest store is no longer as close since we moved further outside the city and does not have a petrol station either.

Just to mention that you don't need to know somebody with membership in order to take a look around and decide whether it's worth it for you - you can go to the membership desk and get a slip of paper from them that will let you in just to check it out.

We've been members for 10 months and being a nerdy, spreadsheet type of person, I've kept track of what I've paid at Costco versus the best price I can get in the supermarket - so on-offer price, not just standard. The savings are around £250 so far - although in reality, some of those have been spent on things that we might not have otherwise bought! No petrol station at our nearest store, so that is purely from food, drink, household goods, etc.

I like Costco but consider my membership to be a luxury. I don't find it cheaper than shopping in Tesco or Lidl but I do find the meat, for example, really great quality.

I love their cakes, and have also had some brilliant toy bargains at Christmas time and on Black Friday.

Really depends what you like to buy. The branded items are a good price but still more expensive than basics in other supermarkets. As your buying in bulk the initial shop is also very expensive, but you don’t need to go again for ages so works out cheaper in the long run. So will depend on if you can budget for this.

It depends if you’re an impulse Shopper or not.

Our membership saves us a fortune (big family), but only if DH isn’t working away.

If I go solo we spend a fortune on random stuff because I’m an impulse shopper. he isnt.

I also hate shopping so I can’t be faffed trying to work out of the offers are better than the supermarket. He can.

Oh yes! For the steaks alone!

I like the fact that once you have the stuff,it lasts ages so you don't keep having to buy it

e.g. kitchen roll, wash powder

We like going for the CostCo Tapas! AKA the free food samples they give out!
The quality of their food is very good, but it's not a discount retailer and pack sizes are huge, so if you're a small family or don't have much storage/freezer space it won't really save you money.
Having said that it's really convenient for big packs of things that never run out, like foil, cling film and baking parchment, dishwasher tablets and detergent. Good value too for branded things like toothpaste but you buy 6 packs in one go.

My mother had Costco worship, even when she lived alone & rarely entertained any more & didn't need to buy stuff. Friend keeps trying to get me to join. It's at least 2 hours drive away from where we live (!). Not suitable for me.

They sell the city's best (served hot) hot dogs in my home town, though, even my dad gushes about that.

I've saved the cost of our membership at Costco on petrol alone this year.. it was £1.53 yesterday down from £1.55 last week.

Food wise I don't buy a lot, cakes and biscuits. I mainly go for the pizza and the cafe 😂

Reviving this as I just searched for membership reviews. Went to confirm my identity last week as I'd joined online and I store they up sold me a executive membership on the grounds you'd get additional offers and if you hadn't made savings you'd get the difference refunded. Turns out that's not quite true, it seems to be a reward scheme that gives you a one off voucher to use on one transaction in Costco after nine months.
Have people found it useful? I did buy loads of bulk stuff like cleaning products to be fair.

Worthwhile if you buy tvs, sheds, appliances etc for the extended family (and they pay you back.) Less so if you just buy groceries. Member since 1999.

Petrol and bulk buying tins of tuna, baked beans etc (handy for son at uni). I like the big pack of little tomatoes and salad bags too plus the big compte and machego cheese. The wine is also decent.

It really depends and yes you need freezer storage and others space.

Overall we didn't find we saved anything but if it was closer it's something I would retain my membership for just for odd peices

We find that the Membership is worth it for Petrol alone.

We only then buy treat type stuff - the fajita platter for weekend easy dinner or the cakes, or we will swing in for a pizza slice and soft drink lunch on the way somewhere.

I do the tea collection at work, so once a month get a huge bag of Yorkshire tea and tin of douwe Egbert coffee. For myself, I get toilet rolls, salt and chilli pepper pork belly,skippy peanut butter and lizi's granola.

I also got a spare card for my son as he and gf go and get huge trays of danish pastries.

Is this your husband?

Costco comparison spreadsheet by ‘dull man’

We rarely use it tbh. Our closest one is about 10 minutes away but it doesn’t do petrol.
I only really go once a year or so for Christmas stuff, like the wrapping paper. Dc love the big tubs of pretzels. But then there’s just a big unsightly tub of pretzels sat on a shelf for 4 months!
We don’t have a load of storage for things that aren’t in use, we do have a big shed but I don’t like going in there 😂
Things like the big tubs of olives I’ve fallen for before when entertaining but they’re just not very nice quality. Don’t know if it’s just ours but a lot of the meat is imported from America and I wouldn’t eat it. We don’t drink fizzy drinks etc, overall we don’t really get much use out of our membership but Dh and his business partner have an account there and their family use it a lot so we’ll keep the membership.
I think we may have got some AirPods from
there for one of the dc though.

my husband?? More likely to be me 😳