Does anyone shop at costco? Is it worth joining?

[ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear]

With 4 children we spend a small fortune each month on grocery shopping. There is a costco not too far away from us and I would be eligible to join as I run my own business.

I just wondered if anyone currently shops there and whether items are discounted enough to make it worthwhile?

I would like to bulk buy loo roll, washing powder, dog food, cat food etc to save some pennies.

only if you have space to store it - my parents belong and get us teabags and laundry tablets but all the other things you mention we simply don't have the room for so it's worth the extra cost to buy in smaller amounts from Tesco.

And always worth doing a £/kg cost comparison with Tesco / Lidl / ALdi for anything you buy as it's not all as cheap as it looks.

I LOVE Costco.

In fact today we went to our local one and are all happy now!

Costco is significantly cheaper, though as it's a cash and carry expect to pay £5 and above per item (you may have a zillion of the item for that price or just one, depending on what it is.

The thing about cost co is that it doesn't offer much choice but the choice it offers is top quality i.e. you won't find many shoes to buy there but you will find Birkenstocks.

Obviously you need space to store it all but it need not be that bad, we tend to buy the sort of stuff that you get through a ton of anyway if you have small children i.e. washing powder, tinned tomatoes etc, storecupboard stuff, it's not sold in scary quantities.

Nothing but praise for them really.

We use it for washing powder and dishwasher tablets. Some toherlittle bits and pieces, but didnt think i saved much money.
L

It is FANTASTIC!

I can't sing the praises of the place enough. We live an hour's drive away, but do a big shop there every month or so. Brilliant for staples and also does lots of seasonal stuff too. I got my Timberlands there last winter for £55 for example. Contact lens solutions cheaper, designer sunglasses, stamps, sun creams, I could go on. Even stamps are sold there for less than their face value .

If you are a business owner (like us) you can shop there before midday, which keeps the crowds down and at ours, they also serve free fresh coffee and danishes which for us gives us stamina to go round.

I would also like to steer you in the direction of their fresh fish and their meat which are wonderful. The cakes are something else too.

Do it!

Yeah do it!

What's not to love.

The meat is super cheap and very good if you have freezer room, though if you live near a meat market, we did find that shopping at Smithfield for meat was cheaper again.

Basics like rice and pasta are a great thing to stock up on, I find.

We've been shopping at Costco for years now, we bought Huggies nappies for a lot less than in the shops when our youngest was a baby, so we saved a small fortune doing that. We buy all our electrical items there too, because they have an excellent returns policy, you don't ever need a receipt because all your transactions are stored using your memebership card and they give refunds will no questions asked. We've returned quite a few irons and hoovers (don't ask me why I'm so unlucky) and have always been given a cash refund straight away.

The birthday cakes are huge and only £9.99 (you just need to order them a few days in advance) and I've had lovely jewellery as presents from there too. I even bought my dad a lovely oak and ironwork bench for the garden for Fathers' Day from there too!

Highly recommended! Come back and tell us what you bought .

The other thing to beware is (eg) buying designer sunglasses for £30 when you'd have been happy with ones from Next for £10; or 24 doughnuts for £5 as a treat rather than 5 for 99p from Tesco - wastes money rather than saves it.
Take a list and stick to it.

I reckon I save a fortune at costco, my regular best buys are: washing powder, dishwasher tablets, fabric softener, bin bags, coffee, meat, beer. These work out upto half the price of Tesco. Trick is to price it all up with your usual stuff though as I have never found pet food or a lot of the fridge products to be that much cheaper.

Love the occasional exciting bargains like camping and garden stuff, birkenstocks, children's books etc. Also great for Christmas food, toys and presents.

Very true Mrs Badger, dh buys all sorts of stuff for example Quaker porridge oats which I'm sure are cheaper than in a supermarket but still probably twice the price of Tesco's own.

It's fantastic if you're planning a 'do'. We got most of the stuff for DS's christening there - it was great and the savings for just that one day more than covered the initial membership cost.

Thankyou!

This is great feedback. Its about an hours drive for us so I will plan to stock up and make the most of the journey. Probably a good idea to clear some room in the garage

Plan to buy loo roll, kitchen roll, tea, coffe, cereals, ketchup, but will go with a list so that we don't trya!

many thanks x