What’s on your Costco shopping list?

[NappingThroughTheChaos]

My husband has just signed us up for a Costco card, so we’re heading there this weekend for our first Costco trip as a family (Im very excited!!)

I’m pulling a shopping list of things to look out for and wondered what are your must-buys / favourites so we don’t come home with a kayak and 48 croissants?! 🤣

Current non-negotiables: Skippy peanut butter (husband) and gyozas (my son).

The snack aisles are very dangerous!! We always come home with family sized bags for the two of us 😂 make sure you get samples!

The bakery section is a must - the cakes are good, the little cronut croissants are incredible, the shortbread is delicious. Fresh food, the seafood can be really good value - so can the meat! Especially steak / mince. The pre prepared food is good, the giant tubs of pasta salad can get through a week of lunches 😂 they also do some great just heat meals, it’ll depend on your Costco selection. People rave about the rotisserie chickens, they’re good and a very reasonable price (compared to our local booths) but it’s hit or miss if they’ve got any!

I love stocking up on household bits, honestly the cleaning section is one of my faves! They’ve got lots of supplements, so if you take any always worth having a look if they’re cheaper there in bulk.

Honestly the best part is randomly going round grabbing giant versions of things then wondering at the till how it’s £400 😂

Not much, it more expensive on many products- so be careful if you’re thinking you’ll get bargins

options hot chocolate is a bargin
fuel for the car in 10p cheaper a litre

Don’t go specifically expecting to save money. I buy some things from there because of the better quality. Meat and fish.
For value their kitchen roll and loo roll is great for the price.
I buy packs of 24 Pepsi Max.
Branston beans.
Giant muffins.
Quite a lot of clothing. Levi’s, Under Armour, Adidas and Skechers. Their Kirkland brand clothing can be amazing quality and value. Most of our socks and pants come from there!
Of course rotisserie chickens. Pick the meat off and freeze for pies etc. A massive pizza for dinner that night or to to freeze if you have a big enough freezer.
If it’s a family trip you must join the scrum at the end for the cheap eats. Hotdogs and smoothies.
All that said, I love seeing what other people buy but despair at the millions of plastic bottles of water nearly everyone has in their trolley.

General household bits, croissants, big jars of Ovaltine

Werthers toffee popcorn is moreish!

i like the nice cheeses and olives.

I also like to get the cat litter there.

We always have in from Costco:
Toilet and kitchen roll
Maple syrup
Mango chutney
Semi-dried tomatoes
Chicken thigh fillets (frozen in bags)
Minced beef (frozen in bags)
Marinated artichokes
Cheddar cheese
Popcorn
Cereal bars
Veggie crisps
Dried fruit and nuts
Apple juice cartons

water, that’s what everyone seems to buy, loads of bottled water!

The chocolate chip shortbread biscuits from the bakery are incredible! The enchiladas from the fresh meals section are also amazing.

Ghirardelli Brownie mix. I’m a home baker who would never use a packet mix. Except this one. It is soooo good.

Kirkland is the Costco own-brand. Pretty much anything by them is good quality and good VFM.

The one exception IMO is the Chicago Best Jumbo Beef Frankfurters. (Actually, I’m not sure the ones in the cafe are Kirkland.)

The fresh chicken schnitzels. We always stock up on schnitzels and hotdogs and freeze them. Ditto for a side or two of fresh salmon (portion up, first) and a tray of burgers.

Before you go, it’s worth noting down the prices of things you like at the supermarket. We find that branded foods tend to cost about the sand at Costco as supermarket own-brands, and it’s easy to get carried away. It only saves you money if you are self-disciplined.

Don’t be afraid of buying high-value items. Costco are brilliant about returns. Again, have some idea about models and prices before you go, if there is something you know you are interested in. There is usually only one model of anything.

Check if the Costco you are going to has a petrol station - premium grade is often the same as, or cheaper than, standard grade elsewhere. Expect a massive queue.

Give yourselves time to have a bite at the cafe. Not exactly haute cuisine, but an experience - a tasty one.

Chicken nuggets! Why has nobody mentioned the chicken nuggets yet? Surely they are the reason Costco was born?

If you normally buy own brand goods at your local supermarket then you are unlikely to make much saving, but if you buy branded goods and are willing to buy bulk and have somewhere to store items then there are savings to be made.

Regular things I buy:
Colgate toothpaste
IO Toothbrush heads
Heinz/Branston beans
Valfrutta chopped tomatoes
Douwe Egbert coffee
Cheddar cheese
Frozen tilapia
Beer (what ever is on offer)
Proper lentil chips/popcorn
Kirkland laundry liquid
Comfort softener
Finish dishwasher tabs
Kirkland toilet roll
Protein

A lot of the branded goods above cycle through offers (which change every 4 weeks) so I tend to just pick them up when on offer. I visit roughly every 6 weeks.

I used to buy fizzy drink cans but I’ve weaned myself off those. I also used to get Kellogg cereal but I’ve moved over to supermarket own so it’s cheaper just to buy that.

Fuel also tends to be about 5p a litre cheaper, and you can get some good deals on clothes (their women’s merino wool socks are wonderful).

Toilet rolls (Kirkland)
kitchen rolls (Kirkland)
ham
Frozen chicken nuggets
frozen king prawns
cartmel sticky toffee pudding
Finish dishwasher tablets
Bold laundry capsules
bakery items
mince
chicken
Lurpak butter

These are our main go to products, and then whatever else we see/fancy!

Costco frozen vegetable spring rolls are amazing!

I go once every couple of months. Regular items are:
Toilet roll - usually cushelle but once they didn't have any and the kirkland one was almost as good tbh
Bagels (delicious and freeze well)
Dried fruit - cranberries, blueberries and pineapple (the latter is a delicious chewy snack)
Muffins if we're having people over as they are HUGE
Frozen macaroni cheese bites - my daughter loves these
Block butter
White Monster

Everything else is on spec. Don't tend to use it for cleaning products as supermarket own brand is much cheaper and just as good. I always have the Tesco app open to compare prices - at Christmas Costco was definitely cheaper for most spirits. If you get anything from the bakery quite a few things are BOGOF, so make sure you check and pick up the extra packet.
Also enjoy trying the samples, and try to resist buying them all! I have a variety of sauces that my daughter convinced me to buy after we tried the sample, and we've hardly touched since.

Avoid the fresh fruit and veg. I have been twice recently and the ‘fresh’ fruit and veg have become rotten really fast. I got a bag of baby cucumbers which just rotted within a day and a box of kiwi which did the same.

Tinned tomatoes are good. Toothpaste is good value. I personally don’t like any of the cakes and biscuits they taste cheap to me. Chia seeds, pumpkin seeds and nuts are good value. They also do lovely bottles of Extra Virgin olive oil and avocado oil.

For us it would be

colgate
dove bodywash
deodorant
sparkling water
bueno bars and thin pretzels
chocolate crepes
big tubs of seasonings, mayo, siracha
wine if the deal is better than the supermarket
coffee
often skincare and make up like mascara bundles are very good value
chicken breasts, lamb and steak
a couple of fresh ready meals but I am not keen on their pizza
anything from the bakery but that section is fatal.

I got an amazing blanket for £20 last week. Super warm for not much more than a fleece from the likes of Primark. I managed to get DS workwear. Next time it’s pillows.

Costco is an hour from us so it’s a big trip. I am doing online but they don’t have such a variety for home delivery.

Why?
Unless you live in a desert why buy bottled water?

Best in mind that not everything is necessarily cheaper than supermarkets, but some is better quality we think. We regularly buy:

Duracell batteries in bulk
Toilet paper / kitchen roll
Chicken, mince & salmon fillet
Robinson’s squash 2-pack
Porridge oats, Weet-bix
Marmite & Peanut butter
Anchor butter and spreadable butter
Cheddar cheese blocks
Persil, Vanish & Comfort
Flash floor cleaner
Method cleaners multi-pack
Canned tomatoes & red kidney beans trays
Foil for baking etc - catering pack size
Pasta

Sometimes we find multi-packs of various toiletries are a good buy.

Their bakery section is good especially for catering but we try to avoid as trying not to eat sweet stuff!

We have bought a vacuum cleaner that was cheaper than other retailers, Levi men’s jeans, fancy dress fireman costume for DS when he was about 5 (I was asked so many times where it was from), Skechers trainers, an Intex pool, books especially multi-packs are very good value, Lego, plus lots of other things - you never know what they will have ad hoc stock of from one visit to the next!

If you go during the week they are usually more likely to have food stalls set up for you to try samples of various products.

Tray of cookies: white, double and milk chocolate chip. (Freeze well)

Pork chops, salmon fillets chicken quarters and the trays of fresh prawns every single time we go. The chops are huge and great quality same for salmon fillets though I search out smaller ones Frozen scampi, salt and pepper squid and the frozen crispy duck is to die for and we have these instead of takeaways. Manuka honey for me and bovine collagen powder for dh This time we bought a huge box of walkers crisps that were a really good deal and dishwasher tablets that were on offer. We get the big Marmite about once a year and always stock on on toilet paper this time the quilted Andrex was the best deal but we do buy their own one sometimes. We go every six months or so to stock up the freezer. We don't buy any fruit or veg there.

I agree about the cakes. They are sickly and artificial tasting. If I want a cake I will make one.

We go monthly and buy toilet rolls, kitchen roll, tissues, bottled water, fruit, frozen shrimp rice, samosas. We puck up a rotisserie chicken which feeds us for a couple of days.

People go mad for the water at Costco I've seen people with a trolley full of it.

I'm one of the environmental ruiners water purchasers. I don't drink it, I drink tap water but I buy it for my teens. They are too lazy and disorganised to sort out a reusable water bottle before school and college but will happily spend their lunch money on a £1.20 water. In an attempt to reduce that spend, I try to get them to grab a Costco water bottle as they leave as that is less than 10p a bottle.

We walk round with our supermarket app open to compare prices, not everything is cheaper.

Some of the savings come from buying in bulk due to the economies of scale.

We always get:

large bags of frozen fruit.
Huge box of my favourite tea bags
tins of soup
coffee beans
laundry detergent