Is a Costco membership worth it?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

i just found out the company I work for is on the pre-approved membership list, meaning I can get a Costco membership! I’ve been dying to go forever but could never figure out how to get in, but now I can!

Is it really worth it? What should we buy? What’s essential? The nearest one is an hour away so a trip out there needs to be worth it 🤣

I still keep up membership as the petrol prices are worth it. We have bought a shed this year from Costco and the discount paid for the membership 3 times over.
I had to stop going in the store too often though because I kept spending too much. Some great bargains though!

Bolted down tables and chairs. Prison dining at it's finest.

At £1.50 for a hotdog and soda I’d sit on a rusty bucket!!

It wasn’t worth it for us. Found it hard getting organic/free range meat. The cheese is generic and nothing special (just huge!). Fruit and veg is ok, but you need to take a friend and split it as it’s too much for a regular family and will go off. If you like branded ambient goods then it might be worth it. The pre packed food is very processed (but useful if you’re catering big parties and don’t want to cook). It doesn’t work out cheaper (and it’s not better quality in my opinion), but it is fun to wonder round!

I wouldn't go to one an hour away but we find it worth it for fuel, toilet roll and Lavazza coffee alone plus we like having the membership so sometimes pick up other things when we go. Ours is about 15 minutes away but also on the way to/from a lot of places so easy to pop into.

I spend about 500 a month there. Well worth it for me

If close and has petrol

I remember going to one of the foodie markets near the city in London (wasn’t borough), and one of the stalls was flogging Costco 2 bite brownies and baklava as though it was artisanal with prices to match. I mean , they’re delicious, but one brownie for £2 - they were making huge margins !

It wasn’t for me. You need storage to buy in bulk, have a big freezer or a large family. You can get some good deals if your buying large amounts

We didn't bother, mainly because the store is miles from us and we wouldn't buy enough for just two of us.

I find it good for electrical items, they are always cheaper than elsewhere. Toilet rolls, kitchen towels, meat, vitamins, coffee beans, wine, washing tablets, bleach cleaning supplies and always fill up with petrol. I go every 3 months and yes, I do save money. It's also good around Christmas for stocking fillers.

We live really near one (10 mins drive) and we go every 2-3 weeks for particular things that we eat a lot of that are just a bit better value eg the whole chorizo sausages, halloumi boxes, tofu, oat milk, tortilla wraps. They're all good quality too. If we lived further away it probably wouldn't be economical to do it as we'd only go every couple of months. We love it and it totally supplements our supermarket "big shop" - we have loads of space in our kitchen / fridge / freezer too which helps.

We have had membership for a while but no longer live close by a store. However, we generally stock up 4 times per year and like to buy/save money on: fuel, loo roll, dishwasher and washing stuff, kitchen roll, bags of nuts/dried fruit, teabags, coffee/coffee bags, salt & pepper grinders, maple syrup, some spices, batteries, coffee pods, bottled water, christmas wrap/ ribbon. I’ve also bought some beautiful hotel style faux orchids.

There are some brilliant freezer ideas and things like catering packs of meat, fish, veg, croissants.

We have plenty of storage for the household goods and freeze meat so we usually spend £300 a time. I don’t buy loo roll/ wash stuff/ dishwasher stuff any other time or place.

We buy toilet rolls, kitchen rolls and laundry liquid in bulk. Good value but you have to be able to store it. Our Costco also has cheap petrol. It’s great if you are having a buffet party. Also, they do great Christmas gifts early in November (then they all disappear). Used to buy towers of boxes of chocolates or multi-boxes of Baylis and Harding toiletries for my mother’s carers. Don’t buy booze - it’s pricey. Have also had some good bargains on clothing.We find the best time to go is 3.00pm when people have left to do the school run. Avoid, like the plague, at weekends.

The kids and I enjoy the food tasting on the way round. They always sneak stuff in the trolley (I say sneak, it’s hard to hide a huge box of croissants).

We like going there but ours is only 15 minutes away and we easily save the membership on petrol. They have good deals on branded items but if you don’t usually buy branded or don’t have the space for large amounts, it’s probably not worth it. We often don’t buy much when we pop in.

I would say that CostCo is a place where someone goes if they want to buy in bulk; not particularly for bargains.

I've been once - not for me I have to say.

It might be good if you are arranging a large family event though (but you can basically get the same in any supermarket in my opinion).

Some of the things aren't really 'in bulk' and there are significant savings to be had. Eg Lavazza coffee and Crosta Mollica pizzas are both in twin packs and are much cheaper than supermarkets.

We live in a small 2 bed house and don't struggle to store things we buy from there.

It's a bit like Ikea - nightmare on weekends, easy to overspend, can be really good value if you have a plan and stick to it.

I bought a membership when I needed to buy a lot of stuff for a school PTA event bar - it's really useful for things like that. We're about to do a Macmillan coffee morning and I will need quite a few eggs and a lot of butter for the baking, and I'll go to Costco for those for example.

It's not somewhere I'd ever go for a mooch as it's too easy to fill the trolley with things that you think you'll need and then get home and struggle to store. Same with chilled things, you need to make sure you'll use all 2kg of ravioli or 8kg of lamb shoulder or whatever before the expiration date (or have freezer space).

However - with a targeted list of stuff, and knowing you'll have space to store it, it's really helpful. We get the usual - loo roll, dishwasher tablets, bin bags etc, but the clothes are good quality, and one surprise was the laptops - I got DS1 a new Apple mac laptop for under £500, a good 30% less than what it's selling for at the Apple store/John Lewis etc.

DH and I have had Costco membership for a few years now, we have the Executive Card which gets us in a bit earlier and we get a rewards voucher for spend8nh.

Repeat buys
Loo roll
Bin bags ( black bags with the red tie, really strong and massive)
Kitchen bin bags
Sometimes kitchenroll
Chicken tenders for DS
Cheddar
Soya milk for DD and me
Ready to bake baguettes
Cat food

Random things
Got my Kenwood chef there
Travel cups
Notepads
DH got a Television there
Guitar for DS
Socks
Jacket for DS ( some decent brands there)

If I rope DS into going I have to treat him to cafe pizza and a soft drink. It's "Traditional"

I wouldn't say it's particularly worth it financially. But it is handy for bulk buying tea/coffee/toilet roll etc and I like it for cakes for the kids birthday parties.
Their christmas stuff is fab for a look around, expensive though.

In the past few months, we've saved £55 on a car battery and £80 on a ninja slushi XL (currently on offer on the shark website for £310 and £230 in Costco). Those two things alone are worth the membership for us.

I got a few 1.5L bottles of freixenet for £12 each.

Herbs and spices are literally pennies compared to what you pay in the supermarket for tiny jars.

I had thermal leggings that were about 1/3 price of M&S ones and were actually warmer.

Vitamins are also cheaper, but not everything is and you have to know what you pay elsewhere. I tend to buy the deals.

I always get the greaseproof paper, clingfilm and foil there as they don't stick together and tear easily!

My kids love it for the samples, my husband comes because there's a cafe.

No.

If I was to renew my membership I would do online only and get it delivered to save the ordeal of going but even then I don’t think it’s worth it.

Unless you have a massive family I think it’s a bit of a con, you aren’t “saving” money on things you likely wouldn’t usually buy or in quantities so large you will never use them.

I still have stuff I bought from Costco 2 years ago and I wonder did I really save money buying 12 lint rollers, a litre of balsamic vinegar and a kilo of M&Ms that we ate in 1 day?

Husband and I went to look at the Leeds store yesterday as we need some party catering. He’s vowed never to return he hated it so much! The car park was rammed. The queues were enormous . He said it was his version of hell! I’m going to have to collect the party catering myself!

I am wondering if I'm going to have a second wind with Costco in terms of food quantities - we don't have a big family but my two DSs are heading into their teen years, and I've discovered since Friday they've eaten 2 boxes of weetabix minis between them and 1kg of ravioli. This is in addition to normal family meals!!

@keepswimming38 you need to go mid-morning on a weekday, or pay for the Executive membership which gets you in an hour early. Otherwise it's nightmarish.